Aprameya R along with Raghunandan G co founded TaxiForSure from virtually nothing on a sunny morning in June 2011, in a small roof top bungalow in Bangalore to recently being valued at over 1500 crores.
In four years TaxiforSure is present in 40 cities and has changed the way taxis are hailed in India, It has serviced more than 7,00,000 customers across India. What are the key lessons, which you can learn from Aprameya, a first gen entrepreneur?
Aprameya Radhakrishna hails from a typical south Indian middle-class family, where his life revolved around parents, families and education. He completed his MBA from IIM Ahmedabad.
Dream Big
The most important lesson is to never stop dreaming and dreaming big. Anything is possible. You have to be convinced and energized of every action you take. It not only keeps you motivated, but your energy will impact others around you. Aprameya credits his success to the values imbibed by his parents and unflinching support to dream big.
Don?t Sleep on The Idea
If you have an idea, act on it fast. Think it through, work with friends to grow it, and the rest will follow. Invest in people ? help them grow ? as professionals and individuals – and they will be your biggest equity. During an entrepreneurial journey, you shouldn?t be afraid of making a wrong choice or taking a risk. Once you have taken a decision, don?t regret it, but learn from it and grow. Trust your instincts, if you don’t no one else will.
Take Help From Family
They key to success for an entrepreneur is take help from all possible quarters, the first ones to approach should be your family. Aprameya?s sister picked customer calls and assigned drivers in the middle of the night and his parents gave an immense amount of moral support, though all this happened after questioning him on his idea of becoming a taxi driver after he graduated from IIM Ahmedabad.
Choose your team wisely
This brings me to the next lesson ? all people are good, but it?s the right kind of people that will give you the required edge. You have to invest time while choosing the people and while they are with you. You have to be their mentor, their boss and their friend as time goes by. Aprameya says, ?As our business grew, we realized the number of people who were impacted by our idea. We saw the socio-economic changes our operators and drivers experienced. Naturally this was a humbling experience, but also strengthened my belief of not going very far away from ground-reality.?
All is well
One of the biggest building blocks of an entrepreneurial journey is patience. Aprameya advocates patience and calmness even in the face of adversity. He says? While dealing with an irritated customer, for instance, if you intervene at the wrong time, it will only result in a bad experience. I have learnt to keep calm, smile if I can, and hear them out. This philosophy has also enabled me bridge the large gap between our regulators and us as well. A calm mind will help you think well and make better decisions.?
Celebrate Success and Have Fun
One of the biggest learning from them is the finely matched virtue of work hard and playing harder. It is necessary to have fun and create an environment where people can have fun. Aprameya says ?From the two of us to a team of over 1500 people, TaxiForSure today is a firm that attracts the best of talent and the youngest of energies?and it is possible because we believed in allowing people to learn from their mistakes, as we did, and grow with experience, all while having fun.
Jappreet Sethi
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