-
There is a glass ceiling for the Indian startups. If I want to meet the PM, it won't be as easy as a foreign guy coming to India. I understand that dynamic, and we need to make sure government sees us as major contributors to society, which is not full there.
-
I think we are a company that thrives on a good challenge.
-
We are building towards the future where people need not own their own cars.
-
I learnt early that always being analytical is important for a business. Being analytical as an attitude is more important than just having the aptitude.
-
Our focus is on the customers and improving their experience. We believe that if we do that well, competition, prices, and profits will all take care of themselves.
-
It's much easier for non-Indian companies to raise capital because they have profitable markets elsewhere. You might call it capital dumping, predatory pricing, or anti-WTO, but it's a very unfair playing field for Indian startups.
-
Focus on solving real problems and not on making money. There will be enough takers for your solutions. You will help make lives of some people better, and money will follow.
-
Even before IIT, I always had an inclination to do something, even when I was in school.
-
The value that SoftBank saw in us was that we are a technology company in the mobile Internet space.
-
The Indian context is unique. The market is very large, and I believe there is enough room for many players to innovate on different parts of the transportation business. That said, if somebody just brings an American concept to India, it'll only go so far. You have to build for the Indian needs and dynamics.
-
Companies need to weed out drivers who dont drive well or have got poor ratings from the customers.
-
As entrepreneurs, we sometimes do not understand the complexities of running a government.
-
The crux of what makes a company Indian is its entrepreneurship. The management needs to be in India.
-
As far as Ola is concerned, we are focused and determined to build a business that can sustain and be impactful.
-
When I explained my business model to my family, they asked if I was going to open a travel agency.
-
Global companies can raise capital much easier than local Indian companies can because they have access to many more markets than we do, and this ends up distorting competition.
-
Globally, ride sharing is a very intense industry with a lot of money being thrown around.
-
Though we work with rental agencies, a large part of our fleet comprises individual drivers.
-
Don't take shortcuts while building your company - keep trying for the best.
-
We profile drivers based on their riding behavior, driving behavior to make sure we weed out the bad-performing drivers, which are considered unsafe in terms of their driving profiles.
-
There are many people who think we had the first-mover advantage. But actually, when Uber came to India, Ola was doing only 2,000 rides per day . We had less than half a million dollars of funding.
-
Not all of Microsoft's businesses are successful, but they have every technology possible.
-
Compared to Uber, we have a much local business model. We allow the customers to pay in cash as well as use our prepaid wallet. We allow them to book through call centres and pre-book for future travels.
-
In the U.S. or in the West, mobility means owning your own car. Cities are designed around spread-out suburbs, societal customs are that kids get a car after a certain age, and car ownership is very high.