We help students to find hostels- PGO CEO Speaks to EENADU Business Column

Moving to a new city and searching for a place to live? Worried about the facilities, food, safety and convenience? 

Is there a solution to this problem? PGO (PG Guest Online) is one such online application trying to come around this problem.  Founder and CEO of PGO Hari Krishna have turned this ingrained problem into a business opportunity.

Read the full interview in Telugu: EEANDU BUSINESS MAIN NEWS ( Published on 22 December 2019)

{Below is an English rendition of the published article}

As the demand for accommodation in cities has increased multifold in the last decade due to thousands of people migrating for better opportunities like education, jobs, health care, finding a PG Hostel as per requirements has become next to impossible. Most of the time whenever people shift to a new place they ask their colleagues for suggestions and most of the time these "word of mouth" falls flat on expectations as each individual is different.

To solve this problem at its root level, PGO came into existence in 2016, when Mr Hari Krishna, who had worked with reputed multinational companies, understood the seriousness of the problem and its business potential.

As per PGO, CEO, he started building a technological platform addressing the problem of finding a PG & Hostel in the top 10 cities in India. For six months, he travelled to these cities and found the same problem exists at every place. After returning to Hyderabad where he has set up his company, he started accepting those properties which met the minimum standards for quality living. Following the same rules, he extended his company's reach to different cities. 

Coming to financials, initially, he invested 25 lakhs from his pockets to run the operations, maintain the website and the mobile application. As word spread about the company, three top-notch investors are now part of the young startup adding INR 6 Crores to the service. 

After grabbing majority of the business in Hyderabad as per PGO's standards, Mr Hari Krishna is looking for the next round of investment of up to 30 crores in order to expand his business standards to the top 10 cities in India. 

Thus far, there are more than 13000 properties listed under PGO in major cities like Hyderabad and Bangalore- 6000, Chennai and Pune - 3000 and other 186 cities- 4000. PGO takes 10% commission on every booking from the host end and has also launched PGO PRIME offering the best PG and Hostels 

Every month PGO gets around 600 bookings, people can review their experience on the platform, and the company is aiming for 3000 bookings per day nationwide by March 2020. PGO is expecting 5000 bookings per day in the near future. Along with hostels and PGs, PGO is also looking to expand on the co-living space.

Hari Krishna said: "Our aim is to expand the business to 280 crores by 2025" 

To learn more about our Captain, visit his LinkedIn Profile