Brought up in a Marwari Family in Kanpur, Muskan always gravitated towards entrepreneurship. Venturing beyond her familial roots, she pursued engineering at VIT Vellore, marking her first significant step away from home. Moving away from home changed a lot of things for her.
She is really inspired by her father as he really worked hard to grow his business and even today she goes and just sits in his office to learn business lesions and how he deals with the customers. Growing up, she witnessed how relationships and trust form the bedrock of successful ventures. However, it was her inherent creativity and inquisitiveness that propelled her towards carving her own niche.
During her third year of college, she interned at Amazon—a dream opportunity secured with a lucrative 45 lakh CTC offer in her 20s. While the position guaranteed her a secure future, the one-year wait before joining opened up unexpected possibilities. Refusing to remain idle, she delved into various internships across marketing and creative fields. She worked 17-18 hours a day doing internships at 3 organisations, shooting YouTube videos and also did freelancing. It was indeed very tiring but she mentioned that she enjoyed every bit of it and she just loves working.
She is a second-time founder first venture, ‘After Class,’ was a COVID-era platform dedicated to hobby learning for children. While it eventually wound down, the invaluable lessons she gained led to the inception of Cherry Media—a personal branding and social media management agency. Specializing in crafting tailored digital identities, the agency helps founders establish impactful personal brands on platforms like LinkedIn and Instagram. Unlike generic AI-generated content, Cherry Media delves deep into understanding its clients' unique tone and values, ensuring their digital presence resonates with their true personalities. This meticulous approach has attracted prominent clientele, including founders of billion-dollar companies and startups from Y Combinator. She also got into Imperial College London with a 50% scholarship due to her outstanding background but she believes that she wants to learn by execution and dropped out of the course.
Transitioning from freelancing to managing a team required learning to delegate, hiring skilled professionals, and trusting others with critical tasks. Over time, Cherry Media evolved into a thriving agency with a team of twelve, serving over sixty clients worldwide and achieving seven-figure revenues.
One of her proudest moments was seeing her clients recognized by renowned platforms like Entrepreneur India and YourStory. Her vision extends further—she aspires to make Cherry Media synonymous with trust and innovation, pioneering services like CGI videos, AI-driven ads, and advanced marketing campaigns. No two days are the same and she loves that part of her job.
Beyond her business achievements, She takes immense pride in the positive impact her work creates. By empowering founders to share their authentic stories, she fosters deeper connections between brands and their audiences, redefining the essence of personal branding.
Leaving her high-paying job at Amazon which so many people dream of was definitely a leap of faith and it shows her grit and optimism in herself.
She is also very inspired by Jeff Bezos’ regret minimisation framework played a big role in her decision to take the leap. She firmly believes, If you have a solid idea and are financially and mentally prepared, take the calculated risk.
A Y Combinator founder taught her that business can’t be done part-time. “So, if you’re considering it, keep working on your side hustle until you’re ready to make it your full-time focus, and remember that you define your journey.”
Now she is building her agency full-time, working with great people and wants to see cherry media grow to great heights!
Super proud of Muskan for doing this, this is so inspiring