Evolution of Healthcare & Entrepreneurship in India ft. Vikas Chauhan | The Growth Genius

Vikas Chauhan:- The consumer being discharged three days early and then the technology is helping them to monitor the rest of the recovery from home significantly reduces the cost for a patient in India healthcare is not only a clinical or a medical problem it-‘s also a financial problem.

Mehul Asher:- Hello everyone welcome to yet another episode of The Growth Genius powered by infidigit this is where we share gross stories of business and marketing I am your host Mehul Asher senior vice president at Infidigit in today’s episode we have a Growth Genius who has been instrumental in creating three successful businesses in a very short span of time he is a Serial entrepreneur who started his journey by keeping the requirements of the consumer in his mind he was instrumental in founding one of India’s first online grocery platform he also co-founded India’s most loved Healthcare platform and now he is a co-founder of yet another Healthcare platform which helps patients in their hospitalization requirements ladies and Gentlemen please join me in welcoming Mr. Vikas Chauhan he has been the founder of freshen daily and online grocery platform he co-founded Tata 1mg a healthcare platform and now he is the co-founder of Hexa Health Vikas thank you so much for joining us welcome to The Growth Genius.

Vikas:- Thank you Mehul happy to be here thank you so much for having me.

Mehul:- It is always a pleasure to interact with you and just you know start with some questions you know which are very basic I would say you know if you can take us through your journey from engineering to you know what you are doing right now because you also mentioned that you know you started one of the startups uh in your hostel dorm.

Vikas:- My entrepreneurial Journey started the post my engineering so basically I’m from ajmer Rajasthan did my engineering in electronics and communication from Rajasthan itself from ajmer and that’s there that I learned about the whole Wi-Fi concept is back in 2003 for and ajmer is a small belly where there are mountains all around so we thought why don’t we Supply Internet to the consumers without any wires and that is that time Broadband has been introduced most people were using the dial-up connection we took a selfie Broadband line plugged it into one of the real estate stop using those antennas and then the Wi-Fi was provided but the consumer was not ready to pay 350 rupees a month for a broadband connection we’re talking about 512 KPBS kind of a speed switches which is negligible today so very finicky around the price sensitivity and they were okay with slow speeds learned lessons don’t go to the market with a product and try to find a consumer look for a problem and then solve for a solution rather than having a solution and then going to the market move to Bangalore worked in IT industry for a couple of years then came to Mumbai to do my MBA from Sumaya during that time one of the challenge that we were facing I used to stay with my friends over the weekend in prabha Devi whose Sunday trip would be go to the Phoenix meal go to big Bazaar and spend four or five hours picking the grocery and then step out have lunch at the Copper chimney and come back so you would base term six seven hours of Sunday at least once or twice a month doing that and then Sunday you are at the mercy of big Bazaar for delivery so for 2000 rupees and above they used to do deliveries that time so you are at their Mercy whether they would deliver product next day or not the products are delivered breakfast and that was the time when apps were not that common word e-commerce was um starting to gain its Footprints Flipkart was getting recognized every other category had some or the other form of e-commerce that is possible faced with this challenge we realized why can’t grocery be delivered at home so we went to epmc Market which is outside Mumbai in Navi Mumbai it’s there and and we looked at what is the supply chain of the product that happens looked at it realized there’s a big gap in terms of the quality of the product that gets applied into different tiers the time duration in which the produce which has hit the market and then to your home and the whole selection of the product um and not to mention the price that changes so we realize that there’s a huge gap in terms of one of the standardized branded groceries to be delivered including fruits and vegetables and timely accessibility with the convenience of home so that’s where we started freshenddaily.com the model was simple you will place the order by 10 pm every night and we will deliver it the next day 4 am I used to go to the Mandi pick up the stuff where get it to the warehouse packet and then we used to do milk runs so basically start with Wadala and then go to bhakti park and then you know do the delivery we were unit economics positive from day one working capital was supported where we were taking cash from the consumer today and paying the welders later and the delivery cost was minimal because we were not spoiling consumer for choices unlike today where you give time slots and Other Things We Said for each building there’s a two hour slot if you don’t pick during that time we had a nearby shop where you can go and pick your stuff from that shop later if you’re not available so our delivery cost was up 10 Rupees working capital was favorable this was a Cost Plus model so every day we got the prices we would mark up and then sell to the conservation there was no discount there was no discount option on the website you are an e-commerce company we we never had a discount option going when bootstrapped um reached the state we were around 40-50 lakhs business a month um the business was fueling itself but it was a weight and watch space from the investment world that time was getting married in three months already delayed it by some time and had to take a call where needed some consistent cash flow so had some Exit Plan there and then got a chance to meet Prashant, Prashant was along with Sameer running health at that time and they were talking with an idea to do something on the clinical side so I met prashanth and we launched health card plus that was uh to solve the information asymmetry problem that exist in the Indian Healthcare ecosystem beat any interaction Point around medicines Diagnostics hospitalization or Healthcare in general the way consumer has been treated is that and with the Advent of mobiles and easy access to information everybody was accessing information which was halfway not giving clear picture or not authentic so we realized there’s a big big gap that’s there in terms of information asymmetry accessibility to Quality Healthcare Services and when the whole broken supply chain which was there and that’s where we built India’s first database that could be used to power an app to give information around your medication to the consumer in a real-time basis at that time you had um book my show to give you comparison on movies and reviews you had Trip Advisor to give you reviews in your hotel and all you had zomato which would give you an option to understand the menus and restaurant quality and different ratings but there was no option to give you understanding on the medicines that you were consuming it’s a high involvement category it is something that is going in your body and something that that’s very very consumer involvement to a higher degree as possible because it can give you outcomes which are life supporting or life threatening so we we started building that database and the challenge we found was there was no single source of data available so we built that data entire database we’ve defined the format in which the data should be there collected data from a different source and launched it today it’s over 1.3 lakh sqs listed on the website it was a web app first product because of the inherent social update the app went viral we had a million downloads without any marketing spends there and that’s where we rebranded the product rebranded it to 1 mg and scaled it during the journey we launched India’s first online pharmacy we launched India’s first diagnostic Marketplace built the backend supply chain multiple other things and the healthcare it has been one of the most loved app most downloaded healthcare app most highly related app on the App Store heading during covert it has been our privilege and honor that we were able to serve the country in the time of need we were at the Forefront enabling easy access to my and any of the consultation requirements that the consumer might have might have post covered when the Tata partnership engagement was happening it was a choice whether to be at a 36,000 feet and look at a product to its Journey where it is from 100x scale to a 1000x scale or to go back to a ground and solve a problem which is um still not solved I always been zero to one person love the kiosk which is there in any problem that has not been solved Health Care is very close to my heart and one of the areas where from a personal in a professional experience I realized had a similar kind of problem was ipd the whole hospitalization process for a customer and highly accentuated during the covid times that’s where decided to go back to the ground and start from scratch and solve a problem that has not been solved and that’s where hexa came in so almost two years back we started hexa Health to help consumers understand if there is any surgical or any ipd requirement or any hospitalization requirement that they may have whatever information that they may need in terms of deciding which surgical procedure in terms if they have challenge in understanding which doctor which hospital so we help them discover that and then once you decide it on a hospital doctor or any procedure we help you with the entire journey by hand holding for different touch points so for your admission discharge post-op care pre-op preparation even financing and insurance assistance that we provide to the consumer so we take care we become an buddy to a consumer who needs a surgical procedure for any of the clinical outcomes that has been the journey. 

Mehul:- Amazing because from your perspective how has Healthcare changed over time and more importantly you know how it has impacted the costs for the patients?

Vikas:- See kovid has been a very strong turn point for multiple Industries um good and bad but Healthcare it has been a very very positive uh Anchor Point where technology penetration or access to technology has happened in a very very significant way I think the way I see it there were Solutions there were technology which was enabling accessibility affordability and availability of healthcare services for the consumers in a big way but the adoption has been a challenge the adoption has been a challenge both at the consumer side and the provider side who will change that fundamentally so a lot of doctors a lot of hospitals were never used an EHR PHR electronic health record system online consultation systems any of the software that help easy access to Consumers to reach out to these Services were implemented and easily adopted lot of doctors who have not been comfortable taking online consultation moves a lot of consumers who have not tried this system that that trust of trial came and a lot of consumers tried those services it shifted the ecosystem by multiple levels it brought in one um a lot of data and uh took people who were building those solutions to work on it see you have a solution and you don’t know whether it is working not working whether it will work at scale or not work at scale what are the challenges it brought in a lot of data to those consumers in terms of what is working what is not working it brought me a lot of insights what is needed by the consumer what is needed by the provider and the rapid change to that we are seeing is Basis that you realize that there is a ready set of consumers who are now okay to use technology you identified what are the challenge areas in bringing either a new system uh whatever what all you can solve or what is the challenge in the existing system both were enabled during this other factors in terms of infrastructure mobile penetration easy access to data supportive policies everything being there now you have a much more fast-paced growth that is happening which is enabling consumers to have accessibility in a much more easy form or convenient form so for example a repeat order for a consumer is a clip of button a diagnostic report analysis is is something that a technology is delivering to a certain extent the next you can always go to the doctor and get a complete picture but that first interaction or first interpretation is happening for you I think the post-op care or post hospitalization uh the whole aspect within the use of Technology you’re solving the problem for The Limited hospital beds that you are having I think the geographical issue that your doctors are concentrated in the top cities and the tier 4 or tier 3 and Beyond have lesser accessibility to Quality doctor that is also being solved cost wise it is it is having a major implication in terms that you know one is fundamental pure convenience that is brought in so there is no way that you can attach a cost element to it but the whole exercise for example um a consumer being discharged three days early and then the technology is helping them to monitor rest of the recovery from home significantly reduces the cost for a patient and in India the healthcare is not only a clinical or a medical problem it’s also a financial problem given that a lot of expense that a consumer and the so what happens is if you look at any of the chronic disease or lifestyle diseases which are there if you can help patients manage those conditions you can reduce instances of hospitalization or at least delayed and that brings a lot of cost saving for example a diabetes patient can reverse diabetes or at least control it the chances of him hitting or her hitting a hospital or reaching a hospital in two years or five years or seven years getting delayed by a few years is a significant cause saving for that not only that but it’s also the longevity of life and the quality of life that gets improved so today you have at scale different models that help you in digital Therapeutics as the vertical is called manage your conditions better Cancer Care for example there have been easy access to Top Doctors that has enabled around that and multiple other things so I think prevention not only once you have identified but also whole idea that you can get a diagnostic test free hand and then monitor something getting worse so pre-diagnosis or disease using preventive Diagnostics has also resulted in Saving of cost multiple multi-fold in a very long tail impact of this but very very significant.

Mehul:- Yeah that is very interesting what you mentioned about that Healthcare is also a financial problem in India and not just a health problem taking a cue from that because I wanted to understand since Hexa Health also provides financial assistance and you know provides Insurance to patients what is your outlook as far as the insurance sector is concerned in healthcare?

Vikas:- So Insurance sector I think has space challenge of adoption in India be very highly undervalue the quality of life and life value in general if you ask somebody to take an insurance plan they always mix it with a saving plan and the result is and then because you have cash limitation the access to Quality Care gets limited because of the limited options so insurance has its own challenges in terms of one adoption from the consumer and to the penetration of technology in the whole servicing cycle of the insurance so they’ve not been much data inside that we’re going to get in terms of patients who’ve gone through so what are their different analysis and view that you can get to design your products better I think the other challenge has been but how do you bring all the hospitals and all the service providers in which are servicing insurance policies for the consumers when I say servicing policies is you bought a policy and now you’re using a service and then getting it rebused through the insurance so how do you bring technology in that so that the misuse abuse of the policy is controlled and because of the high misuse and abuse the ability for a insurance company to Pilot or or bring newer and more Innovative products get Limited so one of the things that has happened is the idea has been very supportive in defining those methods and protocols therefore through which you can you can bring in new products and to Pilot it previously it used to be a lot of conditions that would have limited but now uh in the past few years they’ve been very supportive in bringing those changes I think one of those early reflections of those is people shifting to bite size insurance so you have 200 rupees cover for mobile cover you have a 200 rupees 300 rupees cover for an accident insurance for the next three months because you bought a cycle you have a 200 300 rupees cover because Dengue chicken punya is common in Delhi after range so you have insurance cover for those so those bite size products pushing and enabling it has really picked up um that’s interesting so I mean these bite size products.

Mehul:- Sorry I wanted to understand this hexa health also provide these kind of covers the bite-sized covers you are talking about?

Vikas:- We are not selling insurance we just servicing any consumer who need hospitalization access so one that I mentioned is the whole new innovation site that the insurance is coming second is all servicing getting shifted to digital so for example previously your car would get an accident then you would need certain verifications or whatever today just by your video call or AI analysis that that claims get Auto process and the same is happening in healthware now with pre-op the disbursement can it be eased can you reduce that eight hour six hour window of discharge so all those uh work being done we will see results in coming time I think the other shift that has happened is the consumer has changed the medium so as the insurance company has changed the medium so I agree there is still over a large percentage of offline and agent network works but the digital side or the digital products available where you can access to the available options and and choose a policy for you that has become much more easier so four digit or any of these new age insurance companies echo or or whatever they are making that accessibility easy there has been growth but still a very far from an ideal State for a country and the size of consumers that we have I think on the government side also you see a lot of effort that has been happening for example helping you have your digital health records enabling access to a larger population so overall Insurance sector is seeing um consumer getting educated consumers getting access to consumers playing a part in it coming time technology and the awareness should lead to very strong growth in the segment.

Mehul:- Right I think there is a lot of ground to cover as far as insurance is concerned looking at the depth and the size of the country that we have right that’s interesting Vikas one thing you mentioned about was that there was you know easy adaptability of Technology during covet so obviously we saw a surge as far as the adoption was concerned and also you know if you look at customer acquisition was easier at that time because that was the only option coming to 1mg when you have an online platform you know to start with how do you know to get the consumer to shop at 1mg and not go to his you know neighborhood pharmacy?

Vikas:- I wish I could ring fence everyone that you bought from 1mg and now you will not go to any other platform or any other shop so the world doesn’t work that easy but see what happens is um Healthcare is a very trust driven category unlike any other category in healthcare is one of the biggest factor that drives consumers repeat purchase so you can get first interaction by multiple other things but eventually trust is what helps consumers stick to you so making sure the consumer takes with you there is a series of event goals right from the moment the consumer lands on your website to your purchase and then post purchase so for example uh the look and feel of the product that minor UI UX elements that you mentioned to bring the trust and familiarity for the consumer to place an order the ease and convenience of placing the order how easier difficult to checkout process any affiliations or whatever that you have that bring Trust of the consumer so those are two factors one is any known agency or Association that you get affiliated with the fines and gives you a stamp of trust that the processes at this organization are are true data integrity and security and second is consumer reviews we need to consistently do well so that you get consumer reviews so all those are software and aesthetic factors that contribute to Consumer building process then do you have to Tire hitting the road where once the order has been placed you make sure that you have a better fulfilled rate you have authentic medicines you you only charge what has been the promise to the consumer you deliver on time you have a nice packaging and if there’s a cold chain or a cool chain product those are you know maintained and delivered in those fashion and then Post delivery services so all those factors contribute to it doing it right first time doing it right is what gets you there.

Mehul:- That’s interesting I think you know you have been talking about customer centricity right from you know fresh and daily days right because that is something which has been the focus and even when you spoke about your experiment in Ajmer I think that that was a revelation where you realize that you know you put the customer first and then you put the technology not the other way around so whether any learnings with fresh and daily which actually helped you to you know build 1mg stronger?

Vikas:- So of multiple learnings that we had for expression daily one of the things that worked most was being transparent and being a friend with the consumer I think in healthcare if you give a consumer 10 options and let the consumer decide which is the option or whatever available options are there and give to the consumer and let the consumer decide what he or she wants that works best versus telling a consumer that this is the option it may be the best option it may be the best price option but the consumer will think that you have a carton you have a underlying benefit that you will draw what we learned and what we implemented in all our products and services is all the options are open to Consumer let consumer choose what they want so in that regard for example the diagnostic service that we launched we told consumer that you know to decide a test a diagnostic test that you want to take there are three information points that you need one is what is the lab who is the lab what are the accreditation it has what is the scale and other things technical capabilities another thing that they have two what are the pricing of a test between one lap to lab and three lap and third Point what are the reviews about these Labs from the consumer and decide whichever lab that you want to go to we never said that we’ll get you the best CBC test at the best quality and the lowest price or X price or Y price because what happens is that that trust doesn’t get built that way most of the time consumers chose a you know above average pricing and lab for that matter but the assumption that it needs to be cheap is the assumption that you know the best price work there is no concept on that one when you are playing on trust once the brand interests are there the price doesn’t matter the consumer will go for whichever the brand or service that they would trust so being opened and transparent helped us achieve that I think to adding to your previous question there that what made the consumer stick to us and not go to others is again one of those factors is being open transparent and building the trust with the consumer.

Mehul:- There is something that the brand stands for and that is what even the consumer appreciates in the end right so coming from Tech you know background or rather you know working in health Tech what is your opinion on AI how is it going to change the you know healthcare industry?

Vikas:- See AI has a theoretical concept and AI as an execution or implementation subject are are vast areas I think we’ve not been able to reach to the complete definition of theoretical AI as such even the AI is developing as we speak but the early use cases of that that being Big Data analysis and using those models to help service any channel any aspect of our day-to-day life is what we are seeing the real capability is started to come out with those new chart gpts and generative AIS and other things that we are looking at so that’s that’s that’s what AI is enabling I think the other side which has been there for some time is that Healthcare need to be much more customized and much more personalized for a consumer so you as a consumer is very different from I as a consumer versus third person it depends on a lot of factors in terms of my lifestyle even five diabetic patients at the age of 35 having 80 kgs of weight will differ significantly in terms of what they would need basis where geographical location they are the nature of job they do the nature of food they eat and multiple other factors now to deliver that kind of customize and personalize Healthcare you need a much stronger Health engine that can deliver AI is is that direction that answer that helps you reach to that level so I believe Health AI will help you know your personal coach your personal health assistance to help better lifestyle goal for yourself so that’s where I think the end game is I think there is a journey in between that that we will over so minor so it it has its own Spectrum to it so one is where it can be your basic pill reminder your your health assistant to give you a basic understanding of any test or whatever diagnostic that you’ve done multiple other factors from an industry perspective this will be an X Factor that will unlock a lot of operational efficiency a lot of significant um Manpower dependency which is there in lot of post of care pre-op or patient assistance that is there and the overall running of Healthcare business in general for example the generative AI is going to play a significant role where if you look previously you would need a doctor to write an article the article gets published somebody has to review it today articles are being written by Ai and the doctor can just review it for the technicalities of it or factual aspects to it a lot of grunt work or basic um skeleton is is done through the generative AI so what is it has enabled is one churn out content at a very faster rate now so previously if you had 100 doctors writing 100 articles now you can push out thousand articles and what next level that it brings is is um if you are a diabetic patient 85 with a lifestyle which is x y z then there is an article for you versus somebody has a lifestyle ABC and there is an article for you the ultimate Way Forward around this is if you are a diabetic patient there is a certain lifestyle and you have a diabetic food condition so everything next that you would need in terms of watering medicine in terms of watering or supplement in terms of reading an article gets aligned to that aspect you don’t get any everything in general and that’s where AI will play a significant role so at a consumer level if you see it will be much more at a personal coach delivering your personalized and customized information and a partner or assistant for you at an industry or um ecosystem level it will help you bring a lot of efficiency it will help you bring a lot of reduction in manual errors or whatever that can lead to a harmful patient outcome and multiple other aspects that you can keep looking for example medical devices the whole analysis of a radiology or whatever that can be completely automated and AI is going to play a significant role in it it can also and it there are early signs around that the early detection of certain life-threatening diseases and all uh becomes much more easier with the use of technology and AI will play a significant role there so multiple aspects consumer level industry level and Innovation I I can talk about this subject one of the most interesting and something that I personally look forward to but I think it’s still a long way from where we are for the actual outcomes to feel because as I said in theory we have a lot of things and the whole concept is still getting frame uh what we have yes is you know big using big data and putting in models in place to test some of these things the challenge where I feel we are lacking is we don’t have enough data to fuel these systems and that’s where will be the limiting factor for it now. 

Mehul:- Yeah that’s interesting you starting from the consumer to you know taking a view of the whole ecosystem the healthcare ecosystem so yeah I think you know just like you know any new technological advancement has a lot of promise and depends a lot on the adoption as well I would say so Vikas I would like to ask you a broad-based question which is basically on the Indian economy now as you would also know that India is poised or said to be poised in achieving the 5 trillion Mark what are your views on that and what according to you will be the levers in helping India achieve this Milestone?

Vikas:- I think five Six Trillion is a big number and if you ask me will there be one or two or three factors that can enable it’s not it’s a culmination of a lot of factors if you ask me uh bucketed then it’s always infrastructure policy and resources so there is an easy answer there is a difficult answer but I’ll tell you my uh view over it I was listening to one of the speeches from some global economic Forum where where they mentioned that large bracket of our population um will be between 25 to 45. in 2027 and each of that individual will have a spending capability of some thousand dollars or something now you multiply that by that large population base the outcome that you get is a phenomenal number now how do you reach or how do you enable that so one is yes you are positioned in poised and all the timing that can be there is there so there is a big infrastructure push that is happening so be it digital infrastructure or physical infrastructure so you have highways you have hospitals you have institutions that getting created second is your your push around the digital side you have policy framework to enable data security and aspect you have at one end world’s largest biometric system put in place where easy accessibility of data and mobile penetration which is happening so all those factors are there second is stable government and and forward looking machinery what I feel is there is a general enthusiasm and excitement around an Indian today I talk to a lot of people I get a chance to meet a lot of folks and and I’m not talking about metros I’m talking about the smaller cities as well I come from and everybody is looking at that you know I want to grow and they are ready to put forward that hard work they are ready to put forward that effort which is required see there is one aspect that government can bring in multiple schemes and multiple policies and and nobody adopts so nobody works on it or nobody benefits from it the other is people trying to get benefit and they are ready to or startup site that has come I think one is the pure vanity or media story around it the second part is the whole internalization of doing something and Technology being an enabler for that for example the ONDC platform that we talk about the e-commerce has been four five seven percent of the total business which has been there now can ondc fundamentally change where you bring another 20-30 percent of consumers on the platform now that’s a huge game changer so one right from the consumer being ready to accept adapt and work towards the whole conducive environment which is available for them to take up uh that group the other aspect is whole infrastructure in place to do it coming specifically to healthcare I think there is a big push in making India consume in India or or export to the world as well I think in Pharma we have been always strong medical devices and infrastructure equipments we’ve never we will not that strong we’re still importing a lot be it the hospital beds be it the diabetes meters or whatever and then large array of products in that segment there is a big big push which is happening that is enabling that production itself in India and that’s going to fuel a lot in healthcare second is the quality of Healthcare systems that are available to us I think the quality and the size of hospitals that are cooling we are one of the largest hub for medical tourism but it has come as a focus area for government as well where they are enabling a structured way to partner with countries to enable medical tourism now that would be a big-big leap and big push for the healthcare ecosystem in the country now those are two three big areas where I feel where Healthcare will be contributing to the five or six trillion dream that we are looking for in the next few years.

Mehul:- Very interesting so how did 1mg happen if you can tell us more about you know how 1mg happened and you know what was it like you know meeting the tatas and if you can you know give us some details of it?

Vikas:- So I think 1mg happened and the Tata partnership are two very different events so as I mentioned Prashant…

Mehul:- Specifically about the data partnership you know you talked about how you built one mg you know with the co-founders and then you know you talked about the learnings I just wanted to understand the next step where you know you add Tata also showing interest in 1mg so unless something more about that?

Vikas:- So I think we were at a significant scale covet helped us you know reduce our marketing spends and leads are larger Mass given there was no other option available for us it was a stage set where we have to look at a multi-fold jump to take it to every corner of the country I think the trust the command of the brand the tatas enjoy in the industry I think there is no other brand that comes even close to bringing that you know trust Factor if you look at the association of the brand and the whole trust and you know is feeling now as I mentioned in healthcare one of the things that a consumer looks at is trust and that’s where the longevity happens so it was a National Partnership that you know brand like Tata can really really put that stamp of trust that this is a genuine service this is a quality service and and this is a service that can be trusted by every India so that’s where that that natural partnership or natural inclement was there and we always been focused on two things one be transparent and upfront with the consumer and to never compromise on quality I think those were the brand ethos that we built and we kept building on that over the years and it resonated whenever the partnership discussion happened that you know what would we take if you build a product or a service or or associate a brand for a larger scale larger mass or or country in general that has been the journey so that has been the partnership.

Mehul:- That showed a lot of alignment because when you talked about customers intensity you talked a lot about building trust and being transparent and that is clearly resonating with the brand value of the Tata group also probably is you know a natural combination of you know getting into a partnership interesting Vikas another thing I wanted to ask you was you know are there any specific growth stories you know you talked about you know how which shaped the whole healthcare industry and you know it also had an impact on how you are running your business anything in specific be it you know from Fashion daily or be it from hexa hexa Health you know any specific growth stories which you would like to share?

Vikas:- Multiple I think they decade over Journey there is has to be stories which are so there are two things which happens either you’ll put a lot lot of effort and you are very reasonably sure of the outcomes and then there are there are stories where the outcome itself surprises you um in terms of the effort that goes in so I think one is obviously I talked about the data how being again being true transparent and bringing that trust Factor we didn’t take a shortcut where key job we worked on it for months to define the format we worked on it months to get a significant size of the data and then only we reached out to the consumer so urgency that you know why we are not launching why we are delaying it versus you know let’s get the first product out and let’s maintain the quality of the brand standard that we want to Define ourselves with so that has helped it happened that the app went viral and million download happened without a significant marketing portion another aspect happened with the Diagnostics where we were doing online pharmacy a lot of consumers were coming on the platform for medicine information and then we wanted to Launch Diagnostics so one fine day we decided that you know let’s build that surface because a lot of prescriptions would have a diagnostic test and the consumer was in need and our approach was that for any Healthcare requirement the consumer should come to us so we have we had one product manager one business person and two operation person four person team locked in a room and the product was launched in flat seven days we launched it with only two laps and then we scaled it then we realized the consumer has a problem that you know the options are not available as I mentioned that we found that there are three aspects that the consumers need to decide on a lab so we quickly went out and you know brought in all the labs that were possible there that time to partner and gave all the options to the consumer to choose from once that happened the operational challenge we faced was there was no control on the supply chain so a lab will take order and suppose they have confirmed that 8:30 a sample collection will happen by 9:30 we would have no clue what would have happened I think the real impact happened when we realized that that’s a core service and we need to own it and that’s where we first invested in lab for sure and then acquired it and we built it is one of the largest phlebotomy service so phlebotomist is a person who comes to your home to Cloud your drug sample and that’s where the whole game shifted where we were able to control the entire process bring a delight in the whole process to the consumer and that’s where the real unlocking happened for that vertical it was again very difficult to build those Services maintain quality standard bring the timeliness but again one of those one of those aspects that you needed to do because without that it would be a shortcut or something which is not locked up.

Mehul:- So somewhere you thought owning up a piece of that value chain actually help you grow a much larger scale. 

Vikas:- So basically it’s about figuring out what is the Real Pain point of a consumer so Discovery was one serviceability was second so imagine a consumer who is diabetic and this fasting for 12 hours because you want to get it what has happened the frustration of the consumer is understandable but if you can bring predictability in it where 99 times you are saying that our sample collection will happen at 8 am it brings that peace of mind and if you can do it for Consumer multiple times the trust and the stickiness of the consumer comes so that was one unsolved piece of the problem which was not in standardized or it was a challenge for the industry or a pain point for a consumer that we were able to solve. 

Mehul:- So I mean this again brings me to the same point that you mentioned earlier was that you are you have always put the customer’s requirement as your North Star you know it has to be there’s there is like right.

Vikas:- There is no other way.

Mehul:- Wonderful first you have been successful in building three businesses from the ground up and you shared your insights uh in this episode of the growth genius I would request you to share some key takeaways for budding entrepreneurs over here.

Vikas:- So everything boils down to execution so if there is one word for an entrepreneur it’s execution there are multiple interpretation and manifestations of this aspect but um the sooner somebody learns that eventually it boils down to execution that’s where the real entrepreneurship Journey starts most of the people come and ask me that you know we have an idea but we can’t share we are afraid that somebody will copy or somebody has copied just doesn’t matter it at the end of the day if you can execute it better it’s what that matters there has been multiple book sites there have been multiple grocery sites there have been multiple pharmacies there has been multiple ABC every business had multiple players it never been that one person unless you have a patented technology or whatever and that also will get operated so the difference comes between a successful business versus other is their capability to execute how fast you can exude certain things at what cost it’s not that your government resources so keeping a cost in check being realistic about what you want to achieve and then going about it so execution is the single most important thing for me over the last decade I think second is team you need to be very clear that you want to be a good captain or you want to be a captain of a good team for me Captain of a good team always goes High it is your team that that goes and wins that customer for you it is your team who goes and delivers that order for you it is your team eventually you can guide the team you can Inspire the team but a good team is what it takes to build a successful business so team is something which is very-very important that you should figure you will you will rely on those people you will rely on those that’s your real Capital it’s really data in God we trust for everything else get data never run after vanity Matrix never run after Matrix which misleads don’t get excited about something which is not relevant you should understand what is the real Matrix that will make an impact and if you are tracking more than three Matrix to do that then there is something wrong you have not understood if you understand your business if you understand a certain vertical if you understand a certain function there are three to four formats always been two to three core Matrix that you need to get to everything else is dependent on that you need to figure that out and that that should be your don’t don’t fall into trap of vanity Matrix somebody would like this is if it is not bringing the real impact that you would want crush it that day don’t wait for another day and don’t ignore the data but don’t bring your emotions when you looking at data be very very objective to it bring context but don’t bring emotion.

Mehul:- Very well said that last line was very insightful Vikas anything you would like to add apart from this in terms of you know any any specific pointers you would like to you know add in the interview feel free to you know pass that message?

Vikas:- I think one of the things that lately I’ve been thinking around in my life I was asked this in one of the HR conferences that how do entrepreneurs or people who are committed to their work manage or work-life balance does it makes the sense that you know you shouldn’t have family single persons do better does it takes a toll on your family life how do you achieve work-like balance I believe the whole term work-life balance is misinterpreted see as humans we have a tendency to minimize our risk and maximize our benefit so for example if I tell you that you know let’s start with work life balance itself okay what you tend to do is your interpretation is I should have more time home and less time at office it’s not that you know um what is needed at each site you always look at can I minimize my time at office and maximize my time of home that’s it’s not dark it’s about identifying what each needs so for example if you have a kid and the kid needs that 6-7 or 7-9 time of yours where they would want to play or you want to help with the studies or you want to put them to bed that’s what you figure out you don’t have to say that you know I’ll you know cut down the working hours or I’ll increase my homos you can very well manage some part of the work Post 9 pm also and I’ve done that where I’ve put uh spend my family time and after 10:30 PM I’ve given time to my other uh aspects that need to be attended it is the smaller time consuming things that you often ignore and eat away your time is there you have to be mindful of so you have to be mindful of you know for me it’s not work life balance it is balancing your life it it’s just that if you want to spend four hours on Netflix or social media or chit chatting with friends or boss pin post office hours and then you saying I don’t have time for my family or whatever it is your choice it’s it’s not something else so that has been something that I’ve been telling everyone or whoever asked me this question and that has come multiple times it’s all about balancing your life and balancing your life means what you want to do with it you have 24 hours and that’s the single most precious a resource you have rest everything is a deliverable out of it use that judicially you want to sleep-sleep you want to spend gyming gym you want to spend with family do that you want to work-work but don’t make one excuse for the other then you are lying yourself well one of the things that I’ve lately picked up is again Crossing 40 not sleeping I was not doing Justice uh to myself so I have moved to a seven hour sleeping cycle um all the other aspects have improved I have much more calmer mind to address things I generally a short tempered person but I’ve been able to overcome it to a certain degree still working on it but still working on it but that sleep cycle has helped and multiple other things um generally it’s a very philosophical topic but it’s all about how you look at it the moment you look at it from the perspective that you know maximize one and minimize the other it doesn’t work you need to know that what is the optimal for for each of it and put yourself in life in center and then everything other is a part of it the way you if there are multiple interpretations for person to person but do keep in mind it’s not about uh just about burning without Midnight Oil and then saying kidney because I’m working 16 hours or you have to work 16 or 18 hours a day to make it successful at times it will be 24 hours also but you need to figure it out for yourself.

Mehul:- That’s very insightful because as I said you know I think that was a good decision from my side I left the stage open for you to give whatever you would like to share yeah that’s about it from our side Vikas thank you so much for your time.

Vikas:- Thank you so much for having me lovely talking to you and thank you so much.

Mehul:- So ladies and gentlemen this brings us to the end of yet another episode of The Growth Genius, Vikas Chauhan embodies the spirit of young India which is raring to go out there and make an indelible Mark in whichever space of work they are operating in this is the future of India and it is a privilege for me to have interviewed him on The Growth Genius powered by Infidigit for more such growth stories follow us on the handle Infidigit on various social media platforms like Facebook Twitter Instagram LinkedIn and YouTube you can also listen to this content on various audio streaming platforms like Spotify Amazon and apple the link to all of these is mentioned in the descriptor below so till the next episode of The Growth Genius enjoys grow stories in business and marketing and keep subscribing liking and sharing thank you.