Ritesh Agarwal Joins Shark Tank India: Insights on Entrepreneurship and Aspiring Founders

Shark Tank India's third season premiered on January 22. OYO founder and CEO Ritesh Agarwal has joined the crowd of investors, or "sharks," for this season of the show that is available to view on SonyLIV.

Agarwal, 30, made a lot of money about ten years ago with his big idea to create a chain of low-cost hotels by using franchised and leased homes, hotels, and other living spaces. He would fit right in with the Indian version of the wildly popular American show, Pitch It!, wherein aspiring business owners pitch their ideas to a panel of investors in the hopes of convincing them to invest money. t2 spoke with Ritesh.

India's Shark Tank is a phenomenon. What were your main motivations for wanting to be involved with the show?

You're correct. Numerous living rooms have been accessed by Shark Tank (India). Families of all sizes, including mine, watch the program together, and talking about companies, dilution, stock ownership, and other topics has become really interesting.

I was motivated to be a part of Shark Tank 3 for two main reasons. The first is that entrepreneurship and Shark Tank have essentially come to be synonymous. In addition to my job at OYO, I make an effort to interact with and meet entrepreneurs and founders. I just met several young entrepreneurs in Calcutta. It was astounding how often they would use the terms "entrepreneurship" and "Shark Tank" interchangeably. I believed Shark Tank India gave me the chance to help a great deal more entrepreneurs succeed.

In the early days of my entrepreneurial endeavors, Shark Tank did not exist. One has to come to their own conclusions. Some entrepreneurs, nevertheless, were eager to assist me. Thus, I've always wondered how I may help other entrepreneurs. I was raised in Rayagada, a tiny town on the border of Odisha and Andhra Pradesh. I really believed that boys and girls from tiny towns could create huge, international corporations, and I would be happy to help them if I could.

As a result, Shark Tank gave me a platform to connect with entrepreneurs from the nation's tiniest villages and provide help to ensure their success.

At least some of the people you met on Shark Tank India resembled you in some way, right?

I could relate to all of them since I saw a lot of myself in them. Someone had to be extremely young and suffering in the beginning, someone from a small town attempting to learn business lingo, or someone who had failed a few times but was determined to keep trying. I could connect to everyone's tale in one way or another.

They could also be experiencing something similar to what I experienced, but I received the impression that they were probably doing much better than I was. Therefore, I believe that in the future, they may be just as successful—if not more so.

I met this founder who was from the Northeast and was facing significant obstacles but managed to overcome them. For the first time, a woman traveled to Shark Tank India from her hamlet. She had founded her firm after turning fifty and was managing a crore-dollar enterprise. Thus, I found great inspiration in the struggle that takes place in small-town India.

Had you seen both the original and earlier iterations of the show?

It is impossible to be a founder in the US and not having seen Shark Tank. You have to be living under a rock in India not to be aware of all the social media updates that the program consistently releases. As I previously said, we watch it as a family, and at the conclusion of a pitch, everyone enjoys pausing to talk and ask, "What did you think?" Do you believe that the investment ought to have been made? Being the two entrepreneurs in the family, my wife Geetanshi and I find these conversations to be quite stimulating.

My mother was the first member of the family to get on the Shark Tank bandwagon during the first two seasons. After she began watching it and explaining why we should too, we sometimes watched it together. That's how the concept came to be.

Is there a common thread across all the entrepreneurs you have encountered on Shark Tank India, regardless of their approach or grand concept?

The fact that people never give up in the face of difficulties or setbacks is one thing that unites everyone. They consistently manage to retaliate and fight back. I believe that will be the only tale we witness over and time again.

I know this is a bit of a generalization, but tell me what, in your opinion, makes a great pitch.

I think the entrepreneur is more important than the startup since these firms are still in their early stages of development. The business may develop. I'm interested in learning about the founder's personal background, interests, and passions. A firm is an extension of its creator, particularly in the early stages.

It's also critical to comprehend the issue they are attempting to resolve. Startups are distinct in that they are formulated to address a challenging issue. I would thus want to hear that.

People talk about numbers a lot on Shark Tank: unit economics, earnings, losses. Although it is significant from a statistical standpoint, what matters more to comprehend is the extent to which the founders have control over the specifics of their companies.

Finally, vulnerability is maybe the most significant factor. Not even the largest corporations are flawless. They can yet do better in several areas. I believe it is crucial to be able to admit when something is wrong and that there is a problem. The more honest one is about it, the more others are able to support and assist them.

Having watched Shark Tank India with great interest, have any ideas had a significant influence on you?

Among them, there was a highly favored one. That was the one with the ice pops from Skippi. It was a product that was quite basic and commonplace, but people tend to forget about its presence and how much of an influence it had on their daily lives.

There was a firm that offered rural homestays and tourism in the first season. I think our communities have some amazing spots to explore, therefore I can really identify to that notion.

Is it reasonable to argue that the most brilliant ideas are often the simplest?

In my opinion, yes. Simple ideas are the toughest to come up with, but they are also the greatest.

There are not many success stories like OYO. What one factor has shaped OYO into what it is today?

I'll provide one particular response, but there are a lot of other reasons as well, including our passion for our customers, hotel owners or guests, team members, communities, and many more things.

One of the reasons is because, along with the other "OYOpreneurs," I personally turn up every day. We turned up even when it was Covid. Today is a fantastic day to travel, and we have made an appearance. We turn up; this year in business has been fantastic. Despite the awful year and the unsatisfactory outcomes, we continue to turn up. Whether things are going well or not, you always show up with just as much, if not more, eagerness. And that, in my opinion, is what matters. I've been on a fitness journey for the last three months, and throughout that time I've discovered that the only way to succeed is to show up every day.

Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Press Time staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.