Ritesh Agarwal - The On Your Own Story

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The startup scenario in India is pretty attractive at present. It was not the case about eight years back. The business ecosystem was not very supportive and receptive to ideas. But there emerged an exception when OYO Rooms was founded.

Background

Like every Indian child, Ritesh Agarwal, the founder of OYO Rooms was expected to live the same way. Going to school and then to college is what usual Indian children do. Ritesh was different. He was someone who looked towards identifying problems and solving them.

When other children in his class wished to become doctors and engineers, he wanted to be an entrepreneur. His curiosity led him towards learning coding languages while he was in Class 8^th.

A College Dropout

For Ritesh, a regular life was monotonous, and he decided to drop out of college against the wishes of his known ones. His dropping out of college was a blessing in disguise as he had now become eligible for the Peter Thiel Fellowship. He received a grant of $100000 from this fellowship and therefore began the beautiful entrepreneurial journey by a young Indian.

The Plan of Action

When other youngsters enjoyed their everyday life, Ritesh was exploring a grave problem that existed in the Indian hospitality sector. He used to save his pocket money and travel solo across different parts of the country. During his travel, he explored different hotels to stay in and collected his experiences of stay. He noticed that budget hotels in India lacked the basic amenities that a budget traveler would require. Also, every time he stayed at a hotel, he had a different experience. He witnessed a big opportunity in this sector and began to think about what can be done to standardize and improve the stay experience outside the home.

The First Step

Ritesh had very humble beginnings with a venture named Oravel Stays for booking budget hotels. The venture looked promising and was accepted into the accelerator program by Venture Nursery in September 2012. He later emerged as one of the winners of the Theil Fellowship program.

At the onset, there were some hiccups in the business at Oracle Stays, but Ritesh kept himself motivated and focussed during these difficult times. He again realized the struggle of finding good and affordable hotels. He pondered over the idea to create an online platform that comprised all the information regarding hotels, the amenities and services offered.

The Business Transformation

Ritesh soon reworked on his business model, and there emerged On Your Own Rooms popularly known as OYO Rooms. The aim was to create standardized, affordable, and quality living places for the people of India. OYO reached out to hotel owners and offered them a listing on their platform. It performed audits to identify areas in the hotel that needed change to comply with basic standards that had been set by OYO. Soon more and more hotels joined this network as it was a win-win situation for both the parties involved.

The revamped business led to a surge in bookings and an influx of new hotels on board with OYO. The business thrived. The company soon caught the attention of the investors and soon had funding from investors. This allowed the company to expand and grow at a rapid pace. OYO crossed Indian borders to establish the same model in various countries.

OYO Rooms now has presence over various countries, and about millions of heads rest in OYO Rooms at night. It has been a journey of determination and perseverance, leading to ultimate success.

Written by - Harshit Somani