YuMedic, built as a startup to put an end to the trouble of waiting in long lines for hours to get access to appropriate health-care facility, stands as one of the fastest growing health care service providing companies in India to create a better ecosystem between a doctor and a patient.
Karan Raj Mehta, A 21 year old Civil Engineer, from Jharkhand’s BIT Sindri, has enabled a huge number of patients to book their doctor’s appointment, online, without having to wait in lines, just for the sake of getting an appointment of a notable doctor. His startup aimed at providing easy access to doctors and improved the chaotic health-care system of the country. Yumedic, initially called The Hello Doctor, has grown to receive funding by the government of India. Starting from small hostel rooms in a college, Karan’s team is now expanding with 26 people and to 5 states and 15 cities, simultaneously.
CAMPUSTYCOONS caught up with Karan to know more about his inspiring journey and how he juggles between academics and his startup. Read on..
- Please tell us a little bit about yourself? What made you take the entrepreneurial leap so early on in life?
My name is KARAN RAJ MEHTA, a final year engineering student of BIT SINDRI, INDIA. Founder & CEO of YuMedic (Previously THE HELLO DOCTOR), I am 21 year old now. I started my company, YuMedic, 2 years back in my second year of engineering, with the aim to organize the haphazard health care scenario of the country.
In my initial days of engineering I was highly inspired by STEVE JOBS words in which he said, A person should start young & be willing to take risk at early stage of life, cause at that moment of time we don’t have any major responsibility, so I believe I should follow my instincts & start my entrepreneurial journey
- What is the quick pitch for YuMedic?
In INDIA, there are 11000 people depending on a single doctor & getting a basic health-care facility is a tiring process. At YuMedic, we are creating an ecosystem between doctors & patients by listing them on our common trusted platform & giving the patients a quality health-care experience. We have a team of 700+ doctors & a user base of 30000+ regular users. Right now we are expanding in 5 states & 15 cities simultaneously with our amazing team of 26 people.
- What is the story behind your startup?
The main problem which I experienced was quite simple. I went to a very famous orthopedic with my grandmother, she’s 80 years old & for a 10 minutes appointment with the doctor , she has to wait for 6 hours. I didn’t feel this right that a person of 80+ age should be suffering this much & when I look around the same issue was prevailing in almost every part of the country. So, I decided that its a very big problem & I have to do something to solve this one.
- What have your accomplishments been so far?
In our past 2 years of operations we have built a strong hold in tier 2 & 3 cities of INDIA. We are a private limited company with a user base of 30k+ users & now we are expanding in 15 cities simultaneously. Meanwhile we got funded & recognized by Government of INDIA.
- What are some short term/ long term goals for you?
Since we all are in the midst of a pandemic, so, our SHORT TERM goal is to provide quality healthcare services to each & every individual. Along with that we are improving our services & adding various different services like emergency support & medical tourism to cater the needs of everyone.
In the LONG TERM, we are going to become a synonym of quality healthcare services I.e. whenever a person needs a doctor, they will think of us.
- What is your mission, and do you see yourself continuing with this effort even after graduating?
The mission is very clear, it’s about creating India’s first user-oriented health-care platform.
Yeah, definitely, I will continue after graduating from my college, I left a placement offer of 10 lakhs or 1 million, just to continue my passion & with my amazing team I am very much confident that we will achieve our mission soon.
- What was the source of your initial funding for YuMedic?
Since it was an all college student startup so for the first year we were bootstrapped & used our pocket money to run it. In our second year of operations we got funded by the government of India.
- Who all have been influential in your journey so far?
I am really thankful to my family who always supported me & let me do the things for which I am passionate. My mentor, Navneet sir who taught me the basics of entrepreneurship & showed me the correct path always. Being an avid reader, I used to read biographies of Steve Jobs, Richard Branson, Elon Musk, which kept me going in tough times.
- What are some of the challenges you see in being a student entrepreneur?
One of the very basic challenge which I felt was my academics clashing with entrepreneurial activities. But I am thankful to my friends Aman, Ankit, Deepak and Kislay who helped me in my studies & were also working initially to strengthen the company. A major challenge which I encountered was that people don’t take you seriously. Like when I was pitching my idea to Doctors & knowing their concerns, who were probably double & triple of my age, they were having a doubt that how can this teenager is going to solve their issues.
- Tell us about the time you encountered rejection/Challenge because you are a student. How did you overcome?
As someone said Real Entrepreneurship Begins on Road. So, for me. getting rejected was a common thing like I used to wait for hours to meet a doctor & pitch them our idea & 9 out of 10 doctors were saying no to me initially.
I took it as a constructive criticism & decided to not give up unless I have those people who said no to me. So, I tried to improve my pitch & was showing up to those doctors again & again and finally they were convinced to get on-board.
- How much time do you and your team spend working on your company?
Our team is highly motivated, when colleges were running pre-COVID, we used to assemble together in the hostel rooms & work till 4 in the morning. Now since we all are working from home and we have a little bit more time so we are working for 80 hours a week.
- Do you see academics getting affected?
Not exactly, when you are passionate about doing something you do it despite all the odds. So, while my academic load was increasing, I was reducing my hours of sleep & covering my academics at those odd hours. Despite getting indulged in entrepreneurial activities my grades were always more than 80%.
- What is the one thing that keeps you going?
We all are living in the era of technology & there’s so much work to do & bring so many great changes in the society. So, each morning when I wake up, I believe my work is going to make someone life better & easier & this feeling keeps me going.
- What are some things you wish you knew a year (or two) ago?
- It’s always better to have a team & distributing the work rather than trying to do everything by yourselves because a great company is built by group of passionate people not by 1 individual.
- We should always take criticism in a constructive way & understand that in the process of growing these will act as stepping stones.
- What are some of the tools or resources that have helped you? (Apps, websites, anything)
I used YOUTUBE a lot to learn lots of skills like communication skills, convincing skills, business skills etc. Initially I used CANVA to make posters for social media posts. FLIPBOARD for latest happening in the world & entrepreneur.com to know the entrepreneurial activities going around.
- How do you prioritize your activities in a day/ week?
Every day I wake up & make a list of three things I need to accomplish in a day. This helps me to limit the most important things to do first & a perfection is maintained in the works.
- What do you think you need at this point, to scale this venture? (Funds, mentorship, resources, etc.) Please be as specific as you can.
Since we are expanding very rapidly now, so at this point we are looking to raise funds.
- Anything else you would like us to know about you or your organization?
Our website is www.yumedic.com
Facebook page is Facebook.com/yumedic1
We have 10k+ followers on Facebook.
We have various interesting internship coming in our company so if you want to be a part of our company & feel the amazing environment of working in startup you can reach out to me on LinkedIn.
- What are your thoughts on CampusTycoons’ mission to empower and celebrate student entrepreneurs?
I really appreciate the work of CampusTycoons. Talent needs recognition for motivation & at early stage of life when it’s very difficult for young student entrepreneur to get one, CampusTycoons is providing an amazing platform.
- What is the one quote you live by?
“An entrepreneur never loses out an opportunity.”
I always followed the Richard Branson advice which goes like, “ You should always be ready to say yes to an opportunity & then figure out how to do it correctly.”
CAMPUSTYCOONS wishes YuMedic success in all their future endeavors!
Grateful of campusTycoons for recognition and for featuring😊.
Happy to grow with Karan Raj Sir and Team 😄🤘.