Prashant Pitti graduated from IIT Madras worked with HSBC and Capital One in the United States before coming back to India and co-founding EaseMyTrip. in 2008.   Initially, a B2B travel brand, EaseMyTrip became a household name in the mid-2010s with its no-fee pricing and superior customer service. EaseMyTrip went public in 2021 at its current market cap is ₹4,500 crores (~$750m).

‍

EaseMyTrip provides a comprehensive range of travel-related products and services for end-to-end travel solutions. This includes airline tickets, hotels and holiday packages, rail tickets, bus tickets, and taxis.

Key takeaways from the episode

‍

• What was the personal motive behind quitting leading banks like Capital One or HSBC and starting a travel portal?
• What was the EaseMyTrip USP that gave it an edge over its much better-funded competition?
• How did EaseMyTrip’s marketing strategy significantly reduce CAC while multiplying its AOV?
• How did empowering the front-line CSR agent increase customer loyalty?
• Why did EaseMyTrip choose to run a business on customer capital, refusing VC investment offers?
• Why did EaseMyTrip founder go public? They did not take any primary capital infusion in the IPO. Instead, they choose to sell their secondary stake in the company – why the aversion to outside capital?
• What is it like working with your own brothers? How does Prashant maintain a balance between his professional and personal life?
• If Prashant could turn back time, what are the 2 things he wishes he could have changed in this journey?

‍