OlaCabs : Book a Car/Cab online!

We have already seen, how internet has revolutionized Train/Flight ticket booking. This technology can also be used to change our ground transportation system. GeekOnNet is featuring another hot startup from Mumbai "OlaCabs", started by 2 IIT-Bombay Alumnus.

OlaCabs offers car rental services for local use as well as outstation use. You can book cab/car online or over the phone.

Why do you want to book cab/car online? GeekOnNet is mentioning some benefits of online car/cab booking.

1. You pay the right price for your journey
2. The security of door to door service
3. Guaranteed journey
4. Ease of use
5. 24 hour service
6. Airport and other journeys
7. Excellent for business use

In an exclusive interview to the GeekOnNet team, Bhavish Aggarwal, co-founder of OlaCabs and a very good friend of mine speaks about his company, its targets and future plans.

Venture Name: Olacabs.com
Founder(s): Bhavish Aggarwal, Ankit Bhati

The Geeks: What inspired you to start olacabs? What are the services offered by OlaCabs? What is the specific problem that OlaCab is solving?

Olacabs: I had once rented a car for a weekend trip with friends to Bandipur from Bangalore. The driver turned out to be a cheat. He stopped the car in Mysore en route to Bandipur and asked to be paid more than what had been decided earlier. He was so rigid and ill mannered that we had to leave him there and continue our journey by bus. This led to the business idea of using technology to offer a better and more predictable experience to consumers and improve efficieny for the car owners/drivers.

We offer car rental services for local use as well as outstation use. You can book online or over the phone and be assured of a reliable, safe and quality experience.

The Geeks: What’s your Business & revenue model.

Olacabs: We work on a pay-for-performance model. We just charge a commission in whatever sales that we bring to car owners. Also, to get access to the technology platform, we charge them a small fee. Other than that, there are no other costs that operators have to bear.

The Geeks: How difficult/easy for you to convince cab owners about your services? What obstacles have you overcome?

Olacabs: We have tied up with many car operators in Mumbai. They are very receptive to our concept as we work on a pay-for-performance model. The harder part is sourcing car owners. Since it is a fragmented industry, getting to the owners is a time consuming process.

The Geeks: There are few big players in this market. So, how can you differentiate OlaCabs from them?

Olacabs: most cab booking portals are plain vanilla websites with price listings. Our strategy is to focus on the backend with car operators because that would ensure a certain level of quality and predictability with respect to the consumer experience. We intend to bring all car operators and all taxis on to a single technology platform to enable real time inventory distribution, nationally.

The Geeks: What prospects are you visualizing for your company 5 years down the line? Are you going to implement something new (e.g. Mobile phone booking, smart phone’s app for cab booking etc.) to your business?

Olacabs: The entire ground transportation industry in India is run in a very opaque, inefficient and ad-hoc manner. There is no service guarantee or price transparency for the consumer and operators are also troubled with no structured channel through which customers can be sourced. We believe that technology will help make this industry efficient and drastically improve the consumer experience in years to come. We are definitely considering developing mobile bookings and smart phone apps in the near future!

The Geeks: After working in the world’s leading S/W firm for more than 2 years, what led you to quit your job and start your own venture? What are the rewards of owing own business over a nine to five job?

Olacabs: I had always wanted to be an entrepreneur since my college days. After spending 2 years in my job at Microsoft, I started feeling bored and restless. So I got together with Ankit and we decided to start a company. I left my job and moved to Mumbai to start Olacabs.
Working on a startup means you are the guy responsible for everything. The buck stops with you. The thrill and challenge of designing a company bottom up is beyond comparison and something you just cannot get in a job!

The Geeks: Any suggestions for future entrepreneurs?

Olacabs: The biggest joy and the biggest challenge in entrepreneurship is finding a real and challenging problem to solve. Most of us first generation entrepreneurs have a tough time finding the right problem. But once that is figured out, the joy of solving real issues for real users and seeing people benefit from your innovation is beyond comparison! So just be persistent!

Olacabs provides the simplest way to book a Cab/Car. You enter your city and your need. Olacabs searches the available inventory of its partners and provide you with a list of results and prices of different available cars from different operators. You can see rating of that operator, what other customers said of them, and then book it on Olacabs.com. Or you can call Olacabs at (022) 322-65-652 and they'll help you through the process!

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