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The Smart Techie was renamed Siliconindia India Edition starting Feb 2012 to continue the nearly two decade track record of excellence of our US edition.

Deep Kalra The Trip Maker

ST Team
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
ST Team
Deep Kalra made quite a few eye brows raised when he announced his decision to make his company Makemytrip.com public in U.S. in 2009 for a company which had not made any profit for three consecutive years, it was a bold and risky decision. But for people who knew Kalra, the founder and CEO of the company, there was nothing surprising. This unassuming and simple guy was known for his unconventional decisions. He surprised Analysts and Investors but their apprehensions and doubts soon turned into optimism and support when he laid his cards clearly and forcefully in front of them. Thus, Makemytrip became the 4th Indian company to become public in U.S. raising an amount of $70 million and Kalra became the Pied piper inspiring and showing the way for many Indian companies who are hesitant to take the IPO way in U.S.

The making of an Entrepreneur

Entrepreneurs always tread on an unconventional path. But Kalra gave another twist to his destiny when he decided to set aside his experience to do something new in the space in which he had zero experience in. For people who know him as a banker, it would have made more sense if he had started a company in the BFSI sector. But people who know him for the person that he is, the choice to start an online travel portal would never be a surprise, since they know how font of travelling the guy is. In Kalra’s own account, he wanted to start something that is closer to his heart. His idea was to start an ecommerce company in the leisure travel section in India. He started his baby steps with ‘India Ahoy’ a high leisure traveler’s site. Back then, there was no company in the Indian market that he could have modeled his company after. He had to start the company from scratch and pioneer the whole business model to perfection, and this did not happen overnight.

An IIM grad, who took the conventional route initially, he joined the corporate sector straight from college. In the early 90s he had a successful stint at ABN Amro Bank at the senior levels, including vice-president, it wasnt an easy task to say no to the golden handcuffs that the job in ABN Amro. It is here that he learned the tricks of the trade.

Athletes and entrepreneurs are similar in many ways, in the sense that they both follow their dreams. A successful entrepreneur is never afraid to pursue his dreams and he will never stop before he achieves it.


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