OYO founder Ritesh Agarwal had become one of India’s best-known entrepreneurs by the time he turned 25, but he’s now described the springboard that got him there.
Long before OYO became a household name, a 19-year-old Agarwal took a chance on a unique and radical opportunity that would change his life forever: the Thiel Fellowship. The fellowship was the brainchild of PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel. The pitch was simple but audacious. “He gives one hundred thousand dollars…to twenty young people under the age of twenty,” Agarwal explained in an interview. But there was a catch. “The condition is that you have to drop out of college.”
For a young man in India with a budding idea for a hotel startup, this was an unconventional path. The journey began not in a high-tech incubator, but in a humble cyber cafe. “I heard about Peter Thiel, searched for him in a cyber cafe, learned about the program, and applied,” he recalls.
He sent his application into the void with very little hope. He knew the odds were stacked against him, as the fellowship was dominated by Americans. “Before me, not a single fellow had ever been from Asia; they were mostly of American origin,” Agarwal said. “So, I applied with no expectation of ever getting the chance to become a Thiel Fellow.”
Then, the unexpected happened. He received a phone call that would alter his path completely. “One day, I received a call saying that I was among the top forty candidates invited to the U.S. to pitch.”
Agarwal remembers the pure joy of that moment, but not for the reason one might think. He wasn’t celebrating a potential win; he was thrilled about the journey itself. “My happiness knew no bounds, not because I was guaranteed to become a fellow—I still thought my chances were slim,” he admitted. “My joy stemmed from the fact that I would get to visit the U.S. for the first time, and it was all sponsored by them.”
That first trip to America turned out to be more than just a visit. Surrounded by some of the brightest young minds in the world, he pitched his vision for what was then called Oravel.com. “After that, I went to the U.S., and out of those forty kids, I was chosen as a Thiel Fellow.”
The $100,000 grant was the seed that helped Oravel pivot into OYO Rooms. But more than the money, the fellowship gave him access to mentorship from Silicon Valley’s best and taught him to think on a global scale. It was the ultimate validation for a teenager from a small town in India who dared to dream differently. That simple cyber cafe search didn’t just lead to an application; it led to the foundation of a billion-dollar hospitality empire.