Raj Shamani - Prashant Pitti

1) The co-founder of EaseMyTrip, Prashant Pitti talks about their decision to not take VC money in the early years of the business, despite having investors express interest. They explain that most VCs were looking for ways to grow the company even faster, which often meant spending more on marketing and offering discounts, things the founders did not see the need for. They credit their growth to a focus on building shareable value by offering zero convenience fees and creating opportunities for word-of-mouth promotion. They argue that zero convenience fees do not make a company appear cheap, but rather smart.

2) Prashant explains the beauty of the company's tightly knit ship that allows them to remain profitable while not charging convenience fees. He notes that in the 14 years of their existence, they have never seen a quarter of loss while their competitors have never seen a quarter of profit. The company runs its own call center, creating greater efficiencies and impressive customer focus, with a repeat transaction rate for the last quarter of 93 percent. Pitti argues that being a bootstrap founder allowed him to be pushed to innovate in different ways due to a lack of resources, such as creating multiple SOPS, resulting in tremendous ripple effects.

3) Prashant shares some of the strategies his company uses to handle customer service in the travel industry. To address the anxiety and potential monetary losses customers face when making mistakes with flight bookings, the company has created a standard operating procedure that emphasizes empathy and offers to help retrieve lost funds. Additionally, the company has implemented a kitty system that allows call center agents to offer refunds to customers without having to escalate the issue to a manager, based on the previous quarter's profits. These strategies have helped the company stand out in an industry where competitors often do not prioritize customer experience.

4) Prashant discuss a bold and emotional decision they made during the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead of holding onto their profits, they refunded customers who needed to cancel flights due to the pandemic, even though it depleted their cash reserves. This decision paid off in a big way as people took to social media to tag their competitors who were not offering refunds, and EaseMyTrip became the second-largest travel company in India as soon as travel resumed. The two entrepreneurs also reflect on what keeps them going during tough times, and they attribute their resilience to their values and principles.

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5) Prashant discusses how his previous experience in Duke travel agency led to the realization that there were several pain points in the travel agent industry that could be addressed using technology. He also explains that the fact that their business focused on positive unit economics from the start worked in their favor as many organizations that have been inefficient for years find it hard to pivot to a new direction. Additionally, he mentions that while positive unit economics is essential for commodity businesses like their own, it might not be the case for all businesses.

6) Prashant speaks about the importance of having a high level of efficiency from day one even if unit economics don't make sense in a novelty or category creation business. He also talks about his personal learning of being more curious than cautious, as sticking to caution can lead to analysis paralysis. He also discusses the top mistakes made by the company, including not having proper HTML protocols to prevent fraudulent credit card use and not raising enough money in the beginning to make their lives a little easier. He also mentions the difficulty of choosing between growth and profitability, although he emphasizes the importance of efficiency.

7) Prashant stresses that the two main reasons businesses exist are to make customers happy and to make a profit. He explains that profitability is essential and cannot be replaced by VC money, and while growth is important, it should not come at the cost of profitability.

8) Pitti discusses how success is more than just discipline and hard work. He attributes much of his company's success to luck and the help of others. While he acknowledges that discipline and hard work are necessary, they are not sufficient to create success. Pitti also reveals that long-term thinking was crucial to their success and allowed for optimization over a decade rather than just a few years. He notes that the company originally had 11,000 travel agents who were resistant to their idea of catering to individual customers, but by optimizing for the long-term, EaseMyTrip was able to succeed.

9) Prashant talks about the importance of aligning long-term vision with luck, and how he optimized his B2B business for three years before transitioning into B2C. He emphasizes the value of optimizing for the next day in the beginning, but eventually coming to a point of assessing whether you're going in the right direction or not. Pitti also discusses customer loyalty, orhabituality, in the travel industry, where people are less likely to switch providers due to the high cost of making a mistake. He believes that good service and a good price are more important than having a loyalty program, and that habituality can be broken with the right price.

10) Prashant his travel booking company, has managed to retain customers despite the presence of competitors who offer discounts and coupons. He attributes this to the fact that EaseMyTrip does not charge convenience fees and has built a loyal customer base through good services and running its own call centers. He also notes that customers are forgiving, and if a company makes a mistake but takes full responsibility and pays them back, they are likely to become strong advocates for the brand. Overall, he emphasizes the importance of giving back value to the audience and building a community of loyal followers.

11) Prashant Pitti and Raj Shamani discuss the difficulties that startups face when employees leave for better offers at the last minute. They touch on personal experiences where they have been let down by employees who have committed to their startups and then reneged on the agreements, leading to setbacks and pain. Prashant suggest that the problem lies in the fact that there is no glass door for employees, where they can be held accountable for their actions.They indicate that this is a significant problem that needs addressing in orderto reduce the damage caused to startups.

12) Prashant speaks about the company's offering of cancel anytime after booking due to medical reasons, and giving 100% money back, whether or not the company gets money from the airlines. This feature, embedded in EaseMyTrip for free, has gained significant popularity among customers and has become a sustainable business model. The company decided to put trust in its customers to do the right thing, and less than half a percent of people have uploaded incorrect reports, showing that trusting people can bring positive outcomes. The lesson is that you should not assume the worst in people, and if you trust people, they will trust you back.

13) Prashant talks about the company's rapid growth in just nine months of entering the web business, with monthly business increasing from 84 lakhs to over 20 gross. They attribute this growth to not charging convenience fees unlike incumbent players. The company has learned the importance of not outsourcing the call center experience and noted that while they have yet to see how Indian and foreign consumers differ, the business fundamentals remain the same.

14) Prashant discusses how he managed to work with his brothers, who are also co-founders of the company. He explains that the inherent trust that comes with growing up together has been exceptionally helpful. Each brother has a department that aligns with their skills and interests, and they "parent the company" together, leaving their egos aside for the benefit of the business. They also operate as a joint family, with one account and a sense of respect for each other's decisions. They resolved the issue of everyone wanting to have a say in everything by dedicating 10% of their annual profit to a joint decision-making fund.