Gajendra Jangid Steps Down as Co-founder: Not a Goodbye, Just a New Chapter

After eleven years of building Cars24 together, Gajju is stepping back from his executive role. He will stay active on the things he built from scratch: the brand, marketing, and Crashfree India and will continue to advise where needed. This is not a goodbye. It is a change in role.

Gajju and I first met in 2001, in a hostel corridor at IIT Bombay. Both of us were a little unsure of our place in a setting full of high achievers who seemed to speak so much better English. I think we formed a bond right there. Two people who didn't quite fit, finding each other. That bond held for the next four years. We were inseparable through college, which, if you know either of us, is saying something because neither of us is particularly easy. Then came placements. Gajju went to the US. I stayed in Mumbai.

Cars24 gave us a reason to find each other again. For that alone, I will always be grateful.

When we started Cars24, Gajju's son Kabeer had just been born. My best memory of those early years is holding Sailo for the first time, watching Gajju's family put down roots in Gurgaon as we built this thing together. There was something about building a company and building a family at the same time, you stop being just colleagues. You become part of each other's lives in a way that doesn't have a word for it.

Gajju built the brand, gave us Crashfree, and made marketing that people actually remembered, which, in this industry, is rarer than it sounds. The talent he found and backed, the doors he opened for TeamBHP and CarInfo, that is his work. And then there is Dhoni. That relationship didn't come from a pitch deck. Dhoni came on board because he trusted Gajju personally and believed in what Cars24 was trying to do. That kind of trust you don't manufacture. Gajju earned it. He taught this company compassion. When we got too aggressive or too mercenary, he was the one who pulled us back. Every time we became transactional, he made us human. He holds two things at once that most people cannot, deeply ambitious and genuinely kind. Every person who has worked closely with him has walked away standing a little taller.

He also pushed us to question something most companies never do, why hierarchy exists at all. Today, if you look around, most of our leaders have dropped their titles. No Directors, no VPs. People at Cars24 are now defined by what they own, not what they are called. Gajju brought that change.

Beyond all of this and everything he has done he is and will always be my best friend. Sharing some old photos. Can't help but go back in time.

Go ahead and take your time, Gajju. But not too much. We have things to build.