India has produced large numbers of entrepreneurs. But it has been only a few, who have made their firm world-class and has made it to the global level. So, here is a list of some of the most inspirational entrepreneurs of India, which will inspire you to work smarter, harder and not give up.
RITESH AGARWAL [Founder of OYO Rooms]
Ritesh started working at the age of 13 by selling SIM cards. Much surprisingly, he was a dropout in college. His journey started at the age of 16 when he was selected for the Asian Science Camp hosted by Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR). He was a travel freak and always liked hanging out in hotels. He observed a very common problem – Price of the Hotel Room V/s The Facilities provided. He developed a system that effectively gave out the features of hotels and thus made this available for all classes of travelers according to their budget. This ignited his first startup in 2012 as Oravel Stays. He re-launched Oravel as “OYO” and became one of the most successful young entrepreneurs in India.
BHAVISH AGGARWAL [Founder of OLA Cabs]
Bhavish Aggarwal started his career with Microsoft Research India as a Research Intern and later got placed as an Assistant Researcher, which was quite boring. This young man connected the cab services to our smartphones much simpler with the help of analytics and GPS technology. This made Ola Cabs different from other cab services as it was user-friendly with at most punctuality. Though he was a research assistant at Microsoft, he quit his job only to follow his dreams. No one supported his idea, but it was his strong will power, determination and power to take risks in life that made him a one of the successful entrepreneurs.
Deepinder Goyal and Pankaj Chaddah [Founder of ZOMATO]
These two friends after graduation from IIT-Delhi started a startup named ‘Foodiebay’ in Delhi. After renaming into Zomato, began their exploration at Mumbai and Kolkatta. Now, the boys with red T-shirts can be seen at every nook and corner of India serving the nation with delicious foods. They revolutionized the food delivery system of India by incorporating their idea into a global business. They simply used the mobile app and GPS technology for tracking customer orders and providing them quality delivery at their doorsteps.
Vijay Shekhar Sharma [Founder of Paytm]
The man behind the digitalization of India and smarter payments methods. In 1997, he started the website indiasite.net and sold it two years later for $1 million. He lacked good communicative English yet started a startup after large risk investment of 2 million. He started the service of internet wallet, payment by scanning the QR code, easy bill payments, etc. for the welfare and development of our country. Finally, after the success of Paytm, he became the most successful tech entrepreneur in India.
SHRADHA SHARMA [Founder of YourStory]
She is one of the most successful and influential female entrepreneurs in India. She was a girl, who was at the peak of her career, but left her job only to succeed in bringing the originality and truth to people. She figured out that there are millions of stories storming around but there’s no one to listen to them. An idea struck her mind to make it online to provide an ear to those stories. It was started in 2008 and today has 70,000 stories and this girl leads a team of 100+ people in 11 local languages.
Binny Bansal and Sachin Bansal [Founders of Flipkart]
The two IIT-Delhi boys made it to the global level, by their hard work and dedication. In the times of Google Maps and Amazon e-commerce ruling the world, it was these two who combined the power of search engine and recommendation systems in e-commerce and applied it. The company is still giving a tough fight to all e-commerce platforms and winning the hearts of Indians.
Deep Kalra [Founder of MakeMyTrip]
Kalra introduced the concept of online bookings for trains and lead the digital and technical advancements in India. He later introduced hotel, omnibus, flight bookings in his mobile app and websites with attractive offers to be a step ahead of his opponents.
Byju Raveendran [Founder of Byju’s]
He initially invested Rs. 2 Lakh rupees for his online learning platform, which currently has now grown to Rs. 3300 Crores. Though he was initially working in the shipyard, it was his passion for teaching and his dedication that has brought him to a global level platform.
Albinder Dhindsa [Founder of Grofers]
Another man, who understood the power of e-commerce and provided an online Grocery, Bakery, General Store, all at your doorstep. This IIT-Delhi graduate currently is the Founder and CEO of Grofers and earns approximately $115 million.
Hari Menon [Founder of BigBasket]
He is the man who bought the concept of grocery store to our doorsteps by enhancing the power of e-commerce. Even many tech giants failed to do so; he succeeded in his attempt and makes Rs.150 Crores per month.
