OYO's Founder - Ritesh Agarwal On Building A Billion Dollar Hotel Startup

The Founder and Group CEO of OYO, Ritesh Agarwal who is India's youngest self-made billionaire. He started his journey at the age of 19 with a vision of creating a solution for people looking for affordable hotels around the globe. Ritesh always felt that the budget hotels in India didn’t even meet the very basic needs of a budget traveler. Hence, capitalizing on this opportunity, he started his first venture in 2012 and called it Oravel Stays. Ritesh Agarwal dropped out of college to follow his dream which later turned out to be OYO. He is the only Asian resident to have been awarded the Thiel fellowship. For those unfamiliar with the same, the Thiel Fellowship is designed by Peter Thiel who was responsible for founding PayPal. Ritesh Agarwal’s story is one of perseverance, commitment, and not losing sight of the big picture.