Phanindra Sama, Founder, redBus.in

by popularizing bus travel through its innovative business model. “redBus.in seeks to modernize bus travel in India by bringing in the convenience factor - akin to how the airline and rail ticketing industry has evolved in India. redBus.in aggregates bus tickets inventory from hundrerds of bus operators and makes it available online for consumers. Add to this, we distribute our bus inventory to thousands of retailers like travel agents, large retail chains like Sify cyber cafes, post offices, OTAs like MakeMyTrip, Yatra, and mobile VAS providers like OnMobile etc.” 

Founded in late 2006, redBus.in is a market leader in the industry (a category that it has literally created and organized) with an inventory featuring 500+ bus operators for 5000+ services covering over 15 states in the country. We serve customers from 7 call centers spread across South, West and North India.

When it comes to the scope and the effects of his venture, Phanindra seems to have been a heaven-sent for an industry running on outdated principles. He states “Our solution is a win-win solution for the bus operator, the travel agent and the customer. Bus operators gain because with redBus, they now have access to a strong distribution network. Today their tickets are available in multiple outlets, geographies and channels such as on mobile, internet and home delivery. Travel agents gain because they now have access to an inventory from multiple bus operators. Besides that they can sell return tickets as well. Customers gain because they now have information on a comprehensive list of buses plying between any routes.”

“We work like an agent to bus operators. The bus operator pays us a commission for the seats we sell.”, says Phanindra, elaborating his company's business model.

On bus-ticketing coming of age in India, Phanindra comments. "The Indian bus traveler was suffering from mutliple handicaps before the advent of redBus.in. For starters, commuters could not book return tickets at the source location, pre-book seat locations or compare travel fares. Moreover, the industry was suffering from lack of information dissemination on a comprehensive list of bus operators plying on various travel routes and a review and rating on parameters like quality, punctuality and service. With redBus.in, we aim to make these inadequacies a thing of the past."

And the commuter response has been more than just merely encouraging. In the past two and a half years redBus.in has been exponentially grown as reflected in their numbers. From a meager amount of Rs 50 lakh of gross bookings in their first financial year-end of Mar 07, redBus.in clocked over Rs 30 crore in gross booking this financial year end. In the meanwhile, redBus.in has gone from people in a single location to about 150 direct employees spread across 7 locations in India.

Phanindra says “the biggest achievement in the growth of the organization has been that we were able to grow every month consistently. We have an extremely good team which is honest, mature and hardworking. We enjoy great trust from our suppliers (bus operators) as well as consumers (passengers).”  

With the way his business seems to be taking off, we asked him what his plans are for expansion. He revealed his plans saying “We plan to scale up the business by understanding customers better and creating products/processes to serve them better. I believe that having greater emphasis on the consumer is a foundation for scaling up a business like ours.

Phanindra also shared with Yourstory on why he took to entrepreneurship… “I think I chose entrepreneurship to explore learning outside technology. I was always curious to understand and experiment with things such as branding, product pricing, advertising, HR activities etc. Entrepreneurship provides unrestricted opportunity to explore such things.” And Phanindra has seized the unrestricted opportunities well indeed. Besides clocking a steady month-on-month increase, he has also won accolades - being recognized as India’s Most Promising Entrepreneurs: No#3 by Business World, selected as Endeavor Entrepreneurs (www.endeavor.org) and TiE Entrepreneurs (www.tie.org). After meeting with him, we are sure this is but a start of the things to come for this steely entrepreneur.

The biggest challenge for him has been to keep his management and business expertise at par with the company's growth. He says “I am trying to overcome it by seeking advice from mentors, reading up books on management, leadership, biographies and psychology". Like most young entrepreneurs he has had a spot of self doubt too… Phanindra reveals his past misgivings saying “I had not internalized early enough that I ought to be a leader. A leader has many qualities such as courage, maturity, forgiveness, trustworthiness etc. Until I internalized this, I behaved like a young 20 something with a juvenile myopic view of things and lost time and opportunity. When I told myself that I was a leader, the world changed for me.” 

As is the case with most success stories there was also a low point which almost terminated the business. He says “Yes. I felt this after the first few months of our launch. During those days we were just selling 10 seats a day and I was feeling guilty. I discussed this with the Sudhakar (Co-Founder) who gave the much needed confidence for us to continue.” Phanindra relishes the possibility of doing much more; while learning the nuances of running a company; also being liked and respected by fellow teammates are the things that drive him to stay focused.

He says “We want to continue to be known as a respected company and cross INR 150 Crore in gross bookings.” Yourstory asked him what he considers to be his most prestigious recognition. He says “It is being recognized as an Endeavor Entrepreneur. Endeavor has a rigorous selection process and a very good selection criteria. I am happy to be selected after having been put to that strict a test.” 

Yourstory also received a parting word or two of advice from Phanindra, he says “Choose your advisors carefully. Then seek advice and trust it unconditionally. ” We wish Phanindra and redBus.in travel not just in our nation but beyond too.