Townhouse idea is dead but Oyo’s plots live on
If this was a crime thriller we’d say OYO is using the pandemic to hide bodies. Except this is a story of a desperate startup that drank too much of its own Kool-Aid.
6 November, 2020•15 min
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6 November, 2020•15 min
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Editor's note: If you are coming into this story for the first time, I’d recommend you read Part 1, where we closed the piece on this cliffhanger: Much of this is by design, said the OYO executive mentioned earlier. “There are a lot of changes taking place at the company,” he said. “Think of it as a second life for OYO, where they are using this pandemic to rid themselves of all of their sins. Thousands of people across operations have been let go. Contracts with partners, many of which were signed at high leases, are being cancelled, saying this is all we have, take it or leave it. You are going to see a very different OYO come out of this pandemic, and if the company is smart it will not repeat its mistakes.” A different OYO? Hard to swallow for those who fell for its spiel the first time around. As for the company getting a second life, it is difficult to envision partners falling for its bait-and-switch tactics again. The key question here is: will OYO manage to make …
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