Welcome to Episode 30 of First Principles!

We recorded this episode at Spacebot Studio, a new, sleek space overlooking the metro in Indiranagar.

Our guest, Ritesh, was already at the studio.

Ritesh was asking the owners of the studio a bunch of questions: how big is this space? How many bookings do you get in a day? Are there other studios around in this location? 

And it’s not surprising, because our guest for this episode is Ritesh Agarwal – the founder and group CEO of OYO.

This even came up in our conversation. The rest of us saw a wonderful studio, but Ritesh saw a space with the potential to be utilized and monetized.

He sees the world differently – as founders often do. 

For example, Ritesh explains how he sees the hospitality industry – in fact, the entire of India – as a space with a supply problem. The solution, he explains, is not in increasing or decreasing supply. It’s in utilizing it. Changing the supply quality altogether.

And if you go back and look at how Ritesh built and conceptualised OYO—at 19, by the way—you’ll realise that this is the foundation of his business model.

Across the conversation, his lens of the world became sharper and sharper. Ritesh answers all of my questions with very specific models and frameworks that he uses – but he’s not the guy who leaves it at that.

He breaks them down.

He offers examples from his life, the journey of OYO and even from books he’s read. And it makes sense because the first thing Ritesh says that he loves great questions!

Across this episode, we also talk about:

-> Why Ritesh loves being called the Chief Clarity Officer

-> What is OYO’s unbeatable strength

-> The three ways in which young folks can learn from the school of life

-> And why Ritesh wears his naivety on his chest

We now have chapters available for this episode on Spotify and Apple Podcasts! Click on any chapter you like to jump to the parts you want to listen to.

This is episode 30 of First Principles with Ritesh Agarwal—The Ken’s fortnightly leadership podcast.

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Also, check out Day Zero, The Ken’s limited-run newsletters tracking this year’s challenging placements season here.