College dropout at 17, millionaire at 22, Ritesh Agarwal says he is in no hurry

OYO founder Ritesh Agarwal. Photo credit: OYO

Just a kilometer from the 17th-century Taj Mahal is a neat little room.

It has spotless bed linen, a clean washroom, wifi, a flatscreen TV, an air-conditioner, and even warm lighting. Once you walk back from the white marble monument to love, built by an emperor in memory of his queen, you enter this comfy nook for the night.

You are in an OYO room in the historic Indian city of Agra, paying just US$14 for it.

And Ritesh Agarwal would have it no other way.

The man who has stayed at numerous budget hotels himself – and juggled roles as housekeeper, call center guy, and startup founder – wants you to think OYO (short for “on your own”) every time you step out of home.

“We are offering 65,000 rooms through our partners and plan to grow deeper in all key business and leisure cities, tripling our inventory by December 2016,” says Ritesh, whose face is a curious combination of boyish and grave.

Three years ago, he started off with a single Gurgaon hotel. It had 14 rooms, and OYO took over 11 of those.

It is today India’s largest branded network of budget hotels – the startup calls it largest “across all categories” – with 5,500 properties in over 170 cities. It’s like Uber for budget hotel rooms.

College education? Nah!

Photo credit: Jirka Matousek

Dropout. That’s often the first thing people say about Ritesh. Perhaps his parents should have seen it coming when he sold SIM cards at 13.

But he’s now a 22-year-old startup millionaire.

“Going to college opens doors for learning in a structured fashion,” he says. Only, it wasn’t his cup of tea.

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