98x oversubscribed! This was the crazy demand for the ixigo stock at their recent IPO. But what many don't know is the 17 year old journey of grit, determination, never giving up in the face of innumerable challenges and always building for Bharat.
Had the immense pleasure of hosting Aloke Bajpai, Co-Founder & Group Chairman, Ixigo, to the ACLR8 Founder Academy Podcast, hosted by Karan Jindal. Aloke shared his and Rajnish's journey of getting inspired by the movie Swades and coming back to India to start Ixigo.
We talked about:
- ✅ building at scale for Bharat
- ✅ being resilient in the face of setbacks
- ✅ being customer obsessed
- ✅ building profitably
- ✅ being in it for the long term…
and so much more 🙏
This episode is a gold mine of insights for any founder building a large consumer tech business in India today. Watch the whole episode now and let us know what you think. ❤️
Content Timelines:
- 00:00 - Intro
- 01:30 - 98x oversubscribed IPO
- 02:45 - ixigo's customer first DNA
- 04:30 - Inspired by the movie "SWADES"
- 08:20 - Idea thesis (2007-2011)
- 11:40 - Pivoting from meta search to OTA
- 14:45 - Fundraising challenges
- 18:10 - Doing the boring everyday
- 20:18 - Focussing on trains rather than flights (2011-2013)
- 24:38 - Tracking product market fit
- 26:18 - Raising only $21M till IPO
- 28:20 - Near death experiences (2015-2019)
- 31:25 - COVID stories
- 40:20 - Metrics to track for profitability
- 43:10 - 1 fundraise, 2 acquisitions, 1 IPO filing (2020-2021)
- 48:45 - IPO journey
- 52:30 - Finding your ideal co-founder
- 55:50 - AI trends for the future
- 58:15 - Thoughts on @aclr8 as a platform
- 59:57 - Closing remarks
