Growth Comes With Lessons
10 business lessons from Bhavish Aggarwal’s entrepreneurial journey with Ola, focusing on expansion, customer service, operational discipline, leadership and the challenges of scaling a business.
Building a company is not simply about moving fast. Founders also need to understand when to scale, where to focus and how to create systems capable of supporting growth.
The lessons highlighted range from expanding internationally too early to challenges involving customer service, sales communication and operational discipline.
Expanding Too Early
The first lesson focuses on Ola’s international expansion. Ola entered markets such as the UK, Australia and New Zealand but eventually exited them.
It presents the experience as a lesson in strengthening the core business before expanding globally, suggesting that international growth can create additional challenges when the underlying business has not been sufficiently consolidated.
Too Many Businesses
The second lesson concerns diversification. According to the post, Ola experimented with several businesses, including Café, Store, Shuttle and Pedal, before many of these ventures were later shut down.
The publication frames this experience around the importance of focus, arguing that scattered growth can make it more difficult for a company to concentrate resources and management attention on its core operations.
Scaling Service
Another lesson highlighted is the relationship between rapid expansion and customer service. Ola Electric rapidly increased scooter sales while its service network struggled to keep pace.
The lesson identified is that companies should not scale faster than their support systems can handle. Growth also requires sufficient infrastructure to serve customers after a product is sold.
Growth and Reliability
It also points to Ola Electric’s aggressive expansion and growing market share, while noting that product and service complaints became a challenge.
It uses this as an example of the tension that can arise when growth outpaces reliability and customer satisfaction.
After-Sales Support
After-sales service is another major theme. Ola’s direct-to-consumer model reduced dependence on traditional dealers but increased the importance of providing effective customer service.
The lesson offered is that selling a product is only one part of building a sustainable business. Support after the sale can be equally important in maintaining customer relationships.
Betting Early
The sixth lesson concerns Ola Electric’s early bet on electric vehicles. It describes the company’s early electric-cab experiment as unsuccessful at a large scale.
It highlights this as a reminder that entering a new technology or market early does not automatically guarantee success.
Customer Complaints
Customer response is another issue highlighted. It says customer complaints became a recurring issue for Ola Electric and presents the experience as a lesson in how consumer businesses can lose trust when complaints are not addressed quickly.
Founder-Centric Management
It also discusses leadership. It says Aggarwal’s intense leadership helped Ola move quickly, but reports have also raised concerns about management style and excessive turnover.
The lesson presented is that founders need to build teams capable of challenging them rather than relying entirely on founder-driven decision-making.
Sales Communication
The ninth lesson focuses on communication around sales numbers. Ola Electric’s reported sales and government registration figures differed significantly at one point, creating questions about how sales were being measured.
It uses the issue to emphasize transparency, particularly for a publicly listed company.
Operational Discipline
The final lesson brings the discussion back to sustainable growth. Ola’s broader story shows a repeated tension between rapid expansion and operational execution.
The central message is that sustainable businesses need strong systems, not simply speed. For founders, the 10 lessons collectively underline the importance of customer service, focused expansion, transparent communication, reliable operations and building an organisation that can support growth.