Shah Rukh Khan-starrer Swades, a tale of homecoming, which was released on the big screen in December of 2004 revived nationalism among many Indians and Ixigo co-founder and group CEO (Chief executive officer) Aloke Bajpai was one among the many.
After watching the movie, Bajpai felt the Swades moment.
I was working in the south of France between the Mediterranean and the alps, for a company called Amadeus, a large travel tech firm, Bajpai shared during Moneycontrol's second edition of Startup Conclave.
He said that two incidents that happened back then turned out to be transformational for them.
Also read: Having a listed competitor is both good and bad, says Swiggy chief Majety
"Two things happened in business school, which were transformational. One, I got rejected by all the big four consulting firms, because they thought I couldn't think straight. Secondly, I watched the movie Swades, which was launched around then. Something in that movie made me think, okay, maybe my Swades moment is here. I need to think of going back to India. So I stopped sitting in the job interviews and just took a flight back (home)," he said.
Bajpai went back to India but with no plan of what he would do in the country. Over time, he figured out that travel tech was where his heart was.
But the journey to build the travel tech firm Ixigo was not easy and Bajpai couldn't even recollect the number of times his company was on the verge of dying.
"I stopped counting but many times (the company was on the verge of dying). Just before Lehman Brothers collapsed before that, we'd already run out of money a few times," the Group CEO said.
Also read: Investors want diversification: Swiggy-backer Accel on upcoming IPO amid Zomato surge
He shared how he raised his first angel round. "I wrote a check to buy a printer for the office and the check bounced. And that's when I realized that I'd run out of money. I called up a friend from business school and said I need some money to keep my company going. And he wired the money the next week. That was my first angel check. But 2008 was special because I think we learned the most during that crisis. Then the global financial crisis happened around September. We were close to raising money from financial investors, but that just couldn't happen," Bajpai said.
Also read: Engage with investors and build an independent board early, advises Ixigo Group CEO Aloke Bajpai
The company had to go back to the drawing board because they had very few months of cash left.
"I think during that crisis, we got a template on how to approach future crisis. So we could have done two things. We could have let go half our team and sort of survived longer. But then this young engineer said I'll work without salary for as long as it takes," the co-founder recalled.
The Ixigo team drew up the profit and loss on the drawing board.
"It just looked like if our revenue kept increasing, the way it was increasing, we could make things work if everybody worked at half their salary for the next 12 months and founders went to zero salaries. But we actually bounced back during that period and kept everybody on the team. Most people on that team stayed for many years with us. Those years were the transformational years. I think how you approach a crisis defines you. In our case, we were just very transparent with the team. And instead of making the team sort of bear the brunt of what we were going through, we turned to them to find a solution and they came up with brilliant ideas," Bajpai said.
Discover the latest Business News, Sensex, and Nifty updates. Obtain Personal Finance insights, tax queries, and expert opinions on Moneycontrol or download the Moneycontrol App to stay updated!
Find the best of Al News in one place, specially curated for you every weekend.
Stay on top of the latest tech trends and biggest startup news.
