New Delhi: Showcasing your achievements is one thing, hogging the spotlight for a cause is another.No one knows this better than celebrity entrepreneur Elon Musk (and also Ola Founder Bhavish Agarwal, more on that later). But Elon Musk is no Kim Kardashian, he has proved his worth by leading Tesla to become a trillion dollar automaker, whose self driving electric cars had become an aspirational purchase that offered a tech stack way better than a Ferrari, Aston Martin or any other European luxury car maker.
That was 2023. Fast forward today, Tesla has been left behind by BYD, a Chinese automaker that offers the best value for money, in most markets where it directly competes with Tesla. Tesla had a great, promising start, where Elon aggressively poached talent from wherever he could to create a self-driving car like no other. Elon modelled Tesla like Apple, where most of the components are designed in-house to keep costs low and maintain a high degree of innovation autonomy.
But Tesla wasn’t Elon’s creation. He was an early investor in the company, eventually becoming the face behind the brand. Back home, Bhavish Agarwal tread on a similar path. After finding success with Ola Cabs’ ride-hailing service, he ventured into the EV bike space by buying a struggling Dutch EV bike maker and leveraging its technology to eventually launch its Ola range of electric scooters in late 2021.
For budding entrepreneurs, both Elon and Bhavish have shown how hard work, dedication, persistence, and the ability to forecast the next trends in technology have been legendary. The hunger to dominate the market has driven both to see the pinnacle of success and motivate their teams to create industry-leading products.
This ambition has also made them the victims of their success. One of Tesla’s most popular cars, the Model 3 had been plagued with manufacturing delays and after sales service issues. Ditto with Ola’s bikes, where social media was flooded with reports of scooters spontaneously catching fire or the front wheel giving way in the middle of the street.
Even though such reports have died down, poor and patchy after sales service from Ola has resulted in a barrage of complaints, with one furious customer even setting an Ola showroom on fire due to poor service.
Despite this, Ola has cornered more than half of the EV bike market share in India, as budget-conscious Indians look for a cheaper and longer-lasting alternative to petrol bikes. Back in the States,Tesla has maintained its reputation as the best EV electric car brand, even though the competition from Chinese automakers cannot be ignored.
Even though Tesla and Ola have their own set of challenges, both serial entrepreneurs continue to work on new projects designed to disrupt conventional technologies. Both of them are not only looking to succeed, but to dominate in every domain they venture into.
Elon has been working to deliver high speed internet from satellites, bypassing the need for laying a terrestrial fiber optic cable network through its SpaceX subsidiary, Starlink. Bhavish, on the other hand, is working on Ola Maps, a rival to the domination of Google Maps that complements the tech stack for both Ola Electic and Ola Cabs.
Both are known for their no-nonsense work culture, where they have unlimited expectations from their teams and their aim to annihilate their competition. This intense desire for market domination has had unintended consequences, which have eventually damaged the reputation of the brands they worked so hard to create.
Going by media reports, Elon Musk has been single handedly leading the charge at Tesla, SpaceX and X(formerly, Twitter). Some of his decisions have been questionable, especially renaming Twitter, which is a well-known brand the world over.
Back home, Bhavish is venturing into newer domains as well. His venture-capital funded Krutrim AI app and Ola maps have been tailored for Indians, making ChatGPT and Google Maps sit up and notice. Even though other competitors are finding it tough to shake the preference for Google maps in India, Ola has a better chance with its complementary offerings.
Even though Ola’s IPO in August 2024 was a blockbuster, the initial euphoria tapered off within 2 months. Despite this, budding entrepreneurs still look up to Bhavish and wish him all the best, as they see an ‘avatar’ of Elon Musk in him.
I know there’s a lot riding on your shoulders Bhavish. We are hoping you can solve any challenge life throws at you, and help the innumerable entrepreneurs across India to follow you, emulate you and look up to you. Best of Luck!
