Abhibus plans to have its own kiosks and lounges across the country
Sudhakar Reddy Chirra CEO of Abhibus.
Hyderabad: Most innovations trace back to difficulties that the inventor might have faced in his or her life. Similarly, the reason behind India’s fastest growing online bus ticketing company Abhibus is the difficulty that its founder Sudhakar Reddy Chirra faced for booking bus tickets at short notice.
“While I was studying engineering in Chennai, I often used to make short distance bus travel at short notice. But I used to face a lot of difficulty in booking tickets as the private bus business used to be dominated by touts. This problem, which most of us had faced, gave me the business idea,” said Mr Reddy, the founder and CEO of Abhibus.
Though not a book worm, Mr Reddy became the first person in his batch to get an offer letter. He worked with General Electric from 2005 to 2007, following tremendous pressure from the family to settle down. After marrying his college sweetheart, Sudhakar decided to take a calculated risk to unsettle his settled life. In 2007, he quit the job and refused a US job offer to take an unchartered route in entrepreneurship. But the investment was still an issue.
“I didn’t have enough money start my business. So I sought the help of my father, who was initially did not buy my idea. After several attempts over three months, I convinced him for a Rs 10 lakh loan to set-up Abhibus,” explained Sudhakar, who was born in an agriculturist family in a remote village called Ankireddy Palem in Guntur district. The idea behind Abhibus was simple: Develop a software programme for private bus operators, who will pay him by allotting some seats.
Despite the simple idea, Sudhakar did not have a smooth road to travel as the sector which he had chosen was totally disorganised and in the hand of touts. “Managers, who were handling the show in this deep rooted rotten system, were hostile when I approached them for doing business with them. After much difficulty, I managed to speak directly to the owner of a bus operator and pitched the idea. Four seats were the first hit from Dananjaya Travels and a 400 square feet office was taken for operations.”
When the business turned difficult after a few months, he decided to take up a job again. Just a day after joining the new company, a bright idea clicked him and he returned back to resurrect his business. “I changed the model. Instead of offering a software programme, I started helping travel operators digitise their business. With payments going directly to the operators, more operators joined us, turning around our business.”
In 2009, Sudhakar signed in UP State Road Transport Corporation and the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh State Road Corporation to name a few major players. With small investments from private investors, the company was growing leaps and bounds. With offices in important metros, Abhibus plans to have its own kiosks and lounges across the country to help improve customer access and experience.
They have tied up with taxi operator Uber in a win-win way for both the traveller and the operator. Today, Abhibus has left behind its detractors and contemporaries and much of it is owed to its adopting and executing user-friendly technology.
Sudhakar’s learnings – it’s not about the Idea – it’s always about the execution and he says thoughtfully, “The enterpenural journey is full of thorns and sacrifices but you need to take care of people you work with and travel with the right ones.” (In association with jobsdialog.com of TMI e2E Academy)
( Source : dc correspondent )
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