Deep Kalra, founder and CEO of MakeMy Trip (MMT) and one of the leading dotcom poster boys in the country, sets himself apart from the regular black suits of the corporate world when he talks of his latest river rafting trip instead of business jargon and industry numbers.

There?s nothing in Kalra?s demeanour that reeks of the rut life generally can become in the business world. And it?s not that he didn?t go for it. With a right mix on his CV for a cushy corporate job?a BA Honours in economics from Delhi?s St Stephen?s College and a management degree from Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIM-A)?he worked with ABN Amro Bank, and even GE Capital. In between was a stint with AMF Bowling, where his job was to sell bowling alleys in India. But like he tells us, ?I started asking myself that what was my happy state? And it was doing something new.? Talking about ABN Amro, he says, ?I loved the bank and I?m still in touch with a lot of people from there. But I was sure that I don?t want to do banking all my life. I thought I?d end up dying on the desk,? he says.

And Internet taking off in India in the late Nineties was the push, as well as the opportunity, that coaxed Kalra to take the plunge and bring out the entrepreneur in him. But he says it wasn?t an epiphany, but a gradual realisation aided by a couple of ?tipping points?. He says, ?One of them was, believe it or not, selling a second hand car online. I actually sold a Zen and got R20,000 more than I was getting through a regular car dealer. I realised how the Internet will end up facilitating a lot of stuff for consumers in the time to come.? The next was while planning a trip to Phuket with wife Amrita, where they saved around $100 by booking the hotel online, rather than taking the route of travel agents. ?I was very clear that the businesses being done over the phone back then would be the first ones to move to the web. If Internet wasn?t taking off back then the way it did, I don?t think I would have had the guts to take the plunge in this fashion,? he says. So Kalra took the risky yet adventurous route of entrepreneurship that made him India?s favourite holidaywala. And how!

Today, his travel portal has become synonymous with online travel booking, is a leading e-commerce player, has had a dream run at Nasdaq and has an army of 1,100 people who make holidays for millions of Indians. Kalra?s business journey is stuff that dreams, and, more importantly, their realisation, are made of. There is more. Post the Nasdaq listing in August 2010, MMT has been on a shopping spree. It started with the acquisition of 79% stake in Singapore-based Luxury Tours & Travel in February last year, followed by its investment in travel search engine iXiGO.com in August. The year ended for MMT with an acquisition of 29% in Delhi-based My Guest House Accommodations (MGH) for around $1 million, with an option to fully takeover the firm over a period of eight years. And that?s not where Kalra?s shopping stops. With his company still sitting on about $80 million that it raised, there will be more deals that it will announce this year. MMT was the first company to get listed on the Nasdaq after 2006. MakeMy Trip raised $70 million by pricing five million shares at $14 each and also exercised the green shoe option for another 15%, bringing the entire amount to $80.5 million. Besides the money coming in, there is a lot that changed for him after the listing. So for the past one and a half years, Kalra has been busy travelling to the US, doing investor road shows and sundry other meetings. ?Of course, we have been doing more media interviews too. Life has changed in more ways than one,? Kalra, a journalist?s delight, says candidly.

But every such dream run, more often than not, has a preface of struggle too. In 2000, MakeMyTrip was started as a travel company focused only on NRI travel. ?The smartest thing in hindsight was to stop marketing to Indians very quickly. The first three months we launched in India and the US, we realised that in India we had lots of lookers but very few bookers. So the conversion ratios were pathetic. It was, however, very good on the NRI market and kept growing,? he says. But then things got tough. Early 2000 was the time when SARS broke out and 9/11 impacted travel and economies. During the dotcom bust in early 2001, MakeMyTrip?s incubator, eVentures, exited the company. ?So the journey between 2001 and 2004 was very much in the dark. Those years were tough. We weren?t profitable and I had bet the bank completely on it with whatever savings I had. And I wasn?t taking home any money. So it was a very difficult time. No pay cheque for 18 months really makes you wonder if you?re going in the right direction,? recalls Kalra. But, of course, it wasn?t sheer madness, as Kalra himself says that he and MMT never looked back after 2004. ?In 2005 we launched in India and in gross sales we were between $20-40 million. So revenues were just $2-4 million. This year the revenue is at $86-88 million. This growth has come only in the past six-seven years,? he says.

And as the family man he?s known to be, Kalra looks back at those days and finds himself lucky to have received the kind of support he did from his family, especially his wife. ?The children were too small to feel anything. My wife was really supportive. And her point was very clear ?you?ve got to come home happy, rather than coming home grumpy,? he says.

And that leads us to the next question: how did Kalra meet his wife? He seems a little taken aback, but obliges us with the answer. ?We are, as people would say, childhood sweethearts. I was in college. She was a neighbour of a school friend. And clearly as you can guess, I visited that school friend a lot,? he chuckles. He adds, ?She knew more about travel than I did. She?s the inhouse travel agent; it?s not me. And for once if something?s not up to the mark in any of our trips with friends, I can happily pass the blame on her.? Probe him a little more and Kalra is more than happy sharing anecdotes from his school days and college life. ?College was a royal waste of time, but it was great. I feel we all should do it for three years. What Stephen?s makes you do is to ensure that you do go. You have to get your attendance right, come what may. You attend three classes a day. And then spend most of your time in the dhaba. In fact, I made a group for our Stephen?s friends called DhaBA Honours. Last year does get a bit serious though as you want to catch up with the marks and I started preparing for CAT. But the first two years were a party,? he quips.

At work too, he is proud of the environment he?s created at MMT, which has consistently been rated as one of the best places to work at in India. In fact, Kalra himself seems obsessed with a friendly and open work culture at MMT. He tells us that cola wars have penetrated the office as two of his team members are former employees of one of the soft drink majors, and hence, the other brand is not welcome to be served inside the MMT office, which in true Deep Kalra style is named Trippper Villa.

And how much online shopping does he do himself? ?I hate going to malls and make an exception only for a movie. I detest shopping and it?s embarrassing to say this, but I only shop online or at airports,? he says. Kalra?s favourite shopping sites are Amazon, Zappos and Flipkart. ?Zappos is for shoes as I don?t get my size here, which is a 12-plus,? he says with a grin. A case of shoes too big to fill, one might say!

Profile

Deep Kalra Founder and CEO, MakeMy Trip

Date of birth

July 6, 1969

Marital Status

Married, with two children

EDUCATION

MBA (PGDM) degree from Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (1992)

Bachelor?s Degree in economics from St Stephen?s College, Delhi (1990)

Awards & positions

Member of the Executive Council of Nasscom and chairs the Nasscom Internet Working Group

Board member of TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs) New Delhi and is also a Charter Member of TiE

Independent Director of One97 Communications Ltd and IndiaMart.com

Founding member of ?I am Gurgaon?, an NGO focused on improving the quality of life in Gurgaon and is closely involved with other NGOs like Udayan Care

In 2012, won the Cosmo Fun Fearless Young Entrepreneur Award

Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year for Business Transformation in the online travel industry

Chosen as the IDMA Person of the Year in 2011.

Editor?s Choice Award at the GMR Express Travel World Awards 2011

?Internet person of the year 2010? at the India Digital Awards held by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI)