<img class="gwt-Image" src="/photo/49907979.cms" style="width: 800px; height: 600px;" /> In the world of start-ups there is one saying that is held as the gospel truth-that there has got to be a problem that you want to solve. Some of the world’s biggest disrupters, including the likes of Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg amongst others have believed in the ‘you need to want to solve a problem’ theory with utmost faith. It is in this belief that germinates an idea that amongst everything else impacts human lives and changes it for the good. That is exactly what <keyword id="1165145" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Shashank-ND">Shashank ND</keyword> and Abhinav Lal have managed to do with <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Booked-an-appointment-with-a-doctor-on-Practo-Uber-will-make-sure-you-dont-miss-it/articleshow/49800904.cms">Practo</a>-now one of the world’s largest <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Technology-Trends-That-Are-Revolutionising-Indian-Healthcare/articleshow/45284705.cms">online health services platforms</a>, when they set out as 20-something gullible, but eager-to-learn college students. 
 Since its inception in 2008, from Shashank’s father’s modest 3-bedroom house in Bangalore, today <keyword id="1165142" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Practo">Practo</keyword> has become India’s largest digital <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Good-surveillance-could-be-the-lifeline-of-Indias-healthcare-system/articleshow/47342852.cms">health services</a> company, having raised a neat $124 million in funding, one of the largest outside the ecommerce space. It also boasts of a loyal network of over 10,000 <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/How-about-a-Rolls-Royce-ambulance-or-a-fine-dining-restaurant-in-a-hospital-Welcome-to-5-star-healthcare-in-India/articleshow/47456269.cms">hospitals</a>, 5000 diagnostic centres and over 2 lakh doctors spread across 35 cities in India. It has also recently acquired four companies: Qikwell, a doctor appointment seeking platform; FitHo, a preventive health platform; Genii, a product outsourcing firm and Insta Health Solutions, a hospital information management company. So formidable has been the company’s growth that it has also recently entered the South East Asian market with launches in Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines and Singapore. 
 
Business Insider caught up with the maverick, unassumingly charming, go-getter co-founder of Practo, Shashank ND to talk about everything that is ‘Practo’. 
 
Let’s start from the beginning. When did the idea of starting a digital company in the <keyword id="6354525" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Healthcare">healthcare</keyword> space seem like a viable option? 
 
The intent was to create a company where people would want to come despite having the Monday blues. (smiling) Where people hopefully would have the Friday blues. It is not about the numbers, it is about the emotions. I came across entrepreneurship in the second year of my college. It was really early when I was exposed to the whole world. Today it is main stream to start a company, but in 2008 it was quite a path off the road. Entrepreneurship fascinated me as it was about doing things others have not yet done. 
 
What was the personal aspect that egged you into this? 
 
It was an operation that my dad had to go through in 2008 around his knee. I was the techie in the house. My mom handed me the health reports and asked me to send them to a doctor in the US for a second opinion. I remember taking photographs and printing and then scanning them to send to the doctor in the US, and thinking to myself that if the scanning had problems, some of the data in the reports would be unclear or even lost in the transmission. So, I approached the doctor here who said he couldn’t digitize the reports simply because he didn’t have the ‘email’ button on the platform where the reports were stored. This guy had equipment worth crores, generating revenues in crores, but he didn’t have an email button. 
 
The first thing that occurred to me was why people weren’t storing their own medical records in the digital format. You didn’t have any digital data about your health and it’s funny because that is the one thing that you should have all in one place. People in fact stored every other irrelevant, bizarre matter in their phones, but not the most important one about their health. I saw that this was a global problem. The reason was that the doctors were not able to generate digital data. It’s not for the patients to do. Microsoft World and Google Health were doing the opposite. They were encouraging patients to digitalise their own data. 
 
Did it cross your minds that you could be betting on the wrong stuff, going against Microsoft and Google? 
 
Definitely. It was just like David going against Goliath at its best. In my father’s 3 BHK house we decided to build this out. Sitting and validating the fact that the thing on which all of Silicon Valley was working on is wrong, is plain crazy. But we were not worried about being wrong. What we were worried about was how to solve the problem. 
 Abhinav, my co-founder and I, sat together and built our first software <keyword id="1165143" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Practo-Ray">Practo Ray</keyword>, which had an email button. At each point we got validated. The first validation came from the users. In Bangalore there were 10-15 doctors we sold the software to at first. Changing the system is done best with a bottom-up approach. For 2 years we ran it on our own without any money. Then it just took off. We did what was right. Kept our ego aside and ran the business. Validation came every 2-3 months and accordingly we made changes. It so became that I couldn’t stomach appreciation, I could only take criticism. In fact, now when people say we are doing something wrong, I find that amazing, because it means they are noticing our work. 
 
What do you see as challenges at this stage? 
 
The biggest challenge is the communication culture. How do you make people aware about what you are doing? How do ensure that we keep our outputs equal to the expectations that the rest of the world have of us. Being a global company with the largest space in India, culturally, how do we ensure that we continue to grow? 
 
How difficult was it to make people buy your product? At what stage did you realise that acquisitions and tie-ups would be the way forward? 
 
Acquisition is the fastest way to grow. It is a good way of saving multiple years. It is just about saving time and having more impact. Basis the problems we face, we decide where or who to go to. We have 200,000 professionals today on our platform. 
 
In Practo, you have essentially married technology with healthcare, a sector that is completely inundated with infrastructure issues. What has been your takeaway there? 
 
There are 2 things, failure at the doctor level and that at the public level. Our App tells you where you have to go and how much time you have to wait. You can meet the doctor at the right time. A Qikwell product that we have acquired recently reduced waiting time for patients from 30 minutes to 8 minutes. We are bringing systemic efficiencies into the hospitals in the way they are run. 
 
How have hospitals accepted the technology, including the big chains? 
 
Everyone knew us and that worked in our favour. Reputation and acquisition helped us. 
 
What is the next step? Global expansion? 
 
We are targeting countries where we are seeing mobile internet integration on the rise. We are looking to <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Practo-seeks-Rs-400-cr-from-global-investors-to-expand-its-leadership-in-India/articleshow/47599663.cms">invest</a> in developing countries. First preference is Latin America. We have started our ground work in the Middle East too. Our approach in entering new countries has been to launch the consumer product first. We targeted the consumers first there. But, before that we made sure that the doctors are listed on our platform. 
 
So, Now that Practo is safely on its way to becoming a truly global company, do you get time to unwind? You are young. Do you take time out for things like partying, watching movies and other things that people your age like doing? 
 
(Laughs)Yes. I do party. Now I get more time than earlier. Even then it is about prioritising. Choosing between the two parties and two movies that I want to go for. Even at work it’s about prioritising. I also now get time to travel. 
 
(Image credits: yourstory)

EXCLUSIVE: Practo Co-Founder says taking global Internet giants head-on was crazy, but solving the problem at hand was more important

<img class="gwt-Image" src="/photo/47599839.cms" /> Bengaluru-based <keyword id="1165142" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Practo">Practo</keyword>, which has been one of the first players to integrate IT and healthcare with their online practice management software to schedule appointments with doctors, is in advanced talks with global investors to raise funding of approximately Rs 400 crore. Two people directly aware of the plan told the Economic Times. 
 The financial daily stated that the Internet-based startup, which is backed by venture funds <keyword id="122716" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Sequoia-Capital">Sequoia Capital</keyword> and Matrix Partners, could also lure more new investors in this round, which is slated to be one of the largest in the online healthcare segment globally. 
 
According to one of the sources, “The deal is expected to close in the next four to five weeks.” 
 
The ET report further stated, “The funding is aimed at extending Practo’s leadership in India and establishing it as a clear winner in a space that is becoming crowded.” 
 In 2014, startups like Lybrate, Ziffi and <keyword id="2890031" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Qikwell">Qikwell</keyword> have raised money and they also compete with search firms such as Just Dial. Globally, New York-based ZocDoc is one of the most heavily funded startups in doctor-search space, having received up to $98 million from investors including Khosla Ventures and <keyword id="794823" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="DST-Global">DST Global</keyword>. 
 Practo — cofounded by CEO Shashank ND and technology chief Abhinav Lal, both engineers from the <keyword id="66379" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="National-Institute-of-Technology">National Institute of Technology</keyword>, Surathkal— was estimated to be worth Rs 1,000 crore in its most recent round of fundraising in February, when it mopped up $30 million (Rs 189 crore) from Matrix Partners, Sequoia Capital and venture debt provider Inno-Ven Capital. And now, this latest round is expected to close at a “significant premium.” 
(Image: lemontreeexhibition.com)

​Practo seeks Rs 400 cr from global investors to expand its leadership in India

<keyword id="164916" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Alok-Mittal">Alok Mittal</keyword> as a full-time entrepreneur and a part-time investor says that his early investments were obviously non-tech related as he was a Cannan Partner. By 2014, he was back at his own game and his style of investing is non-intrusive, where he doesn’t take advisory positions in the companies. “If the entrepreneur needs me then I’m available but I think you should let the founder do their job; I don’t mind losing money for a good cause,” says <keyword id="6367997" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Mittal">Mittal</keyword> who has been an angel investor in many other <keyword id="6362513" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Startups">startups</keyword>, and will continue to participate in further rounds if the company is viable. 

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Mittal has acted as an angel investor in over 40 companies including edtech startup Cue Learn, online meal-booking platform for train passengers TravelKhana; SaaS-based training and recruitment startup Capabiliti; car rental startup JustRide; Envoged, a social platform for buying and selling pre-owned luxury fashion products, and many others varied investments such as StayClose, Supafoods, Autoflik, Cardback, Moneyview, Curofy, Wishberry, Qikwell, Bite Club, Globalthen, Taxspanner, Knowcross, Adda52, among others. The Big <keyword id="6354859" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="IIT">IIT</keyword> Startup Theory In regards to his IIT entrepreneurial roots, Mittal says he tries to contribute to debunking the myth that only IITians start great companies and even though he has network commitments only 15% of his portfolio companies are founded by people hailing from the IITs. 

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Mittal says that he is not swayed by the sector-specific approach but yes, if a sector is suddenly the talk of the market, he is biased to invest in that sector-specific startup. “Now that I’ve started <keyword id="3082456" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Indifi">Indifi</keyword>, the momentum of investments has gone down but I will never stop investing as I can be hands-off,” says <keyword id="19142" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="alok">Alok</keyword>, who says that his passion is borne from commitment. 

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 Lending as an Investor vs. as a Founder Indifi has a sector-based approach to lending business, which is unique in this arena which means that every client gets a unique solution. Lenders like what they do and so do online businesses like MakeMyTrip, Paytm, Shopclues etc. who use this startup to find easy lending options for their vendors. Mittal says that his entrepreneurial journey seems long and arduous as lending might be a $400 Million business but the demand is endless, with new opportunities opening up every other week. Mittal says that his journey is never-ending as India needs entrepreneurs and founders need capital; every person who is trying to create employment, even if it’s just his own, has no lesser objective than the start-up founder who is trying to create the next billion dollar tech company.

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EXCLUSIVE: Practo Co-Founder says taking global Internet giants head-on was crazy, but solving the problem at hand was more important

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Practo seeks Rs 400 cr from global investors to expand its leadership in India

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You Searched For "Qikwell" and got 3 results

EXCLUSIVE: Practo Co-Founder says taking global Internet giants head-on was crazy, but solving the problem at hand was more important

Debdatta

Usha

​Practo seeks Rs 400 cr from global investors to expand its leadership in India

BI India Bureau

Exclusive: Angel Investor Alok Mittal, is Debunking the Myth that IITian-led Start-ups are the only Good Bets in the Ecosystem

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Practo seeks Rs 400 cr from global investors to expand its leadership in India