Odisha teen granted funds to skip school

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1130511/jsp/nation/story_16884535.jsp#.UY5t9bXq2ds

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New Delhi, May 10: A 19-year-old Indian boy has received a $100,000 fellowship to skip college and expand his entrepreneurship idea to use technology to help travellers find affordable accommodation, an alternative to hotel rooms.

Ritesh Agarwal, who was born and raised in Odisha and shattered his own IIT dreams to explore bed-and-breakfast options and set up his company, is among 20 young people from seven countries picked for the 2013 Thiel Fellowship.

The fellowship created by Peter Thiel, a German-born American entrepreneur, encourages young people with innovative ideas to skip college and focus on their work, research and self-education.

Agarwal is founder and CEO of a company that allows consumers to find what he says are affordable and hospitable bed-and-breakfast accommodation in the national capital region as an alternative to living in hotels.

He says he plans to use the fellowship funds to expand these services to several cities across India.

Agarwal who went to school in Rayagada, Odisha, moved to Kota, Rajasthan, to attend a coaching institution that he hoped would help him secure an engineering seat in an IIT.

“I was doing nothing else but learning to solve problems to crack the (IIT) entrance exam,” said Agarwal, who said he quickly lost interest and began to help out a friend who had set up an event management company in Delhi.

The experience with that start-up and the need to travel from Kota and stay in Delhi several times exposed him to both elements of entrepreneurship and the difficulties in finding accommodation that a senior school student could afford.

But the commissions from the start-up were good and, in 18 months, he’d saved up Rs 550,000. He began to dream about his own own start-up, a company that would help tourists and business travellers find nice places to stay.

He set up his company in February 2012, and became one of India’s youngest entrepreneurs to raise angel investments from VentureNursery that provided him guidance, mentorship and funds to drive his idea.

Agarwal’s company has a fairly simple business model — it lists bed-and-breakfast options and allows consumers to book their stays online, while taking commissions from the accommodation owners.

Behind this online activity, there is a rigorous screening process to ensure quality, says Agarwal who has himself checked out many of the options listed and encourages owners to maintain standards of quality and hospitality.

Agarwal is happy with the fellowship condition that he should not go to college for the next three years. “My parents were concerned about this, and I’m grateful to a mentor who agreed to speak with my father that what I'm doing is okay,” Agarwal said. “But I was speaking to my mom last week, and she still wants me to go to college some day.”

He is among the third class of 20 Thiel Fellows, all of them under 20 years of age. “When we created the fellowship more than two years ago, our intention was to help a small number of creative people learn and accomplish more than what they might have otherwise,” Thiel said yesterday in a media release. Thiel, a venture capitalist who co-founded PayPal was the first outside investor in Facebook.

The other 2013 Thiel Fellows are pursuing projects in topics ranging from robotics to telecommunications, and education to fashion.

This guy is a Marwadi. He was born and brought up in a business community. By osmosis, he had subconsciously picked up the skills and developed the mindset to start a business.

Caste has its advantages.

Rishi wrote:This guy is a Marwadi. He was born and brought up in a business community. By osmosis, he had subconsciously picked up the skills and developed the mindset to start a business.

Caste has its advantages.

solid pointu rishi saar. much appreciated!