PROGRESSIVE JOURNEY
• Bhavish drives the company's vision and
manages customer and partner relations. He
graduated with a B.Tech in Computer Science
and Engineering from IIT Bombay in 2008
and worked at Microsoft Research for 2 years
after that. He had a wonderful time there,
filing 2 patents and publishing 3 papers in
International Journals. But the
entrepreneurial itch was too hard to resist
and he decided to quit his job in August 2010
and moved to Mumbai to start Olacabs!
• When not talking to Cab operators and
customers, He loves cycling and playing
squash and most recently spent a whole
week cycling in the beautiful Nilgiris! He also
enjoys photography and maintains a
photoblog.
• Ankit heads the technical aspects of Olacabs,
ensuring a quick, convenient and instinctive
experience for customers and partners. He
joined IIT Bombay in 2004 for Btech in
Mechanical Engg and MTech in CAD and
Automation. By 2009 he had already worked
on several freelance projects and startups like
Wilcom, QED42 etc. and finally decided to give
up his nomadic professional life for a start-up
of his own. He joined the Olacabs journey in
November 2010.
When not engrossed with his laptop, he loves
to travel (preferably, to a beach) and often
joins Bhavish in his cycling trips.
IDENTIFY ENTREPRENEURIAL SKILLS,
ENTREPRENEURIAL COMPETENCIES
Ever decided to take a weekend holiday from the city, but spent hours finding a car rental? Or
taken one on the reference of a friend, only to have the operator leave you stranded in the
middle and make you miss an important business meeting? Or did the cab just not show up?
All faced the same problems too. Bhavish & Ankit decided to help fix it. So we've created
Olacabs.com, a marketplace for all types of cabs and car rentals. It's very simple: You enter
your city and your need. OLA team search the available inventory of our partners and provide
you with a list of results and prices of different available cars from different operators. You can
see OLA rating of that operator, what other customers said of them, and then book it right here
on Olacabs.com. Or you can call us and we'll help you through the process! It's that simple!
OLA have a young and energetic company based in Mumbai. Nothing excites us more than
using technology to bring the same efficiency and customer experience to the car rental
industry that you expect from flights!
INTRODUCTION
• It was founded on 3 December 2010 by Bhavish Aggarwal (currently CEO) and Ankit Bhati. By
2014, the company has expanded to a network of more than 200,000 cars across 85 cities. In
November 2014, Ola expanded to incorporate autos on-trial basis in Bengaluru. Post the trial
phase, Ola Auto expanded to other cities like Delhi, Pune and Chennai starting December 2014.
• Ola is also the first service to offer Android, iPhone and Windows app in India that not only
books a cab, but also helps customers track their cab on their mobile phone until it reaches
them. Ola’s GPS enabled mobile app for the driver helps receive booking requests from
customers in the vicinity and navigate to the customer’s pickup point with utmost ease. Such
cutting-edge technology also enables us to crunch intense analytics including demand and
traffic heat-maps, usage behavior, potholes and speed data for the entire city. Ola also works
with leading car manufacturers and financial institutions to help drivers buy their own cars at
huge discounts and access to affordable repayment schemes, thereby nurturing micro
entrepreneurship.
THE CHALLENGE:
Ride sharing is an interesting area where Ola has still not set foot into. While this could be a sustainable
and scalable solution, there have been no success stories in the past around this in our country. This
product can potentially change the way Indian cities move and can at least partially solve for the ‘Indian
transportation problem’. There are clearly three use cases here:
• Ola users who are also personal car owners - enabling ride sharing for privately owned cars across the
city.
• Public transport users or others who do not use a cab today only due to the entry barrier of prohibitive
pricing at an individual level.
• Existing cab users who can potentially travel at a far lower fare. Why isn’t ride sharing an Indian
phenomenon?
• A car is seen as something very personal, may not be something Indians are prone to share proactively.
• Privacy while travelling is a concern – travelling with strangers and the possibility of making new friends
doesn’t seem very motivating.
• Predictability and planning are tough nuts to crack in the Indian context - with roads, traffic etc. adding
to the woes
• Regulation, safety measures, payment system etc. create another level of barrier to adoption.
IDENTIFY ENTREPRENEURIAL
OPPORTUNITY SEARCH AND IDENTIFICATION
• Ever decided to take a weekend holiday from the city,
but spent hours finding a car rental? Or taken one on the
reference of a friend, only to have the operator leave
you stranded in the middle and make you miss an
important business meeting? Or did the cab just not show
up?
• The company is touting the service as "beta launch of
autos" on the Ola App. Media Nama reports that the on-
demand auto service from Ola works similar to the cab
booking service. It said, "The fare payable is the regular
meter fare plus Rs. 10 as convenience fee. Interestingly, one
has to enter the drop-off point before an auto driver
accepts the booking.“
• Ola Cab is currently offering each auto rickshaw driver a
minimum salary of Rs. 10,000 alongside Rs. 1,500 as mobile
charges per month, claims a report by Deccan Chronicle.
STRATEGIES ADOPTED
• The industry was highly unorganized. Training the drivers here particularly in Indian context where
many of them are illiterate was a challenge. Making them use tabs and devices was a big operational
problem and thus greatly increase their dependency on call center operations. This is where Uber
has a big lead. Then off-course behavioral issues of the drivers, maintaining the quality of service as
well as cars was a challenge.
A big challenge was and remains is maintaining the supply. Drivers will just log off from their devices
and do personal bookings in peak seasons leading to a lot of rejects for customers. The industry here
is not just about keeping customers happy but keeping your supply happy as well. Earning the trust
of drivers was key here.
Happy drivers = Happy Customers
Drivers are the customers for Ola and TFS, while people ie end customers availing cabs are merely
users of the platform.
As you got a lot of drivers on the platform, managing them was also a challenge, which these guys
overcome successfully through various measures.
Once you have setup processes scaling up is relatively easy here. That is 1 reason the industry is a
darling for investors and series of funding happening in very quick succession.
KEY VARIABLES THAT SUPPORTED THEM
TO ACHIEVE AN EPITOME OF SUCCESS
1) Mobile App
2) Offers New User.
3) Order Cab in any location.
4) Fast & Consistency service.
5) track the current position of the cab in
real-time.
6) TFS standard rates will be valid for all cab
booking done via Ola app.
INSIGHTS AS AN ENTREPRENEUR-360
DEGREE DIMENSION
• created Olacabs.com, a marketplace for all types of cabs and car rentals.
It's very simple: You enter your city and your need. We search the available
inventory of our partners and provide you with a list of results and prices of
different available cars from different operators. You can see rating of that
operator, what other customers said of them, and then book it on
Olacabs.com. Or you can call and They’ll help you through the process! It's
that simple!
A young and energetic company based in Mumbai. using technology to
bring the same efficiency and customer experience to the car rental
industry that you expect from flights!
KEY LEARNING
Use of technology is essential for capturing
marketing. Use of internet & need of customer
can Startup new business successfully.
For Idea on a Page: Insight for Building Ride
Sharing and their plan for that insight.
For Campus Round Presentation: In addition to
deliverable 1, elucidate the go to market
strategy and social media plan.