[GTO]

Quite an impressive personality, this dude . Sharing two must-read articles to know more about the man who is running the largest app-taxi network in India.

Brilliant profile of Aggarwal

He failed to clear the joint entrance exam that would have granted him admission to India’s most prestigious network of technology colleges, the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs).

That speed bump would eventually turn out to be nothing more than the most miniscule of footnotes in Aggarwal’s life.

He came back prepared better. The very next year, he aced the entrance test, securing an all-India rank of 23.

In 2010, Aggarwal had a very different idea in mind for Ola. He wanted to start a business that would organise trips for customers wanting to travel and get out of town. The company at the time was called OlaTrip.com. He incorporated the company as ANI Technologies Pvt Ltd on December 3, 2010, at a small office in Kitchlu Nagar, Ludhiana, with his father, Naresh, acting as a full-time director.

“Phase two happened for us between 2014 (to) 2017. These three years, it was a very aggressive expansion. That is not about us – it was the opportunity that opened up in the market. During 2013-2014, a couple of things started happening in the country in the technology domain. People started buying mobile phones, data connections became cheaper, and the Indian economy started opening up much more. That was the time when, for us, the consumer opportunity took Ola from a very small fleet of a few hundred vehicles to a fleet of more than a million drivers every month. That kind of scale (in) those three years happened,” said Aggarwal at the Bengaluru event.

“We felt like we were riding a tiger,” he added. Much like Fixel-led Tiger was riding the Indian startup boom.

From The-Ken.com

There was one problem though—SoftBank wasn’t just an investor in Ola. It was also an investor in Uber. And SoftBank didn’t see why it needed to back two horses when one would do. To ensure that they prevailed, SoftBank was determined to acquire a controlling stake in Ola. So they offered Bhavish Aggarwal a billion dollars towards an investment into his company.

In 2018, Bhavish Aggarwal did something no CEO in the world had done to SoftBank.

He said no.

SoftBank then decided to go around him, and tried to buy a share from another investor at Ola, Tiger Global.

As the story goes, Bhavish Aggarwal went to war.

[vigsom]

I would call him the Dhirubhai Ambani of mobility. Ola can be credited with unbelievable rates for rides, thus the over-smart cabbie or autorickshaw driver down to earth. I remember how big a difference this app made in Chennai, a city (de)famed by its autorickshaws.

[anjan_c2007]

Ola has mastered the art of bringing affordable, hired mobility to the average Indian at his doorstep. Proud of its northerly growth all through, the proudest moments came for Ola when the Finance Minister herself told publicly that new car sales were down in 2018-19 during most quarters, due to the deluge of business for App based taxi aggregators like Ola and Uber by many from the present generation, who prefer not to buy cars. This was just prior to the Covid onslaught on the economy post March 2020 which has affected the transportation, travel and tourism industries. Hopefully, things will soon get back to normal and the aggregator Ola under the leadership of it's dynamic CEO will see business move ahead full steam.

Since Ola is an Indian start-up, many of us as aware citizens try to always prefer it over the MNC in competition. But that's sometimes unavoidable because during peak hours in very crowded localities (markets, airports and so on) Ola regrets availability of its services. That's when we look for options in the other taxi aggregator's App.

Ola needs to publicise its Indian roots more and more for greater awareness.

[digitalnirvana]

Ola's make or break will be the e-scooter initiative. They can be remembered in history as the organisation that moved India away from fossil fuels to EVs. Something that the Bajaj's and Hero's could (and should) have attempted to but did not, for reasons.

I like the cut of his jib. Really hope Bhavish and Ola succeed.

[TorqueIndia]

Yup, super impressive, if he delivers what he has promised then it would be a Tesla moment in the Indian EV scene.

Few things observed about OLA electric :
*Backed by Korean giants - Hyundai, they are planning for Korean vendors too for the battery tech. Motor, ECU, software are developed in house.
*Ratan Tata also invested some undisclosed amount into OLA electric as per the reports.
*eScooter roll out planned for June 2021.

One of his very interesting recent interview

https://youtu.be/ogq_1UQrNs0

[venkats2001]

I know this is probably an unfair comment, and not taking away anything from Ola...but wasn't Uber the pioneer of app-based cabs?

Be it Ola, Flipkart, Oyo...all our successful Indian start ups seem to primarily be replicators and not really innovators. Similar to the Alibabas and Didi Chuxings of the world, who just copy but more efficiently.

Would be interested in understanding different perspectives from other BHPians.

To be clear, I have not done anything of note in my life other than have opinions so I really take my hat off to such achievers like Bhavish. It is just that I cannot shake this thought.

[Mohitkumaar]

Is he still digging the foundation for the plant and saying that scooter will roll out by June?

I am pretty suspicious these early ones will be CBUs from the European company which originally developed the scooter!

If he can pull this off though...

[carthick1000]

Originally Posted by GTO

Attachment 2134638
He said no

Thanks GTO for the article on the-ken.

I think when the idea you have in mind is going to do a greater good and if you know it, it sounds like a logical and rational decision. Agree, this needs certain level-headedness and just not settling down for money. Kudos to that spirit

[RavSam]

Originally Posted by venkats2001

I know this is probably an unfair comment, and not taking away anything from Ola...but wasn't Uber the pioneer of app-based cabs?

That's what PR is. Google any item and you'll see the words "First, Best, Most Efficient, Safest, Easiet, Fastest" and other such words used generously for grabbing more attention.

Also between Ola and Uber I've seen that younger audience refer more to Uber than Ola while the elder ones are more familiar with Ola, sometimes so much so that they don't know what Uber is.

May as they say it's not always who does it first but who does it better.

[superbad]

Originally Posted by GTO

Attachment 2134638

Quite an impressive personality, this dude . Sharing two must-read articles to know more about the man who is running the largest app-taxi network in India.

Brilliant profile of Aggarwal







From The-Ken.com

I have utmost respect for any entrepreneur. Kudos to Bhavish Aggarwal for having dared to, & realised, the dream of establishing large business which touches millions of lives every second.
However, the article also mentions him as being difficult to work with. I suppose it's part of the baggage that comes with being a visionary running a billion dollar valued company.
There is however a fundamental problem with unicorn companies like these having billion dollar valuations - It's all on paper. Yes, the revenue generated is real , but so is there cash burn, & therein lies the fact that very few of these companies are actually profitable. Ola seems to follow a similar model wherein continuous funding rounds drive up the company's valuation & meet day to day expenses but there is no clarity as to when it will become a self sustaining, profitable business. Ola, Uber (in India), Zomato, Flipkart, Amazon India, all are riding in the same boat. It's all white collar ponzi, if you ask me.

[v1p3r]

I would hold off on the hagiography for a bit. Bhavish is certainly the most ruthless and brutal of all of the first lot of Indian internet founders - to clarify, these are qualities that I admire in him. However, there are questions around how a lot of structuring has been carried out, as well as the lack of effective leadership in the organisation. All the analyses carried out by the articles are post-facto, where they are trying to fit their narrative to facts instead of actually connecting the dots. Conveniently, the narratives and prophecies change every few years. The structuring questions are newer, and the articles don't seem to have covered them.

Originally Posted by venkats2001

I know this is probably an unfair comment, and not taking away anything from Ola...but wasn't Uber the pioneer of app-based cabs?

Be it Ola, Flipkart, Oyo...all our successful Indian start ups seem to primarily be replicators and not really innovators. Similar to the Alibabas and Didi Chuxings of the world, who just copy but more efficiently.

Would be interested in understanding different perspectives from other BHPians.

While this is both true and a problem, do not underestimate the challenges of running an organisation. Bhavish is possibly the best founder/entrepreneur in India today, though that title will probably be hotly contested by Naveen Tewari, Byju Raveendran, and Vijay Shekhar Sharma.

[sgmuser]

I wonder why people bash Ola and say they copied Uber business model loosely. This is not something new anywhere. Mi copying Apple in many of their products blatantly, google copied iOS (before this they worked together!), aliexpress copying Amazon and so on. I think Ola is successful in India which is a bigger achievement than Uber for example succeeding in US or Europe. It is easy for Uber in those open markets with easy to do business environment but Ola went through so much hurdles in this bureaucratic India. Even in Singapore Uber managed to get through and run with their original design of the business model, where any one can become a taxi and do not require a Travel permit. But here in India, the car need to be a travel permit, which is different than a personal vehicle. Still, they managed to succeed. At the end, the common people who where taken for a ride, literally, got a refreshing and economical option in those hot and humid days of Chennai. And Chennai (my home town) lapped it up and never looked back.

I remember a chat I had with a taxi driver (not sure whether its Ola or Uber), where he mentioned that the Ola copied Uber tech and I also heard him saying Uber in someway or other has some share in Ola.

But the fact is Ola changed the commuting/travel a LOT easier and less of a hurdle. Especially the aged ones/ladies can travel/commute so easily with a phone call, be it in a car, share taxi or auto. The revolution they had brought is life changing for many. Kudos to Ola and Uber. But Ola needs to really pull up their socks on the quality of their service. The drivers sometimes are rude, not so polite and will reject trips for no reason. Less professional they are, when compared to Uber. Ola cab drivers use mobile phone when driving and if I oppose, they do not like it much. Uber seems to have better trained drivers, in my limited observation or it could be just me.

[Guna]

Bhavish Agarwal hurls abuses at staff over trivial things. Looks like a case of a man in a hurry with unrealistic goals.
"Inside Ola Electric, employees said the culture has turned hostile over the last couple of years. In meetings, Aggarwal ripped up presentations because of a missing page number, directed Punjabi epithets at staff and called teams “useless,” according to current and former employees. Executives said in interviews that meetings scheduled for an hour often lasted 10 minutes because Aggarwal would lose patience over a superfluous sentence in a memo, a crooked paper clip or the quality of printing paper."
https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/bu...k-9339251.html

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by Guna

Bhavish Agarwal hurls abuses at staff over trivial things. Looks like a case of a man in a hurry with unrealistic goals.

No, he is still copying things, this one from Steve Jobs (of the 80s). Such leaders often create very toxic work environments, where others are too scared to put an idea forward. Folks would be too scared to take initiative.

[Guna]

Originally Posted by Samurai

No, he is still copying things, this one from Steve Jobs (of the 80s).

Perhaps copying him in a 'wrong' way. Steve Jobs would probably get mad over minute details in the end product which gets exposed to the consumers, not with some silly mistakes in the internal meetings/presentations.