The Ledger
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Agarwal: Indian companies cannot achieve an A credit rating due to sovereign caps
“So if you are an Indian corporation, you may be like any big company, you don't get a rating because your sovereign itself is not rated that.”
Agarwal: 10% of OYO hotels on minimum guarantees drove most losses
“90% of our hotels were revenue share hotels. 10% were minimum guarantee. Those 10% hotels drove most of the losses and 90% of them were highly margin accretive always.”
Ritesh Agarwal: Bangladesh per capita income is highest in South Asia
“The per capita income of Bangladesh is probably the highest in South Asia.”
Ritesh Agarwal: Lightspeed invests in only 3 to 5 companies annually
“They call themselves as a high conviction investor. So they say that we invest very little, like they would invest in a year, like four, five companies or three, four companies, but in the ones they believe in, they'll move very, very quickly.”
Agarwal: Thiel Fellowship grants $100k to dropouts with lower acceptance than Ivies
“So Thiel fellowship is one, which is a program started by Peter Thiel, where he gives a 100,000 dollars to 20 people earlier. It used to be age limitation under the age of 20. Acceptance rates are lower than Ivy leagues, but there's one condition. You have to …”
Agarwal: OYO lost 65% of revenue overnight during COVID
“With COVID, 65% of your revenue overnight evaporate.”
Agarwal: Masayoshi Son's telecom business is probably Japan's most profitable
“Built his own telecom business, which is now probably the most profitable business in Japan and one of the most profitable telecom business in the world in terms of construct.”
Agarwal: No Asian resident was selected for the Thiel Fellowship before him
“I think fundamentally post those questions, there was no other Asian resident who had become a fellow before me.”
Agarwal personally handled customer support calls after raising VC funding
“So we had a call center, like most companies, and I used to be the call center person who would pick up calls. That's one call. I make the booking and I still love it because you speak to customers directly. Such an amazing job, right? So even after they inves…”
Agarwal: Lightspeed invested ₹3.5 crore in OYO at an ₹8 crore valuation
“Lightspeed invested, I think, 3.5 crores at a eight crore valuation back then.”
Agarwal: OYO manages 150,000 vacation homes across Europe
“Just in Europe, we managed 150,000 holiday homes. So we have a fairly large business in Denmark, Netherlands, Germany, and few of these geographies.”