How I’d actually think about a 39 crore net worth story

When you hear someone say they’ve built a 39 crore net worth, it can feel completely out of reach. But when you slow down the story and look at the numbers year by year, it starts to look less like magic and more like a series of specific choices: how much they earned, what they spent, what they bought, and how much risk they were willing to take.

In this article, I’m going to walk through one such journey – from a 12 lakh loan and zero salary to crores in property and a high-growth business – and translate it into practical lessons you can actually use in your own money life.

First, a quick note on net worth numbers

Before we dive in, it’s important to understand what “39 crores” really means here.

Net worth is simply:

Net worth = What you own (assets) – What you owe (liabilities)

In this story, the final “39 crores” isn’t 39 crores sitting in a bank account. It’s mostly made up of:

Assets:

• Two residential properties that have appreciated a lot since purchase
• Ownership in a fast-growing D2C cake brand with a high paper valuation
• A car and some personal assets

Liabilities:

• Home loans and other debt tied to those properties

So that 39 crores is a mix of real, usable wealth and on-paper value based on what investors might be willing to pay for the business today. That’s not a bad thing – it’s exactly how most founders’ wealth works – but it’s very different from having 39 crores in cash.

2015–2017: Starting with debt and selling the first business

The journey starts in a very relatable place: no salary, no savings, but a strong desire to build something.

• 2015: No income, no savings, no assets. A 12 lakh liability owed to her dad, borrowed to start a clothing brand called Flaunt.
• 2016: Still no salary, but the business is doing 7 lakhs a month in revenue. On the surface, that sounds impressive, but remember: revenue is not profit. She’s still not paying herself.
• 2017: Sells Flaunt for 60 lakhs, repays the 12 lakh family loan, and starts her first job at 30,000/month (1.8 lakhs/year). After paying back her dad, she’s left with around 48 lakhs.

This is the first big money moment: turning a risky early venture into actual cash, then clearing family debt immediately. That’s a pattern I really like: take risk, but clean up obligations as soon as you can.

2018–2020: Quiet years of salaried income and simple saving

After that first exit, she does something many founders don’t: she goes and works for other people.

• 2018: Salary increases to 40,000/month (4.8 lakhs/year). No debt. Savings stand at about 50 lakhs (mostly from the Flaunt sale).
• 2019: New job, 55,000/month (6.6 lakhs/year). She spends about 3.3 lakhs and saves the other 3.3 lakhs. Net worth rises to roughly 53.3 lakhs.
• 2020: Same salary, same pattern: 6.6 lakhs earned, 3.3 lakhs spent, 3.3 lakhs saved. Net worth moves up to around 56.6 lakhs.

What I want you to notice here:

• Her lifestyle stays relatively flat even as income goes up. She seems to be comfortable spending around 3.3 lakhs a year on herself.
• She’s not chasing fancy investments yet. She’s just accumulating cash and experience.
• These are “boring compounding” years – and most real net worth stories have a phase like this.

2019–2021: Building a food brand and buying the first home

Around 2019, she starts working on a new food brand, Amintiri. This is where her income structure changes.

Instead of just a fixed salary, she negotiates a 1% cut of top-line revenue in addition to her pay. That means:

• If the company makes 60 lakhs in a month, she earns her 55,000 salary plus 60,000 (1% of revenue) – about 1.15 lakhs.
• At 25, she’s making around 1.2–1.3 lakhs/month by tying her pay to company performance.

2021 is a big turning point:

• Total income jumps to about 16.1 lakhs with salary plus revenue share.
• She has 16.27 lakhs in savings at this point.
• She buys her first flat for 67 lakhs in JP Nagar, putting down 37 lakhs as a down payment.
• Her assets now total about 67 lakhs, and her net worth crosses roughly 1.28 crores.

This is classic “step up” behavior: use your early career years to save aggressively, then deploy a big chunk into a meaningful asset – in this case, a home.

Today, she estimates that same flat is worth around 1.8 crores, which is a big part of her current net worth.

2022: Higher income, a car, and stable spending

In 2022, her earnings climb again:

• Salary jumps to 95,000/month.
• She earns about 23.4 lakhs in commissions.
• Her total savings for the year are surprisingly low (about 2,000 rupees), because she’s also buying things and investing elsewhere.
• She buys her first Kia, taking on about 16.25 lakhs in liabilities.
• Her assets are now worth around 81.64 lakhs, and net worth is about 1.21 crores.

Two interesting money behaviors show up here:

• Even as income grows, she says she kept her annual personal expenses around 3.3 lakhs. That’s strong lifestyle discipline.
• She does allow herself some upgrades (a nicer car, travel, experiences), but the core habit of not inflating day-to-day spending remains.

This kind of discipline is also what lets you later take big risks, like starting a new company or going without salary for a year.

2023: A challenging exit and a bigger cushion

In 2023, she sells her 25% stake in the company she helped build. She can’t share the exact payout or valuation, but we know a few things:

• She continues to earn salary (95,000/month) plus about 5.8 lakhs in commissions.
• She saves around 22 lakhs that year.
• Her assets climb to about 99.48 lakhs.
• Her liabilities drop to zero.
• Her net worth is listed as just over 1.41 crores (the number in the transcript seems off by digits, but directionally, she’s still in the 1–2 crore range).

Emotionally, this is also a big year: the exit is not peaceful, she learns hard lessons about partnerships and alignment, but financially she comes out with more savings and no debt.

There’s also a small but important detail: she buys her first luxury bag

2024: Second home, huge leverage, and starting a new brand

2024 is a wild money year.

• She leaves her salaried life and starts a new brand (Trebel, and then Schabel for cakes).
• Her salary and yearly income are effectively zero while she’s building.
• She buys her second home in Mumbai for 2.6 crores.
• She puts down a massive 2 crore down payment and finances about 60 lakhs with a loan.
• Her total assets jump to about 3.08 crores.
• Her liabilities shoot up to about 2.63 crores.
• Her net worth drops down to around 1.64 lakhs on paper because she’s taken on so much debt and tied up so much cash in property.

This is the part most people don’t see when they only look at a final “39 crore” number. To get there, she leans heavily into leverage (loans) and concentrates her wealth in a few big bets: real estate and a new business.

Buying that Mumbai flat under construction for 2.6 crores turns out to be a huge move. She now estimates it’s worth around 5.5 crores, which is a massive gain in a short time – but also a reminder that this kind of growth comes with risk and is not guaranteed for everyone.

2025: Heads-down building with no salary

In 2025, she focuses entirely on building the cake brand (Schabel):

• No salary, no formal income taken from the business.
• No new savings – everything is going back into growth.
• Assets rise to about 5.02 crores.
• Liabilities are around 66 lakhs.
• Net worth is about 2.38 crores.

Even without a paycheck, her net worth recovers and grows because:

• Her properties are appreciating.
• Her business is gaining traction and value, even if she hasn’t formally put a price on it yet.

This is the payoff of all those earlier years of saving and keeping expenses low: she can afford a year (or more) of zero salary to chase a bigger outcome.

2026: A high business valuation and a 39 crore net worth

By 2026, the picture looks completely different:

• She’s still not drawing a salary from the cake brand.
• The company is now doing about 60 lakhs a month in revenue (about 7.2 crores a year).
• Using a 5x revenue multiple (common in some D2C valuations), she values the business at about 36 crores.
• Her two properties are now estimated at 1.8 crores and 5.5 crores, for a total of 7.3 crores in real estate assets.
• She upgrades to a Mercedes and lands a brand deal with Meta for 1.25 lakhs.
• Her liabilities are around 4.86 crores (mostly property loans).
• Her total net worth is calculated at about 39.93 crores.

Most of that jump comes from the business valuation, not from cash. If investors are willing to pay 5x revenue for a profitable, fast-growing D2C brand, her stake in that company can be worth many crores on paper.

This is exactly how many founders suddenly look “rich” even when their actual salary hasn’t changed: their ownership in a valuable company does most of the heavy lifting.

What you can actually use from this story

Most of us are not going to start India’s biggest cake brand or buy a Mumbai flat for 2.6 crores. But there are very real, practical lessons here that do translate to everyday money decisions.

1. Separate revenue from real income

Early on, Flaunt was doing 7 lakhs a month in revenue, but she still wasn’t paying herself a salary. That’s very common in small businesses.

For your own finances, always ask:

• What’s the actual profit after expenses?
• How much of that profit is really mine to take home?

Whether you’re freelancing, running a side hustle, or thinking of starting a business, get in the habit of separating business money from personal money. That’s the foundation of healthy long-term wealth building, even if you’re not a founder.

2. Keep lifestyle creep in check

One of the most impressive parts of this story to me is how she keeps her personal spending around 3.3 lakhs a year for several years, even as income jumps.

That gap between income and expenses is where:

• Down payments come from
• Emergency funds get built
• Investments and big opportunities become possible

You don’t have to be extreme, but if your income rises and your expenses rise by the same amount, your net worth won’t move much. A simple rule I like: every time your income increases, let yourself enjoy a small lifestyle upgrade, but make sure a bigger chunk of that raise goes to saving and investing.

3. Use leverage carefully, not casually

Leverage (borrowing to buy assets) is a huge part of this 39 crore number:

• She borrows from family to start a business, then repays it quickly after an exit.
• She takes on big home loans to buy property that later appreciates a lot.
• She’s comfortable seeing her net worth temporarily drop when she loads up on debt to buy the Mumbai flat.

This can work out brilliantly – or go very wrong – depending on:

• How stable your income is
• How much emergency cushion you have
• How realistic your expectations are for property or business growth

If you’re considering a home purchase with a big loan, it’s worth running the numbers slowly, understanding how it affects your long-term flexibility, and making sure you’re not betting everything on one asset.

4. Don’t underestimate “boring” salaried years

It’s tempting to think the exciting parts of this story are the exits and big valuations, but the base was built in the quieter years:

• Drawing a steady salary
• Keeping expenses modest
• Saving consistently
• Learning on someone else’s dime (marketing, operations, F&B, social media)

Those years gave her the skills and the cash buffer to later quit, take zero salary, and pour herself into a new brand. Even if you dream of entrepreneurship, there’s nothing wrong with using a traditional job as your training ground and funding source.

5. Understand the difference between cash wealth and paper wealth

By 2026, most of her net worth is tied up in:

• Her stake in a private company
• Two properties that would take time and effort to sell

That’s very different from having 39 crores in liquid investments or cash. If the business stumbles, or property prices fall, that net worth number can change quickly.

For your own plan, it’s helpful to think of your assets in three buckets:

• Liquid: Cash, savings, short-term debt funds – money you can access quickly.
• Semi-liquid: Stocks, mutual funds, ETFs – can be sold, but you may face taxes and market risk.
• Illiquid: Property, private businesses, ESOPs – may be valuable but hard to turn into cash quickly.

A healthy net worth usually has a mix of all three, with enough liquid and semi-liquid assets that you’re not forced to sell something big at the wrong time.

If you want to grow your own net worth, where do you start?

You don’t need crores, investors, or a D2C brand to apply the core ideas from this story. Here’s how I’d translate it into a simple starting plan:

• Track your net worth once a year. List your assets (cash, investments, property) and liabilities (loans, credit cards), and see the trend.
• Stabilize your expenses. Aim for a gap between what you earn and what you spend, even if it’s small at first.
• Build a basic emergency fund. 3–6 months of expenses in a safe place so you can handle job changes, health issues, or business experiments.
• Invest regularly. Even simple mutual fund SIPs or index funds can grow significantly over time.
• Take calculated risks when you’re ready. A side hustle, a career shift, or a business idea – but ideally from a place of some financial stability, not desperation.

You may never want a 39 crore net worth, and that’s okay. The goal isn’t to copy someone else’s life; it’s to understand the mechanics of how wealth is built so you can design a version that actually fits you.

And if you ever feel behind when you hear big numbers, remember: every story like this is made up of many years that look very ordinary up close. Your own “ordinary” years matter more than you think.