Sharan Hegde Wiki, Height, Age, Girlfriend, Family, Biography & More

Sharan Hegde is an Indian entrepreneur, content creator, and financial influencer. He is famous for sharing financial videos on his Instagram handle called ‘Finance with Sharan.’

Wiki/Biography

Sharan Hegde was born on Saturday, 15 July 1995 (age 28 years; as of 2023) in Mangalore, Karnataka. His zodiac sign is Cancer. From 2014 to 2018, he pursued mechanical engineering at R. V. College of Engineering, Bengaluru, Karnataka. He got admission to Columbia Business School, New York to pursue a master’s degree in business administration but dropped out in 2022. As a kid, he was quiet and liked to study. Instead of playing during break time like the other children, he would finish his homework. He was always full of questions, which sometimes got him into trouble. His father ran a restaurant in Mysore, and Sharan would spend his summer breaks there. He loved handling money at the cash register and was curious about how money moved in and out. This curiosity led to his interest in finances. He shared in an interview that, similar to many Indian families, his parents mainly knew about saving money in bank accounts, fixed deposits, and investing in property. They didn’t talk much beyond these topics, but they always let him talk about money and saving. For them, putting money aside was more important than making investments.

Physical Appearance

Height (approx.): 6′ 0″

Hair Colour: Black

Eye Colour: Black

Family

Parents & Siblings

There is not much information about his parents. His father is a businessman.

He has a sister, Shreya Hedge.

Career

Interest in finance during college days

While studying at the engineering college, Sharan became interested in finance and managed to save a good amount of money during that time. He would get cash gifts from his grandmother on festivals and birthdays, but instead of spending it, he saved it all in a locker. By his third year in engineering, he had saved up to about a lakh rupees. Since he didn’t need to spend it right away, he started thinking about how to invest it to grow his savings. He wanted to do more than just keep his money in savings accounts and fixed deposits, so he decided to try investing in the stock market. When Sharan started college for engineering, he dreamed of becoming the chief engineer at big car companies like Ferrari and BMW. But he soon found out that wasn’t possible. He thought about going into coding next, but since his sister was already doing that, he decided to try something different. Sharan’s first brush with the business world happened in his first year of college when he became part of the Ashwa Racing Club. He started as a member and later got promoted to be the club’s CFO. It was during a project presentation on business that he realized he wanted to learn more about finance and business.

Rejection from IIM and following steps

During his final college year, he sent his resume to major investment firms but soon found out they preferred graduates from IIT or IIM. So, he set his sights on IIT, worked hard for the CAT exam, and scored 98%. Despite his high score, he wasn’t accepted into IIT. When he realized joining IIT was out of reach, he aimed for an MBA, understanding he needed a job first. He learned that management consulting was a good path to top MBA programs. However, when he applied for such a job, he was turned down because he didn’t graduate from IIT.

Experience in Corporate 

He got a job at KPMG International Limited as a consultant through his college’s placement service and began working as an analyst in the Greater Bengaluru Area in July 2018. His focus was on consulting for the BFSI and E-commerce sectors. He wasn’t satisfied with the job mainly because of the low pay. However, he excelled when he got a chance to work on a finance project. After working there for two years, he didn’t get a raise or promotion in 2020 due to the company’s cost-cutting measures during COVID-19. He left KPMG in November 2020 and then started volunteering at an NGO. He noticed many people were studying abroad for their MBA, but he wanted to do something different to stand out. In January 2021, Sharan launched ‘Finance With Sharan’ and began his career as a finance influencer. In April 2021, he joined PwC in the Greater Bengaluru Area as an Associate Consultant and left the position in January 2022.

Shift to Social Media Platforms

He chose to create a 15-minute finance video and share it on YouTube. His first video, released in December 2020, attracted about 400 views and 80-90 subscribers. Notably, the first person to follow him was his mother. During an interview, he mentioned being dissatisfied with his content due to the poor video quality. He also shared that his girlfriend at the time broke up with him over the video. Additionally, he found that shooting and editing the video took up too much of his time. During the pandemic, Sharan helped his friends understand where to invest their money. In January 2021, Sharan launched ‘Finance With Sharan’ and began his career as a finance influencer. As they started working, they realized they didn’t know much about handling their money, especially things like the 80C section of the tax laws. They weren’t interested in digging deep into research to learn more. Sharan noticed that not just his friends, but many others too, didn’t know much about finance because they never learned it in school. This inspired him to start teaching about finance. The extra free time he had during the pandemic gave him a chance to look into more topics. Then, he found Ali Abdaal, whose success motivated him to start his path. Sharan didn’t jump straight into making videos. First, he wrote a script. Then, on a trip to his hometown, Mangalore, he went into his room and filmed the video. As someone more introverted, getting used to being in front of the camera was tough and took a while. When he began creating content, he was set on keeping things simple and not complicating them with finance just because he knew it. His sister, even without a background in business or finance, greatly influenced his way of thinking. Sharan’s first YouTube video suffered from bad lighting, but it was a chance for him to learn editing. Posting it was tough and took two weeks. Shooting a short video took him around 45 minutes, including changing outfits and doing retakes. He put in 4-5 hours each week, and after that, his team, which included his sister as the main social media strategist and editor, handled most of the work automatically. At first, Sharan concentrated on mutual funds because he knew a lot about them. But then he realized that talking about taxes and insurance would teach a wider group of people. He picked topics based on what information was out there already. Instead of creating completely new content, he focused on breaking down existing information to make it easier for everyone to understand. After watching lots of content, Sharan would choose topics he thought could help many people and then decide to talk about them. Sharan saw that people on Instagram like fun and entertaining stuff. To keep his videos interesting, he mixed in facts, jokes, and little plays. He often uses words from Bangalore and talks about things from pop culture, like superheroes, to connect with his audience. At first, he received some negative feedback, but it didn’t get him down. He kept getting better and discovered that hard work and dedication make a difference in whatever you’re doing. His videos started getting noticed, so he kept trying new things and made his content better every day. Once Sharan hit 15,000 followers on Instagram, he upgraded his equipment, buying a ring light, some props, and a holder for his phone. Even with these new tools, he kept making all his videos on his iPhone. His sister, Shreya, took care of editing the videos. When it comes to making content, he mainly thinks about whether it can make a big difference to a lot of people and if it’s something they can find useful for a long time. Sharan has worked with a brand manager who played a key role in getting brand deals and handling negotiations. He landed partnerships with brands like The Souled Store, Coinswitch Kuber, Slice, and GoDutch, and also teamed up with influencers Tanya Appachu and Raj Shamani. Sharan pointed out how they used a strategy of making content that appeals to the followers of both parties involved, to get the best results from each collaboration. He has over 2.5 million subscribers on YouTube and more than 2.4 million followers on Instagram. Finance with Sharan received various recognitions including Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia 2023, Economic Times Mega Influencer 2023, Forbes Top 100 Influencers 2022 and Finance Influencer of the Year 2022, 2023.

Entrepreneur

Sharan founded The 1% Club in April 2022 and became its CEO. This exclusive club aims to help its members reach financial freedom and be among the top 1%. By January 2024, The 1% Club joined forces with renowned content creators and educators across the country to expand into the stock market and tax planning. They launched a program called “Tax Planning Strategy” with the help of Rishita Motwani, a notable Chartered Accountant and Advocate. This program is designed to simplify understanding tax laws, help people plan their taxes wisely, and maximize their tax savings.

Award

• 2022: Cultural Brand Ambassadors of India Award

  Sharan Hegde posing with Cultural Brand Ambassadors of India Award

• 2022: Finance Influencer of the Year Award

  Sharan Hegde posing with Finance Influencer of the Year Award

Facts/Trivia

• He follows a non-vegetarian diet.

  Sharan Hegde’s Instagram post about his eating habits

• In an interview, he shared that he didn’t start using Instagram until he was 22, which was back in 2018. His first posts on the platform were photos from a trip to Europe. He used to tease his friends and sister for being on social media, believing these apps had no real use.

• Even though Sharan is a millennial, he didn’t use Instagram much at first. But his sister suggested he should start posting videos there and link them to YouTube. Seeing how big Instagram’s audience was, he began creating videos just for that platform. In an interview, he talked about how his sister helped him with his video content. In the interview, he said,
  

  My sister also learns from lifestyle and fashion influencers and experiments with our content. She tries to increase the story views because people usually prefer swiping up or downloading directly from the stories with financial content. Knowing how many clicks or downloads a brand has received from my story is vital for any influencer trying to monetize their content.”

• Sharan got into mutual funds after watching YouTube videos from financial experts like CA Rachana Ranade and various brands. Then, he set up an account with Zerodha and started his investment journey.

• When he first became interested in finance, he spent a lot of time reading and watching different materials to understand the basics. Over time, he began reading more books to get a better grasp of the subject. As he started earning, he also learned about taxes independently, instead of hiring a Chartered Accountant. He noticed that when he talked about these financial ideas with others, they were surprised and found it hard to understand personal finance. This inspired him to start making finance-related content.

• In 2022, he was awarded the Golden Play Button by YouTube for his channel, Finance with Sharan.

  Sharan Hegde posing with YouTube golden button

• In 2022, he got a chance to speak at IIMB.

  Sharan Hegde speaking at IIMB

• In 2024, he was featured on the cover of Social Ketchup magazine.

  Sharan Hegde featured on the cover of Social Ketchup magazine

• He likes trying various adventurous sports.

  Sharan Hedge trying scuba diving