ZyRyde: The Story of a Ride That Changed Everything
Chapter 1: The City That Never Waited
Mumbai is a city that never stops, never slows down, and never waits for anyone. Among its 20 million people, dreams are born, broken, and reborn every single day. This was the city where I grew up—Ansh Barot, a boy from Bhayandar, a suburb often overlooked in the grand narrative of Mumbai’s glamour and chaos.
Our home was small, our means smaller. Life wasn’t about luxury—it was about survival. My father did whatever jobs he could get. My mother stitched clothes and made tiffins for others. And I, well, I was supposed to be in college, but life had other plans.
At 15, I dropped out.
Not because I wanted to, but because I had to. My family needed another pair of hands more than I needed a degree. I started driving cabs, doing small delivery jobs—anything to keep food on the table.
But in those dark, uncertain days, I found something priceless: perspective.
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Chapter 2: Life Behind the Wheel
When you're a cab driver in Mumbai, you become invisible. You hear things passengers don’t mean to say. You see the inequalities no one wants to admit. You watch how the city treats its service class—especially its drivers.
But I never drove just for income. I drove to listen.
And what I heard, every day, from rickshaw drivers, from fellow cabbies, from women passengers, from the elderly struggling to get a safe ride—it all added up to one truth:
Urban transport was broken.
Rickshaws were unsafe. Drivers were exhausted and underpaid. Women were often harassed or felt vulnerable. People paid for discomfort. And yet, nothing changed.
Until one night, when I picked up a female passenger who had just fled an uncomfortable auto-rickshaw ride. Shaken, she asked, “Why are there no safe and clean rides for people like us?”
That question didn’t leave me. That night, I went home and wrote in my notebook:
“If the system doesn’t work for the people, maybe we need a new system.”
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Chapter 3: The Birth of a Dream
I didn’t have an MBA. I didn’t have money. But I had seen the streets more than most VCs ever had. I understood the pain points of both drivers and riders, because I had lived both sides.
The idea of ZyRyde was born—not just as a ride-hailing service, but as a mission:
> To make urban travel safe, affordable, dignified, and sustainable.
I wanted to replace the outdated, three-wheeled rickshaws with the Bajaj Qute—a compact quadricycle that was more stable, less polluting, and had more safety features. It was a middle path between a rickshaw and a cab, and perfect for cities like Mumbai.
But the idea needed more than a dream. It needed a team.
That’s when Amit Rawal, my close friend and now co-founder, joined me. Together, we started building ZyRyde—not with funds, but with sheer willpower.
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Chapter 4: The Struggles of a Nobody
People like to hear stories of struggle—but rarely do they feel it.
Imagine sitting in investor meetings wearing your only ironed shirt, hoping no one notices your worn-out shoes. Imagine being rejected not because your idea is bad, but because you don’t have a “track record,” or you’re “too young.”
We were laughed at. We were ignored. We were told:
“This is India, not Silicon Valley.”
“Auto drivers won't care about dignity.”
“No one will use Bajaj Qute for rides.”
Some investors didn’t even take meetings. Others asked, “Do you have any IIT or IIM co-founders?”
We had nothing—no pedigree, no fancy credentials. Just a dream.
We worked odd jobs during the day and built ZyRyde at night. We created mockups, wrote business plans, studied the transport ecosystem, and even went to Mira Bhayandar MLA Mr. Mehta, to explain our model.
He listened. He gave us encouragement when no one else did.
But encouragement doesn’t pay server bills. Or driver training costs. Or app development fees.
So we bootstrapped every rupee. We sold whatever we didn’t need. I even drove the prototype vehicle myself for six months to collect feedback and understand passenger reactions.
Every ride was a test. Every rejection was fuel.
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Chapter 5: The Breakthrough
We didn’t wait for a miracle. We created our own luck.
Using a small fund collected from friends and early believers, we launched a pilot fleet of Bajaj Qutes in a few local zones. We added smart features: SOS buttons, GPS tracking, cashless payments, and digital fare meters.
People noticed. Especially women and senior citizens who finally had a safer ride option.
Drivers noticed too. We treated them like partners, not workers. We gave them uniforms, insurance, digital earnings dashboards, and even shared ad revenue through our in-vehicle digital screens and QR codes.
For the first time, a driver said to me:
> “Sir, pehli baar lag raha hai hum bhi kuch hain.”
(For the first time, I feel like we matter.)
That’s when we knew: this wasn’t just a business. It was a movement.
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Chapter 6: Battling Demons
But success invites new struggles.
Just as we began to grow, we faced:
Legal hurdles: Local authorities weren’t ready for a “non-auto, non-cab” category vehicle.
Opposition from rickshaw unions: Some feared we’d take away their bread and butter.
Technical issues: Our app crashed more times than we can count.
Funding droughts: Even after proof of concept, investors hesitated. “Too unconventional,” they said.
Behind every small win, there were hundreds of failures. Nights without sleep. Days without meals. Weeks without salaries.
I personally faced burnout. I questioned my sanity. There were days I wanted to quit. But then I’d walk down the road, see an elderly man getting into a ZyRyde and smiling, and it all came back:
Why we started.
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Chapter 7: Building the ZyRyde Culture
We didn’t just want drivers—we wanted ambassadors. We trained them on:
Customer behavior
Basic English
Emergency protocols
Hygiene and grooming
Digital tools for managing income
We also introduced mental health support—something unheard of in ride-hailing circles.
Every month, we sat with our drivers and asked: What’s working? What’s not? Their insights shaped our roadmap more than any consultant ever could.
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Chapter 8: The Mission is Bigger Than Us
Today, ZyRyde isn’t just a safer ride. It’s a platform with a soul.
We’re tackling urban pollution by slowly transitioning our fleet to electric vehicles.
We’re creating livelihoods with dignity for thousands of drivers.
We’re using in-vehicle advertising to fund driver bonuses, emergency funds, and even education programs for their children.
And we’re doing it without charging passengers extra.
Because comfort should not be a luxury. It should be a right.
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Chapter 9: Lessons from the Battlefield
Being an entrepreneur in India, especially from a humble background, teaches you more than any B-school ever can. Here are a few truths I’ve lived:
Nobody owes you anything. Not investors. Not customers. You earn trust one hard inch at a time.
Rejection is fuel. Every no is a step closer to a yes—if you keep walking.
Purpose is greater than profit. If your mission is real, money follows.
People matter. Not users. Not drivers. Not customers. People. Treat them well, and they’ll carry your brand on their shoulders.
Rest is strategic. Burnout doesn’t help the mission. Balance does.
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Chapter 10: What’s Next?
ZyRyde is just beginning.
Our goal is to:
Expand to 10 Indian cities in the next two years.
Build a fleet of 1000+ Qute and electric vehicles.
Integrate AI for route optimization and safety alerts.
Create India’s first driver co-ownership model, where every driver owns a share in the company.
But most importantly, we want to create a country where:
> “Every ride represents progress. Every road leads to dignity. Every vehicle runs on compassion.”
Because we aren’t just building a company.
We’re rebuilding trust in public transport—one ride at a time.
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Epilogue: To Every Dreamer Out There
If you’re a 15-year-old dropout…
If you’re someone without an Ivy League degree…
If you’re someone who’s been told “you can’t” more times than “you can”…
Let ZyRyde be your proof.
That it’s possible.
That your roots don’t limit your reach.
That your story is your superpower.
We’re still struggling. We’re still building. But now, we’re not alone.
We have a city behind us. A community with us. And a vision ahead of us.
The road is long. But for once, it’s our road.
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