Nov 2, 2020 · 58m · neon-show
Inside the mind of Aloke Bajpai, Co-Founder & CEO, ixigo
0:00 / 0:00
▶ Watch on YouTube →
gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions
In this episode of the 100x Entrepreneur Podcast, ixigo Co-Founder and CEO Aloke Bajpai details how the travel-tech platform scaled to profitability and 150 million annual users through capital efficiency, viral organic marketing, and customer-first utility innovations while navigating major crises without employee layoffs.
How this conversation actually went
Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. How this is scored →
Siddhartha as informed peer 4.6 Guest teaching 3.0 Guest disagreement 0.8 Siddhartha pushing back 0.1
speaking balance: gold is Siddhartha, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 50:41 Critique of OTA industry ethics
The guest forcefully criticizes incumbent travel platforms for shortchanging consumers with hidden convenience fees and refusing refunds.
Hardest push from Siddhartha ▶ 40:10 Host probes the tension between passion and objectivityThe host questions how a founder maintains cold objectivity when killing experiments while maintaining entrepreneurial conviction.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 28:08 Deconstructing India's travel demographic realityThe guest educates the host on market fundamentals, revealing that 90% of Indians have never flown, proving why an Indian OTA must start with trains.
Siddhartha holds their own ▶ 35:32 Host cites prior source interview on TravenuesThe host demonstrates deep background preparation by citing personal discussions with Travenues lead GC Mouli prior to the acquisition.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | Siddhartha as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | Siddhartha pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Leveraging Viral and Moment Marketing for Organic Reach | 5 | 2 | 0 | 0 | The host brings up ixigo's signature viral video campaigns, specifically citing the 'what not to take from a hotel' video. The guest elaborates collaboratively on moment marketing and organic social reach. | |
| ixigo's Growth Milestones and Pre-Pandemic Financial Performance | 6 | 4 | 1 | 0 | The host quotes reported financial figures from Financial Express. The guest politely corrects and updates them with unpublished FY20 financials showing higher revenue and near-profitability before discussing pandemic resilience. | |
| Anticipating the Travel Rebound and Pent-Up Demand | 5 | 2 | 1 | 0 | The host comments on pent-up consumer travel demand. The guest agrees and contextualizes the rebound by contrasting Brian Chesky's evolving statements with macroeconomic household savings data. | |
| The Emerging Phenomenon of Long-Term Workations | 6 | 1 | 0 | 0 | The host cites Airbnb's long-term booking trends during remote work. The guest expands with regional Indian examples like Goa and Himachal Pradesh workations. | |
| Lessons from the 2008 Financial Crisis and Team Survival | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | The host prompts the guest to reflect on surviving the 2008 Lehman collapse. The guest narrates an open, detailed story about team pay cuts and collective survival. | |
| Handling the COVID Crisis Without Layoffs | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | In a continuous monologue without host interruption, the guest explains navigating COVID cost cuts without layoffs and distributing ESOPs to all employees. | |
| Capital Efficiency, Unit Economics, and IPO Ambitions | 6 | 3 | 0 | 0 | The host compares ixigo's revenue-per-employee metrics to Big Tech standards in the US. The guest shares capital efficiency numbers, noting ixigo raised only $22M over 13 years. | |
| Fostering an Entrepreneurial and Resilient Company Culture | 5 | 4 | 1 | 0 | The host mentions the stat that 1 in 10 alumni become founders. The guest corrects the figure to 20% (1 in 5), naming alumni-founded companies like Sprinklr and Unicommerce. | |
| Designing for Customer Empathy and the Bharat Train App | 3 | 6 | 2 | 0 | The guest delivers a masterclass on why global OTA playbooks failed in India, explaining that 90% of Indians had never flown and ixigo's breakthrough was building a utility-first train app. | |
| The Science of Survival, Frugal Marketing, and S-Curves | 5 | 3 | 1 | 0 | The host quotes the guest's LinkedIn bio regarding 'PhD in survival sciences.' The guest details frugal zero-budget marketing tactics and riding successive S-curves. | |
| The Travenues B2B SaaS Venture and Sale to SpiceJet | 6 | 2 | 0 | 0 | The host showcases insider knowledge by referencing conversations with GC Mouli regarding Travenues. The guest explains the logic behind building airline middleware and selling it to SpiceJet. | |
| Balancing Data-Driven Objectivity with Gut Intuition | 6 | 4 | 2 | 2 | The host asks a probing conceptual question on balancing data-driven objectivity with entrepreneurial passion. The guest explains why disruptive 10x ideas require intuition rather than spreadsheet data crunching. | |
| Capital Discipline, Patient Investors, and the Infinite Game | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | The host prompts a review of ixigo's funding history. The guest contrasts patient capital and sustainable unit economics against hyper-growth discounting frenzies. | |
| The Mission to Build India's Most Loved Travel Platform | 4 | 4 | 3 | 0 | The guest directly criticizes the broader OTA industry for dark patterns like hidden fee additions and refusing cancellation refunds during lockdowns, presenting ixigo's pro-consumer stance. | |
| Angel Investing Philosophy and Supporting Bootstrapped Founders | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | The host asks about the guest's angel portfolio. The guest shares his philosophy of backing humble, bootstrapped founders to pay back the support he received early on. |
Statements from this episode (25)
Bajpai: ixigo serves over 150 million Indians annually
“So Exego currently you know, serves
more than a hundred fifty million Indians a year you know, through various travel platforms that we've built”
Bajpai: Large travel apps can scale via product and zero-dollar marketing
“We've built this company very organically and have kind of grown largely by word of mouth and what we call zero dollar marketing. So, you know, we've, we are very proud to have disrupted the category by proving that you can build a large travel app
You know, p…”
Bajpai: ixigo hit 160 crore revenue and nearly $400M GMV in FY20
“So in FYI, and we haven't really published these yet, but in FYI, we grew to 160 crores in revenue with very negligible losses. In fact, we had a profitable for last quarter of the year, which was JFM 20, 20. And in terms of GMV, you know, we are we were very …”
Bajpai: ixigo dropped to near-zero revenue for months during initial lockdowns
“When it started in March, when the lockdowns were announced you know, we went down to near zero revenue for a couple of months because there were hardly any transactions happening.”
Bajpai: ixigo's AI chatbot Tara handled 80% of customer queries in March 2020
“We just built this AI chatbot called Tara, which was handling almost 80% of our queries as of March. And that was very useful during this crisis because suddenly we had like an ATEX outreach to our you know, chats and calls”
Bajpai: ixigo retained 30-40% of web traffic during lockdown via informational tools
“In fact, during the lockdown, it still had almost 30, 40% of our traffic still salvaged despite no transactions happening.”
Ahluwalia: Airbnb generates more revenue from fewer, multi-month bookings
“Currently Airbnb is seeing you know, more revenues through less number of bookings because people are booking months for work from you know, beach locations rather than working from home.”
Bajpai: ixigo VC term sheet was pulled after Lehman Brothers collapse
“We had also closed or signed a term sheet, right. With a large VC investor the due diligence and the docs were done. And then the Lehman brother crisis happened. And our term sheet got pulled and we couldn't close that round.”
Bajpai: All 25 ixigo employees stayed for three years after 2008 cuts
“All the people who were there, all 25 of them actually stuck around with us for almost three years post that crisis.”
Bajpai: ixigo granted 2.3% of company equity to all employees in July 2020
“You know, we gave away about 2.3% of the company in July right from the beyond to, you know, everyone in our leadership team, everyone owns shares and these were given at a deep discount so that everybody benefits when things comes back.”
Bajpai: ixigo will end the financial year profitable despite COVID-19
“Although what we can tell you is that even this financial year we are pretty confident we'll end on a profitable note.”
Bajpai: ixigo will take two to three years to reach IPO scale
“We are saying maybe two to three years is what it'll take from here to be sizable enough to think of a public offering”
ixigo raised only $22 million in primary capital over 13 years
“I mean the amount of primary capital that Ixigo has raised in the last 13 years is just twenty two million dollars, right?”
Bajpai: ixigo ranks top five in India for revenue per capital raised
“You know, on the revenue divided by total capital raised metric you know, we would be in the top five companies in India. I'm pretty confident of that.”
Bajpai: 20% of ixigo alumni have become startup entrepreneurs
“It's actually two now. I mean, we did this math again last, last month and we figured out that 20% of our past employees are entrepreneurs”
Bajpai: 90% of Indians have never stepped inside an airport
“90% of Indians have never stepped inside an airport, right? Last year we had a hundred twenty million flyers you know, and that means there are, you know, almost a billion people who have never stepped on a plane.”
Bajpai: 40% of Indian train bookings do not get confirmed seats
“40% of people in India when they book a train, they don't get a confirmed seat, right? And their waitlist keeps moving”
Bajpai: ixigo train app downloads probably exceed all travel competitors combined
“If you aggregate all other players in the category and you look at it, it's a good trainer. We probably do more downloads than all other players in the travel category put together.”
Bajpai: Social shares are the only distribution metric that matters
“Shares is the only currency that matters, you know, views and likes and all that really doesn't matter.”
Bajpai: Disruptive growth requires betting on intuition rather than data crunching
“You can do a lot of iterative growth doing all of that. So you should have your own you know, data science engineers who are constantly figuring out, you know those experiments and AB tests and iterative ideas. But, you know, for disruptive growth or for the S…”
Bajpai: ixigo reached 10-12 million MAUs spending under $5M on marketing
“In 2017, they saw the kind of traffic we built organically, right? I mean, we were at like 10, twelve million monthly active users, I think built without Spending even like five million dollars on marketing over the last six, seven years.”
Bajpai: India will become the world's largest market for unicorns
“I think every time, you know, I hear this, I'm like, dude, you know, it's going to take 10 more years than what people imagine. But the thing is, this will be the largest market in terms of unicorns in the world when that happens, right?”
Bajpai: Global online travel agencies have failed at customer experience
“If you look at the degree of customer experience that's prevalent out there, and I'm talking about the whole nine yards from the user experience pre-booking to the customer service provided post-booking, I think as an industry, you know, globally OTAs have fai…”
Bajpai: ixigo refunded March 2020 international flights before airlines did
“Pre-lockdown for all the international bookings that were done in the month of March or April, we did not wait for the airlines to refund the money to us. You know, in the month of March for people who canceled, we gave them the refund immediately. For some of…”