How HelpingDoc.com allows patients to get online appointment with doctors
Walk into a doctor's office without an appointment and you are likely to waste the entire day trying get a diagnosis. However, help is at hand now with HelpingDoc.com, a Delhi-based online company, which allows you to make an appointment with doctors in the NCR.
The company was co-founded by Amit Bansal, Dr Hemant Singhal, Srinivas Gattamneni and UK-basedJulian Hall, in May 2012. It was conceptualised in August the previous year, when all four were attending the Entrepreneurship Summer School at the London Business School, their alma mater, till May 2011. Their proposal was shortlisted as the top 30 ventures worth nurturing, so the four decided to take the idea a step further by researching the Indian market as their launch pad. Says Bansal: "People in India are too busy to visit a doctor. We also noticed that while online consultation is helpful and an emerging trend in the country, physical consultation cannot be ruled out completely."
So, in November 2011, the quartet pooled together a seed capital of Rs 85 lakh, drawn from their personalsavings, and registered the company as Helping Doc Private Limited. Most of this money went into strengthening the technology for the venture. After Bansal moved back to India in April 2012, he and Singhal rented an office in Faridabad and hired a team of four. It took the team one month to convince doctors to come on board. The founders also clearly demarcated their roles—Bansal oversees operations, Singhal looks at the medical aspect, Hall heads technology, and Gattamneni is responsible for venture development.
Of course, there were several challenges. "We started by offering this as a free facility to doctors in Delhi, but they were sceptical about it," says Bansal. So the team started charging Rs 499 a month per doctor. "This was a fairly irregular payment option as some doctors would subscribe for a month and drop out the next month. So we shifted to a flat annual fee of Rs 6,000," he adds.
Here's how the website works: search for a doctor based on a criterion such as health problem. The portal displays a list of doctors and their location on map. You can narrow down the list on the basis of experience, consultation fee, distance and availability. Once you zero in on a doctor and convenient time, you can make an appointment and get a confirmation free of charge.
Seven months on, the going is good for the fledgling start-up. The team has already collaborated with 800 doctors, the website is getting 1,500 hits daily, and the 20-employee firm is confident of a turnover of Rs 70 lakh this year. To accommodate the growing team, they shifted to a bigger office at Jasola, Delhi, two months ago.
Next on the cards is expanding the repertoire by introducing consumer-based services, such as online and tele-consultation. Their 'Ask an expert' project on Facebook is already a hit, with at least 50 questions posted a day to doctors subscribed with them. The company is also planning a pan-India expansion in 10 cities, starting with Mumbai, Pune and Bangalore, by the end of 2014. They are currently looking for venture funding tofinance these plans and expect to break even by next year.
Source : ET BUREAU
Here’s how the website works: search for a doctor based on a criterion such as health problem. The portal displays a list of doctors and their location on map.
Walk into a doctor's office without an appointment and you are likely to waste the entire day trying get a diagnosis. However, help is at hand now with HelpingDoc.com, a Delhi-based online company, which allows you to make an appointment with doctors in the NCR.
The company was co-founded by Amit Bansal, Dr Hemant Singhal, Srinivas Gattamneni and UK-basedJulian Hall, in May 2012. It was conceptualised in August the previous year, when all four were attending the Entrepreneurship Summer School at the London Business School, their alma mater, till May 2011. Their proposal was shortlisted as the top 30 ventures worth nurturing, so the four decided to take the idea a step further by researching the Indian market as their launch pad. Says Bansal: "People in India are too busy to visit a doctor. We also noticed that while online consultation is helpful and an emerging trend in the country, physical consultation cannot be ruled out completely."
So, in November 2011, the quartet pooled together a seed capital of Rs 85 lakh, drawn from their personalsavings, and registered the company as Helping Doc Private Limited. Most of this money went into strengthening the technology for the venture. After Bansal moved back to India in April 2012, he and Singhal rented an office in Faridabad and hired a team of four. It took the team one month to convince doctors to come on board. The founders also clearly demarcated their roles—Bansal oversees operations, Singhal looks at the medical aspect, Hall heads technology, and Gattamneni is responsible for venture development.
Of course, there were several challenges. "We started by offering this as a free facility to doctors in Delhi, but they were sceptical about it," says Bansal. So the team started charging Rs 499 a month per doctor. "This was a fairly irregular payment option as some doctors would subscribe for a month and drop out the next month. So we shifted to a flat annual fee of Rs 6,000," he adds.
Here's how the website works: search for a doctor based on a criterion such as health problem. The portal displays a list of doctors and their location on map. You can narrow down the list on the basis of experience, consultation fee, distance and availability. Once you zero in on a doctor and convenient time, you can make an appointment and get a confirmation free of charge.
Seven months on, the going is good for the fledgling start-up. The team has already collaborated with 800 doctors, the website is getting 1,500 hits daily, and the 20-employee firm is confident of a turnover of Rs 70 lakh this year. To accommodate the growing team, they shifted to a bigger office at Jasola, Delhi, two months ago.
Next on the cards is expanding the repertoire by introducing consumer-based services, such as online and tele-consultation. Their 'Ask an expert' project on Facebook is already a hit, with at least 50 questions posted a day to doctors subscribed with them. The company is also planning a pan-India expansion in 10 cities, starting with Mumbai, Pune and Bangalore, by the end of 2014. They are currently looking for venture funding tofinance these plans and expect to break even by next year.
Source : ET BUREAU
