RITESH AGARWAL
Answer the following questions in a sentence or two:
1) Who is the
founder & CEO of OYO Rooms?
Ans:
Ritesh Agarwal is the founder and CEO of OYO Rooms.
2) What is
current valuation of OYO Rooms?
Ans:
360 Crores is current valuation of OYO Rooms.
3) How does
Ritesh look like?
Ans:
Ritesh Agarwal with his common man qualities of whitish, tall, thin, scruffy look
isn’t easy to find in a crowd.
4) Where was
Ritesh born?
Ans:
Ritesh Agarwal was born in Bissam Cuttack in Orissa.
5) What are fun
elements of Ritesh Agarwal?
Ans:
Ritesh Agarwal fun elements included screwing around with the computer, and
trying hard to find opportunities to make mistakes, so that he could learn new
stuff.
6) How did
Ritesh quench his thirst?
Ans:
Ritesh quenched his thirst; he borrowed his elder brother’s books on
programming.
7) Where did
Ritesh learn other than schools and books?
Ans:
Ritesh Agarwal learned from Google other than schools and books.
8) Why did
Ritesh go to Kota?
Ans:
Ritesh Agarwal went to Kota to join IIT.
9) What is the
name of the book attempted by Ritesh?
Ans:
Indian Engineering Colleges: A Complete Encyclopedia of Top 100 Engineering
Colleges is the name of the book attempted by Ritesh.
10) At what age
Ritesh was chosen among 240 children to be part of TIFR?
Ans:
Ritesh was chosen at the age of 16 among the 240 children to be part of TIFR.
11) What is B
& B?
Ans:
Bed and Breakfast is B & B.
12) What is SAT?
Ans:
Scholastic Aptitude Test, it was later called the Scholastic Assessment Test.
13) What is
Airbnb?
Ans:
Air Bed and Breakfast is Airbnb.
14) Name the
university Ritesh joined.
Ans:
Ritesh had joined the University of London’s Indian campus.
15) When did
Ritesh start his first venture?
Ans:
Ritesh started his first venture in 2012.
16) Who funded
30 lakhs to Ritesh?
Ans:
Venture Nursery funded 30 lakhs to Ritesh.
17) What
fellowship was awarded to Ritesh?
Ans:
Thiel Fellowship was awarded to Ritesh.
18) What does
OYO mean?
Ans:
OYO means “On Your Own” is the company offers accommodation room, dining, and
fitness center facilities.
19 Who is the
former CEO of Seventy MM?
Ans:
Bhawna Agarwal is former CEO of Seventy MM.
Explain the
following statements with reference to their context.
1) The journey
of our hero began rather early than normal!
Ans: He teenage boy – Ritesh Agarwal is
the young Founder & CEO of OYO Rooms – the fastest-growing branded network
of hotels offline & online. A college dropout, who once wanted to sit for
an engineering exam, Ritesh today heads among the most valuable start-up by a
person who never studied beyond school. The journey of our hero began rather
early than normal! Ritesh was born to a business class family in Bissam Cuttack
in Orissa and attended the Sacred Heart School in Rayagada, Orissa. During the
growing up days in Rayagada, Odisha, it was all about fun and learning for him
but his ways were rather unconventional from those of other kids. His fun
elements included screwing around with the computer and trying hard to find
opportunities to make mistakes so that he could learn new stuff. And doing that
he gained a keen interest in software!
2) To quench his
thirst, he borrowed his elder brother’s books for programming.
Ans: At the age of just 8 years, he
started coding. To quench his thirst to know more he borrowed his elder
brother’s books for programming. Some of the fun languages like Basic and
Pascal were taught in the school itself, and rest he managed to learn from
Google. At the age when most of the teenagers are dating or swiping right on
tinder, and enjoying the most comfortable zone of their life. He innovated
something which no one had ever thought of at such a young age. In 2011, he
packed up his bag and moved to Delhi with a concrete dream to start something
of his own. Ritesh always felt that the budget hotels in India didn’t even meet
the very basic needs of a budget traveler. Hence, capitalizing on this
opportunity, he started his first venture in 2012 and called it Oravel Stays.
It was an aggregator of bed and break for stays across India. In a matter of no
time, he pinned to his wallet funding of Rs. 30 lakhs from Venture Nursery, an
accelerator firm which brought together a bunch of investors to nurture
startups. This started with the idea of it, moved on to know about it and then
the hunger just went on increasing. To quench his thirst, he borrowed his elder
brother’s books for programming. Some of the basic languages like Basic and
Pascal were taught in the school itself and the rest he managed to learn from
Google. He even sold sim cards to survive, afraid his family would end his
entrepreneurial dreams and summon him back home to Odisha if they knew of his
struggles.
3) This book
turned out to become huge on Flipkart and was sold out in a while too.
Ans: n 2009, Ritesh left for Kota to
join IIT and in no time he figured that Kota was anything but a place where one
could learn coding. Hence, his dream of coding took a backseat and as he had a
lot of time to spare, he started attending Bansal Tutorials that his dad had
got him enrolled into. The rest of the time he used to just chill and travel
around a lot. He even started writing a book and ended up inscribing – ‘Indian
Engineering Colleges: A Complete Encyclopedia of Top 100 Engineering Colleges’.
This book turned out to become huge on Flipkart and was sold out in a while
too. In fact, the tutorials he went to also had this book and his picture was
right on the cover.
4) He used to do
nothing but meet and read about entrepreneurs, start-ups, businesses, and
especially Airbnb!
Ans: In 2011, Ritesh moved to Delhi with
intentions of starting up something of his own and at the same time to prepare
for SAT to move to the US for further studies.
Now, money back then was not a problem for him because he had savings from Kota
and the pocket money was good; roughly Rs.15,000 for a month. But fortunately
or unfortunately, SAT never happened. Hence, he used to do nothing but meet and
read about entrepreneurs, start-ups, businesses, and especially Airbnb! Now,
Ritesh during his days had seen and always felt that budget hotels in India
didn’t even meet the very basic needs of a budget traveller. Hence,
capitalizing on this opportunity, he started his first venture in 2012 – Oravel
Stays! It was an aggregator of bed and breakfast stays across India.
5) He managed to
reach amongst the top ten winners who received a sum of $100,000.
Ans:
In simpler terms, it was meant to be destination for short and midterm rentals
for bed and breakfast joints, private rooms and serviced apartments. In a
matter of no time, he also secured funding of Rs 30 lakhs from Venture Nursery,
an accelerator firm which brought together a bunch of storied investors to
nurture start-ups. With sufficient money in his pockets, he started working on
his new found interest and at the same time, he also presented his idea at the
Thiel Fellowship – a global contest intended for students under the age of 20.
He managed to reach amongst the top ten winners who received a sum of $100,000
[over two years (about Rs 2.7 lakhs / month)] as well as guidance and other
resources, to drop out of school and create a start-up, from PayPal co-founder
and Facebook investor – Peter Thiel.
With the new found confidence, he started working even more rigorously but to
his hard luck, their business model didn’t seem to be picking up. And as much
as he tried, things just weren’t falling in place.
6) The app ranks
amongst the best-rated apps on Google
Play Store.
Ans: OYO Rooms
mobile app has been downloaded more than 160,000 times and more than 20,000
bookings have been made so far. The app ranks amongst the best-rated apps on
Google Play Store and has also been listed as one of the top three apps in the
‘Travel & Local’ category. More recently, the company has also raised
another $25 Million from Light speed, Sequoia and others.
.
7) World’s
Youngest CEO at 17 (recognized at 16).
Ans:
The teenage boy – Ritesh Agarwal is the
young Founder & CEO of OYO Rooms – the fastest-growing branded network of
hotels offline & online. A college dropout, who once wanted to sit for an
engineering exam, Ritesh today heads among the most valuable start-up by a
person who never studied beyond school. The journey of our hero began rather
early than normal! Ritesh started his entrepreneurial journey when he
was 17 years old. He dropped out of college and launched his first
start‐up Oravel Stays Pvt. Ltd. in
the year 2012. Oravel was designed as a platform to enable listing and booking of
budget accommodation. Being an avid traveler, he soon realized that the budget
hospitality sector lacked predictability. Ritesh Agarwal was selected for
the “20 under 20” Thiel Fellowship
in 2013. The Thiel Fellowship is a two-year program wherein fellows
receive $100,000 and mentorship from the foundation’s network of tech
entrepreneurs, investors, and scientists. With a current valuation of nearly
$10 billion, OYO Rooms do nothing out of the box but provide travelers with the
coolest yet cheapest efficient, young, standardized rooms with no add-ons
attached to it!
Answer the
following questions in 300 words.
1) Bring out the
entrepreneurial qualities of Ritesh Agarwal.
Ans: One such successful entrepreneur
is Ritesh Agarwal – who
founded OYO Rooms when he was 19 years. His story, full of passion and
perseverance, is worth reading. Today
OYO Rooms is the world’s leading chain of hotels, homes, and spaces. Ritesh is been named the youngest Indian in the rich list
with a net worth of $1.1 billion (Rs 7,800 crore) according to Hurun Global
Rich List 2020. "It is about having a passion for
solving a big problem and leaving a huge impact. Once you have that, everything
else falls into place. You take ownership, build conviction, and build
capabilities to transfer that belief to investors, employees, and customers.
You must be willing to stretch out of your comfort zone, take risks, and be
emotional (in a good way) about your venture and the stakeholders
involved."
"Thinking big is an important
factor. Initially we used to think that we will have 10 properties, but over
time, our aspiration grew – to aim to become one of the world’s largest hotel
chains. This has brought us to the present scale where we are India’s largest
and world’s 14th largest hotel network today. We have a clear direction to
become the world’s largest hotel chain especially because of the capabilities
we are building." "To be a successful
entrepreneur, the first thing is building a great team of people. Most
entrepreneurial ventures in India are run by the founders and their friends. I
spent close to a year trying to bring some of the smartest people into our
team, who were not only sharp but could also roll up their sleeves when
required." "At times, we tend to get carried away by what we think
are good ideas, but in reality, they may not serve the customer’s purpose in
any way. It is crucial that we understand the customers’ requirements and
direct our efforts towards providing the best possible solution to their
requirements." "It is extremely important to build something that a
100 people absolutely love using rather than make something that a 1,000 people
would just, kind of, like." "Your brand reflects your culture,
purpose and identity. It’s never too early to start thinking about it. In the
quest to grow fast, the foundation may often get ignored. Why do we exist? What
do we stand for? Make sure you answer these questions and communicate them
internally and externally." "Founders often find themselves lost in
a fog of activity, and need to step back and focus on a subset of decisions. "I
aim to keep innovating for my customers. Learning to unlearn and learn again is
my mantra of success."
2) Discuss the
zeal and passion of Ritesh.
Ans:
Ritesh Agarwal story has
changed this age bar scenario. As he is 25years old with a net worth of 3500
crores. You must be wondering that, what has he done? Or who is he, with such
an immense net worth? Well, you must have heard of OYO rooms? Do you know what
OYO means? It means “on your own”. Oravel Stays Private Limited, parent company
of OYO, was founded by Ritesh Agarwal in 2013 when he was just 19 years old. 19
years old, was the age of OYO rooms owner!! Yes. But as they say, “Everyone
can rise above the circumstances and achieve success if they are dedicated to
and passionate about what they do.” Having dreams, and being
passionate about fulfilling them is what lead to good stories. And that is the
reason why Ritesh Agarwal's passion has made him the icon for millennial.
Converting passion into reality Being an
entrepreneur, starting something of your own may get a bit risky, but also
exciting. Ritesh Agarwal once said, that, “As an entrepreneur, you are
wired for being optimistic, as, if there's a 5% chance, you'll have to take
that chance”.
Therefore,
capitalizing on this opportunity, he started Oravel Stays in 2012. Oravel
Stays was meant to be a destination for short and midterm rentals, for bed and
breakfast joints, private rooms and serviced apartments. This startup was such
an amazing idea, that in no matter of time, they received funding of Rs30 lakhs
from the Venture Nursery. Also, being then First Asian Resident to apply and be
selected for The Thiel Fellowship, he received a funding of $100,000. You must
be wondering, that what is a Thiel fellowship? Well, Thiel Fellowship is like a
global contest for students under the age of 20. This fellowship was sponsored
by Peter Thiel, who is a co-founder of PayPal and the early investor of
Facebook.
Ritesh
managed to be in the top ten winners, who received a sum of $100,000 for two
years. Along with that, the only condition for Thiel fellowship was that the
person should be a dropout and should have a brilliant idea for a startup.
3) Discuss the business journey of
Ritesh.
Ans: Ritesh felt a bit low, but he kept
himself motivated. As, in life, there is always a low point which tries to
back us down, but if we still plan to be motivated and focused, we'll reach the
heights. That’s the reality of life. Well, he once again bagged himself with
confidence and was geared up to fly high. Ritesh realized that the biggest
struggle for a traveller is to find a good and affordable hotel. As he wanted
to make the experience of a trip worthwhile for people. It’s quite common, like
when you are planning to travel somewhere, you aim to have a good and memorable
trip. But wait, what makes a trip memorable?
Quality time with your loved ones,
visiting new places, eating amazing food, but the main thing is the hotel
rooms. As this is the main thing which we focus on. Isn’t it? We see if the
washroom if nice or not, beds are soft or not, is the hotel providing
complimentary breakfast and also what all other facilities the hotel has? This
is what made Ritesh thinking, and thus he reached the consensus of making such
an online platform, where you can get all these sorts of information in a
single platform. Incredible idea. Isn’t it? Therefore, Ritesh re-launched his
business model in 2013 and there came the OYO Rooms. OYO rooms became a mission to
create great living spaces for the common man In India with affordable prices. It
reached out to prospective hotels or hotel owners could also reach out to them,
and then the OYO’s team would visit the place. They used to audit the hotel, to
understand the changes that would be required to standardize the property as
per OYO standards, and shares the same with the hotels. After the launch,
Ritesh even got on board with Bhawna Agarwal, former CEO at e-commerce firm
Seventy MM for critical business advising. Ritesh decided to play it smart
& safe and made sure to leave no stone unturned. Oyo rooms tied-up with a
dozen numbers of hotels and with their help offered rooms to its customers. Things
started to get better for them and to meet the demands they eventually had to
increase their team of two to fifteen and then twenty-five, and so on. The
business was reaching its height.
In 2014, the company raised Rs.4 crores from Light Speed Ventures, who
was the company's first institutional shareholder. Bejul Somania, managing
director of Lightspeed Ventures, and Ritesh became good partners. Bejul was the
one, who told Ritesh that getting the right set of people to join the company,
who have the same ambition, will create a crucial impact. And, thus he OYO got
his new COO, Abhinav Sinha, 2014. Also, In May 2014 it received funding of
about $650,000 from Sequoia Capital and LSVP at a pre-money valuation of $60
million.
4) Explain the
early education of Ritesh.
Ans: The journey of our hero began
rather early than normal! Ritesh was born to a business class family in Bissam
Cuttack in Orissa and attended the Sacred Heart School in Rayagada, Orissa. During
the growing up days in Rayagada, Odisha, it was all about fun and learning for
him but his ways were rather unconventional from those of other kids. His fun
elements including screwing around with the computer, and trying hard to find
opportunities to make mistakes, so that he could learn new stuff. And doing
that he gained a keen interest in software! This started with the idea of it,
moved on to knowing about it and then the hunger just went on increasing. To
quench his thirst, he borrowed his elder brother’s books for programming. Some
of the basic languages like Basic and Pascal were taught in school itself and
the rest he managed to learn from Google baba. Interestingly, he had started
coding when he was just eight years old. So software had obviously become his
love. And by the time he reached his 10th grade, he had made up his mind that
he wanted to take up coding for a living. In 2009, Ritesh left for Kota to join
IIT and in no time he figured that Kota was anything but a place where one
could learn coding. Hence, his dream of coding took a backseat and as he had a
lot of time to spare, he started attending Bansal Tutorials that his dad had
got him enrolled into. The rest of the time he used to just chill and travel
around a lot. He even started writing a book and ended up inscribing – ‘Indian
Engineering Colleges: A Complete Encyclopedia of Top 100 Engineering Colleges’.
This book turned out to become huge on Flipkart and was sold out in a while
too. In fact, the tutorials he went to also had this book and his picture was
right on the cover.
5) Discuss
Ritesh as an entrepreneur.
Ans: Inspired by the word
"entrepreneur", Ritesh indirectly developed an interest in something,
which he never thought would happen. Have you ever thought of becoming or doing
something else in your life? But at some point of time, you suddenly develop an
interest in something, and then you are like, "Wait! This is what I wanted
to do”. These situations, generally occur in one’s life. It can be reversed
also. As, many of us dream of something, but, might find it difficult to
achieve, or we somehow lack passion in that.
Being in Kota, Ritesh had quite a free
time. And because of which he started travelling to Delhi, as he found it more
interesting. So, he used to stay in PGs, budgeted hotels. Who would have
thought, that just by staying up in different budgeted hotels, he would develop
an idea out of it? Amazing, isn’t it? Delhi, for him, became land for his
passions. In other words, by making weekend plans to Delhi, he started covering
conferences by entrepreneurs. He also attended various events by them. He used
to see and get ideas regarding, doing something of his own. By 2011, he finally
moved into Delhi. He came here to do the preparation of SAT, for moving to the
US for further studies. But something was missing in his life. He didn’t find
joy in the preparation and unfortunately, SAT never happened. As his
interest was shifted in the direction of entrepreneurship, business and on
startup like AIRBNB. He even joined The University of London, India’s campus.
But just after three days of joining, as it was not his cup of tea. So he left
the university and never came back and focused on starting his venture in
hospitality. Ritesh, during his days of travels and stays in a hotel, noticed
that budget hotels in India didn’t even meet the very basic needs of a budget
traveller. This opportunity strikes him a lot. And as he says, “Opportunities
are everywhere, but are you ready to catch hold of them?” He
discovered that hotel line is a big and a great opportunity to work, and hence,
he did. And, he became quite passionate to kick start his venture.
6) Explain
Ritesh’s journey from Oravel to OYO.
Ans: Ritesh felt a bit low, but he kept
himself motivated. As, in life, there is always a low point which tries
to back us down, but if we still plan to be motivated and focused, we'll reach
the heights. That’s the reality of life. Well, he once again bagged himself
with confidence and was geared up to fly high. Ritesh realized that the biggest
struggle for a traveller is to find a good and affordable hotel. As he wanted
to make the experience of a trip worthwhile for people. It’s quite common, like
when you are planning to travel somewhere, you aim to have a good and memorable
trip. But wait, what makes a trip memorable?
Quality time with your loved ones, visiting new places, eating amazing food, but the main thing is the hotel rooms. As this is the main thing which we focus on. Isn’t it? We see if the washroom if nice or not, beds are soft or not, is the hotel providing complimentary breakfast and also what all other facilities the hotel has? This is what made Ritesh thinking, and thus he reached the consensus of making such an online platform, where you can get all these sorts of information in a single platform. Incredible idea. Isn’t it? Therefore, Ritesh re-launched his business model in 2013 and there came the OYO Rooms. OYO rooms became a mission to create great living spaces for the common man In India with affordable prices.
It reached out to prospective hotels or hotel owners could also reach out to
them, and then the OYO’s team would visit the place. They used to audit the
hotel, to understand the changes that would be required to standardize the
property as per OYO standards, and share the same with the hotels. After the
launch, Ritesh even got on board with Bhawna Agarwal, former CEO at e-commerce
firm Seventy MM for critical business advising. Ritesh decided to play it smart
& safe and made sure to leave no stone unturned. Oyo rooms tied-up with a
dozen numbers of hotels and with their help offered rooms to its customers. Things
started to get better for them and to meet the demands they eventually had to
increase their team of two to fifteen and then twenty-five, and so on. The
business was reaching its height. In 2014, the company raised Rs.4 crores
from LIghtSpeed Ventures, who was the company's first institutional
shareholder. Bejul Somania, managing director of Lightspeed Ventures, and
Ritesh became good partners. Bejul was the one, who told Ritesh that getting
the right set of people to join the company, who have the same ambition, will
create a crucial impact.
And, thus he OYO got his new COO, Abhinav Sinha, 2014. Also, In May 2014 it
received funding of about $650,000 from Sequoia Capital and LSVP at a pre-money
valuation of $60 million.
