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Medial Startup Trivia
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A Brief Timeline: Ritesh Agarwal Picture Ritesh Agarwal, born in 1993 in Odisha, India. At just 13, he's already hustling, selling SIM cards and making his first entrepreneurial strides. By 16, he's earned enough to buy his first computer for ₹50,000 ($600). At 17, in 2010, Ritesh takes a leap of faith to Delhi with barely ₹8,000 ($100) in his pocket. Imagine him in a tiny 100 sq. ft. apartment, sharing space with 5 others, often sleeping on the floor. He's living on a shoestring budget of ₹300 ($4) per day. Fast forward to 2013. Ritesh, now 19, launches Oravel Stays with an initial investment of ₹30 lakh ($40,000). Picture him pitching to skeptical hotel owners, aiming to onboard just 10 properties in the first month. By 2014, OYO Rooms is born. Ritesh, at 21, becomes the first Indian to win the Thiel Fellowship, receiving $100,000. The company raises its first major funding of $1 million. Ritesh in 2015, at 22, as OYO secures a massive $100 million in funding. The company goes from 30 hotels in 1 city to over 1,000 hotels across 100 cities in just 2 years. By 2017, at 24, Ritesh is overseeing OYO's expansion to Malaysia, its first international market. The company's valuation soars to $850 million. 2018 sees OYO becoming a unicorn, valued at $5 billion. Ritesh, at 25, buys back $1.5 billion worth of shares from early investors. Then comes 2020 and the pandemic. OYO's valuation drops from $10 billion to $8 billion. Ritesh, now 27, faces the tough decision of laying off 5,000 employees globally and furloughing thousands more. Through it all, Ritesh remains that same ambitious boy from Odisha. By 2022, at 29, he's steered OYO to operate over 157,000 storefronts across 35 countries. His journey from a small town to building a company once valued at $10 billion (currently $2.4 Billion) exemplifies the potential of young Indian entrepreneurs.
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