At BrilliantRead Media, our aim is to bring to our community some of the unique and compelling stories from startup ecosystem. As part of this endeavour, we invited yet another passionate entrepreneur – Dr Rohit Sharma for an exclusive interview with us. He is a Business Leader, Healthcare Consultant, Seasoned Entrepreneur, Keynote Speaker and CEO & Managing Director of Grainpad Private Limited. Let’s learn more about his exciting journey so far, his background and his advice for our growing community:
Excerpts from our exclusive interview with Dr Rohit:
We are aware of your contribution to the ecosystem, talk us through your background and your journey as an entrepreneur, please;
I was always interested in research and development fields from the very beginning. Although I did not have good exposure or guidance on how to pursue such goals and dreams. Coming from a family of doctors I just followed a straight line in the medical stream and got into a medical school. But I did not see that as a fulfilling outcome in the end. I was not making an impact on a scale I wanted to, I was not doing any kind of research or innovation, and there was nothing new to be discovered or invented.
Meanwhile, during my job years of working as a clinical practitioner in both government and private setups, I observed the massive plight of the common man when it comes to getting access to good quality healthcare services. The cost of course is a big dilemma for many, and even if that is not the case, most people have no one to guide them in the right direction in a timely manner.
The resources are limited and I realised that it is not the doctor’s fault and absolutely not the patient’s fault. It is just that no one has decided to get up and fix the system or create and invent new solutions that can solve these problems. The System is big and an interwoven mess of multiple stakeholders who all do not want to lose their stable place in the system leading to such rigid inertia that no positive change or improvement was happening. It is observing this that I decided that I am not going to follow a straight line like everyone else and decided to do something about it. I decided that I will take a leap of faith, gather some like-minded experts from different domains and invent solutions that can solve these problems step by step.
That’s how I co-founded GRAINPAD with a team of visionary minds who had a similar mindset as mine and wanted to do something to change the status quo.
GRAINPAD is founded to innovate and develop new solutions in the fields of Genetics, Robotics AI, Nanotechnology, Physics, Astronomy and 3D bioPrinting (hence the name) and ZINI the healthcare AI is our Pioneer Invention aimed at making Basic Medical Advice accessible to all Indians using the power of AI and Machine learning. And I am super glad that after years of hard work and research, that too with such limited resources, our team has finally made her so capable that she is now able to answer on more than 3 Lakh common Medical queries and do a symptom evaluation and guidance on more than 300+ common diseases, with more than 93.7% accuracy, guiding patients there and then in the right direction at almost no cost.”
But ZINI is just the first step, our Mission and our Goals call us to do more and make a bigger impact for the good of all Humanity.
You are always positive and motivated, what keeps you going?
Social media shows only 1 side of our personality. If you ask me Honestly, I am more of a realist than an optimist. I do see the real side of the story. In Spite of that, our original mission statement and the desire to actually help people and make a positive impact is what keeps us going.
This is what has helped us stay united and work towards our goals in spite of many ups and downs and difficult times along the journey. Financial constraints are one of the biggest challenges for all innovative companies in India. And I believe unless your team is all motivated by a strong base, a common mission statement and a common vision for the company, these difficult times can be difficult to pass.”
A Common Mission is what keeps the team united and work towards achieving your goals against all odds. And when you see your fellow team members do so much, all your energy revives up once again to work with greater zeal and compassion every next day.
What attracts you towards entrepreneurship instead of a corporate career?
My desire to solve problems and make a positive impact on the world I guess. To think and do something new. To do something about the status quo. And I believe Entrepreneurship is not limited to just Startup founders and company owners. Entrepreneurship is in a personality, it is a character, it is in all of us. Even if you are in a Job you can be an entrepreneur.”
When a government employee decides to use his powers and abilities to do something new and innovative to solve problems for the people he/she is supposed to serve, that is entrepreneurship within the organisation. Big companies are full of entrepreneurs.
Companies like Apple, Tesla, Toyota, Reliance, or Tata are not just founded by entrepreneurs, they are in fact full of entrepreneurs, designing new products, doing all kinds of RnD, Suggesting new innovative ways of doing things, or new innovative products and solutions to the upper management, trying to get their approvals, trying to fund their projects, and innovate something own that the company then sends to the market.
All these innovators, visionaries, risk-takers, who want to get up and try something new for the betterment of the world are in fact entrepreneurs within or outside an organisation. And they all should be nurtured, respected and motivated to follow their vision in my view.
‘Grainpad Pvt Ltd’ is such a unique name; talk us through more about it please. Our audience would love to know what kind of problem you are solving with the help of your startup?
As I shared, the name GRAINPAD is an acronym for our vision of doing research and innovation in the fields of Genetics, Robotics, AI, Nanotechnology, Physics, Astronomy and 3D BioPrinting. Currently, our prime focus has been to work on ZINI healthcare AI. ZINI is a virtual physician in making.
Currently, she has developed some great abilities. She can answer common medical queries. Also, if someone is sick and shares her signs and symptoms with ZINI, she will be able to run a thorough interview around those symptoms, ask back the right questions and with the information collected from this interview, she will be able to figure out what could be the possible diagnosis and cause of these symptoms.
Then ZINI can guide patients about what’s wrong with them and what they should do next. In addition, she is able to guide patients on what kind of specialist they need, how urgent is the case and what are the nearby clinics, labs or other health facilities for them with contact information.
We are also training her on CBT (Cognitive behavioural therapy) where she will be able to do some basic emotional counselling and motivate people fighting with chronic conditions or depression. She also gives every user a Global health ID with QR code and helps people store, manages and shares their health records or daily health vitals easily. All this makes her a holistic virtual health guide and assistant.
Other than this our startup has now built some new inventions like an OPD management system for small clinics to help them digits their OPDs and better manage the patient data they collect.
A Remote Clinic / 5 minute clinic or ZINI OPD what we call them are autonomous Nurse-Led clinics that can run in remote areas with ZINI + A Nurse + some Medical devices and provide basic level medical advice and also connect with doctors sitting remotely using Telemedicine. These can also be used in corporate settings, RWAs or Schools and Colleges.
Our Chatbot APIs are available to install for other health websites and Telemedicine companies. In addition, we have recently invented some AI Models that can fetch information related to Medical Coding and Data extraction from raw text within seconds and make the process of Medical billing and Insurance very efficient and low cost.
Our Motto to make sure Medical advice is accessible and affordable is being solved by us all fronts.
What are the key ingredients of your startup?
Our start is based on the foundations of a Common Mission statement, a good team that can coordinate well into good teamwork, a respect for the leadership and always following proper systems and organisational discipline.
I believe a Good startup is like a pyramid whose 5 vertices are an Entrepreneur ( forward leading risk taker), An Innovator (who invents new inventions and solutions), A Businessman (who can market well and sell anything), A faith guy/girl (who instils faith in the team, whose faith is what gives us that positive vibe and motivation all the time) and An Investor (who infuses the needed capital).”
These roles can be overlapping but in my brain, I analyse startup teams with these 5 vertices of a Pyramid. The base of the Pyramid is their Mission statement and the Pyramid is filled with sections like Good communication systems in place, Proper project management, Proper Systems and processes in place to make sure development and operations run smoothly and efficiently all the time.
A good company needs not only to be good within itself but also have a good value chain with good vendors/suppliers in place along with a good sales and marketing strategy and team. These key ingredients lead to a successful business story in my view.
Please share with us about your expansion plans?
We are now planning to expand our business internationally in the US and Canada market. Our chatbot API is being pitched to Telemedicine companies and other health stakeholders in the US and Canada.
Although the team is small and resources limited, we have achieved a lot with low resources in the past. I am hopeful we will be able to do something good in the future as well. Let us see.
During this COVID-19 crisis, what are the measures you have undertaken to continue your business without disruption?
This Crisis has been a double-edged sword. Although on a positive note, the government and most organisations have become open to hearing more about digital solutions and in healthcare, at the same time, there spending cuts and difficulty in giving in-person demos by doing meetings has had a negative impact as well on our business.
We have still been trying to push our solutions b=via virtual platforms to all target consumers. There has been good progress when it comes to app usage and consumption of virtual medical advice by our chatbot. A 500% increase in the number of symptoms evaluations done was seen and there was a 100% increase in the user base of the android app in India. Social media following was raised by a whopping 1000% in the last 6 to 8 months.
Although revenue growth has not increased at such rates and we are trying to work our best to reach good numbers in coming times, we believe the increased consumption of our service was a good validation point that we should keep putting our efforts against all odds.
What has worked well for you so far?
Some good things that worked for us included building a network of like-minded experts from various fields. Being connected to reputed institutes like IISER Mohali, PGI Chandigarh and STPI Mohali has helped us always be in the loop with latest knowledge and information on policies and industry trends with a lot of good mentoring and guidance as well as greater networking powers.
Having access to some great mentors from Technology background like Mr Abhishek Prasoon with more than 15+ years experience in technology and Miss Garima Kaushik from IISER Mohali to get guided by renowned doctors from the beginning including my father Dr Yashpal Sharma and names like Dr Ranvir Kaushal (Founder of KNH Hospitals), Dr Suchita Nanada and many others who have always been so supportive and enlightening at solving problems for a healthcare perspective has helped us a great deal.”
I would especially like to mention the role of STPI Mohali that has been one of the greatest support systems for us. The kind of support, mentoring, networking, Customer acquisition networking and policy guidance we have received from STPI is just absolutely amazing. The team at STPI led by Mr Ajay Shrivastava is a boon for any new startup who is trying to make it big in the Punjab region.
I have rarely seen government agencies working so actively for the ecosystem. I would always recommend new startups in the region to try getting an incubation service from some of these bodies, specially STPI. It can be an important upgrade in your life cycle.
What is the one strategy that you guys believe has helped you grow as a team/startup?
Having a good organisational hierarchy and structure among all co-founders from the beginning, Having good project management and communication systems in place and always being able to get instant guidance from a team of doctors who are connected to me were some of the privileges that have helped us work very well in our limited resources and bring out the best results in all situations.
Above that our common vision and mission statement has always kept us motivated and driven towards bringing our the best results in all endeavours.
We would love to know your advice for all those starting out as an aspiring entrepreneur?
Startup founders must take note of some important things while starting out. Be sure of your mission statement. I say this a lot but this is that crucial. You must know why you are doing it. Why this and not something else, because this is what will help you pass through rough tides and demotivating messages.
It is the money, it is the process, it is the excitement, the passion, what is it that makes you wanna do it. Then a good team that can work together is the next challenge. Do not trust words, but the actions of your colleagues. Have a founder’s agreement before you start, so you know that everything is clear from the beginning.
People change their words, and what they meant by their words faster than you can imagine. Have a good organisational structure for your startup from day one. Roles, responsibilities, powers and KPIs should be in place before you start out not just your startup but any new process within an established startup as well.
Another important thing is to have your organisation registered and decide on what kind of registration your business should have. Should it be a Proprietorship, A partnership, an LLP, an OMC, or a Private limited company. Reading about these is a good initial step. It helps you better structure your company and your operations. All this seems like “will do in the future” steps to most founders, but when in fact they should be ‘do them first, then start’ for all businesses if they are looking for long term operations and success.
A good mentor or guide can go a long way in helping you. Founders may not be an expert on all aspects of the business, and having some consultants and mentors with equity or pro-rata/pro-bono basis can be a great step in achieving your goals. We sure did this when we began as I was not a technically sound person coming from a medical background. Last but not the least, Always have a sincere team that is more driven by the mission rather than the money.
A team that is working on the company as a priority and not as a second or third priority thing. If your co-founders are having a day job and other priorities, most likely they won’t work with you for long. You can’t promise money, So commitment is a must.
These are some tips I give to first-time founders. If any founders ever want my advice, they can anytime reach me via linked in for personal guidance and mentoring session for their startup. I am always here to help.
BrilliantRead is committed to bringing stories from the startup ecosystem, stories that reshape our perspective, add value to our community and be a constant source of motivation not just for our community but also for the whole ecosystem of entrepreneurs and aspiring individuals.
Note: If you have a similar story to share with our audience and would like to be featured on our online magazine, then please write to us at [email protected], we will review your story and extend an invitation to feature if it is worth publishing.
