Ashish Hemrajani Reveals BookMyShow's Origin, A Radio Show, 25 Shots Of Wine, Drunk Text To Ex-Boss

There was a time in India when tickets were being sold through the pigeon-holes in counters. People would stand in a long queue to buy tickets, without the surety that they would even get the same. Back then no one could ever think that this time would come when tickets could be bought online, that too in advance with incentives and offers. And the platform, which made it possible was BookMyShow. 

It was founded by Ashish Hemrajani back in 1999 and was launched in 2007 in India. But do you know that the idea came through a radio show? It 'started with smoking and ended with drinking'; at least that's what the CEO and the co-founder, Ashish Heramanji revealed.

BookMyShow CEO, Ashish Hemrajani shares how he quit his job and founded the platform

Ashish Hemrajani recently sat for an interview with Raj Shamani, wherein he was asked about the origin of his brainchild, BookMyShow. To this, Ashish revealed an intriguing story, which is really relatable and inspiring for those, who can create something big if they are strong and brave enough to shape their ideas with their hard work and, obviously, business mind.

Sharing the wild origin of BookMyShow, Ashish Hemrajani revealed that in one line the story is that it started with smoking and ended with drinking. Sharing what happened, Ashish said that he was 24 years old back then in 1999, and was earning Rs. 8,000 while working in an advertising agency. Ashish never used to smoke, but his peers did, and over the years, even though, he got a hike of Rs. 500, he felt it to be a bit unhealthy environment to be in constantly, which led him to take a break. Ashish loved his job, but he took a break and decided to meet his best friend in South Africa.

Ashish Hemrajani resigned from his former job by dropping a drunk text

After reaching there, one day, while hanging out, he heard a radio show, wherein an individual was trying to sell rugby tickets online. This, although Ashish felt to be an 'alien idea' back then, he couldn't stop thinking about it, given the ticket-selling situation in our country back then. Well, he kept thinking about it, and meanwhile, he reached a spot in South Africa for free wine tasting and ended up having 25 shots. Meanwhile, he also texted his boss at the advertising agency that he decided to quit his job.

Ashish Hemrajani got investors like Bharat Kewalramani and Anil Ahuja to build BookMyShow

Ashish Hemrajani came back to India without a job, made the plan, created pitches and even elevator pitches to chase capital partner, JP Morgan, and later, got the investors, Bharat Kewalramani and Anil Ahuja. Well, BookMyShow was founded. Raj asked how the investors invested in him, since he was not in that job position, not even his idea had any track record, or even he didn't have a background.

Raj further asked him if he was from an affluent family so that the investors could invest. Ashish said that he was from a middle-class family, but his immigrant parents never made him believe that he was not secondary to anything. However, he further shared that while it's understandable in today's time, investing in business takes a lot of thinking from investors, mainly 'overanalysis paralysis', but it's science and an art to decide whether one should move forward with an entrepreneur, and it could be perceived by the person who is pitching, the market value of the idea and more.

Watch the video here.

What do you think about Ashish Hemrajani's story of building BookMyShow?

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