DEEP KALRA
Founder of MakeMyTrip, India's biggest online travel company.
Deep Kalra quit a comfortable corporate job in 2000 to bet on something most Indians could not yet do, book their travel online. Then the dot-com bubble burst and nearly killed the company. At one point MakeMyTrip had cash for about two months of salaries. He hung on, the company survived, and in 2010 it became the first Indian travel firm to list on the Nasdaq. The stock jumped about 89% on day one. Living proof of his own favorite line, that you fail when you give up too early.
Net Worth
Not publicly disclosed
Nationality
Indian
Time Horizon
Long-Term
Risk Appetite
7 / 10
CAREER & BACKGROUND
Deep Kalra did not start as a startup guy. He studied economics at St.
Stephen's College in Delhi, then got an MBA from IIM Ahmedabad, India's most elite business school. He worked at ABN AMRO and GE Capital, and he set up the bowling company AMF Bowling in India.
A solid, safe corporate career. Then in 2000 he walked away from it.
He was convinced the internet would change everything, and he wanted to be all in, not stuck on the sidelines of some big company. He founded MakeMyTrip that year.
It took him roughly five years to get the India business really moving, but he turned it into the country's dominant online travel brand.
COMPANIES & ROLES
MakeMyTrip is the main event. It is India's largest online travel company, where people book flights, hotels, trains, and holiday packages.
In 2016 it merged with the ibibo Group, pulling in Goibibo and the bus-booking site redBus, which cemented its lead. China's Trip.com, formerly Ctrip, became its biggest shareholder with a stake near 49%.
Beyond MakeMyTrip, Kalra is an active angel investor. He has backed startups like the wealth app Scripbox, the cloud-telephony firm Exotel, the healthcare startup eka.care, and the edtech company PlanetSpark.
INVESTING STYLE & PHILOSOPHY
As an angel, Kalra bets on founders more than fancy business plans. His own life is the template.
Pick something you believe will be huge, go all in, and grind through the years when it looks like it might not work. He has said most businesses die because someone gave up too early, not because the idea was bad.
So he looks for people who will hang on. His backing tends to go to Indian internet startups, the world he knows best.
THE PLAYBOOK
Risk Approach
Kalra's relationship with risk was forged in the dot-com bust. When the money dried up, an early investor wanted out, and Kalra had to choose.
Return the cash or buy the company back. He found three backers to fund the buyback and kept control.
His lesson from that period is famous. Stay calm in a crisis, because panic never finds the solution.
He is a risk-taker, but a stubborn, patient one, not a reckless gambler.
Money Habits
Kalra came up the careful way, with a banking and corporate background before he ever took a startup risk. He famously bootstrapped MakeMyTrip through the lean years, when the team slept in the office and cash was tight.
That frugality stuck. He is known more for relentless work habits than for splashy spending.
These days a lot of his money and time flows into causes, from co-founding Ashoka University to running a civic group in his home city of Gurgaon.
BIGGEST WIN
The win is the 2010 Nasdaq IPO. MakeMyTrip became the first Indian online travel company to list in the United States, under the ticker MMYT.
It raised around $70 million, and the stock popped roughly 89% on its first day, pushing the company near a $1 billion valuation. For a business that a few years earlier had two months of cash left, going public on the Nasdaq was vindication.
It proved an Indian internet company built through the worst of times could win on the global stage.
BIGGEST MISTAKE
Kalra has been honest that one early call cost him years. He outsourced the company's technology instead of building it in-house.
By his own account, it took him a good five years to bring real technology talent inside the company. For an internet business, that is a long time to depend on outsiders for the thing that matters most.
The lesson he took is the one he repeats to founders. Own your core.
For a tech company, the technology is the core.
FINANCIAL PHILOSOPHY
His philosophy is built on persistence and people. Work hard and things fall into place, he says, and he genuinely does not believe in luck.
Stay calm when everything is on fire, because that is when the solution shows up. Hire people smarter than you, because no founder builds anything big alone.
He talks about negotiation the same practical way. Figure out what the other person actually wants, then find the deal that works for both sides.
FAMILY & PERSONAL LIFE
Kalra keeps his personal life fairly private. He is based in Gurgaon, near Delhi, where he co-founded a city-improvement group called I Am Gurgaon.
He is also one of the founders of Ashoka University, a well-regarded liberal arts school in India, and has led industry bodies like NASSCOM's internet group and the World Travel and Tourism Council's India chapter. Outside of MakeMyTrip, a lot of his energy goes into Indian education and his home city.
EDUCATION
Deep Kalra studied economics at St. Stephen's College in Delhi, one of India's most respected colleges.
He then earned an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, the country's top business school. That IIM-A pedigree opened doors across corporate India.
But he left all of it behind to start MakeMyTrip in 2000.
BOOKS & RESOURCES
Kalra has not written a book of his own
Two business titles that line up with how he thinks, and that he is reported to recommend, are worth a look
Explains why big, successful companies get blindsided by smaller upstarts, which is basically the gap MakeMyTrip drove through
The story of Amazon and Jeff Bezos, is a masterclass in building an internet company with relentless patience, the exact trait Kalra preaches
As an Amazon Associate, Netfigo earns from qualifying purchases. Book links above may be affiliate links.
QUOTES (6)
It is only when you are calm in a crisis can you find a solution.
I don't believe in luck but I believe that if you work hard, things fall in place.
I was 25-26 and at that age, you had no fear of failure. You felt you could do anything.
Much of an entrepreneur's success depends on the team he builds. You always have to hire people who are smarter than you.
When you negotiate, you always have to put yourself in the other person's shoes and understand what they really want.
I am relentless till it is perfect. It takes several iterations but I don't stop till I get there.
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Investors
Kunal Shah
A fellow Indian internet founder turned active angel investor in the country's startup scene.
Ravi Adusumalli
Elevation backed Kalra's MakeMyTrip early and exited around 2017 for a reported 20x-plus return.
Sachin Bansal
Another Indian internet pioneer who built and then exited a category-defining company.
Head-to-Head
Compare Deep Kalra vs another investor.