startup inspiration

How Deep Kalra Started – Founder of MakeMyTrip.com

The pioneer of online travels in India; Deep Kalra is the proud founder of Gurgaon based – MakeMyTrip.com.

The Million-dollar MakeMyTrip in a nut shell, is an Indian online travel company which provides online travel services like flight tickets, domestic and international holiday packages, hotel reservations, rail and bus tickets, etc.

Speaking of his qualification; Deep holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the St. Stephen’s College, Delhi, after which he went on to pursue his Masters in Business Administration degree from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A).

Presently, he lives with his wife Amrita, his 11-year-old daughter Manya, and his 9-year-old son Armaan. Some of his favourite past times include adventure sports, yoga, swimming, quizzing and travelling to places off the beaten path.

How did his journey begin?

Deep’s career started soon after he completed his Masters with IIM-A & went on to work for companies like GE Capital, ABN AMRO Bank, etc!

Now back in 1995, Deep Kalra took a huge risk by quitting his stable & good-paying but boring job at ABN Bank to join AMF Bowling – an American company that was hoping to enter the Indian market to setup bowling alleys and billiard halls.

He put in all that he had and managed to open more than 200 lanes, most of them in small centres. What was even worse was that, the venture wasn’t really his own thing, and he had a remote boss back in America who threw him in the market without giving him the appropriate mentorship or guidance.

Evidently, for obvious reasons, this did not appeal to him and he also realized that they were all not worth his talent. He needed something more to showcase the same!

At the same time, he noticed that the Internet industry was growing at the speed of fire and held a lot that could be capitalized on! Having said that, he quit his job & began the old-age brainstorming session! He saw that, with all the brokers, the agents & middlemen in place, the online travel booking industry was messier than a man’s bedroom!

Hence, with a backing of USD 2-Million from eVentures and along with co-founders like – Keyur Joshi, Rajesh Magow and Sachin Bhatia, deep began his new found journey with MakeMyTrip.com (earlier known as India Ahoy) in 2000.

Untold story of MakeMyTrip.com!

Phase I – Rough Start

Now it is somehow a fantasy of almost every living creature to travel and explore new destinations. But unlike Birds we have to sort out a lot of things before we start our trip and unfortunately we have to pay heavily for them as well.

But now that we have so many websites available to help us sort our trips, it has gotten a lot easier. And entering new in this race of websites we had – MakeMyTrip!

Now initially, he had also seen that the Indian market was yet to evolve & mature, when it came to the internet industry and playing it safe seemed far more viable than otherwise! Hence, he started off by catering to the overseas Indian community for their US-to-India travel needs.

Anyways just within two years from their launch, their business got jinxed and the dot com market crashed, taking down everything they had begun to make!

This was a very hard time for them and literally everyone who belonged to the internet market. VC’s weren’t ready to touch the internet industry. Their VC, who once ready to offer any hefty capital they demanded, now wasn’t even ready to give USD 1-million.

The situation was so bad that in-order to save the company, Deep had to take some very harsh decisions. They had to reduce their employee strength by a literal half, and what was even worse was that, he also had to let go of their & few other top-management employee’s salaries for the next 18-months.

Phase II – Steady Rise

Taking some thoughtful, stern yet intelligent decisions, MakeMyTrip turned out to be one of those few who managed to survive the tsunami. And as time passed, the situation got better and their decision turned out to be fruitful as well.

Their business now had begun to pick up & was reaching a decent customer base. That is when IRCTC (Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation) launched their first online business model which enabled the Indian traveller to purchase railway tickets on the Internet.

This model of IRCTC was well accepted but the Indian masses and turned out to be a huge hit. Additionally, Low-Cost Carriers had also recently entered the Indian Aviation space. These chains of events opened a whole new level of opportunities for the travel market in India.

It was now time to broaden their portfolio and although this venture for the Indian market was too ahead of time for various reasons like using their credit cards online, trust issues for non-established brands, etc. they risked it anyway.

And in September 2005, they officially launched their services for the Indian market as well.

As a first; apart from flight ticketing MakeMyTrip began by offering holiday packages and hotel bookings which was followed by their tie-up with IRCTC’s online business model.

This move not only increased their presence in railway ticket booking but also gave the much desired boost the Indian market was looking for!

And in a matter of no time, the company started making awesome revenues. The demand was so much that 1-out-of-every-12 domestic flights in India were booked through MakeMyTrip.

Within a year, the company had acquired 200,000 happy customers. As a matter of fact, when the world was in recession in 2008, the company was crossing their Rs1000-Cr mark.

The same year the company also recorded profits worth $5-million with gross revenues being approx $500-million.

From here onwards, the company brought about a lot of additions to its existing profile; be it launching a multi-city flight booking service “Alootechie.com,” adding chauffeur-driven online cab rental services or creating several travel-related Apps for all types of mobile devices, they made sure to leave no table unturned.

But the biggest news that came to light was their listing on NASDAQ, in August 2010!

This was like the ultimate blow for all its potential competitors. As satisfying and happy the moment was for them, it was equally a proud moment for India too, because MakeMyTrip was one of the very few Indian Dotcom companies to be listed on the US stock exchange.

This also bridged the gap between the foreign investors & Indian businesses; thus opening doors for a pool of foreign investments in India in the IT sector. Additionally, this also boosted the confidence of the young entrepreneurs which gave rise to a lot of start-ups in the future.

Since then, MakeMyTrip has majorly focused on expansion and up-ping the revenue which has been done through various mediums such as unique marketing strategies, product development, etc!

Phase III – Wide Expansion

During this phase of expansion; even though the company faced their share of problems, but at the same time they also managed to rise out of it bravely and used these hurdles to expand their reach far beyond their imaginations! These comebacks have also time-&-again been proved through their numbers.

One such problem they faced was in December 2013; the wealth of MakeMyTrip which was over $50-mil had been cut by halve & their net revenues declined 5.5% as well. MakeMyTrip was also seen to be booking losses worth $2.6-million.

Times were hard for them but as they had faced problems earlier, they were more prepared and experienced to tackle issues this time, and hence in the next quarter, MakeMyTrip successfully came back with a bang & proved themselves by reporting a 27.7% rise in revenues.

If that wasn’t enough then in march 2014, MakeMyTrip announced a $15 million innovation fund for new entrepreneurs in the travel circuit. And when we looked at the recent stats of the NASDAQ listed company; with a current market cap of $934-Million they seem to be growing drastically too.

And lastly; apart from initial investment of 2-million, MakeMyTrip has raised USD 10-million in 2005, USD 13-million in 2006 & USD 15-million in 2007 from investors such as SAIF (Softbank Asia Infrastructure Fund) Partners, Helion Venture Partners, Sierra Ventures & Tiger Global, till date!

Phase IV – Mergers, Acquisitions & Investments

Over the period of time, MakeMyTrip has also done some notable mergers, acquisitions & Investments, some of these include:

1. MyGola: A start-up travel guide firm was acquired by MakeMyTrip for an undisclosed amount in April 2015.

2. com: A Gurgaon based online health store received investment worth $6 million from Deep Kalra along with other investors such as Sequoia Capital, Omidyar Network, Intel Capital and Kae capital April 2015.

3. TrulyMadly: Deep Kalra also made angel investments in the matchmaking website in March 2015.

4. com (ETB): An online hotel operator based in Amsterdam was recently acquired by MakeMyTrip in February 2014.

5. Hotel Travel Group (HT Group): Again a Travel firm with operations in Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia was acquired in November 2012.

Related Post: Ratan Tata’s 10 rules for success

6. ITC Group: A Tour operating company based in Thailand was acquired in November 2012.

7. My Guest House Accommodation: A Budget Lodging / Hotel Operator based in Delhi was acquired in November 2011.

8. Le Travenues Technology Private Limited: The Parent company of Ixigo.com based in Gurgaon, which performs ‘online travel meta search engine’ was acquired by MakeMyTrip in August 2011.

9. Luxury Tours and Travel Private Limited: A Singapore based Travel Agency was acquired by MakeMyTrip in May 2011.

Achievements

• Chairperson of the NASSCOM Internet Working Group

• Member of the Executive Council of NASSCOM

• Member of CII’s Tourism sub-committee

• Awarded as the “Best Travel Portal India” by World Travel Awards (2014, 2013)

• Awarded as the “E-tailer of the Year” by ET Retail Awards (2014, 2013)

• Awarded as the “Best Online Travel Service Firm” by Times Travel Honours (2011)

• Listed as “Ten Best Companies to Work For in India” by Great Place to Work Institute (2013, 2012, 2011, 2010)

How V. G. Siddhartha Started – Founder and Owner of Cafe Coffee Day

V. G. Siddhartha – a man less famous by his name but whose work screams volumes, is the proud Founder & Owner of Cafe Coffee Day.

V. G. Siddhartha – a man less famous by his name but whose work screams volumes, is the proud Founder & Owner of Cafe Coffee Day. He was born into a family of coffee plantation owners from the Chikmangaluru district of Karnataka, who today, have been in the industry for more than 140 years.

He is a Master’s in economics from the Mangalore University of Karnataka and has two children from his wife Malavika Krishna – the daughter of S. M. Krishna, former Chief Minister of Karnataka, Indian Minister for External Affairs and Governor of Maharashtra.

Siddhartha always had the quality similar to that of a naturally born entrepreneur and to top that, he also had a mysterious ability to sniff out a good deal from every situation, too! Professionally, a restless and an extremely quick decision maker that he is, is a diehard workaholic and prefers to stay put for nothing less than 12-14 hours a day and 7 days a week.

And a collective combination of all of that; is a sum up of his business empire that bestrides retail (Café Coffee Day), financial services (Way2Wealth Securities), venture capital, hospitality, furniture, logistics (SICAL), and land development. Additionally, today Siddhartha holds a net worth of $1.09 Billion.

How it all began?

Siddhartha’s career started soon after he completed his studies!

Now, he could have easily survived off the 350 acres of coffee estate his family owned, but instead – the ambitious him, decided to start something that appealed to him, something created by him, something on his own! Agreeing to that; his father gave him Rs.5 lakhs and also told him that in case if he failed, he is always welcome to come back to the family business.

So with that money, he first bought a piece of land for about Rs. 3 lakhs and kept the rest in a bank.

Later, he landed in Bombay – the city where dreams came true, in and firstly, walked into a Dhaba Hotel and rented a room with a shared toilet for Rs. 120/day at fort. And he was doing all this when he was just 21!

The next day; Siddhartha – who had never seen elevators in his life, climbed up the six floors, just randomly walked into Mahendra Kampani of JM Financial’s office and that too without any appointment.

After a short wait and a healthy discussion, he got the lifetime opportunity to join Mr. Naveen Bhai Kampani J M Financial Services (now J M Morgan Stanley) in Mumbai as a management trainee/intern for trading in the Indian Stock Market.

During this whole phase, he learnt all about the world of investing and also gained the trust of Kampani. And in no time, Siddhartha was handling the accounts of some really big business houses.

Kampani personally trained him to understand the importance of those tiny pieces of gold on the surface and to grab them first, before diving head first in the stream. It was because of these wise words of Kampani, Siddhartha began buying his own coffee estates, by trading out the little pieces of gold he grabbed from the then upward trending stock market (if you know what we mean).

Now even though the job didn’t require him to do much, but being directly under the mind of the company, gained him the knowledge that was simply priceless and in fact, even today he considers himself lucky to get such kind of opportunity and for the valuable advices that he received.

After working with JM for almost two years, Siddhartha felt that he was ready to come back to start something of his own. He expressed his gratitude to Kampani and that he owes a lot to him and soon came back to achieve what he desired the most – business!

After two years Siddhartha moved back to Bangalore and with the remaining Rs. 2 lakhs decided to start his own financial firm. During that time, the stock market had crashed & he was looking around for a new investment opportunity that would gain him good returns and thus began Sivan Securities. At first, he bought a stock market card for Rs. 30,000, and then along with that, he also took over a company called Sivan Securities which later went on to be known as Way2wealth Securities Ltd in 2000.

And Siddhartha successfully transformed the venture into a highly successful investment banking and stock broking company.

The how’s & what’s of Cafe Coffee Day!

Later, after a period of 10 years; Siddhartha happened come across a German business owner, who was interested in buying coffee beans from him for his “leading coffee brand in Germany – Tchibo”.

During that brief discussion with the owner of Tchibo, he happened to spell out his story of how his brand had actually started in a small 10 ft. shop in Hamburg, Germany with a bare minimal investment, and how within a span of nearly 40 years, it had turned into a globally renowned Multi-Million Dollar business & the second largest coffee roaster in Europe.

This inspiring tale of the Tchibo, gave Siddhartha an outlook of a different world altogether & opened his eyes. It also gave him a wonderful idea, with the help of which, cup by cup he built his Billion-Dollar empire.

At first; cutting the middleman trend, he quickly started with exporting coffee in 1993, and named it “Amalgamated Bean Coffee” trading company and at the same time also bought a near-to-dying coffee curing unit in Hassan and turned it around.

Gradually, his company grew and within a span of just two years ‘ABC’ was India’s largest Coffee exporter.

Challenges

Having done that; this success also began to scare him, simply because if he could do it then any international player would also be able to do it very easily, and the barrier to entry was absolutely nothing.

The visionary that he was; for a fact knew that, whenever the investment climate in India would improve, these big-fat European and US trade houses that he dealt with, would come running and would quickly put up big factories next to theirs, giving a big threat to him.

This forced him to look for a long-term survival and dominance in the industry! He thought that building up a brand which had Ground outlets would actually create an undisolvable business model and would make his idea less prone to external threats.

Now at the same time back in the 20th century, South Indians were more driven towards filtered coffee than the rest, and coffee was mainly popular amongst the classes than the masses of Bangalore.

To add to that; the Government policies & the soaring high import and export duties made it even more difficult for Indian Coffee Planters, to keep low prices or to venture out into the International coffee cartel.

Hence, he picked up the task with an aim to change the present scenario!
Siddhartha headed to New Delhi, to convince the union government to end their monopoly over coffee, and returned with nothing but success. And in a snap, the highly-inflated taxes on coffee trade were drastically cut down.

Soon after that; he asked a girl who worked at his office to do some deep market research on the possibilities and opportunities were available to set up stores to sell branded coffee powder.

She studied the market and came back with results after a week. And clearly her result indicated that, she didn’t want him to waste his time and money, because the idea had no potential!

Having an internal target of 500 tonnes, this feedback was indeed scary for him, and also because everything of his was at stake, but nevertheless he decided to take the leap and go ahead with it!

In 1994, they setup 20-25 stores across Bangalore and 20 stores across Chennai which only sold coffee powder.
But soon after the start itself, he realised that margins were very limited in this business and that he would need a better option to survive. That is when luck played its part and in 1995, the café culture globally, picked up and he decided to transform!

It was just the perfect opportunity for him! It was a lifestyle business and a great way to build a brand.

He called in his management team and told them that he wanted to put up cafés across India. Within a budget of Rs.1.5 Cr; he told them to build a nice concept store and to attract audiences to his cafe and pay Rs.25 for a cup (at a time when people paid Rs.5), he decided to make it a Cyber Cafe with Coffee and Internet together.

This idea was even more bankable because, those days the Internet was still a luxury product limited only to the riches, posh places and cafes.

And with that, in 1996 he set up Cafe Coffee Day!

Business Expansion

The word about an Internet cum Coffee Cafe went viral and soon his place was the first choice for a hangout, amongst the youth. Witnessing this short success, Siddhartha also went on to open several outlets all over the globe.

And today, “Amalgamated Bean Coffee” trading company (ABC) grows its own coffee in its own estates of 12,000 acres. It is also the largest producer of Arabica beans in Asia and also exports the same to various countries like USA, Europe and Japan.

As of 2015; CCD makes revenues worth $450 Million approx., employees 5000+ people, and has 1530 outlets across India, Austria, Czech Republic, Dubai & Karachi.

Additionally, Cafe Coffee Day also holds multiple divisions which include:

• Coffee Day Fresh ‘n’ Ground
• Coffee Day Square
• Coffee Day Xpress
• Coffee Day Beverages
• Coffee Day Exports
• Coffee Day Perfect
• Coffee Day B2C Plant

Once a man who feared of achieving a target of 500 tonnes, today sells 6,500-7,000 tonnes of branded coffee, exports about 28,000 tonnes of coffee and sells another 2,000 tonnes locally each year, and has a curing capacity of 75,000 tonnes (largest in the country). Additionally; his cafes attract at least 40,000 to 50,000 visitors per week.

Other ventures that he is a part of

Global Technology Ventures Ltd. – GTV is the venture capital division of Siddhartha’s Sivan & owns 80% of the stake of it. It is a firm that targets, invests and mentors Indian companies which are engaged in cutting edge technologies.

Dark Forest Furniture Company (Daffco) – It is a furniture company which aims to venture into furniture market by building a 600,000 sq. ft. factory in his hometown. The company is also in the process of setting up one of India’s largest “Integrated Wood Processing” technologically advanced Plant.

SICAL Logistics – The firm is a specialist in transportation and logistics, which includes cargo management, warehousing, ship agency services, and clearing. Recently, they also acquired coal mines in New Jersey.

Other than that; he has also planted banana trees spread across 3,000 acres and plans to export bananas and make almost INR 200 crores out of it.

Lastly, he also part of the board in GTV, Mindtree, Liqwid Krystal, Way2Wealth and Ittiam.

Achievements

• Ranked as India’s 2nd most trusted brand in the Food Services segment
• Awarded as the ‘NextGen Entrepreneur’ by Forbes (2011)
• Won the Brand Equity survey by The Economic Times (2008)
• Awarded as the “Best Coffee Bar” by Times Food Guide (2007 – Delhi)
• Awarded as the “Best Coffee Shop” by Times Food Guide (2007 – Mumbai)
• Received the “Awaaz Consumer Awards” (2006)
• Awarded as the “Entrepreneur of the year” by The Economic Times (2003)

13 inspiring things successful people do to be extra productive

Check out these ingenious things millionaires do to be more productive – but don’t just read them. Apply them in your own routines and thought processes and see what happens

If only there were some magic formula to help us be our most productive, successful selves.

Of course, no such elixir exists, but we can learn plenty from the example set by millionaires. How do they manage their time so efficiently, learning to focus in just the right areas for critical impact? How do they know where to invest time for the greatest rewards?

Check out these ingenious things millionaires do to be more productive – but don’t just read them. Apply them in your own routines and thought processes and see what happens:

1. “Start with good people, lay out the rules, communicate with your employees, motivate them, and reward them. If you do all those things effectively, you can’t miss.” -Lee Iacocca, American automobile exec and developer of the Ford Mustang

2. “Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do.” -Steve Jobs, founder of Apple

3. “Formula for success: Rise early, work hard, strike oil.” -J. Paul Getty, American industrialist and oil magnate

4. “Hard work certainly goes a long way. These days a lot of people work hard, so you have to make sure you work even harder and really dedicate yourself to what you are doing and setting out to achieve.” -Lakshmi Mittal, CEO of ArcelorMittal, the world’s largest steel-making company

5. “It’s not knowing what to do, it’s doing what you know.” -Tony Robbins, entrepreneur and bestselling author

6. “Productivity is never an accident. It is always the result of a commitment to excellence, intelligent planning, and focused effort.” -Paul J. Meyer, top-selling author of personal development materials in the world

7. “No hours, nor amount of labor, nor amount of money would deter me from giving the best that there was in me.” -Colonel Harland Sanders, founder of KFC restaurant chain

8. “Each time you make a good decision or do something nice or take care of yourself; each time you show up to work and work hard and do your best at everything you can do, you’re planting seeds for a life that you can only hope will grow beyond your wildest dreams. Take care of the little things – even the little things that you hate – and treat them as promises to your own future. Soon you’ll see that fortune favors the bold who get shit done.” -Sophia Amoruso, CEO of Nasty Gal

9. “Don’t spend time beating on a wall, hoping to transform it into a door.” -Coco Chanel, millionaire fashion mogul

10. “People don’t understand that when I grew up, I was never the most talented. I was never the biggest. I was never the fastest. I certainly was never the strongest. The only thing I had was my work ethic, and that’s been what has gotten me this far.” -Tiger Woods, golfer and spokesman

11. “The two most important requirements for major success are: first, being in the right place at the right time, and second, doing something about it.” -Ray Kroc, millionaire entrepreneur

12. “Hard work keeps the wrinkles out of the mind and spirit.” -Helena Rubinstein, millionaire cosmetics entrepreneur

13. “Efficiency is doing things right; effectiveness is doing the right things.” -Peter Drucker, management consultant and author

This article was originally published in I Am Wire

Image credit: www.asianefficiency.com