Startup Saturday Bangalore explores the ‘Age of Healthcare’ in Dec 2015 edition

Technology has revolutionized the world as we know it. It has changed the way we see, talk, learn, work, play, eat, buy and what not. Healthcare is no exception. And, now with the startup boom, the healthcare space is undergoing a gradual yet consistent transformation. Startup Saturday Bangalore, in its December 2015 edition, explored the ‘Age of Healthcare’ and provided insights and lessons from entrepreneurs and experts having a wealth of knowledge in the healthcare startup space.

The keynote speaker of the day was Baljit Singh, Founder & CEO – mTatva. Baljit shared how the poor healthcare conditions surrounding him, while he was  growing up, inspired him to startup in the Healthcare sector. Although, he was happy and comfortably settled in the corporate world after his engineering studies; he knew he had to do something to improve the health condition of Indians; and finally decided to startup and create a change towards better health. In this fast paced world, it is hard to be always around to take care and be part of the medical examinations of our loved ones. mTatva is focused on solving this problem, by enabling us to monitor and take care of our loved ones anytime, anywhere. “We might have a lot of excuses as to why we can’t start up now, but you need to focus on ‘why you need to start up’ instead. If you find that reason, all those excuses become secondary,” Baljit advised. His drive to contribute towards change, and solve the problem that he can relate to, reminds us that entrepreneurship is more than just running a business for material benefits.

Baljit’s talk was followed by a quick pitch by Abhinaw Kumar from Doctor’s Circle, an app that provides video answers from Doctors for the health-related questions. It also lets us browse answer videos, book appointments, get health tips and video consultation. It was an energetic and well planned pitch. Abhinaw started out with the story of a personal problem that he faced, and then went on to show how the Doctor’s Circle app is solving it. He provided further details on the different features that the product provides. We wish the team all the best and hope they succeed in their endeavors.

Next up was Ravi Shankar Mishra – Co-founder & CEO, Medinfi Healthcare to share insights and experiences on the ‘Process of Entrepreneurship’, which he explained, consists of the following five steps:

1. Have a real problem

• Startup is a marathon, not a sprint

• Core team isn’t about money, it’s about solving the problem

His inspiration for setting up Medinfi came when he had trouble finding a good & reputable Diabetic doctor for his mother in a new city.

2. Validate the problem

• How many are getting affected by the problem?

• Great businesses are not built on anecdotes

• Work backwards from users, continuously

• Get concrete data from users. It helps in saving time, money & heartburn

• Answer the second thoughts, every second day

He showed the data they collected before starting up like ‘Customer need for Healthcare services – Regular Checkup Vs Major Procedures’

3. Find an innovative solution

• Consumer business is ruthless, users have limited time span

• Innovation is a continuous process, make brainstorming a habit

• Understand global market

• First mover advantage is just an idea, competitors will follow soon

He explained how they arrived at the solution for Medinfi by looking at competitors & Indian Healthcare scenario. Their value proposition is “Empower users through trusted information for taking healthcare decisions”.

4. Plan the resources

• Don’t be ashamed to ask for resources, starting up is a egoless journey

• Be prepared to hear lots of No-s

5. Merciless Execution

• Build (not buy) the core team

• Align the team to your vision

• Have daily stand ups for tracking execution

Ravi ended his powerful talk with the details of Medinfi Healthcare’s journey so far, from the time of its inception.

After a quick networking & coffee break, everyone gathered for the next talk by Ganapathy Venugopal – CEO, Axilor Ventures. He has years of experience in strategy, planning and consulting. He also serves as a Member of the Board of ‘Information and Communication Technology Academy of Kerala’. Below are a few insights shared by him:

• It is important to spend time on problem & understand it

• Healthcare is different from e-commerce. Entrepreneurs need to help the investors understand the problem. Bridging the gap between first and second rounds of funding can be done by providing the investors more visibility. This helps in developing their trust.

• Access, Affordability & Effectiveness are crucial for healthcare solutions

Ganapathy strongly believes that the market is completely underserved in the Healthcare sector. He advised to-be entrepreneurs to just startup. “The more the players, the better one’s chance at winning.”

The last session of the day was the panel discussion, moderated by Shalini Nautiyal – Head of Product, Frogo(Giftxoxo.com) and featuring panel speakers: Ahimanikya Satapathy – CEO & Founder, DocEngage; Abhishek Kumar – Founder, ProdIntel Technologies ; and Anand Madangopal – Founder & CEO, Cardiac Design Labs. Below are the topics discussed during the session:

• Intro on what their respective startups are targeting in the Healthcare space

  • DocEngage – Care coordination for long term engagement with patients

  • ProdIntel Technologies – Remote Accessibility

  • Cardiac Design Labs – Early Diagnostics & Focus on prevention

• Penetrating the industry and getting the Doctors on board

  • Connecting with Doctors is important, as healthcare solutions can’t be built on common sense alone.

  • Go with early adopters and use them as a reference while trying to gain the trust of the reluctant ones.

• Gaps in the ecosystem of healthcare

  • Lack of understanding on the pace of growth in Healthcare space

  • Lack of regulations

After the panel discussion, everyone disbursed for networking over coffee and got a chance to check out the interesting collection of startup stalls set up across the cafeteria – Bucketkart, Bode Animation, Hustle Cowork, Nurturing Green, Fooroar, Career Confidence and Bluebook. And so, the last Startup Saturday Bangalore of the year 2015 came to an end. This calls for a nostalgic reminiscing of this year’s achievements. Inturn, WE, Social Enterprise Summit, and National retreat for volunteers are all first of a sort which we did this year. Targeting wider parts of the ecosystem, is not a dream anymore, thanks to the success we had with all our initiatives. We can proudly say that we are well on track.

A huge thank you to the ever faithful and supportive audience and our event partners: IBM Bluemix, Wow Labz, iSpirt, and TLabs, amongst others, for their generous support and contribution. If you missed attending this Startup Saturday, then make sure you check out the Facebook page of Startup Saturday Bangalore, for the latest updates.

About Headstart Bangalore:

Established in the year 2008 with the vision to ‘Change the World through Entrepreneurship’, Headstart Network Foundation (headstart.in) is the largest network of early stage startups in India. A non-profit, volunteer-driven organization, HeadStart Bangalore facilitates entrepreneurial learning, hiring and peer mentoring amongst the startups and addresses their issues through various initiatives such as: Startup Saturday Bangalore, Headstart Clubs, Headstart Higher, Headstart Cofounder Search Program and Headstart Inturn.

Want to volunteer for the Headstart Content team? You can email us with your interest at swati.ramnath[at]headstart.in

Written by Monica Movva; Edited by Swati Ramnath