Why Cars24 Is Called Cars24

People often ask me why Cars24 is called Cars24. For years I gave them the true answer. It is also a boring one.

We wanted a name with cars in it. Clean domains like that were hard to find. Then we thought about what we were building. It was online and fast, you could use it at any hour, and it felt modern. 24 said all of that. So Cars24 made sense.

That is how we chose the name. It is not what the name means to me today.

I have always learned from athletes. When I try to explain how a business gets built, I end up using sport. It is the easiest way I know to talk about skill, meritocracy, teamwork, preparation, mental and physical strength, and performing under pressure.

Sport is honest. Your title cannot score the goal. Your reputation cannot run the next race. When the match begins, you still have to perform.

Then there is the number on the jersey. Every number is ordinary on the first day. It picks up meaning from what the athlete does while wearing it.

Kobe Bryant wore 8 for ten seasons and 24 for ten more. The Lakers retired both. He did not become Kobe because he wore 24. He made 24 mean Kobe. He had already done the same with 8.

Closer home, there is PR Sreejesh. He stood in goal for India for eighteen years and helped India win Olympic bronze in Tokyo and again in Paris. After Paris, Hockey India retired the number 16 for the senior team. At the ceremony, his teammates stood behind him in jerseys with his name on the back. Nobody else will wear 16 for India's senior side. He made 16 mean Sreejesh. It deserved far more celebration than it got.

So this is what the name means to me now. If Cars24 were a person, I would want it to be a world-class athlete. Cars is the name on the jersey. 24 is the number on the back.

Putting on a jersey does not make anyone world class. A number means nothing until the athlete earns it, on the hard days, when people are watching and when nobody is. Cars24 has to earn it the same way.

We chose 24 because we wanted to be open around the clock. Eleven years later, that is still the true answer. What else 24 will stand for depends on what we do while wearing it.

We are still earning that.