OYO CEO Ritesh Agarwal Lauds Shark Tank India For Teaching Business Concepts To Everyone

The latest season of reality show Shark Tank India has been receiving a lot of praise from the audiences and critics alike. Season 3 is all the more special as it not only brings the OG sharks but also 6 new ones with inspiring success stories.

One such panelist is Ritesh Agarwal, the man who founded hotel chain OYO, a disruptive brand that changed the hospitality industry¡¯s game.

Ritesh Agarwal's Journey: Defying Doubts and Building OYO's Global Empire

He recently spoke about his success story in an interview with Indian Express where he recalled how he started OYO. He said,

¡°I was just 18, right out of high school when I was starting. So naturally people did not take me seriously at first. They thought a young person was very interested in trying to make a positive difference, but they were not sure if I would be able to do it. Back in the day when I wrote cold emails, nobody would respond or was not willing to invest. I finally got a big investor in 2015. Before that, in June 2013, I started with one hotel in Gurgaon. It had 20 per cent occupancy before OYO came about, but in a few months, the occupancy grew to 80 to 90 per cent. That was the starting point. Today we serve 17,000 hotels and 1,50,000 homes, so it has grown. Over the years, I have learned that consistency matters. I did not give up, and slowly more critics started becoming believers.¡±

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From the 6 new Sharks on the show, Ritesh Agarwal gets the most amount of love from the internet in comparison. People love his calm and composed demeanor and his polite way of talking.

OYO Boss thinks Of Himself As A Dolphin, Not A Shark

In the same interview, he was quizzed about his role of a ¡®shark¡¯ on the show. He responded, ¡°I personally don¡¯t like to call myself a shark. I am more like a dolphin probably. When I was coming to the show, my motivation was very simple, I want to support founders. This has been my goal and Shark Tank has not disappointed me. Great ideas are valuable, but more than that it is the founder and person behind the company that matters. I believe the jockey is more important than the horse.¡±

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He recently took to his LinkedIn account to praise the show and lauded how Shark Tank India has been educating the country by teaching fundamentals of business and entrepreneurship. He also posted a video explaining commonly used business terms.

He wrote, ¡°Amidst all the fun on Shark Tank, what the show does really well is touch upon some of the most fundamental concepts of business and entrepreneurship in a simple manner. When I started OYO, I had no clue how to read or interpret a balance sheet. I am glad to see that Shark Tank India is taking these conversations mainstream.¡±

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