ENTREPRENEUR / STARTUP SPECIAL (9) Techies'
Prescription
Three software jocks get together to found a
startup that connects doctors with patients
Amit Agrawal's father suffers from chronic lung
disease. The 75-year-old has to be taken for a medical checkup every week in
Raipur, Chhattisgarh. But routine visits were turning out to be “mental
harassment“ for the 34-year-old techie. In spite of having an appointment,
Agrawal would on most occasions have to wait for hours at the clinic with his
ailing father as the doctor was rarely punctual.
In that experience lies the genesis of Agrawal's
five-month-young online healthcare startup. Ineeddoctor, which connects patients
with doctors, was started by Agrawal along with his friends Abhishek Tiwari and
Akansh Goyal in January this year in Raipur.
In less than half a year, the venture managed to
rope in 55 doctors and 80 health partners, including diagnostic centres; and Agrawal
claims they're already in the black.“It's not big money but we are making a
profit,“ he says, declining to disclose numbers.
Agrawal and Tiwari worked in Infosys for nine
years. Though both were located in dif ferent geographies -Agrawal in the US and
Tiwari in Australia -they were in the same training batch and were room mates
in Bengaluru and Hy derabad before their foreign stints. Goyal, meanwhile, was
in Raipur working for TCS. In 2011, when Agrawal decided to come back to India
to take care of his father, Tiwari too made up his mind to shift to his
hometown in Raipur and start up. “We met Akansh in Raipur and set up an IT
services company in 2011. And early this year we rolled out ineeddoctor,“ says
Agrawal.
The reasons for choosing Raipur were obvious:
optimisation of costs, a virgin market, an opportunity to stay with the family
and a chance to make most of the experience gained through their IT venture in
four years.
Ineeddoctor makes money from health partners and
affiliates, by charging for premium listings and advertisements on its apps and
website and by selling customer relationship management (CRM) software to
doctors.
While the going has been smooth so far, the
startup is gearing up to negotiate sharp curves on its growth path. Unconducive
government policies like no tax benefits, lack of access to funding options and
creaking infrastructure are some of the issues to contend with. “One of the
investors told me: jab tak Raipur main rahoge, invest nahin karunga [As long as
you are in Raipur, I won't invest],“ says Agrawal.
However, he doesn't regret the decision. “I envy
startups in top metros who have all the luxuries of the world, especial ly easy
access to funding, but I don't regret settling down in Raipur.“
Over the next few months, he plans to open
offices in met ros, primarily to be in touch with investors and recruit for the
sales team. In Raipur, more and more citizens may be ready to say I need (a)
doctor, but Agrawal also realises that he needs an investor.
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Rajiv Singh
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ETM31MAY15
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