Kanika Tekriwal is the founder and CEO of JetSetGo Aviation Services Pvt. Ltd, an aggregate private aircraft service. From dreaming of becoming a pilot to owning aircraft, Kanika has come a long way.

JetSeto is India's leading private jet charter service. The plan was to build a charter aircraft business inspired by the aggregator model like Ola and Uber.

Accessibility and affordability are the main mottoes of the company. Kanika aims to make booking charter flights as easy as booking a cab with affordable prices and the name Uber Of The Skies.

It provides its customers with choice, transparency, and flexibility in booking from its web and mobile platforms. It is quick and cheap and offers its customers an exquisitely luxurious experience.

Today, JetSetGo manages the largest fleet in India without actually owning it. There are 150 commercial plane operators in India, and JetSetGo works with almost all of them. As a result, the company grew its revenues more than 7 times last year.

But the journey of building such a successful business was not easy. Kanika had to endure many hardships and personal issues before starting the company.

Kanika was born in Bhopal in a typical Marwari family. Business tactics and strategies were in her blood. She wanted to become a pilot, but her parents didn’t agree.

Since childhood, she was taught to be a perfect housewife to a Marwari businessman. But Kanika had other plans.

She moved to London to pursue a degree in MBA from Coventry University. She started her journey in the aviation industry at the age of 17.

During her tenure, she learned about the industry and saw India's potential for the charter market.

Kanika returned with a plan to establish her company, but tragedy struck. She was diagnosed with stage-2 Hodgkin's Lymphoma at the age of 22. But this couldn't stop her from pursuing her dreams. She recovered with great vigor and started her journey with JetSetGo at 24.

During the initial months, Kanika handled everything, from receiving calls to dispatching planes. She learned new skills and how the system worked for plane operators. One major problem was regarding the funding for the company. Cricketer Yuvraj Singh stepped in as an investor, and Kanika hasn’t looked back.

Initially, Kanika Tekriwal invested Rs 5600 to build an app to book chartered flights. As a result, JetSetGo has grown into a Rs 150 crore turnover with over 200 employees and offices in Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Chennai.

Recently JetSetGo has also purchased its fleet of eight aircraft. Most of the clients are corporates, celebrities, politicians, and VIPs. In addition, about five percent of the flights are used for medical emergencies.

"In the future, we will continue to lease airplanes as well buy planes because we need to build the infrastructure of the company," Kanika said in a statement, sharing her plans to be part of the emerging air-taxi travel that is predicted to take over cities shortly.

Today JetSetGo has an advantage in fledgling urban air mobility with its eVTOL (electrical Vertical Take-Off) aircraft service. This technology enables the aircraft for vertical landing and takeoff. It is presumed to play an important role in urban mobility in the future.

“It will be a shuttle service between two points within a city. We have recently started this service in Mumbai, and the charges will be as cheap as an Uber ranging from Rs 1000 to Rs 2500 depending upon the distance,” says Kanika.

The BBC has chosen Kanika as one of the 100 most inspirational women in the world. She is also recognized by Forbes Asia as one of the 30 under 30 leading entrepreneurs in Asia, among various other accolades.

From battling cancer at 22 to building a 500 million business, Kanika Tekriwal has come a long way. Despite the hurdles and challenges in her journey, she chose to rise even stronger. She also won The National Entrepreneurship Award for e-commerce from the Indian government.

Kanika's go-to mantra is to believe in oneself. “I have always believed in the power of the mind – If you believe it, you can do it.

The events one face in their lifetime are nothing but a reciprocation of a combination of their thoughts and actions. If you think, you believe and are determined to do something; your actions automatically work towards achieving it.”, she says.