SUCCESS STORY

OF OLA
 OLA: Certain facts
• Ola translates to 'Hello' in Spanish probably to indicate that their services are as
easy and friendly as that, just like saying a 'hello'. It is known to be one of the
fastest growing businesses in India, out-beating its competitors Uber & Meru.

• Ola is India’s fastest startup to enter the Unicorn club.

Thus, it comes as no surprise that Ola presents a clear example of an Indian
product retaining market leadership at 78%.

• The average distance covered by Ola vehicles in a day is about 43,40,717 kms.
That is over 10 times the distance between Earth and Moon.
Profile of Bhavish Aggarwal
Born: 28 August 1985 (age 31)
Nationality: Indian
Alma mater: Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay
Occupation: Co-founder& CEO of Ola Cabs
Home town: Ludhiana
Spouse: Rajlakshami Aggarwal
Hobbies: Reading, cycling and squash.
He loves photography. He also maintains a largely popular photoblog
Life before OLA
•Born in a middle class family in Ludhiana. His parents were doctors.
•He was always a bright student.
•Began at a very early age.
•Soon after completing his Bachelors in Technology (Computer Science and
Engineering) from IIT – B in 2008, started his career with Microsoft Research India as
a Research Intern and later got reinstated as an Assistant Researcher.
•Managed to file two patents and also got three papers published in the international
journals.
•Turned into a blogger and had founded his own prodigy called – desitech.in. Desitech
was all about hosting content which was mainly focused at technologies which again
were inclined towards the Indian scenario.
 How did it all start?
•Bhavish quit his job in 2010 to pursue his dream of running his own business
•After quitting Microsoft, Bhavish started an online company which dealt into selling
of short duration tours and holidays online.
•He happened to rent a car from Bangalore to Bandipur and had a lasting bad
experience.
•Had to hire cabs for business and personal travel and had numerous unpleasant
experiences with the cab drivers. He realized that just like him, other customers must
be facing the same issues
•The entrepreneurial-headed Bhavish decided to solve it good, and at large!
•Ola was the collective prodigy of Bhavish Aggarwal and Ankit Bhati (fellow alumnus
of IIT-B) and was officially owned by ANI Technologies Pvt Ltd.
Problems
•The startup had its fair share of obstacles and hiccups when it started out.
•Faced several questions as they explained the benefits of their model to
independent taxi owners/drivers.
•Available infrastructure like roads, network connectivity etc.
•Initially, Bhavish did everything from photographing drivers to providing
customer support and Ankit used to code for 48 hours straight.
•In Ola's early days, Bhavish has himself driven a car to drop a customer, because
the driver didn't show up.
•Bhavish used to give handouts of tour/travel packages to visitors at the
Commonwealth Games in Delhi. Ola initially started off as Olatrip.com, a
website that offered package weekend trips.
 Business model
•Instead of investing in buying their own fleet, Ola Cabs tied up with the
existing taxi drivers and launched the platform and mobile app to order taxi.
•OLA tied up with car manufacturers, NBFCs, and insurance providers so that
drivers can get access to better structured loans, get cheaper access to insurance,
repairs and buy second hand cars etc.
•Bookings were customised as per the needs of the consumers.
•They now have more than 4 lakh taxis catering to discerning customers all
across the country.
•Bhavish who works more than 16 hours a day, promises transparency in prices,
where Ola Cabs gets a commission on every sale that the taxi driver makes,
which makes it a company that works on pay-per-performance model.
Strategies of Ola:
•Internally, OLA ensures that the talent they hire is the best in the industry. Culture fit
and an inclination to solve a customer’s pain point is critical.

•It leverages technology to offer a highly predictable, efficient and customer friendly
cab service.

•With the help of such ahead of its time and long term strategies, the company began
to grow at the speed of light.
 So what made Bhavish or Ola One-up?
• Bhavish very smartly had taken only cars which had an All India permit and used
to run them both inside as well as outside the city. And then there were the
unique and budgeted plans which they used to offer, to lure the customers.

• But more than all that or what at least on an equal note, what helped them was
M-commerce (mobile). Bhavish could clearly see that, M-commerce was
growing at the speed of light and would only get better in the times to come.
• Hence, given this environment, it would only become far more easier for the
consumer without much of a hassle, merely through their smartphone. And with
the amount of connectivity this would only increase the convenience for the
masses.

• “I devote a lot of time to hire the right people. We keep on looking until we’ve
found the right person. More than the skill match, we’re looking for the culture
match”- Bhavish

• But even after becoming a millionaire, he still prefers to not buy a car and take a
cab. He believes that, such is a small price that every entrepreneur has to pay.
Achievements

As per the Hurun report released in 2015, Ola founders were the youngest super rich Indians.
Thank You