I had always been driven towards entrepreneurship right from my engineering days in IIT Kanpur. I was fortunate enough to have some of my batch mates share that interest with whom I took my first plunge as an entrepreneur by launching a startup that provided photography and video solutions. We were pretty psyched to have had our first go but nothing magical came out of it since the model was not really scalable. However the drive to work on a start up was alive and kicking. As luck would have it I was able to get a wonderful opportunity to apply for the founding batch of the Young India Fellowship program from the University of Pennsylvania where I got to interact with some of the finest and the most interesting personalities who shared the same drive and passion for starting their own ventures.
That one year spent at YIF certainly cemented my conviction in what I wanted to do with my life. Thus a second plunge happened with a new startup called “Lead – Leaders Accelerating Development” which basically provided an acceleration platform for new ideas for start ups in the field of Socio-economic development. However I had to backtrack again with issues of widening the horizons for the company. Scaling a product and understanding the modern day dynamics of digital marketing and ever evolving technology driven industries was something that I was now very keen on learning.
Therefore I decided to gain some skills and joined 9.9 Media and handled their product – Digit Magazine which happened to be India’s most read tech magazine. Within months I was domain widened and I was handling another product of 9.9 Media in the form of www.digit.in – One of the most visited tech website in India. I continued to brainstorm and continue my research on what could become my very own venture.
This entire journey was enjoyable in all its form but there was one problem that remained constant throughout and almost acted as a huge blockade holding me back. It was my back pain. The constant doctor’s appointment, physiotherapy visits and going to orthopedics regularly was a hassle that stifled me. I would be late for work, or be late at home having to skip meals. I was even becoming unproductive at work as I could not manage my schedules and the constant travel between work and clinics would tire me to the core. At the same time I was always thinking about the “big idea” that could propel the start up venture I had always wanted.
One Sunday afternoon, I was fixated thinking about the same vicious circle. My back was aching and for some reason the appointment could not be done the same day and was scheduled for Monday. “Another Monday when I reach the office late” I thought to myself dreading the awful looks of my superiors that awaited me the next morning. And suddenly it all came to me. The “big idea” that I had been looking for was right there in front of me. It had always been there egging me on day and night trying to reach my mind, or rather my back. I had it. All I had to ask myself was what is it that I could really have right now, something that could ease things in my life. And I had the answer. It was a physiotherapist at home who could schedule his visit based on my schedule and not the other way around. As a result, I became my first client. Without wasting any time, I did my research and found out that there was INR Crore 20,000 unorganized market of home healthcare and wellness services for me to explore. Thus there were no issues
of scalability coming to haunt me this time. I set up a pilot project which started on 21st June.
With more than successful results, I quit my job and took the final plunge and started Healers at
Home. It was not long before we received our first round of seed funding on October, 2015 and
since then we have not looked back. The next couple of years that followed had loads of
learnings stored for me. However relentless persistence kept me on track and in 2017, we
finished our second round of funding. Some of investors include Let’s Venture and Chandigarh
Angels Network that saw participation from Jay Patel (US-based Doctor and Investor – Chandigarh
Angels), Chand Das (former CEO of ITC) and Pawan Kumar (former President of IBM Global
Services).
Currently, Healers at Home serves the region of Delhi NCR and provides 5 set of services
including Physiotherapy, Yoga, Nursing Care, Attendant Care and Mother and Child Care.
It has been a wonderful journey thus far of struggle and pain but at the end of the tunnel there
was healing and happiness. And that is what we, as the family of Healers at Home, hope to
provide you, our customers and our extended family, true healing and happiness.
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