Author Archives: Hari

Key ingredient for building a successful startup

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So, you have an idea and you believe this idea can change the world. You started your research and finalized on all aspects of the market viability. Congratulations.

Apart from believing in your idea and taking it to execution, there are quite a few ingredients which help with the success of your startup. The first one is Domain.

You might not know everything in running your startup and there are a lot of things which you would learn on the way. But, one thing you need to be very confident is the Domain in which your startup is going to function. Pick an idea in the domain you are comfortable and confident with. As a founder of a startup, you will need to understand all the dynamics involved in the details of your startup.

I specialize in technology and have been working in the Healthcare domain for over 12 years now. If I wish to startup, I would prefer to startup in the Healthcare domain rather than in Finance which I do not have a complete understanding.

Picking the right Domain is very important because this is where your idea is going to solve the problem and if you have a very good understanding of the domain, then the chances of success is very high.

So, which Domain are you starting up?

Personal Health Monitoring

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The hottest segment in Healthcare is proactive Health management. There are quite a few companies and startup’s focusing on providing required platform for us to begin.

Identify what you wish to track
It is very easy to be lost in identifying what you wish to track. Start with a complete Health check, identify what aspects you would need to monitor and start there. If you know you are in general Healthy, then start by monitoring your daily walking, calories burnt and exercise regime etc.

Start by setting goals – I will walk 10K steps a day or I will reduce my Carbohydrate in-take or reduce alcohol etc. Start with anything which can help you feel better and healthier.

Find the right applications/apps
Today, there are quite a few applications which can help you monitor your goals. Research on what practically suits your need and start recording using them. These motivate you and help you understand your lifestyle pattern.

Periodic evaluations of your recordings
What do you with all the recordings? At the moment, there are only few intelligent applications which integrate with your monitoring apps and help you suggest what you will need to do to achieve your goals. Also, they help you understand what you can do better.

Today, it is a stage of acceptance for the Health monitoring apps. All things you do (monitoring steps, calories burnt, food intake, workout regime etc) are mainly for you to understand how your life style has been. However, companies are partnering to share this data and Hospitals are just beginning to see your historical data to understand what your lifestyle has been.

The future of Healthcare will increasingly see more acceptance of personal Health monitoring and there by providing you guidance. Also, the day is not far when Healthcare Insurance will start using the data before they offer you better policies.

I recommend that you start today.

Is it better to start after competition?

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The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese – Anonymous.

Whenever we have a path breaking idea, the first thing we would like to see is if anyone else has done it earlier and how the response has been. At times, it is good to let your competitor start and then you follow.

Let us go back into a little history. Remember the Apple iPod? Was it truly the Apple’s invention? Creative launched a portable MP3 player which failed in the market (I still own one of them). What Apple did was learned from its competition and with their superior quality and better user interface, they not only dominated the market, but set the standard.

Your launch strategy is very important, next to the ideation process. When you develop your idea into reality, you should be very aware of the surroundings.

Many people have the question, why did this idea become successful and why not the similar one? The biggest difference is the market adaption and how the startup has strategized their presence.

At times, it is better to let your competitor start before you do or build an idea on an existing idea with improvisations.

Value

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If you are entrepreneur or work for a company, the most important aspect of your efforts are showing the value of what is being delivered.

Earlier I was in a conversation with one of my mentors and during the course of our conversation he stressed upon two things we need to do as individuals – Present the story well and Quantify value in financial terms.

Presenting the Story
All of us have ideas. Quantifying ideas to demonstrate the value the idea brings to the end user is the most important aspect of getting the message across.

How do you present the story?
Any idea is related to real life, because it is solving an existing problem. Focus on finding the right situation which can depict what you are wanting to solve. Use this situation to create a story and then build your narrative.

When Tata tea was trying to win market share in different states; In the states of Orissa and Maharashtra, tea consumers preferred dust tea instead of the grains. But they needed the strong taste and flavor. So, they offered Tata Tea Premium dust tea in red color packaging. The color red denoted the strength and flavor of the tea. The red color is the story in this narration.

PS: I am using this case study only as an illustration, it is easier said than done ?

Understand the flavors of your idea and depict the story as close to reality as possible.

Providing Value
Value preposition is not just related to financial metrics. It relates to Quality, Maturity of the problem and the solution process – which is the Why? and they way it relates to the end user.

Remember the Jagore campaign which Tata did to bringing tea acceptance to the youth? The campaign had nothing to do with the tea, but what Tata was doing is making their brand penetrate. Today, whenever you say or hear the word Jagore, you immediately relate to Tata and the social consciousness it brings in you. This in tern will play on you when you go out to buy tea when you see various brands on the stands.

This is providing value. Value to yourself and your brand.

Utilizing Aadhar for Healthcare Delivery

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India launched the prestigious Unique Identification Project (Aadhar) on the 28th of January 2009. After 7 years, around 95,00,00,000 have Aadhar Card. Even though having Aadhar is not mandatory, Government has been increasingly launching initiatives which are linked to the Aadhar Card and hence the number of signup’s have been increasing.

How can we use Aadhar Card to improve Healthcare?

To begin with, tracking Health records. India’s Healthcare system is a three tier architecture – Primary Health Center (PHC), Secondary Care and Tertiary Care. The PHC is the first point of care for the Government and according to the design, there should be 1 PHC for every 5,000 population in the rural areas and 1 PHC for every 10,000 population in the urban center.

With the Aadhar number, personal health records can be created for every individual at the PHC level. In the urban areas, Aadhar number can be utilized to register individuals at Private hospitals/clinics or at the PHC. Alternatively, we can have a centralized website which can create Health records for Individuals and they can signup using their Aadhar Number.

When there is a birth, before issuing the Birth Certificate, a Medical record should be created and all the vaccination information should be pushed through electronically. Today, this is done manually through medical cards which carry important vaccination information for the child.

What are your thoughts?

Idea for Healthcare Startup – Mobile Diagnostic center

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Two weeks ago, unfortunately, my dad fell down at home and has a displaced hip bone. We got him admitted to an Orthopedic Hospital. They had to wait for three days to ensure all vitals are normal before they did the procedure to correct the hip bone. During these three days, the Doctor wanted to have a CT Scan done too. However, since they did not have the CT Scan equipment, we were asked to take dad to a Diagnostic lab.

During this time, it struck me as to why we do not have mobile diagnostic centers. It would have been a lot easier for us to call them and they come and get the test done at the client’s residence or any hospital. It would make life so easier for elders especially.

Can this be done? Any startup’s which are providing this kind of service?

Toughest part of Idea Execution

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Few days ago, I met with a person who left his job in the US and came back to India to start up. His family continues to live in the US and he shuttles between the two countries every six months. His idea is unique and to both of our knowledge, he does not have any threatening competition as on date. The idea is good, it is self-funded and he is good with it for some time. Since his idea is a platform to bring stakeholders together and provide service, he is doing financially fine as of now.

As we spoke, I asked him what was the toughest part of bringing his idea to reality – convincing family, Money or signing up people? He smiled and said “Marketing”.

He is correct. Having an awesome idea is just not related to the functioning of the brain and connecting with people, but to market the idea to the appropriate stakeholders.

In a startup’s context, Marketing is just not about showcasing your idea to the world, but it is the art of showcasing the idea as it connects to your potential clients.

Marketing fundamentally needs an understanding of what your client is wanting, what is the value proposition of what you are offering and how the offering is positioned.

When Radio Mirchi (98.3 FM) was born way back in 2000, the biggest challenge for them was to make listeners tune into their frequency. No one was switching on the Radio at home or in the car. At this time, Radio Mirchi focused on playing English music which was considered hip and cool. During the time slots of 7 AM – 10 AM and evening between 5 PM – 8 PM, they played English music and slowly people started tuning in to follow the trend.

When an idea is conceptualized, we need to first create our offering in a way such that clients would come to us and then we can build on what our unique proposition is.

What book changed your life?

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Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid

I read this book way back in early 2005 and it did quite change my thought process. Even though this book focus’s on helping Organizations understand how Innovative Products work in the Emerging markets, there is a key takeaway for Social conscious people like me.

The book embarks on a journey, in which Late Dr. Prahlad argues that organizations always work with the top and middle of the pyramid, but forget the largest part of the pyramid. Any products and service can be produced at better quality for a lower price when it reaches more than what is anticipated. The discussion/argument is not about the exclusive products like cars or luxury items, but others which are quite necessary. The book takes you through case studies of organizations who have innovated to help people who absolutely need few things, ranging from Home to HealthCare to daily consumables.

I am not going to go deep into any of the case studies, but would like to share how it motivated me to think differently. Before I read this book, my understanding of the world and organizations was very limited, but this book opened my eyes to a whole new world of understanding what consumer needs and how this has changed they organizations did business.

Today, we have organizations building even cars exclusively for the price sensitive population. The products and services which have been innovated for the bottom of the pyramid (price sensitive population) also has impacted the middle and top of the pyramid. Organizations realized this a bit late. The prime understanding of any good producer is that any product/service accepted by consumers will always be accepted. However, one aspect which organizations miss is that even in non-price sensitive markets, people consume only limited quantities. However, when you produce goods and services in smaller quantities, acceptance might also go up!

Look at the classic example of Aravind Eye Clinic in Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India. This organization has constantly innovated from the beginning to provide cost-effective eye care. If you speak to the founder, his inspiration is McDonald’s. He was amazed the Quality of food available at any of the McDonald’s outlets across the world, which is precisely the same anywhere and everywhere. Being an ophthalmologist, he wanted to create something which has the same quality anywhere and everywhere. Today, Aravind Eye Clinic performs more than 600 eye surgeries each day and these surgeries cost as low as $50. What is the outcome? Acceptance in the 80% of Rural India that they too can better their lives.

If I keep quoting case studies, the list goes on. However, the key takeaway for me is to produce something/anything which can be accepted at the bottom of the pyramid and impacts their lives. This will translate to acceptance at the middle and top of the pyramid too.

So, which book changed your life?

Thinking for the ‘app’ markets

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In today’s world, startup’s are focusing on utilizing technology to bring in elements of convenience to the end user. Strategies for market penetration and consumer usage (downloads) have evolved over the period of time.
Few elements of marketing have remained the same and will do so.

Word of mouth marketing has a lot of value. Have you tried using this product? or have you downloaded this app? makes a lot of difference. I would like to use something which has been tested by someone else. In the pre-technology era, advertisements made a good value. If Nirma has become a household name, it is only because of its advertisement in the TV.

In the technology space, we do not see a lot of advertisements on the TV and a few in these days are utilizing the power of radio. Most of the ideas and apps still go with a word of mouth or sometimes a mention in the media.

Apps do not have market segmentation – they are same for everyone. If someone drives an Audi, BMW, Volvo or Jaguar, we identify them differently when compared with someone who drives a smaller car. In the technology space, you cannot differentiate between someone using Uber or Ola app.

One of the biggest challenges for tech startup’s is understanding their consumer needs. Very few companies actually do survey’s and understand the user preferences and then build their application.

Traditionally, market surveys in the ‘target’ market segment helped companies to identify what their consumers want. Even in the tech space, few companies do the market survey, but these surveys do not cover various geographies. If the startup is based in Bangalore, the maximum the survey’s reach is to the metros and smart cities where people are using email or The Internet. But, there is a lot of population who do not see the email or cannot use the internet to answer questions. For Tata tea to become number one in the country, they had to understand the taste of tea in various parts of the country. In UP, people preferred large granular tea where as in Orissa people preferred the fine tea dust. The taste’s are different and so, the company had to innovate and bring out a different category in the product to ensure maximum reach. How can we do this in the technology space?

I don’t think there is a formula to understand this. The market time for technology product is few days or months and for a goods companies, it is months or probably years. So, it is very important for them to do the survey’s and get their product right. In technology companies, if uses complained, then they can immediately make changes to their design or functionality and roll out a new release.
Is there a formula to get the app right the first time? It is time to Think…

Resilience – The way I work with it

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I read and heard about resilience quite a few times in my life. Through the journey, whenever something happened and I learned from it and incorporated the learning into my life, I looked back and thought I was getting more resilient.

Building resilience needs a lot more strength and mental ability. This is the best life skill you can ever learn.

A year and a half ago, I, unfortunately, lost my mother. I last sat with her, ate with her and spoke her wholeheartedly eight months before she passed away. I was away from home and by the time I came back, she was in bed. That was the most testing and tiring times for me. It was totally unexpected and came in as a rude shock.

Just after her death, I was hitting unexpected bumps in my other aspects of my life. Suddenly life is being jolted. Was getting hit from all facets of life. I was not able to do anything that I wanted to do. Even if I did, things were just not working for me. I was frustrated and irritated to the core. Lost all my dreams. Gave up on tomorrow and was really feeling low. This continued for the next few months. Each day was hell. I get up looking forward to the day to end, rather than to live the day.

Then after 5 months, I met someone who redefined and changed the way I think. I could identify my blind spot. Since then, everything looked different. The problems I was facing still exist, but the way I look at them have changed. Situations are the same, but the way I identify and work towards addressing them have definitely changed.

When I look back the last one year, identifying my interest areas and working towards them without looking at the results has benefitted me. I started writing a Gratitude Journal, got back to running, started to write and read again.

Today, I don’t react to situations anymore. My anger and my openness to speaking straight are mostly gone. Earlier, when someone on the road is not driving properly I used to be frustrated and would take the frustration to other things. Today, I do not do that anymore. I am silent and let the anger pass away.

If you are not happy with yourself and things are not working the way you want, the only thing you want to do is focus on what you wish to achieve ( the purpose of life) and do things which motivate you and deviate your attention from the not so good things which are happening.

Building resilience is not easy, but something which you will develop over time.