There is no universal definition for achieving success. For those who considered myopic metrics of attaining success with a surplus of cash, are actually ditching us from seeing the real truth. Business magnates define success with their ingenious ideas, efforts, dedications, and not to forget, Struggle. Ritesh Agarwal is amongst one of the young and talented Indian entrepreneurs who has proved ingenuity and standing out of the crowd can drag your success.
Belonging to a middle-class Marwari family who resides in Orissa, Ritesh Agarwal is founder and CEO of OYO Rooms. The famous Entrepreneur was born on 16 November 1993 in village Bisam in Cuttack, Orissa. Self stand person comes from a middle-class family with a business background. However, before the launch and success of OYO, their financial condition was not good. He is also known as Orval founder as his first organization that he created, which later was converted to OYO Rooms.
Brought up in a small town of Odisha, Ritesh possesses an extra talent that was not as conventional as a kid. He wished to attempt something different every time and experimented with a screwdriver in his hand, rotating around electronic gadgets. He wanted to make something exception so that he could learn something new. There he developed his love for computers. He used to read programming books for his sibling. Since the early years of 8 years, he showed his skills in coding, which later was dropped as a career option. At the age of 13, he used to sell SIM cards to earn some petty cash.
College Dropout:
Ritesh realized that he needed some extra booze in life; he decided to give up his education and dropped out of his college. The luck was in favour or can be said a turning point for him; his dropping out proved a blessing as he is now eligible for Peter theil fellowship. Ritesh is the first Indian and first Asian to win this fellowship. The journey of entrepreneurship started at a young age of 17. He received a massive grant of $100000 and mentorship from the foundation’s network.
His first startup of Oravel was designed for customers to enable listing and booking of budget accommodations. Being an avid traveller, he came up with the idea that the budget hospitality sector lacked predictability. In 2013, he pivoted Oravel to OYO Rooms, focusing on providing affordable and standardized accommodations.
At the age of 19, he immersed himself in grasping knacks of budget hotel and their expectations. From attending calls and staying there for months, Ritesh understood minute details to flourish his business.
OYO today is the world’s largest room count and fastest-growing chain of rental and franchised hotels, homes and living spaces. It is present around with more than 800 cities in over 80 countries including India, Malaysia, Middle East, Indonesia, Japan and much more.
At the age of 24, he became the youngest India to achieve a place in Hurun’s rich list of 2018.
His net worth is expected to be approximately $1.1 billion, as per Hurun Rich list 2020. The company has raised a total of $125 millions of funding from 7 investors. Ritesh has grabbed awards and accolades for his work including Business World Young Entrepreneur Award.
Some unknown facts:
- Sim cards selling to small store owners during his young years in hometown Odisha contributed towards his learning experiences.
- He started writing a book ‘ Indian Engineering colleges – A complete Encyclopedia of Top 100 Engineering colleges’.
- Amongst 240 children to be part of the Asian Science camp, Ritesh was one of them.
- When he used to convince VCs to fund his venture, he tried a solution to the hotel booking process and realized OYO as a different concept. Everyone found his idea as a real estate business on an initial level.
- OYO does not have any international competitor till day who could snatch its position.
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