That was Sanjeev Bikhchandani’s warning when MakeMyTrip was deciding where to go public.
But as Deep Kalra and Rajesh Magow dug deeper, they realised something important:
In 2010, India didn’t fully understand consumer internet models.
InfoEdge was B2B — but MakeMyTrip was a B2C travel platform, far more comparable to Expedia and Ctrip than anything local.
So they did the bold thing.
They pitched themselves as “the Ctrip of India” on Slide 14 of their deck — and six months after their bake-off meeting, MakeMyTrip listed on NASDAQ on August 12, 2010.
In this episode of The Blume Podcast, Deep & Rajesh take Karthik Reddy through that decision — how they evaluated India vs the U.S., why timing mattered, and what it means to take an Indian internet company global.
🎧 Watch the full episode now — the story of India’s first major consumer tech IPO.