The concept of a 360-degree preventive healthcare model as a viable business idea had been playing in Siddharth Sangwan’s mind for some time. And when his mother got hospitalised where he had to spend long hours in the waiting lounge, the experience added to his belief that preventive healthcare is a preferred option as compared to only treatment of the disease. Then, his relatives (who are doctors) and brother-in-law, who happens to be a leading pathologist of Delhi, played a key role in mentoring and guiding him to start Hindustan Wellness in 2013.
“Unlike other healthcare initiatives, Hindustan Wellness has deputed general physicians to take care of all the health and wellness needs, along with keeping a track over patient’s health progress. In just nine months, Hindustan Wellness has acquired more than 16000 engaged and healthier customers (11000 plus in retail and 5000 plus in corporate),”says, Siddharth Sangwan, Founder, Hindustan Wellness.
Before turning to an Entrepreneur, Siddharth Sangwan washeading ‘Customer Acquisition’ for online verticals at Times Group. Started his career at the age of 17, Siddharth has undertaken several leadership positions including heading a unit of 200 employees, and expansion of the domestic segments of iEnergizer and Serco (previously Infovision Group).
The corporate office of Hindustan Wellness is located in Connaught Place in the heart of Delhi and its pathology lab is in Gurgaon.
Initially, the venture was self funded with an amount of Rs40 lakh, after that, it raised the angel funding of Rs1.1 crore from Aditya Gupta, CEO and owner of Infovision. A large portion of the fund was allocated in upgrading the technology and geographical expansion. The start-up is in the process of scouting for another round of funding and expects to close the fund in Q2 and Q3 of the current financial year.
Within a span of one year, Hindustan Wellness had employed 75 employees and acquired four large corporate customers. Currently, the start-up has a workforce of 125 people. The departments are divided into Sales and Marketing, Software & Technology, Operations, Service Delivery, Lab and HDM (Health and Diet Management).
A thoughtful sight
There are three kinds of preventive healthcare services that are available in India; Preventive healthcare provided by hospitals, Preventive healthcare run by Labs and New Age Healthcare brokers. However, Sangwan realised that there wasn’t a single agency or lab or organisation, which would not just do an accurate assessment of the customer’s health, but also give an unbiased and clear advice and manage health by providing constant guidance and support, thereby, reversing any lifestyle disorder that would otherwise convert into a lasting disease.
“There existed a huge gap in this respect and our idea was to fill this gap. The idea was to collect blood and urine samples from the customers home, do the test in our own labs to monitor accuracy and quality, provide the customer an on-phone consultation with the best doctors in Delhi, provide dietary services on phone and email, and allocate a dedicated Health Manager who can discuss any health related issues and reach out to the customer at regular intervals, to follow up on the doctor’s advice,” avers Sangwan.
Execution of business model
Getting prominent doctors from AIIMS and Safdarjung hospitals on board, convincing leading doctors to dedicate two hours every day for the phone consultations, covering a 50KM radius (from Connaught Place till Manesar and Faridabad in South, Kundli in West and Meerut and Greater Noida in East), and being punctual for home collection, were some of the crucial hindrances which Sangwan has to overcome to give a fillip to his start-up venture.
“Till date, we have done over 16000 telephonic consultations by leveraging technology. We are open from 5am to 11pm as our Phlebotomists start with blood collection across Delhi by 5am every day. This kind of unique model has not been executed by anyone till date,” claims Sangwan.
Hindustan Wellness also runs a Corporate Wellness Program and Retail Wellness Program. The key objective of Corporate Wellness Program is to take the 360 degree wellness programs to Corporates. It involves eight steps- complete body health check-up, dashboards, showcasing health of the entire organisation, profile-wise customised health program, seminars, health activities, employee assistance program, health line, health manager and dietician’s health tips and family discounts.
And under Retail Wellness Program, Hindustan Wellness offers five 5 packages designed for men, women, kids, elder men (60+), elder women (60+). It also offers ailment specific packages covering Diabetes, Heart, Bones, Thyroid, Anemia and Vitamin deficiency.
Roadmap ahead
Currently, Hindustan Wellness has five offices across Delhi/NCR and Mumbai, and will soon begin its operations in south with Bangalore in June 2015, Hyderabad and Chennai in September 2015. Between these five cities, it will aim to cover 60 per cent of its target corporate and 500 million individual customer base in retail. Besides, Hindustan Wellness is targeting 6, 00,000 customers over 25 cities in the next two years and also plans to expand its reach in global markets.
