Retelling Inspiring Stories Of Successful Entrepreneurs In India This World Entrepreneur's Day

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Entrepreneurs are one of the primary driving forces behind innovative solutions in any economy. The roots of entrepreneurship in India are quite old, dating back to the time of inspiring business leaders like Dhirubhai Ambani, Jamsetji Tata, Lakshmi Niwas Mittal, etc. whose efforts have helped shape the Indian economy. The companies they established back then like Reliance, Tata Group, and Mittal Steel are at the top of the list of richest companies in the world, today. Efforts made by such successful entrepreneurs are what bring about new political, social, and economic changes, essential for survival and sustained growth. 

In recent years, India has seen a surge in the number of young and successful entrepreneurs who have led to breakthrough innovations in many sectors of the economy. Listed here are 11 Indian entrepreneurs whose efforts and startup stories are an inspiration for all. 

Ritesh Aggarwal- OYO Rooms

An avid traveler from a young age, Ritesh Aggarwal discovered a hole in the Indian hospitality industry and his will to fill this gap was what set his journey to establishing OYO Rooms to motion. 

While traveling through different parts of India, Ritesh found that budget hotels/ accommodations did not meet the basic needs of budget travelers. This pushed him to fulfill this need himself, and he started his first venture- Oravel Stays, in 2012 at the age of 20. This was originally a B&B aggregator across India, which led him to secure funding from the accelerator firm VentureNursery. He also participated in the Theil Fellowship and won a cash prize of  USD 100,000. With the confidence that came from securing such funds, Ritesh Aggarwal started to push for his vision with new vigor. But no matter what he did, his model did not pick up momentum. 

A true entrepreneur in spirit, Ritesh did not give up in face of difficulties. Instead, the tech buff worked harder on tweaking and perfecting his model, finally giving rise to OYO Rooms in 2013. Through this portal, Ritesh built an online social community where users could find information about all good budget accommodations/ hotels. A community that is serving the broad masses of Indians find the right accommodation at the right time. 

Binny Bansal & Sachin Bansal- Flipkart

This Indian entrepreneur duo was the path pavers for new-age entrepreneurs in India. They started Flipkart from a house in Bangalore with INR 4 lakh of their own money. The idea was to provide the Indian masses with a new and quality e-shopping experience, with the internet starting to gain momentum. 

As you can guess, it's not easy to start something new. And the digital entrepreneur duo also had their share of work cut out for them. It was extremely hard for them to convince vendors to work with them, since nobody understood the internet, yet. However, they persisted and launched Flipkart in October 2007, after finally convincing some vendors. And they soon received their first order, though the excitement for the victory turned sour when their supplier told them that the book was not available. But Sachin & Binny did not give up. They set out to wander around town in search of the book on a two-wheeler and ended up delivering the first (of many orders to come) to their customer themselves. The duo overcame this and every other obstacle that came their way with gusto. The rest as they say is history.  

Flipkart is one of the first homegrown and successful e-commerce businesses in India. Even though the digital entrepreneurs, Binny & Sachin Bansal have moved on from their brainchild, their efforts and success story serve as inspiration to many even today.

Vineeta Singh- Sugar Cosmetics

Vineeta Singh holds a degree in Electrical Engineering from IIT Madras and an MBA from IIM Ahmedabad. Coming out of IIM A, Vineeta had many job opportunities, but she turned them down to start something of her own. At the age of 23, Singh moved to Bombay and started a venture which failed to take off. But Singh did not let this deter her steely intentions. The inspiring entrepreneur co-founded FabBag, a beauty subscription company in April 2012 which gave her more than the first taste of success.

FabBag drew Singh's attention to the unfilled need for quality cosmetics in the Indian market. This awareness led her to conceive the idea of Sugar Cosmetics, which she also co-founded in July 2012. It was an uphill battle, but Vineeta soldiered on even after one of her potential investors refused to meet with her, wanting to talk business with a 'man'. She invested her own money in the venture, and eventually got funding as well. She has always let her work do the talking for her, and today Sugar Cosmetics is one of the fastest-growing cosmetics companies in India.

Bhavish Aggarwal- Ola Cabs

Bhavish Agarwal founded one of the first online cab booking services in India, in 2010, just two years after graduating from IIT Bombay. Agarwal joined Microsoft right after college and stayed there for 2 years. Then one day, while traveling from Bangalore to Bandipur in a cab, Bhavish had a rude awakening. The cab driver stopped mid-journey and started re-negotiating with him, and eventually abandoned Bhavish when he disagreed with the driver's terms. On delving into this experience, Agarwal found that many Indians were facing similar issues in their day-to-day lives. He decided to do something about it and this gave birth to one of the most successful startups in India- Ola Cabs in 2010.

Bhavish along with Ankit Bhati (Co-founder), revolutionized the Indian cab market. Even though there were cab services and aggregators before, Ola Cabs captured the market with its tech features and unique strategy of partnering with cabs drivers. Starting from a single city back in 2010, Ola Cab is currently operational across 250+ cities in four countries.

Kunal Shah- Freecharge and CRED

Kunal Shah fits the title of serial entrepreneur perfectly. Over the course of his career, this self-made entrepreneur has worked with numerous companies at top executive profiles, has found two successful startups, and invested in multiple others. He is the founder of both Freecharge and CRED. While Axis Bank owns the former, Kunal Shah is the CEO of CRED, the credit card payments app/ fintech company. 

Kunal started his career as a junior programmer in a business process outsourcing firm after dropping out of the MBA program from NMJIM. He then went on to become the CEO of multiple companies and also worked as a senior-level executive at Sequoia Capital. Then in 2018, the digital entrepreneur founded CRED which attained unicorn status in 2022. 

Falguni Nayar- Nykaa

An IIM A alumn, Falguni Nayar's journey is one of the most interesting entrepreneur stories you'll come across. A true entrepreneur at heart, at the age of 50 Nayar quit her job at the Kotak Mahindra Group, where she had been working for 20 years, to start her own business from scratch. 

Driven by her love for makeup and realizing the need for online beauty & wellness platforms in the country, Nayar decided to dive into the deep end. And April 2012 saw the launch of Nykaa, an e-commerce business that has changed the way women shop for beauty and wellness products. By 2015, Nykaa diversified into producing its own range of beauty products and in 2020 it became the first Indian unicorn startup to be led by a female Indian business visionary. Nykaa collaborates with many social media influencers, partners with a variety of brands, and has become the one-stop cosmetic and wellness products shop for countless women all across the nation.

Vijay Shekhar Sharma- One97 Communications and Paytm

The simple boy from a small town in Uttar Pradesh, Vijay Shekhar Sharma is famously known as the founder of one of India's first mobile wallets- Paytm. Sharma started his entrepreneurial journey in his college days when he was pursuing B.Tech from the Delhi Technical University. In 1997, he co-founded a search engine company indiasite.net during his 2nd year, and two years later, sold it to a US firm for one million dollars. The success of his first venture propelled the digital entrepreneur into launching One97 Communications, an e-commerce business in 2000. He then went on to found Paytm in 2010 under the One97 banner.

Since then both the companies have grown leaps and bounds (with their fair share of slumps). Biggies like Ratan Tata, SAP Ventures, and SoftBank Group believe in Vijay's entrepreneurial vision and are backing his companies. Sharma is one of the most influential people in India and was also named the youngest billionaire in India by Forbes in 2017.

Summit Shah- Dukaan App

A self-made entrepreneur, Summit Shah along with Subhash Choudhary founded an application that changed the lives of many retailers and shopowners in India. Summit's journey began when he was pursuing engineering from Sangli. There he learned programming, marketing, and other skills from his college roommate. After amassing a wide skill set, Shah went on to launch multiple ventures with Choudhary.  

But his eureka moment came when he saw how multiple shops were forced to shut doors during the lockdown. Having worked at his uncle's shop during his teenage years, Summit Shah wanted to do something to help these businesses out. This urge to make a difference, lead him to launch a DIY platform, where retailers and shop owner with no programming experience or skills can develop their online stores.

Summit Shah along with his team, managed to launch the Dukaan app with mere 48 hours of work. In 20 days of its release, 150,000 stores were launched across 400 cities through the app, and it began monetizing within 30 days. Four months later, Summit Shah's idea managed to get funding of USD 6 million and today its presence is seen in 2200+ cities across the nation.

Shradha Sharma- YourStory

Shradha Sharma, a Delhi University graduate started YourStory.com to provide startups and entrepreneurs with a platform where their stories could be heard. Something that began as a part-time interest for Sharma, has now become a prominent digital media platform dedicated to entrepreneurship and startup news. Shradha has come a long way from spending her early life in Bihar to running her own show in the silicon valley of India- Bangalore. Currently, YouStory.com is backed by investors like Kalaari Capital, Ratan Tata, 3one4 Capital, etc. 

Hari Menon- BigBasket

This Indian entrepreneur is the co-founder and CEO of one of the largest grocery delivery service portals/apps in India- BigBasket.  A graduate from BITS Pilani, and MBA from Carnegie Mellon University, this is not the first time Menon tried his luck in the e-commerce space. Hari's success story began with the failure of his first e-commerce business- Fabmart.

Fabmart was launched in 1999, a time when the internet user base was low. As a result, the venture failed and the founders turned it into a brick-n-mortar business called Fabmall. It became one of the most popular brands in South India and was later sold to a conglomerate in 2006. Even though Hari Menon's first venture failed, the experience left him with tons of lessons. And he successfully co-founded BigBasket in 2011, which has now become one of the largest online supermarkets in India.

Ghazal Alagh- Mamaearth

Ghazal Alagh, a mother of two, stumbled upon a pain point for Indian parents when she was unable to find any natural products to treat her son's skin condition. She found that majority of skin care products for infants in the Indian market were filled with toxins that are harmful to kids. Ghazal and her husband then embarked on a journey to find the perfect solution. This was the beginning of Mamaearth, a company that produces natural toxin-free skin products for infants, and consequently reduces parental stress for many. 

Ghazal holds a Bachelor of Computer Applications from Punjab University and a Fine Arts degree from the New York Academy of Arts. She had worked as a corporate trainer at NIIT Limited and had also tried her hand at two other startup ventures. She finally hit the jackpot with Mamaearth's rise to business. Today this baby care brand is one of the fastest-growing FMCG companies in India. Starting from just 6 products, the company's current portfolio comprises 140+ products in baby care, haircare, and skincare segments. The company has a wide digital and physical presence across 500 cities in the nation.

Here are some other stories that will help you fill your quota of inspiration for the day:

1. Meet Hussain Lokhandwala; The Man Who Built A Multi-Crore Food Business By Selling Sandwiches Worth INR 29!
2. A Journey From The Sets Of Nanban As A Corporate Employee To Becoming The CEO Of His Own Company!
3. Meet The Founder Of Indic Keyboard: The IIT Delhi Dropout Who's Now Worth INR 750 Cr!
4. Amid False Reports Of Being Acquired By HUL, A Quick Recap Of How MDH Masala Turned Into The Spice King Of India!