Ritesh Agarwal

“I started Oyo right out of my high school, with limited resources.”

“I was a small-town boy with big dreams.”

“Capital is always available for good companies, but the only question is value at which you raise capital. In bad times, you raise capital at low valuation, and in good times, you get a fair price. It separates winners from the rest.”

“Every weekend I would take a train to Delhi and sneak into startup events. I really enjoyed meeting entrepreneurs who were solving big problems. They were way smarter than me. I knew this is where I had to be.”

“As a responsible consumer brand, we have not just built for the short term, but build for longer-term relationships.”

“One big learning from Thiel fellowship was think really big and create an impact, without thinking if anybody has done it before.”

“Masayoshi Son is one of the most innovative and impactful thinkers and problem-solvers of our generation.”

“Companies that raise capital do it on the basis of past performance and unique competencies of the business. We cannot raise capital if we are not creating sustained value.”

“I went for two days to the Delhi Campus of the University of London and did not go back again.”

“By 2023, we will be the world's largest hotel chain.”

“I started my life on the ground selling sim card, telecom products and so on and learned a heck of a lot doing that.”

“We build OYO with basis of building a team which is not just great for our segment, but we possibly have the best team any start-up can possibly have.”

“Our focus area would be recruiting people along with building great technology as well as building a great brand.”

“2017 has been a watershed year for us. We steered our growth trajectory by upgrading and bringing beautiful living-spaces in the value economy segment through OYO Rooms, while launching our operated brand Townhouse.”

“Whenever I go to Odisha, I make it a point to converse in Odia.”

“What we are unlikely to do as a leading brand space is just buy revenue or partnership with hotels.”

“A lot of hotels have beautiful chandeliers because the asset owner is emotional about having chandeliers in the property. I always say that the customers aren't going to have chandeliers for breakfast. You'd rather take that money and give great breakfasts to the customer.”

“We have, at various levels, invented how hospitality experiences would look like. At lot of levels, we have transformed how the hospitality experience would be by processes and technology.”

“Our first cultural attribute is over-communication rather than under-communication.”

“Small hotels are going to be in vogue. In my view, small is going to be the new big, wherein people will rethink a lot about going back to that 1,000-room hotel versus going to a 40-room niche hotel.”