Pavan Guntupalli a young man from Telangana is not someone who found success easily. His journey was full of ups and downs he failed not once or twice but seven times and heard “no” from 75 investors. But he didn’t lose hope. He believed in himself and kept trying. Finally one of his ideas clicked and that idea became a household name. Pavan came up with a simple but powerful solution: bike taxis and this was born out of frustration by the never-ending traffic in cities. What started as a small idea has now grown into a company worth Rs. 9600 crore. Let’s take a closer look at how Pavan turned rejection into remarkable success. Who is Pavan Guntupalli Pavan Guntupalli was born in Telangana and was always good at studies. He learned computer programming and got into IIT Kharagpur one of India’s top engineering colleges. After graduation he got a job at Samsung as a software developer. But was not really happy with doing a regular job so he decided to quit. He and his friend Aravind Sanka started a company called theKarrier. But it did not work out and their first startup failed. Still Pavan didn’t stop trying. He started seven different things but none of them succeeded. How the idea of Rapido started? By 2015 cab services like Ola and Uber had become popular in India. But they were expensive and people still had to sit in long traffic jams. Even after paying high fares passengers couldn’t save time- the very thing they were paying for. That’s when Pavan got the idea for Rapido instead of cars he chose bikes. Bikes are faster in traffic and cheaper for short trips. He launched Rapido with the goal of helping people beat traffic and travel at low cost. In 2015 Rapido became India’s first bike taxi service. And today its a name known in almost every city. How Rapido grew from rejections to a Rs. 9600 crore company Back when Ola and Uber ruled big cities like Delhi and Mumbai Rapido decided to do something different. Instead of fighting them in metro cities they focused on Tier-1 and Tier-2 cities where people still faced daily travel struggles. Their idea? Let people travel quickly and cheaply on bike taxis which was perfect for office trips markets or short-distance rides. Initially Rapido charged just Rs 15 as a base fare and Rs 3 per km making it affordable but challenging to turn a profit. But starting Rapido wasn’t easy. Pavan Guntupalli launched Rapido with two of his friends. The biggest challenge? Funding. Investors were already pouring money into cab companies like Ola and Uber. Nobody was ready to bet on bikes — back then bike taxis were unfamiliar and there were no clear rules or laws for this service. Even worse when Ola and Uber noticed Rapido’s idea they launched their own bike taxi services. This made investors even more hesitant. They didn’t believe Rapido would survive let alone succeed. Pavan and his team were rejected by 75 investors. Then in 2016 their luck changed. Pawan Munjal the Chairman and MD of Hero MotoCorp saw potential in Rapido and became their first big investor. Once that happened more investors started showing interest. With new funding Rapido launched 400 bikes across Bengaluru Delhi and Gurugram. By January 2016 they had 5000 users and by the end of the year that number grew to 1.5 lakh. To attract customers they kept things simple: Base fare: Rs. 15 No commission from riders in the beginning Riders were proudly called Captains This no-commission model made Rapido popular among both riders and drivers. Soon they had over 50000 Captains and 7 lakh users. The app has been downloaded over 50 million times on Google Play and Apple Store with around 7 lakh users and a team of 50000 riders or captains. Rapido kept growing fast. By 2019 the company was doing around 70000 trips a day. Today Rapido operates in over 100 cities and has more than 5 crore app downloads.