Shark Tank India’s Ritesh Agarwal was 17 when investors asked his father to commit he won’t go to college: ‘Else we’ll lose our money’

Also Read: Ritesh Agarwal’s former OYO employee stuns Shark Tank India judges with story of his temper, Vineeta Singh says, ‘I can’t believe it’

Ritesh Agarwal’s journey and success story

Ritesh Agarwal, who came from Odisa, loved to travel, and it was during of his getaways before starting to prepare for engineering that led to the inception of his company. In 2024, Ritesh spoke about his success story in an exclusive interview and said, “I was just 18, right out of high school, when I was starting. So, people did not take me seriously at first. They thought a young person was very interested in trying to make a positive difference, but they were not sure if I would be able to do it. Back in the day, when I wrote cold emails, nobody would respond or was not willing to invest. I finally got a big investor in 2015. Before that, in June 2013, I started with one hotel in Gurgaon. It had 20 per cent occupancy before OYO came about, but in a few months, the occupancy grew to 80 to 90 per cent. That was the starting point. Today we serve more than 17,000 hotels and 1,50,000 homes, so it has grown. Over the years, I have learned that consistency matters. I did not give up, and slowly, more critics started becoming believers.”

 

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A post shared by Ritesh Agarwal (@riteshagar) 

Ritesh Agarwal’s father was told not to send him to college

In his latest interview to SCREEN, Ritesh Agarwal recalled his first time fundraising, where investors asked his father not to send him to college. He shared, “When I was raising my first funding, I was 17-years-old, and the investors said they wanted to meet my parents. They said, if they send you to college, then… they wanted my parents to commit that they won’t send me to college, warna unke paise doob jaaenge (else they would lose their money).” Ritesh also recalled how the investors praised the young boy and told his father, “Aap nahi jaante aapka beta itna bright hai (You don’t know how bright your son is).”

Following this, Ritesh had to miss out on college life. In 2023, the Shark Tank India judge shared a post, expressing how he missed getting a formal education. He wrote, “People often ask me if I missed attending college and receiving a formal education. My answer has always been a resounding YES. The college experience is unmatched – it prepares you for the ‘real-world’. But for me, the Thiel fellowship was that big adventure which led to the eventual genesis of OYO.”

In the interview, Ritesh also recalled how his father always instilled the right value system in him. Recalling his father’s response to the investors, Ritesh said, “I remember my dad telling them, ‘I get very worried that I have tried to make sure that I give him the right value system. I don’t want success to go to his head.'” Ritesh also shared how he has always made sure not to let his father down, and added, “I remember (that comment) very distinctly because that mattered to me, I thought I would not let him down, and try to make sure that he never feels the other way round.”

 

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A post shared by Ganeshprasad Sridharan (@thethinkschool) 

Ritesh Agarwal’s take on education

Recently, Ritesh also shared his take on education on his social media account and said, “Education, in my view, fundamentally is exceptionally important. But education and a formal university should not be seen as the same thing. University is just a way of education; you can get education from there, from a growth school, or even from watching some of the Shark Tank episodes. There are many ways of pursuing education. I also don’t believe that formal education on University is a bad thing, university is quite valuable. But I feel the format of university education needs to be challenged and questioned. Once challenged, I think, it will improve for the better.

Shark Tank India 5 will stream on Sony TV and Sony Liv, every Monday to Friday at 8 pm.