It was their firsthand experience with the transportation sector that gave Ramprasad and Ashok Shastry the idea for 'DriveU'; an idea that will eventually become a trailblazer in itself.
Attending an alumni meet in 2011, Ramprasad met two young entrepreneurs, Raghu and Aprameya, who had just launched a taxi service and were looking for angel investors. The idea intrigued him and he became their first angel investor. The company, 'TaxiForSure', grew beyond their wildest dreams and made a mark across the country, before being recently acquired by Ola Cabs for a whopping Rs 1200 crore. But the idea lay at the back of his head.
A few years after 'TaxiForSure' took off, his son, Ashok, joined the company to gain work experience after graduation. "After the company got acquired, I called up my father and pitched my idea for a new company to aggregate parking. The idea intrigued him and we started work in right earnest."
The duo established a company and started recruiting the core team. Before the end of the week, they had pretty much the key team members locked down. Wanting an exceptional talent to guide the product development, Ramprasad met Ashok's friend Amulmeet Chadha and, over beer and pizza, revealed their idea. The idea aroused interest and Amul joined the company as one of the co-founders.
As the three of them started to deep dive into brass tacks of researching the market, they started to realise that there was a bigger challenge beyond parking which needed attention — simply driving from one point to the other. With an increasing number of vehicles on Indian roads and an even more mind-boggling number being added everyday, the average speeds were plummeting and commuting time was increasing exponentially. And so the nature of the business transformed to driver aggregation and thus 'DriveU' was born.
"I lived in different cities in the US for about 35 years. I used to often visit Bengaluru, as my parents stayed here. We would hire a car and a driver whenever we wanted to get around. However, I observed that very often we weren't actually travelling, and the driver would use the time to catch naps in the car. A total waste of money and resource", says Ramprasad. So, the driver aggregation made perfect sense to him as well.
"Many friends and investors were puzzled what DriveU was up to. They saw the need but didn't comprehend the scale. But the team continued to believe in the idea," he said.
The founding team spent a lot of time working in the confines of Ashok's living room. They worked day and night to get the product ready.
"My favourite memory of founding DriveU is when we were starting up in the ground floor of my house and we would work by the candle light when the power went out. Of course, the candle bases were old beer bottles we had all over the house", says Ashok.
The team was anxious to see how the service would be received in the market. Though the first week was quite slow, as the word of mouth spread through social media and other marketing channels, demand started to pick up. The early customers liked the professionalism of the drivers and the simplicity of the DriveU app. They provided helpful feedback which the team incorporated. Soon, the floodgates opened and the country's first on-demand private driver service now has a pan-Indian presence and a bunch of younger, multi-lingual, college-educated
drivers.
![]( "Enterprising (From left) Ashok, Ramprasad and Amulmeet.")
It was their firsthand experience with the transportation sector that gave Ramprasad and Ashok Shastry the idea for 'DriveU’; an idea that will eventually become a trailblazer in itself.
Attending an alumni meet in 2011, Ramprasad met two young entrepreneurs, Raghu and Aprameya, who had just launched a taxi service and were looking for angel investors. The idea intrigued him and he became their first angel investor. The company, 'TaxiForSure’, grew beyond their wildest dreams and made a mark across the country, before being recently acquired by Ola Cabs for a whopping Rs 1200 crore. But the idea lay at the back of his head.
A few years after 'TaxiForSure’ took off, his son, Ashok, joined the company to gain work experience after graduation. "After the company got acquired, I called up my father and pitched my idea for a new company to aggregate parking. The idea intrigued him and we started work in right earnest.”
The duo established a company and started recruiting the core team. Before the end of the week, they had pretty much the key team members locked down. Wanting an exceptional talent to guide the product development, Ramprasad met Ashok’s friend Amulmeet Chadha and, over beer and pizza, revealed their idea. The idea aroused interest and Amul joined the company as one of the co-founders.
As the three of them started to deep dive into brass tacks of researching the market, they started to realise that there was a bigger challenge beyond parking which needed attention — simply driving from one point to the other. With an increasing number of vehicles on Indian roads and an even more mind-boggling number being added everyday, the average speeds were plummeting and commuting time was increasing exponentially. And so the nature of the business transformed to driver aggregation and thus 'DriveU’ was born.
"I lived in different cities in the US for about 35 years. I used to often visit Bengaluru, as my parents stayed here. We would hire a car and a driver whenever we wanted to get around. However, I observed that very often we weren’t actually travelling, and the driver would use the time to catch naps in the car. A total waste of money and resource”, says Ramprasad. So, the driver aggregation made perfect sense to him as well.
"Many friends and investors were puzzled what DriveU was up to. They saw the need but didn’t comprehend the scale. But the team continued to believe in the idea,” he said.
The founding team spent a lot of time working in the confines of Ashok’s living room. They worked day and night to get the product ready.
"My favourite memory of founding DriveU is when we were starting up in the ground floor of my house and we would work by the candle light when the power went out. Of course, the candle bases were old beer bottles we had all over the house”, says Ashok.
The team was anxious to see how the service would be received in the market. Though the first week was quite slow, as the word of mouth spread through social media and other marketing channels, demand started to pick up. The early customers liked the professionalism of the drivers and the simplicity of the DriveU app. They provided helpful feedback which the team incorporated. Soon, the floodgates opened and the country’s first on-demand private driver service now has a pan-Indian presence and a bunch of younger, multi-lingual, college-educated
drivers.
Attending an alumni meet in 2011, Ramprasad met two young entrepreneurs, Raghu and Aprameya, who had just launched a taxi service and were looking for angel investors. The idea intrigued him and he became their first angel investor. The company, 'TaxiForSure', grew beyond their wildest dreams and made a mark across the country, before being recently acquired by Ola Cabs for a whopping Rs 1200 crore. But the idea lay at the back of his head.
A few years after 'TaxiForSure' took off, his son, Ashok, joined the company to gain work experience after graduation. "After the company got acquired, I called up my father and pitched my idea for a new company to aggregate parking. The idea intrigued him and we started work in right earnest."
The duo established a company and started recruiting the core team. Before the end of the week, they had pretty much the key team members locked down. Wanting an exceptional talent to guide the product development, Ramprasad met Ashok's friend Amulmeet Chadha and, over beer and pizza, revealed their idea. The idea aroused interest and Amul joined the company as one of the co-founders.
As the three of them started to deep dive into brass tacks of researching the market, they started to realise that there was a bigger challenge beyond parking which needed attention — simply driving from one point to the other. With an increasing number of vehicles on Indian roads and an even more mind-boggling number being added everyday, the average speeds were plummeting and commuting time was increasing exponentially. And so the nature of the business transformed to driver aggregation and thus 'DriveU' was born.
"I lived in different cities in the US for about 35 years. I used to often visit Bengaluru, as my parents stayed here. We would hire a car and a driver whenever we wanted to get around. However, I observed that very often we weren't actually travelling, and the driver would use the time to catch naps in the car. A total waste of money and resource", says Ramprasad. So, the driver aggregation made perfect sense to him as well.
"Many friends and investors were puzzled what DriveU was up to. They saw the need but didn't comprehend the scale. But the team continued to believe in the idea," he said.
The founding team spent a lot of time working in the confines of Ashok's living room. They worked day and night to get the product ready.
"My favourite memory of founding DriveU is when we were starting up in the ground floor of my house and we would work by the candle light when the power went out. Of course, the candle bases were old beer bottles we had all over the house", says Ashok.
The team was anxious to see how the service would be received in the market. Though the first week was quite slow, as the word of mouth spread through social media and other marketing channels, demand started to pick up. The early customers liked the professionalism of the drivers and the simplicity of the DriveU app. They provided helpful feedback which the team incorporated. Soon, the floodgates opened and the country's first on-demand private driver service now has a pan-Indian presence and a bunch of younger, multi-lingual, college-educated
drivers.
It was their firsthand experience with the transportation sector that gave Ramprasad and Ashok Shastry the idea for 'DriveU’; an idea that will eventually become a trailblazer in itself.Attending an alumni meet in 2011, Ramprasad met two young entrepreneurs, Raghu and Aprameya, who had just launched a taxi service and were looking for angel investors. The idea intrigued him and he became their first angel investor. The company, 'TaxiForSure’, grew beyond their wildest dreams and made a mark across the country, before being recently acquired by Ola Cabs for a whopping Rs 1200 crore. But the idea lay at the back of his head.
A few years after 'TaxiForSure’ took off, his son, Ashok, joined the company to gain work experience after graduation. "After the company got acquired, I called up my father and pitched my idea for a new company to aggregate parking. The idea intrigued him and we started work in right earnest.”
The duo established a company and started recruiting the core team. Before the end of the week, they had pretty much the key team members locked down. Wanting an exceptional talent to guide the product development, Ramprasad met Ashok’s friend Amulmeet Chadha and, over beer and pizza, revealed their idea. The idea aroused interest and Amul joined the company as one of the co-founders.
As the three of them started to deep dive into brass tacks of researching the market, they started to realise that there was a bigger challenge beyond parking which needed attention — simply driving from one point to the other. With an increasing number of vehicles on Indian roads and an even more mind-boggling number being added everyday, the average speeds were plummeting and commuting time was increasing exponentially. And so the nature of the business transformed to driver aggregation and thus 'DriveU’ was born.
"I lived in different cities in the US for about 35 years. I used to often visit Bengaluru, as my parents stayed here. We would hire a car and a driver whenever we wanted to get around. However, I observed that very often we weren’t actually travelling, and the driver would use the time to catch naps in the car. A total waste of money and resource”, says Ramprasad. So, the driver aggregation made perfect sense to him as well.
"Many friends and investors were puzzled what DriveU was up to. They saw the need but didn’t comprehend the scale. But the team continued to believe in the idea,” he said.
The founding team spent a lot of time working in the confines of Ashok’s living room. They worked day and night to get the product ready.
"My favourite memory of founding DriveU is when we were starting up in the ground floor of my house and we would work by the candle light when the power went out. Of course, the candle bases were old beer bottles we had all over the house”, says Ashok.
The team was anxious to see how the service would be received in the market. Though the first week was quite slow, as the word of mouth spread through social media and other marketing channels, demand started to pick up. The early customers liked the professionalism of the drivers and the simplicity of the DriveU app. They provided helpful feedback which the team incorporated. Soon, the floodgates opened and the country’s first on-demand private driver service now has a pan-Indian presence and a bunch of younger, multi-lingual, college-educated
drivers.