Kamal Ghorui
It was a cool, crisp afternoon at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, with a palpable buzz in the air. Students gathered outside one of the classrooms well before noon, conversations humming with anticipation. As I waited to receive Ritesh Agarwal and Bejul Somaia, the energy in the room reflected the magnitude of the story we were about to unpack.
I had the opportunity to lead a fireside chat with Ritesh Agarwal, Founder and Group CEO of OYO (now operating under Prism), and Bejul Somaia, Managing Director and Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners ($30B+ AUM), on the theme: Building AI-driven Global, Billion-dollar Businesses from Emerging Markets.
Over the course of the next hour, we unpacked how conviction and courage fuelled the rise of OYO – from a small experiment in India to one of the few truly global, multi-billion-dollar companies to emerge from the country, backed by SoftBank, Microsoft, Airbnb, and others.
From a Basti to a Global Platform
We began by rewinding the clock.
Ritesh reflected on his early years as a teenager deeply curious about entrepreneurship and technology. Reading about founders like Mark Zuckerberg and the rise of global tech companies, he found himself asking a simple but powerful question: why couldn’t companies of that scale be built out of India? The Thiel Fellowship, he said, was a defining turning point. It not only provided early support but reinforced his belief that geography should not limit ambition.
In 2013, he launched Oravel Stays, which would later evolve into OYO. What started as an effort to solve fragmented and unreliable budget accommodation in India eventually scaled into a global hospitality platform operating across the U.S., UK, Europe, and Asia, serving over 100 million customers.
What many in the room may not have known was that when a young Ritesh first came to Silicon Valley to pitch his idea, Bejul Somaia was one of the first people to write him a cheque. Long before OYO became a household name, before global expansion and billion-dollar valuations, there was a moment of conviction – on both sides of the table.
For Bejul, that early bet was part of a broader thesis. In 2008, he had joined Lightspeed Venture Partners to launch its India practice – at a time when India’s startup ecosystem was far from proven. The opportunities might be fewer than in Silicon Valley, he noted, but the outliers would be meaningful. The key was focusing on the “size of the prize,” not the obstacles. Backing founders early, when conviction matters more than metrics, became central to that approach.
Building for the World, and AI
As the conversation shifted to global expansion, Ritesh explained that the first decade of OYO’s journey felt like “tuition fees” – lessons paid for in complexity, regulation, and operational missteps across markets like China, Europe, and the United States.
The opportunity, however, remains enormous. Booking.com, Airbnb, and Expedia together control less than 10% of the global accommodation market, leaving significant room for innovation and consolidation.
Technology has become central to that strategy. In Europe, OYO’s upscale properties now operate with fully digital check-in systems – eliminating front desks and key cards – improving EBITDA margins for property owners. The company’s in-house dynamic pricing engine has grown so sophisticated that it has drawn interest beyond hospitality, including professional sports teams. Robotics and AI-powered cleaning systems are increasingly being piloted across markets.
AI, both speakers agreed, will not just create new companies – it will transform operational industries that historically relied on manual processes.
Founder-Investor Trust
Perhaps the most instructive exchange of the afternoon centered on founder–investor dynamics.
Bejul spoke about backing founders based not on surface charisma, but on underlying conviction and worldview. “Power comes from authentic integrity, not ego,” he observed.
Ritesh emphasized the importance of candor with investors, especially during crises. During an early referral-fraud episode that caused burn to spike dramatically, Bejul intervened directly to halt the issue. That level of trust, they both noted, is what allows companies to survive moments that could otherwise be existential.
“An investor is as invested as the founder,” Ritesh said – urging entrepreneurs not to sugarcoat problems.
The Takeaway
During the Q&A, students pressed on topics ranging from IPO readiness to AI adoption in India. One recurring question: can iconic companies truly be built from emerging markets without relocating?
The answer from both speakers was clear – Yes. But they must compete globally from day one.
As the session concluded, what lingered in the room was not just the scale of OYO’s journey, but the mindset behind it – a refusal to see geography as limitation, and a belief that emerging markets can produce companies of enduring global relevance.
On a crisp Stanford afternoon, the conversation felt like a reminder that India’s entrepreneurial ambition is no longer peripheral to the global story, it is increasingly central to it.
Disclaimer
Views expressed above are the author’s own.
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