Oyo Rooms Founder Ritesh Agarwal Biography has crossed all the barriers of age. Ritesh Agarwal has set an example that age is just a number. An interesting fact to note about this man is that he founded his company when he wasn’t even at age 20.
Today he owns one of the world’s biggest hotel chains (OYO). He has quite an interesting journey to inspire all young entrepreneurs to succeed. Let’s have a look over his tale of a story.
He lived in a town in Orissa called “Bissamcuttack”. Here, the literacy rate was only near about 20 percent. So he had a tough childhood, especially because of the extremism he faced.
But he was very thankful to his family to be able to send him to school, which was a Catholic one. The school fee was about 3 dollars a month.
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Oyo Rooms Founder Ritesh Agarwal Biography
| Full Name | Ritesh Agarwal |
| Spouse | Geetansha Sood (m. 2023) |
| Parents | Ramesh Agarwal (f), Mother`s name is unknown |
| Date of Birth | November 8, 1993 |
| Place of Birth | Jhunjhunu, Rajasthan, India |
| Education | Indian School of Business, Hyderabad (MBA) |
| Occupation | Entrepreneur, Founder & CEO of OYO Hotels & Homes |
| Company Founded | 2013 |
| Industry | Hospitality |
| Awards & Recognition | Forbes 30 Under 30 (2016), Asia’s Most Promising Entrepreneurs Under 25 (2014) |
| Net Worth | $2 billion |
During his school days, he heard the word named “Entrepreneur”. His elder sister once talked about an entrepreneurship event, and this young boy got fascinated by the term.
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So he Googled the word. At that time, Google was slow, and he used to pay 150 rupees, which used to get buffered a lot.
He then decided that wanted to become this. He had a great commitment and clarity about his goal, and he was very firm about it.
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Ritesh Agarwal: Struggles For The Ultimate Goal
Then as years passed by, post his 10th grade, everyone used to visit a higher secondary school in the same state. But this guy wanted something against the norm.
So he came to the northern half of the country. He used to travel through the coastal areas in the general coaches of the trains.
Ritesh Agarwal, the founder of Oyo, wanted to discover the hills. So he traveled with his pocket money to various places by doing multiple internships.
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Every weekend he used to write a lot of e-mails asking resort owners to let him stay in their hotels for free, assuring that he would solve something in that sector one day.
Some would let him stay for free, some would give him discounts, and a lot of them would screw him up.
So over this time, he stayed across 100 places over this country with more than 200 properties. It sounds less though, but considering that you just have 365 days in a year, it is just great!
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He says, “I had that great hunger to solve in this sector about living at affordable prices” in his speech at Josh Talks.
So he started “Oravel” which is India’s first marketplace of villas, service departments, etc. He did that for a period of about only 6 months and continued to travel during this period as well.
Ritesh Agarwal’s Business Failure
Everyone whom they had worked with came up with significantly different issues like someone called the hotel owner.
Ritesh Agarwal founder of Oyo didn’t pick it up, he then saw there were no signboards, reached reception found the receptionist sleeping, went to the bedroom, and found that the mattresses were torn apart, the washrooms had leaking problems, etc. He felt terrible about it.
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He asked several people about these issues, who were having predictable experiences living in these hotels. Why don’t we solve them? One common answer he was told was hey, listen, this is not scalable!
This is one common jargon that the entrepreneurial community once heard, which means, Being able to change in size or scale.
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Ritesh Agarwal’s Breakthrough
But he remembered one quote from Steve Jobs (CEO of Apple Inc.), “Innovation is what differentiates the leader’s v/s followers.
” So, then he decided that he wanted to be a leader. He wanted to take charge and be a creator to solve the problems of many, not just for the sake of building a business.
So he wanted a quality experience much better than what was observed.
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During the same period came a turning point in his life. This was right after his senior higher school he told his parents that he was going to college in Delhi.
He just went for 2 days and then took a day’s leave to build Oravel so that it could give a more predictable and better experience.
And he started taking more leaves from 1 day to 6 months. But his family didn’t know that he was missing his college. He applied for the “Thiel Fellowship” on Jan 1st, 2013. There was no Indian applicant except him for the fellowship.
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Peter Thiel started it, who is the founder of PayPal from the largest investors of Facebook and a bunch of other technology companies.
Peter believed that people who wanted to create disproportionate value and solve large problems would need it regardless of education, and he provided them with it by enabling open mentorship.
Ritesh Agarwal founded the whole application process whose acceptance rates were fairly lower than universities MIT, and Stanford very interesting. And guess what, he was 1st Asian fellow to be selected. He then built OYO Rooms.
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“Through this period we had disrupted a broader industry in India which was sluggish in the last 10 years and today, is among the most exciting ones,” he says.
We have 44 clones today across 15 countries which are being financed every single day to be modeled around OYO Rooms.
But what came with it is an average of 3 death rates a week from real estate guys. But doesn’t matter! “If you are to put a dent in the universe, some people are not going to like you, so don’t be scared if something like this happens to you,” he says. What we have become is India’s largest hotel network.
Future Plan of Ritesh Agarwal
As we build ourselves we aspire to become the World’s largest hotel network and then we can say,
HAR JAGAH OYO!
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Oyo Rooms Founder Ritesh Agarwal: FAQ
Who is Ritesh Agarwal
Ritesh Agarwal founder of Oyo has crossed all the barriers of age. He has set an example that age is just a number. An interesting fact to note about this man is that he founded his company when he wasn’t even at age 20.
What is the Meaning of Oyo
OYO Rooms: On Your Own Rooms
How can I contact Ritesh Agarwal
You can contact Ritesh Agarwal via social media.
How Ritesh Agarwal started his business
Ritesh Agarwal started “Oravel” modeled like Airbnb, which is India’s first marketplace of villas, service departments, etc. He did that for a period of about only 6 months and continued to travel during this period as well. Later it branched out to become OYO Rooms.
How Ritesh Agarwal started Oyo
Ritesh Agarwal started “Oravel” modeled like Airbnb, which is India’s first marketplace of villas, service departments, etc. He did that for a period of about only 6 months and continued to travel during this period as well. Later it branched out to become OYO Rooms.
Is Ritesh Agarwal a billionaire
Yes, Ritesh Agarwal is an Indian billionaire. he is the founder & CEO of Oyo Rooms. He has a net worth of $1.1 billion.
The net worth of Ritesh Agarwal
$2 billion.
Ritesh Agarwal’s current net worth is $2 billion, equivalent to Rs. 16,462 crores.
Where does Ritesh Agarwal live
Gurugram, haryana india. originally he is from a town in Orissa called “Bissamcuttack”.
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