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Ritesh Agarwal

CEO & Founder, Oyo Rooms

Search every verified Ritesh Agarwal interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Ritesh Agarwal, CEO and founder of Oyo Rooms, spoke at the Startup Conclave 2026 about the changing landscape for entrepreneurs from small-town India. He said that internet access has narrowed the information gap between smaller cities and major global hubs, and he described his own background from Rayagada, Odisha, as an example. Agarwal noted that his company, together with Motel 6 and Studio 6, operates one of the largest economy lodging brands in the United States, primarily at highway exits, and he drew parallels between the challenges faced by small-town America and those in small-town India. Agarwal also discussed the ambitions of young people from smaller Indian towns, saying they aim to build world-class enterprises rather than limiting themselves to local or national markets. He emphasized a willingness to work hard toward that goal. The conversation, which also included Vinod Kumar Meena of Cuckoo, touched on how artificial intelligence is further reducing information gaps and could accelerate content creation, potentially shifting India’s role in the global content industry. The discussion also referenced Prism’s international business and preparations for a startup IPO.

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Verified interview transcripts

Notable quotes

“The revenue forget three and a half times growth got eliminated by 70% overnight but the cost was already committed two and a half times expansion. So by these two maths a company which had cash for around 3 and 1/2 years suddenly had cash for 4 months.”

“The biggest challenge in my mind is enterprise. Europe has many countries and every country has their own format of regulations, laws of running a business. And I think EU is not benefiting from one EU format with which it could run like United States. So I think I saw that the president of EU recently announced the EU Inc. I think it's a great start. the more EU on the business side and industry and capital manageme”

“Over time we want to have all our numbers in a single ERP system so that reporting and consolidation of numbers becomes very easy.”

“India is now close to becoming the number three economy, that is, only the United States and the People's Republic of China are the two countries ahead of us. I genuinely believe from my heart that we can definitely create 1 crore startups in India.”

“First is whether the entrepreneur sees 10 years of compounding as a goal and do they see one, two or three years of trading as an ambition, and second is are their hands dirty, have they faced the pain of rejections in life.”

“Investor money should only be used for explosive expansion, new plant, big marketing spend, new brand launch but not to be spent on operational expenses. If investor money stops then the company closes down.”

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