‘Every start-up is a customer pain point that an entrepreneur spots’

To be an entrepreneur, one should learn there is no alternative to hard work, adapt to dynamic environment and get things done as a team says Gaurav Aggarwal, Founder and CEO, Savaari Car Rentals…

How did you start your career?

I started as a software engineer and worked through all layers of Cisco’s internet operating system for cable routers in US. I started out working at the application layer and towards the later part of my 10+ years @Cisco I was writing driver code for the latest and greatest of the line cards for cable routers. The biggest learning for me was the aptitude that I developed to understand as complex a system as Cisco’s internet operating system which had over 25 million lines of code and could switch millions of packets a second.

What was the transition like from a software engineer to an Entrepreneur?

The most difficult part was to leave the cushy job in US to move back to India and work full time on Savaari. However, it has been an exciting journey since the inception of Savaari. The first few years were spent in getting the business and financial model right. The model was that we can provide quality services to our customers on a pan India basis at very reasonable prices and still churn profits. We have been cash flow positive since our second year itself. In March 2012, we have raised our Series A round of funding and this money helped us create awareness about Savaari and its offering to scale and to build the right technology solution to achieve the scale. We recently received the second round of funding from Intel Capital with participation from Inventus. This will be used for further expansion and for deploying advanced technology for the benefit of its customers. We have come a long way since 2006 and have proved our business and service model is right on track.

What are things you learnt and the skills that help you run a start-up?

There is no alternative to hard work. Apart from learning this fact, I honed up my technical knowledge, adaptability to dynamic environment and get things done as a team. However, it is enthusiasm that was crucial to me. Ability to solve problems, understanding of professional and ethical responsibilities, ability to analyse and interpret data, organisational and leadership skills are some of the skills I acquired.

What lessons did you imbibe from your manager?

My manager at Cisco taught me to stay calm even under tremendous pressure and as a result of which you can find (and in fact drive your team towards) elegant solutions to incredible complex problems even at the most testing times.

What’s your advice to budding entrepreneurs?

Running a start-up is a roller coaster ride. The genesis of every start-up at the core is a customer pain point that an entrepreneur spots. If you have an idea and you believe in it, take a leap of faith and start working on it. The more you will delay, the harder it will become. When looking back you will never repent that you took a chance and failed but certainly on the chances that you didn’t take.

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