'The bigger the pain, the sooner you will get the money'

Twenty-four years is not a long time in the life of an enterprise.

Japanese construction company Kongō Gumi is said to be 1,446 years old. But 24 years can feel like a lifetime if you are an Indian internet led company that started in the midst of the dotcom bust, braved the economic slowdown that came soon after, as well as the global financial crisis and Covid.

MakeMyTrip (MMT) ticks all those boxes, and a few more. It started life as an international business and, for its initial public offering, went to Nasdaq, the stock exchange in the United States known for technology stocks. And it did that in 2010, when the average Indian parent would have had a mild heart attack at the suggestion of their child joining a startup.

"Twenty-four years... Depends on which lens you use, but it is not a very long time. But at a young startup, over two decades is a long time. There is one learning. Whoever is looking at starting a business, you cannot think three years, five years, 10 years, or 20 years. You must have a very long-term view. It is invariably a long haul," said Rajesh Magow, co-founder and Group chief executive officer of MakeMyTrip, at a fireside chat during the second day of Business Standard Manthan, in New Delhi on Thursday. The three-year, five-year, or seven-year view is also legitimate, but looking through the investors' lens. The investors have commitments to their investors to give them returns within a certain period. And they are right. "But not for the entrepreneur, or the founding team," Magow said. So, what has kept MMT going while some of its peers, including a few that started after it, lost their way?