Best Place To BuildThe MediBuddy Story: From ₹5 Lakh to 3 Crore Patients | Satish Kannan, CEO/Co-Founder | BP2B S2 Ep.4
EVERY SPOKEN WORD
70 min read · 14,253 words- 0:00 – 0:59
Intro
- SKSatish Kannan
So sit in any part of India, you will still get access to very high quality doctors and high quality healthcare through MediBuddy.
- SPSpeaker
At some point, we saw advertisements with Amitabh Bachchan on it, and, and this is unique. I don't think as a first year student you would have ever thought that you would run a brand where Amitabh Bachchan is your brand am- ambassador. [chuckles]
- SKSatish Kannan
No, but w- I, I just want to add to this one. I think Buddy is fun. [laughing]
- SPSpeaker
[upbeat music] Hi, this is Amrit. We are at IIT Madras, my alma mater, and India's top university for people who like to build. We are here to meet some builders, ask them: What are you building? What does it take to build? And what makes IIT Madras the best place to build? [upbeat music] Hello, and welcome to the Best Place to Build Podcast.
- 0:59 – 1:05
Welcome to the Best Place To Build Podcast
- SPSpeaker
Today I'm sitting with Satish, the CEO and co-founder of MediBuddy, India's largest digital healthcare platform,
- 1:05 – 1:30
Introducing the CEO/Co-Founder of MediBuddy | Satish Kannan
- SPSpeaker
and also a student here from 2007 to '12? 2007 to '12.
- SKSatish Kannan
Yes. Yes.
- SPSpeaker
And also a very original OG CFI member.
- SKSatish Kannan
[chuckles] Thank you, thank you, Amritaj. Thank you for inviting me to the show, and great to be here, actually.
- SPSpeaker
Satish, I want to start with this memory that you and I have-
- SKSatish Kannan
Yes
- SPSpeaker
... from 2007, October.
- SKSatish Kannan
Correct, yes. [chuckles]
- SPSpeaker
Where we were sitting in SAC.
- SKSatish Kannan
SAC.
- 1:30 – 3:10
The Quadcopter Demonstration | Shaastra, 2007
- SPSpeaker
We were in SAC, and one of the projects-
- SKSatish Kannan
Correct
- SPSpeaker
... uh, was demonstrating something.
- SKSatish Kannan
Yes.
- SPSpeaker
And the whole of Insti had turned up, including the director and some of the profs. So-
- SKSatish Kannan
Absolutely
- SPSpeaker
... tell me what you remember from that moment.
- SKSatish Kannan
No, naturally, see, I had just joined IIT, and of course, fresh, just joining the college, so with a lot of hopes, actually. And, uh, this was Shaastra, the technical festival, and, um, they had demonstration of, that is called quadrotor that time.
- SPSpeaker
Yeah, quadcopter.
- SKSatish Kannan
Uh, quadcopter, right? And so, so today I think it's very easy. People buy all of this very easily and then play with drones. But think, like, 2007, right? And, and it's an engineering marvel, I would say. [laughing] An engineering marvel. So, uh, uh, I, I just joined electrical engineering, second month of college, and, uh, people talked about this project that's there, and it's great project in, uh, the Aero Club or something like that. And, and, uh, so we went SAC, and if you remember, like, the whole quadrotor just took off.
- SPSpeaker
Yeah. [chuckles]
- SKSatish Kannan
Because we just-
- SPSpeaker
Yeah
- SKSatish Kannan
... did not believe that it'll work.
- SPSpeaker
Yeah. Today it's so obvious that people have seen drones around-
- SKSatish Kannan
Yes
- SPSpeaker
... drones fly all over us.
- SKSatish Kannan
Like all of us, but-
- SPSpeaker
But on that day-
- SKSatish Kannan
Day, yeah
- SPSpeaker
... to see that drone.
- SKSatish Kannan
Yes.
- SPSpeaker
Today we call it a drone.
- SKSatish Kannan
Drone, yeah, but the-
- SPSpeaker
To just lift off-
- SKSatish Kannan
Lift off
- SPSpeaker
... it was amazing.
- SKSatish Kannan
Amazing, yeah. And then, and I, I would argue, right, I would, I would say, I think a lot of my engineering, uh, let's call it love, [chuckles] starts there, uh, from that very moment. And, uh, I think since then I've been part of all the technical festivals, Shaastra from after that, after that.
- SPSpeaker
When you were a student?
- SKSatish Kannan
I was a student here in the past.
- 3:10 – 4:58
The OG CFI Clubs | Want to Fly Club
- SPSpeaker
first CFI clubs.
- SKSatish Kannan
Correct. Correct.
- SPSpeaker
Mm. Can you tell us what that project was about?
- SKSatish Kannan
So, so think about this. Essentially, it was part of the Aero Club, so it is... We fully designed a radio-controlled aircraft. So a lot of these aircrafts are primarily built using balsa. It's actually a light wood, uh, for that, uh, mostly used for all, uh, aircraft building. Uh, let's say, uh, primarily used for lightweight.
- SPSpeaker
Mm.
- SKSatish Kannan
And then a lot of design has to be done on building a full aircraft from scratch. And, uh, Want to Fly was the name that we kept for that one, and, and, uh, that is subsequent to the year that, uh, this quadrotor was there.
- SPSpeaker
Mm.
- SKSatish Kannan
And, uh, so hence... And that, that happened for, like, two years since then.
- SPSpeaker
Yeah.
- SKSatish Kannan
Uh, so-
- SPSpeaker
And just to clarify-
- SKSatish Kannan
Yeah
- SPSpeaker
... the building we are sitting in, the Center for Innovation, didn't exist.
- SKSatish Kannan
Yes.
- SPSpeaker
Right? So you're talking about two projects that happened before Center for Innovation started.
- SKSatish Kannan
Started, correct.
- SPSpeaker
And then these were the first projects that moved over to the Center for Innovation.
- SKSatish Kannan
Absolutely correct. And, and all of this was happening in, uh, uh, in other places. If you know, there's a mess. [chuckles]
- SPSpeaker
Yeah.
- SKSatish Kannan
And, and the mess, uh, was cleaned up and used as the, uh, let's say workshop, to build those, uh, Want to Fly. And, uh, I mean, now facilities are much, much, much better. At that time, you had one mess, bunch of tables, and then you get started. Uh, that's how we got started on the Want to Fly project. And I, I still remember, right, we had to go to director and, uh, request for budget. [laughing] So we made a full presentation, full like-
- SPSpeaker
And asked for, like, 50,000. [chuckles]
- SKSatish Kannan
Yes. [chuckles] No, it is still better, I think. I, I think we got six lakh rupees at that time. A lot of money, yeah? But primarily for building out the full, uh, Want to Fly. We had to import a lot of instruments
- 4:58 – 5:32
The 6L /- That Kicked Off Satish’s 1st Engineering Project
- SKSatish Kannan
for the same, and then a lot of the other, uh, items we got in India. So... But great times. I think, uh, my start to engineering and building stuff sort of starts with my first radio-controlled aircraft that we built out in-
- SPSpeaker
That's so cool. So as students, um, as a student, watching other students build something and then building yourself-
- SKSatish Kannan
Yourself, yeah
- SPSpeaker
... all the way, now 15 years later, you are leading India's largest health- digital healthcare platform. That's a long journey. [chuckles] I want to trace it.
- SKSatish Kannan
[chuckles] No, absolutely.
- SPSpeaker
Maybe we can start on the other end. And can you tell us what MediBuddy does?
- SKSatish Kannan
Naturally. So
- 5:32 – 7:37
What HealthCare Accessibility Issues Does MediBuddy Resolve?
- SKSatish Kannan
I think, so let's think about it this way, right? So access to healthcare is a very large problem in India, right? And, um, uh, my idea was that, how do we use technology? Because all of us now use mobile phones, internet, all of that is actually second nature now. So how do we use a digital platform? How do you use the digital technologies and create a platform on which access to healthcare is very easy? And that's exactly what MediBuddy is trying to do. So very simplistically... See, I think today we go to-... you want to go to a restaurant, you go to Zomato and check them. You want to book a ticket or you want to get a hotel, you just go to MakeMyTrip, and you get all of it very easily done on that platform. If you want to go find a doctor at Apollo Hospital, Medanta Hospital, Max Hospital, or you want to get a blood test done at any of the diagnostic centres like Lal or Metropolis, or you want to get your medicines delivered, what is that platform that you would go to? And that's exactly what MediBuddy is trying to be. And today, access to healthcare in very big city is doable because there's a doctor or hospital nearby. But think about India, right? India is very, very large, a lot of patients in very, very small town, and for them, the- in my mind, the exposure to the world is the mobile phone and potentially the internet, right? So sit in any part of India, you will still get access to very high quality doctors and high quality healthcare through MediBuddy, and you can talk to a doctor on a video call. You can then book an appointment, go meet him in person, get medicines delivered anywhere, and get blood tests done anywhere, right? So that's exactly what MediBuddy is, uh, doing today. And, uh, the hope is that, uh, across India, we give the right information about healthcare, and we are able to solve the biggest problem in the healthcare ecosystem. Because building a hospital in all parts of India is very tough, but potentially MediBuddy will reach every part of India.
- SPSpeaker
You gave us a sense of what the product does and what your services are. Can you give me a sense of the scale of your operations?
- SKSatish Kannan
Absolutely. So today,
- 7:37 – 8:52
The Scale of Operations @MediBuddy
- SKSatish Kannan
MediBuddy is one of the largest he- healthcare companies in, in India. Uh, we are ... So when we start, of course, we're very small. Today, we are close to 2,000 employees, uh, primarily based in Bangalore. So we have around 15, 16 offices across India, and we help more than, uh, uh, three crore patients across, across the spectrum. And, uh, on one side, of course, we have a lot of these patients who come onto our platform and use multiple healthcare services, and on the other side, we have close to, uh, 100,000-plus, uh, specialist doctors on the platform, 7,000-plus hospitals, 9,000-plus, uh, diagnostic centres. We do medicine delivery pretty much everywhere in India, around 19,000-plus pin codes, so very large scale on the supply side, we call it. So one is demand, and another is supply. And, uh, the idea is how we connect patients with all of these benefits, and then also a lot of work that we do on, uh, data and the AI that we'll do in some time. Yeah.
- SPSpeaker
Okay, we'll come to the AI last, but it's so curious ... I, I'm so curious to know, uh, from all this data-
- SKSatish Kannan
Yeah
- SPSpeaker
... can you give us some, like, overarching medical trends in India? Like, what are the top things that people suffer from?
- 8:52 – 11:42
Top Healthcare Services Used in India
- SPSpeaker
Um, what are the top blood tests that are ... I mean, I'm sure everybody knows, but I'm just curious. [chuckles]
- SKSatish Kannan
No, no. So I, I think it's a, it's a fair question, right? So, uh, how has India progressed, right? So when we broadly call it, one is called communicable diseases, one is called non-communicable, right?
- SPSpeaker
Okay.
- SKSatish Kannan
So in simple terms, see, we still had a lot of health issues, which we call, comes because of, let's call it water, air, food, and it's essentially-
- SPSpeaker
Preventable
- SKSatish Kannan
... a part of what we call as developing countries, right?
- SPSpeaker
Okay.
- SKSatish Kannan
And I think we are still significantly getting there, and, and a lot of vaccinations have sort of helped, and, and, um, uh, GDP growth primarily helps in all of them in process. The second stage is called non-communicable. That essentially is when you start getting chronic disease like diabetes, hypertension, all of them. So you see change, right? And, and as we speak, it's of course, the NCDs are growing much, much faster, and COVID really brought focus on healthcare in the minds of a lot of people.
- SPSpeaker
Right.
- SKSatish Kannan
I think, um, oh, health is very important. W- everyone should take care of it, but, uh, uh, some of these large changes that happened is because of COVID, and then since then, right? A lot of focus on preventive healthcare, we call it wellness and preventive healthcare, has also started, and people are starting to do what we call as annual health check-ups, [chuckles] seriously. Once a year, they do to find out whether they're doing well, areas to do. And then, of course, there are multiple things to do. Vitamin deficiencies are big to, uh, focus on, and, and weight is a big challenge to work on. But, uh, I think overall, the focus on preventive as well as focus on health across the country has improved significantly.
- SPSpeaker
Nice. And your product must be also changing to sort of accommodate for this change.
- SKSatish Kannan
Yes, uh, absolutely. So we do across the spectrum, right? So you can do what is called as preventive, then, of course, curative. So in preventive, we do everything, right? Right from helping people manage their, uh, exercise, food, which is dieticians, then manage, of course, your sleep, and then mental health, then all the way, then go till you meeting a doctor, getting medicines, getting labs. If you have to get admitted in a hospital for getting a surgery, and even that is also helped through MediBuddy. So a full spectrum that we help today across.
- SPSpeaker
Where you are now seems like you have taken a long journey, so why don't we trace back to, uh, the day you entered IIT or, and go from there?
- SKSatish Kannan
Absolutely. So, uh, see, I think like, like all students, I think, uh, uh, interest in engineering might be, uh, IIT, and IIT Madras is like, uh, definitely the place to be, and, uh, I was actually fortunate that I got into IIT. And then, uh, see, w- the good thing about IIT is it gives you, like, multiple options to explore,
- 11:42 – 13:43
Exploiting the IIT Edge | How Satish Used All Available Opportunities
- SKSatish Kannan
of course, along with, uh, your studies for that matter. And, and then I got here, I had a lot of more interest in maybe engineering, [chuckles] science, and, and, and, of course, some part of literary work that I did also. And, uh, so first couple of years was part of CFI, did a bunch of projects, right? Across robotics, [chuckles] and that's also where I then, uh, was part of Aero Club, led Aero Club, and-
- SPSpeaker
Actually, at that time-
- SKSatish Kannan
Yes
- SPSpeaker
... I think CFI was a, it was also a very rebellious thing to do, because the professors didn't really like it, and you had to sort of hide away your time, and you had to, uh, find the money to do things.
- SKSatish Kannan
Yes. Yes. [laughing]
- SPSpeaker
Today, it feels like an officially sanctioned-
- SKSatish Kannan
Yes.
- SPSpeaker
Uh-
- SKSatish Kannan
Very large project, and, and, and, uh, with all the blessings of the director and IIT, actually. No, see, I think that is true, right? So when, when ... I think we used to actually spend all evenings here, and pretty much, sometimes we used to actually sort of sleep in the, uh, in, in CFI itself, right? And, and, and then you, uh, go back very late in the morning, early morning, and then try to get to the class. And sometimes profs used to say, uh, "What are you guys doing in this, uh, workshop?" [laughing] So, uh, but we l- we liked engineering, and we just liked tinkering. We just kept building stuff. And ... but I think by the time third year or fourth year happened, and the- they could see the, the scale of the projects that came and the complexity of the projects that came out, and, and by that time, I think profs like started saying, "Okay, good. These guys are doing something sensible."
- SPSpeaker
Yeah.
- SKSatish Kannan
And, and, and, uh, it's not just theory, they're doing something practical also, and it works. [laughing] Okay? And, and I think things got better since then, right? It's more about once you start seeing some of the results, people really appreciate it, and then of course, uh, it also invites more and more people to sort of join. Uh, uh, but, but we, we were happy at all, all points of time. [laughing]
- SPSpeaker
In your fourth year, you were talking about a TI project-
- SKSatish Kannan
Yes
- SPSpeaker
... that you were
- 13:43 – 18:00
Satish’s Intro to Healthcare | The Texas Instruments Analog Design Challenge
- SPSpeaker
working on.
- SKSatish Kannan
Yes. Huh, so, so, uh, so by the end of like fourth year, we actually participated in a competition called Texas Instruments Analog Design Challenge. So I, I did my final year project also in analog design, so lot of interest in chip design, uh, and, and electronics. Um, this project was something that we did on healthcare. So what I did was, or what we did was, uh, I and Inba, so he's also my co-founder now, so of course, that's how things got started also. Uh, so we did a project where, in simple terms, uh, we had built a health IoT. It connects to your heart and collects heart signals, and, uh, it runs an algorithm on these signals, which will tell you whether you're having a heart arrhythmia. It means essentially, are you having a heart attack or not? And then that's connect to your phone, and this would send the report from your phone to the cardiologist. And, uh-
- SPSpeaker
You know, I've heard of devices like this, where people who have, uh, a, a mild heart attack-
- SKSatish Kannan
Yeah
- SPSpeaker
... and their surgeon tells them, "You know, just wear this for a week. I wanna see when all you get arrhythmia." Is it something like that?
- SKSatish Kannan
Okay, it's not exactly like that. [laughing] You can't get arrhythmia every time. But, um-
- SPSpeaker
Yeah
- SKSatish Kannan
... uh, what it means is, uh, it's called Holter systems, which essentially you wear for, uh, might be sometimes 24 hours-
- SPSpeaker
Okay
- SKSatish Kannan
... more time. But it's a slight variation to that, but of course, think like it's a project at college, right?
- SPSpeaker
Correct.
- SKSatish Kannan
So-
- SPSpeaker
This is like, uh, two thou- we are talking of 2011.
- SKSatish Kannan
2010, yeah.
- SPSpeaker
Okay, so-
- SKSatish Kannan
9, 10, 11, that time, and, uh, project that we built, and we also sort of, uh, done some of our testing at the Stanley Medical College. It's a very good medical college nearby. And, uh, so it so happened that, uh, we were national winners [laughing] in this competition.
- SPSpeaker
As a final year students?
- SKSatish Kannan
As a, yeah, as a final year student, like f- fourth year, like third, fourth year.
- SPSpeaker
Yeah.
- SKSatish Kannan
Uh, pre-final year, actually. And, and, um, now interestingly, mm, the prize money was also pretty decent. [laughing] We got $10,000 prize money when we were in, I think, fourth year. Um, but, uh, interesting thing is, uh, that again increased enthusiasm and interest in building more and more in, uh, engineering. And, um, because of that, I started thinking and reading and understanding more and more about healthcare, and because the healthcare product, project, and then, uh, subsequently when I left IIT, I then went and joined another healthcare company, and then a lot of what I do today sort of starts from there.
- SPSpeaker
Got it. Did you, uh, did... Uh, I know that, uh, Satish and, uh, Inba, you know, these are, these names are always taken together.
- SKSatish Kannan
Yes. [laughing]
- SPSpeaker
You were batchmates.
- SKSatish Kannan
Correct.
- SPSpeaker
Uh, did, uh, Inba also have a similar journey?
- SKSatish Kannan
Oh, yeah, absolutely. So, so Inba is from Chennai, and then, uh, both of us met at IIT and same class. In fact, uh, let's call it couple of roll numbers next to each other, and, uh, sort of same hostel. Uh, couple of next rooms, right? [laughing] We call it dorm rooms or hostel rooms. So I, I and Inba sort of pretty much started together. I think, uh, similar enthusiasm in engineering, uh, playing football, uh, same hostel, same roll numbers. So ... And, and yeah, right from 2007, I think we have been tinkering, and we were part of same CFI, same projects that we did, oh, with a bunch of other guys also. Uh, but primarily, uh, we hung around and, uh, this Texas Instruments project also, we sort of did together. The Want to Fly project also, we sort of did together. Uh, so by the time we were leaving IIT, we thought, "Okay, we should do something interesting in healthcare." And, uh, so that's why when I, uh, sat for placements, I got a job in, uh, Philips Healthcare, so I'll talk about that in a minute. Uh, but Inba got a job in Qualcomm, so he was also doing chip design, uh, and Qualcomm does a lot of work in chip design.
- SPSpeaker
These are both top jobs. [laughing] Right? It's not like... [laughing]
- SKSatish Kannan
It, it, I, I think it was good. [laughing]
- SPSpeaker
I mean, it would have been a struggle when you quit those jobs, right?
- SKSatish Kannan
Yeah, that's, that's always true, right? In, in fact, Qualcomm job that Inba got, uh, we were thinking that, "Hey, now that we have done a lot of projects, we did a lot of tinkering, uh, we should do something in healthcare," because of the Texas project also was in healthcare.
- 18:00 – 21:04
The Journey From Graduating IIT Madras to Connecting Patients to Doctors
- SKSatish Kannan
sort of going to Philips Healthcare, uh, but Qualcomm was not healthcare, right? So in fact, Inba didn't take up the Qualcomm job, and he went and worked with, uh, uh... Actually it's there now, it's called Healthcare Technology Innovation Center.
- SPSpeaker
HTIC.
- SKSatish Kannan
Uh, HTIC. Prof Mohan runs that, and Inba did a lot of projects with Prof Mohan, so he worked with HTIC. And in fact, he built out what we call as, uh, in the year after IIT-... uh, it's called diabetic retinopathy. So in simple terms, anybody who has diabetes, it will affect their eyesight, and, uh, your diabetes can potentially affect the retina. So Inba built out technology as well as, uh, a product which will help in, we call it DR detection, diabetic retinopathy detection.
- SPSpeaker
That's-
- SKSatish Kannan
So that's, uh, work that he was doing.
- SPSpeaker
Is this a vision project? It sounds like a vision project.
- SKSatish Kannan
Oh, yeah. I mean, essentially for the eye, and, and, uh, uh, and that product is now public in the market, and it's-- and the technology was transferred from HTIC to another company, and they built it out from there. Uh, the same time when I- when Inba was in, uh, uh, building the diabetes product, uh, when Inba was building the diabetes product, uh, I was at, uh, Philips in the cardiology section.
- SPSpeaker
Oh.
- SKSatish Kannan
So Philips actually makes what we call as, uh, cath lab machines. Again, in simple terms, anybody gets a heart attack, they do an operation called, uh, angioplasty. So they put a stent in the heart, and, uh, that, uh, is done using a large machine called cath lab.
- SPSpeaker
Okay.
- SKSatish Kannan
So I was in the design of cath lab, and, uh... So that's also my introduction again, further to healthcare.
- SPSpeaker
So, um, e- Inba was working with Professor Mohan in HTIC. Of course, HTIC has become quite big now.
- SKSatish Kannan
Very big now.
- SPSpeaker
Uh, and we had Professor Mohan as a guest last year.
- SKSatish Kannan
Ah, nice.
- SPSpeaker
We went into a long discussion about the state of healthcare in India. It's a great podcast.
- SKSatish Kannan
Okay.
- SPSpeaker
Um, and you were working with Philips.
- SKSatish Kannan
Yeah.
- SPSpeaker
At what point did you decide to start a company?
- SKSatish Kannan
Yeah.
- SPSpeaker
And, and also, like, my related question is, what was the first product you were building?
- SKSatish Kannan
Yeah, I think both of them, right? So one... See, at Philips, uh, I was actually spending a lot of time with doctors, hospitals, patients, uh, OT, right, operation theater, and, and, um, lot of understanding about on-ground healthcare challenges, uh, issues that you face in hospitals, the amount of distance that patients would travel to reach to the hospital. So all of this is sort of my learning about the real challenges in the country, and, uh, I think one, one and a half years, we worked at, uh, Philips. Inba was working with, uh, uh, on the diabetes product.
- SPSpeaker
Mm-hmm.
- SKSatish Kannan
And we used to always exchange notes, of course, continue to keep chatting with each other on what's happening in... And Philips, he would talk about diabetes problems, uh, that he is facing on the ground, and, um, and very interesting work, right? Uh, that is also when, you would not believe, uh, WhatsApp- okay, there's once upon a time,
- 21:04 – 27:18
The Accidental Introduction to WhatsApp & the Genesis of DocsApp
- SKSatish Kannan
there was no WhatsApp. [laughing]
- SPSpeaker
[laughing] Very difficult to believe, but there was-
- SKSatish Kannan
Very difficult to believe, but there was once upon a time, there was no WhatsApp. So, uh, when I used to hang around with these doctors... So if you look, go back and study, right, doctors were one of the earliest adopters of WhatsApp, and the reason for that was, before WhatsApp, there was just no way to send a report or an X-ray, uh, of a picture of an X-ray back to a doctor, and somebody would have to do the full test. Somebody would have to go to the office of the doctor, or if he goes back home in the evening, then you have to send the person to get- send the X-ray to the place. Um, doctors were using a lot of WhatsApp, and how I learned about WhatsApp was, I used to do what we call a second opinion for cardiologists. So people from, doctors from smaller towns, I used to help them because I was based in, uh, Pune, Bombay, so a lot of, uh, top doctors were there. Uh, doctors from smaller town used to send me, of course, um, ECG, as well as, uh, reports, and ask, ask for second opinions from senior cardiologist. And I got a call from a doctor in, uh, Trichy, and I was in Bombay. Uh, and he asked me, "Hey, I have a second opinion that I want. Can you get it from a doctor for me?" And I told, "Okay, please send me, send me an email." Uh, what happened was, uh, of course, he told, "Hey, I don't have an email," but, um... Then I asked him, "How will you send me?" He told, "Do you have WhatsApp?" And that's the first time I'm hearing WhatsApp.
- SPSpeaker
WhatsApp. [chuckles]
- SKSatish Kannan
Yeah, yeah. So I asked him, uh, I asked him, "What is WhatsApp?" You know what he told me? He told me WhatsApp is ECG-sending software. [laughing]
- SPSpeaker
[laughing]
- SKSatish Kannan
Because think about it, right? There is no way for you to send a picture or a PDF report-
- SPSpeaker
Sure
- SKSatish Kannan
... uh, before WhatsApp, right? You can send an MMS, but it just doesn't work after that. [chuckles]
- SPSpeaker
Yeah.
- SKSatish Kannan
So, but then I installed WhatsApp, and of course, uh, world is, of course, very different today. But this is introduction for me to how different tech solutions sort of transform industries, right? And that's where I understood that access to a doctor is a challenge, and what if a platform can be built where you connect a patient with a doctor, and very simplistically have a chat, call, video, ability to share, then also go down and meet the doctor later whenever you need to meet them in person, and that's how the first product starts.
- SPSpeaker
Mm.
- SKSatish Kannan
So it started something like WhatsApp for patients and doctors, but you have a payment gateway in the middle, right? So that's the first project [chuckles] that got started. And, uh, so then we were leaving IIT, uh, leaving Philips, leaving this thing. So when we came back, we initially thought, "Okay, let's go back and revive the project that we did for TI." So that Health IoT product.
- SPSpeaker
Yeah.
- SKSatish Kannan
So that's why actually we restarted that product, and when we went to... Of course, we built it for the first two years, one and a half years. This between 2013, '14-
- SPSpeaker
This is, uh, you were building a hardware product?
- SKSatish Kannan
Uh, we were building hardware product. The, the product that will connect your heart, collect ECG signals, connect the patient with the cardiologist.
- SPSpeaker
Okay.
- SKSatish Kannan
So we went back and rebuilt that as a full product. Um, met a lot of cardiologists, uh, talking to them about the hardware and the software. Uh, but that's exactly what I also sometimes tell a lot of, um, other startup entrepreneurs, right? You have to follow the customer, and, and you have to build something, and when you talk to the customer, you'll understand what they like, and you also understand whether they want to, uh, use that, right? Uh, what happened after that was when we continued to build this out and show to doctors and patients, pretty much, uh-... there are a lot of, uh, interest in the software part of it-
- SPSpeaker
Mm.
- SKSatish Kannan
-and the hardware that we build, right? They told, "Hey, this is okay, but why does the software only connect cardiac patient to cardiologist? Why can't all patients talk to all doctors, right?" So that is how the, um, initial change in the product actually happens. So since then, we continue to build out the software part of it, and, uh, today, of course, Medibuddy can connect to multiple healthcare IoT solutions, but, um, that is how the initial transformation happens, from a hardware plus software to, uh, pure software that we continue to build.
- SPSpeaker
If I listen to what you're saying, what you're saying is that you've built a hardware device which had a software component-
- SKSatish Kannan
Correct
- SPSpeaker
... but when you went to the market-
- SKSatish Kannan
Correct
- SPSpeaker
-the software component was valued much more than the hardware.
- SKSatish Kannan
Absolutely correct. [chuckles]
- SPSpeaker
And then your company just became the software company.
- SKSatish Kannan
Correct.
- SPSpeaker
And if I remember right, I think I might have met you once or twice in the 2014, '15 period when you were still in Research Park.
- 27:18 – 29:48
The Impact of the TeleMedicine Platform Boom
- SKSatish Kannan
about it that way, every industry has gone digital, right? That's how you see e-commerce is Flipkart, and then there is, uh, Zomato in the food industry. It can be MakeMyTrip in the travel industry. It can be BookMyShow in the, uh, cinema industry. And so this has been happening in all countries. Take US, see, I think three, four countries that you can always learn from is, one is US, one is China, uh, primarily. Lot, a lot of innovation hap- uh, happens across these two, and then small innovations happens in Southeast Asia and other markets, actually, right? So all of these industries have been going digital, and, and healthcare, of course, sort of follows in that, uh, format, and, uh, yes.
- SPSpeaker
Fair enough. You're saying there's a digitalisation, there's a platformisation-
- SKSatish Kannan
Correct
- SPSpeaker
... that's expected in the healthcare.
- SKSatish Kannan
Correct.
- SPSpeaker
It came at that point, and you were, you were a little ahead of the market.
- SKSatish Kannan
Uh, a little ahead. I think we were two, three ahe- years ahead, so but I think that also gave me the ability to, uh, build, and then, uh, identify the right customer, right cohort, follow the customer, get the right product business model ready. And, and when things took off, I think we could catch the wave, uh, very early. Yeah.
- SPSpeaker
That's a fair thing to say. I was just... As you were saying it, I was thinking that if you enter a business at the wave, it's actually really tough-
- SKSatish Kannan
Uh, yes
- SPSpeaker
... because you have no time to build, no time to think.
- SKSatish Kannan
Correct. Correct, correct.
- SPSpeaker
And, um, I've also heard this from Tarun, who was also in CFI at some point of time.
- SKSatish Kannan
Ah, yes. [chuckles]
- SPSpeaker
And, um, [chuckles]
- SKSatish Kannan
Same class, same, same, same batch. Yeah, yeah.
- SPSpeaker
Uh, and, and Tarun from Ather, and he said to me once that, um, because they were early to EVs-
- SKSatish Kannan
Yes
- SPSpeaker
... they had a good amount of time to build their product from scratch-
- SKSatish Kannan
Correct
- SPSpeaker
... and think about everything. And the companies which came-
- SKSatish Kannan
Little late, uh, uh-
- SPSpeaker
... at the EV wave, they really struggled, and they had to, uh, they had to sort of acquire products-
- SKSatish Kannan
Products, correct
- SPSpeaker
... rush to the market-
- SKSatish Kannan
Correct
- SPSpeaker
... and then, you know, have problems in, in-
- SKSatish Kannan
Later on
- SPSpeaker
... in their... Yeah.
- SKSatish Kannan
Yeah. No, it's true. I think that's also why we have got a very solid, uh, foundation, and then we continue to build, and that's also why, even though post Medibuddy, a lot of other companies also had started, but pretty much very, very small. Many of them do not exist today, or we are far ahead of most of the other players there.
- SPSpeaker
Fair enough. Um, uh, from DocSaapp, DocSaapp being WhatsApp for doctors-
- 29:48 – 32:12
How Satish’s Product Portfolio Evolved
- SPSpeaker
how your product portfolio has grown?
- SKSatish Kannan
Yeah, so, so, uh, see, the way to think about all business primarily and all product is what internally we call it, right? Follow your customer, right? And, and when we started, the problem that we solved was, one, very important but narrow problem called connect patients with specialist doctors. Patient can be anywhere, doctor is in the big city. So the problem statement was chat, call, video. But as soon as that com- got done, patients, when they want to talk to doctor, the doctor gives you a prescription. Then they would ask me, "Hey, can you deliver me medicines?" So then we started, okay, good, that means one part is done, but as soon as you meet a doctor, doctor gives you prescription, you want medicines. So we built a full medicine delivery supply chain, and then started delivering medicines for patients. Then again, you had to build it in one city, then you had to grow, and then deliver Pan India.... ig- ig, a- along with that, doctors would say, "Hey, why don't you also do a blood test?" Right? You know, on a prescription you would get medicines, you would get labs. So then patients asked us, "Okay, why don't you give us labs also? Why don't you tell us where to go, or why don't you send a person to your house," right? We call it phlebotomist, who will come to your house, pick up the blood samples, actually, right? So that's second thing then we added. So you'd start with online, you then do medicines, you would labs. Then again, wh- when you keep graduating, patients say, "Hey, I've met the doctor on the video call, but I would also... All problems cannot be done on a video, so I want to go meet this doctor in person," right? You want for pediatrics, for complicated health issues, you want to meet the doctor in person. So then we enabled that also. That means you could do video, but by the by, you can also book the appointment, go meet the doctor at his hospital or at his clinic. And people from smaller towns could then first talk to the doctor, get the second opinion, then have a sense of what is the problem, then travel to the city, right? So that kept adding up. So we just kept adding, and that's why then at a later stage, of course, we did a lot of, uh, uh, M&As also. We bought a few companies, because when you want to grow fast, sometimes you also do, uh, a few buyouts also. So we did all of that on the- over the course of the journey of, uh, our company. And, um, by the time, we were like 2019, we understood that, uh, the name... I mean, we had grown much larger than the word DocsApp, right?
- SPSpeaker
Mm.
- SKSatish Kannan
So it looked like an application and only for doctors, so but we had medicines, we had labs, we had a lot of preventive healthcare, wellness, and all of them. So then
- 32:12 – 32:40
The DocsApp to MediBuddy Pivot
- SKSatish Kannan
in a way, the word MediBuddy-
- SPSpeaker
Mm.
- SKSatish Kannan
-is more broader, right?
- SPSpeaker
Correct.
- SKSatish Kannan
It talks about-
- SPSpeaker
Fair enough.
- SKSatish Kannan
- it's like a buddy for your healthcare needs, and, and the trust is very important in healthcare.
- SPSpeaker
It's fair enough, and DocsApp sounds like WhatsApp for docs. [laughing]
- SKSatish Kannan
[laughing] So that's why the word MediBuddy makes, uh, uh, maybe a larger sense for the company, and that's the evolution of a company, right? You always keep following your customer, and then whatever they want, continue to keep building, and business will naturally transform and grow in size and scale from there.
- SPSpeaker
When
- 32:40 – 42:00
Why & How to Listen to Your Customers
- SPSpeaker
you were a student, you wouldn't have had this wisdom, right? When you started up, um, you built something, you want to take it to the market, you want, uh, customers to appreciate you for what you brought.
- SKSatish Kannan
Yeah.
- SPSpeaker
Um, who is advising you, and who is, uh, giving you this gyan of, "Go listen to the customer?"
- SKSatish Kannan
[laughing]
- SPSpeaker
And how did you transform from that, uh, arrogant student, uh, building a, uh, building a-
- SKSatish Kannan
See, I [laughing] ...
- SPSpeaker
-robot to a-
- SKSatish Kannan
See, [sighs] see, I think in a way, a necessity is the mother of invention. In, in different terms... See, you have to know that customer is number one, right? And if a person is actually ready to pay you money, or pay you whatever the, the, the, the payment that they want to do, they expect that the product or the business or the solution delivers value, and this is very true. And you, you spend a lot of time, right? See, it, it, it, it takes time to figure out what customers want, and, and very important to exactly build that one. You might start with a hypothesis, which I- we have done a lot of times, right? We start with a hypothesis, we try it out. When things don't work, you clearly know, right? [laughing] I mean, we, we say that if things don't work, mmm, you change your inputs. And, uh, a lot of this is just learning. And, and of course, uh, I should also say that where I started out, right, IIT Madras, uh, sort of gave us the incubation. So, uh-
- SPSpeaker
Oh, yeah, you guys were the, one of the first-
- SKSatish Kannan
First, yeah. [laughing]
- SPSpeaker
-first cohort of incubatees-
- SKSatish Kannan
Correct
- SPSpeaker
... along with Ether AI.
- SKSatish Kannan
Uh, yeah, yeah. So I, Tarun, uh, I think that year we had, uh, 10 companies, if I remember. Yeah, 10 companies were actually chosen, and, uh, each of them got, uh, what we call a seed money. Uh, we got around five lakh rupees as, uh, uh, the initial, let's call it, investment or, uh, uh, support from, uh, IIT Madras. I was there, Tarun was there. [laughing] So I think we pretty much started building, uh, together. Of course, he was building EV, I was building in healthcare. Uh, so when we did that, along with that, I also met a lot of great entrepreneurs and, and, uh, large IIT Madras alumni. So I should definitely mention, uh, Anand Rajaraman and Venky Harinarayan. So, uh, all of them also sort of gave initial thoughts on building product, business, market, strategy, all of that. So a lot of this is, of course, you are on the market every day building, talking to customers, and, uh, you're also talking to large entrepreneurs before you. And, uh, yeah, over time, you fall down a couple of times, [laughing] you get up, you continue going. Yeah.
- SPSpeaker
Mm. Nice. Anand Rajaraman and Venky Harinarayan are, of course, are, are, uh, very famous alumnus of IIT Madras.
- SKSatish Kannan
Yes.
- SPSpeaker
Uh, I had the luxury or the privilege of, uh, interviewing Anand Rajaraman-
- SKSatish Kannan
Ah, [laughing]
- SPSpeaker
-earlier this year.
- SKSatish Kannan
The small world, I think pretty much you have talked to everybody. You talked to Prof Mohan, you talked to Tarun, [laughing]
- SPSpeaker
[laughing]
- SKSatish Kannan
Uh, Anand, you talked to Prof Kama, so I think-
- SPSpeaker
Uh, Anand, uh, uh, Anand and Venky sold a company to Amazon-
- SKSatish Kannan
Yes
- SPSpeaker
... and they had sold a company to Walmart.
- SKSatish Kannan
Yes.
- SPSpeaker
So, [chuckles]
- SKSatish Kannan
Yeah, they did Junglee to Amazon, I think, uh, another company, Cosmix, to Walmart, actually.
- SPSpeaker
Yeah. Now they own a cricket team.
- SKSatish Kannan
Oh, yeah, yeah. I- i- he's been telling me, "Why don't you come [chuckles] see the matches?" But of course, I have to go sometime. Yeah.
- 42:00 – 47:08
How Do You Know How Much to Listen to Customers?
- SKSatish Kannan
sometimes also to other large entrepreneurs, but also at some times, uh, follow the gut-
- SPSpeaker
[chuckles]
- SKSatish Kannan
... I would say, right? See, this is something that you build over time, right? And I would not say I mastered it, but I think I have a fair sense of it, right? And, but there are two, three things that I've always told people, right? One, of course, listen to the customer. But the second thing I always say is... Oh, I'll tell you this, right? So when I left IIT, I, Tarun, uh, Tanmay. Tanmay runs Hazura.
- SPSpeaker
Mm.
- SKSatish Kannan
So we're all friends, right? And then we had gone to Ahmedabad, and with Tarun, uh, we stayed at Tarun's house-... so, and a bunch of other guys also there. And, um, this is just after IIT, because there are a lot of enthusiasm in understanding business, and we thought Gujarat is a place [chuckles] to learn business. So we went on a road trip, and-
- SPSpeaker
But Tarun is not from a business family, right? Is he?
- SKSatish Kannan
I think Tarun's dad also runs-
- SPSpeaker
Okay
- SKSatish Kannan
... some business.
- SPSpeaker
Okay.
- SKSatish Kannan
A-a-and then we went on a road trip, and then, uh, there's a lot of places in, of course, Gujarat. We went to tile factories-
- SPSpeaker
Oh
- SKSatish Kannan
... uh, in, in a place called Mobi, I think it's called. Then, of course, Gujarat, you've got diamond, uh, factories and diamond merchants. We also met, uh, uh, solar power plants, all of them, right? So all of these are large entrepreneurs who are running these, uh-
- SPSpeaker
Yeah
- SKSatish Kannan
... factories or all of them. See, one thing that I learned, and I think there's a line in Gujarati, and I think it's, it's, it's in Rajasthani also, uh, which says, uh, okay, loosely translates to ""Jahan bhi baitho, hazar din baitho.""
- SPSpeaker
Ah, yeah.
- SKSatish Kannan
What it means is, uh, and very simplistically, whatever you do, you continue doing for thousand days.
- SPSpeaker
Yeah.
- SKSatish Kannan
Now, I think when I first heard this, I thought, "Oh, why do you need thousand days? I think you can do things faster." [chuckles]
- SPSpeaker
I think this is a Marwari, uh-
- SKSatish Kannan
Ah
- SPSpeaker
... community quote.
- SKSatish Kannan
It's a quote like that, right? But when I came back, I went, this is like... I not even started. I got out of IIT, went to this road trip, went to Philips. Uh, one year later, one and a half years later, I left and started out. But if I go back and think, right, from the first time that we got started, by the time we got the business, the product, a lot of these things in place, it pretty much took two and a half, three years. [chuckles]
- SPSpeaker
Mm.
- SKSatish Kannan
So sometimes I tell people also that, see, it's a thumb rule. So you don't know what's the right answer, what's the wrong answer. You have to live the journey to understand it, but be there, right? Like, just-
- SPSpeaker
Right
- SKSatish Kannan
... just be at it minimum for, like, three-ish years, and, and potentially after that, right? You'll figure out something, and, and then listen to what, what you say, what other people say. By the time you will get a real sense of what you should be doing. Yeah.
- SPSpeaker
That's beautiful. So you're balancing two ideas.
- SKSatish Kannan
Yes.
- SPSpeaker
One is that you start somewhere, you have to keep changing to your customer's needs.
- 47:08 – 52:00
Onboarding Amitabh Bachchan as the MediBuddy Ambassador
- SPSpeaker
mind, most IT startups are, uh, very B2B, very industrial.
- SKSatish Kannan
Correct.
- SPSpeaker
Uh, we met so many startups. The last interview we did was, uh, with Daniel-
- SKSatish Kannan
Correct
- SPSpeaker
... who runs Netech Technologies.
- SKSatish Kannan
Correct.
- SPSpeaker
Um, they don't need a lot of visible marketing.
- SKSatish Kannan
Correct.
- SPSpeaker
Uh, but your company is very market-facing and, uh-
- SKSatish Kannan
Customer-facing. Correct. Correct.
- SPSpeaker
Very customer-facing. So can you... Uh, I mean, this is... I, I don't think I've got to ask this question at all to anyone in the last, uh- [chuckles] ... twenty, thirty episodes.
- SKSatish Kannan
I'll talk about it.
- SPSpeaker
Uh, yeah. So how do you, how do you go through, uh, a sort of mass market rebranding and marketing strategy?
- SKSatish Kannan
Yeah. So I'll talk- I think I'll talk more about, uh, two, two parts. One, one is about, uh, healthcare and, and some insight from there. Then, of course, when a company wants to go, um, uh, go to large set of customers, what they need to do and how to use TV as a medium for that. So first, uh, see, one thing that's important about healthcare is trust is very critical. So you know it, you want to go only to a trusted doctor, trusted hospital, trusted lab, and, um, the way to build trust in India is just by showing number of years you have been there. You've seen a lot of companies, no? They'll say, uh, company name, since 1956-
- SPSpeaker
Mm
- SKSatish Kannan
... right? [chuckles] Now, which means what? Trust was sort of built by being in the same place, being there for many, many years. But when you think about new-age companies like Medibuddy, how do you build trust in relatively very short period of time? Because eventually, already it's like ten years, but what would you do to accelerate building trust, right? So that is where it's important to sort of think about, uh-... whether we could bring in a brand ambassador which could build that one, right? And, and, uh, in my mind, there are a couple of things that I'd kept as requirements, right? One, who is synonym to trust in India? There are hardly like- there are many people who will, who will, uh, by the very face of it, provide you trust. And, and, uh, second I wanted was somebody who would be known Pan India, right? Because I have a lot of customers in big cities, but a lot of customers in very, very small town. And think Jammu-Kashmir, think Kanyakumari, think Gujarat, [chuckles] think Arunachal Pradesh, right? So across spectrum. So I wanted somebody who could crisscross. Not a lot of faces are there-
- SPSpeaker
Basically, like either a film star or a cricketer.
- SKSatish Kannan
Cricketer. Yeah, you have only two options now [chuckles] in the process.
- SPSpeaker
[laughs]
- SKSatish Kannan
So actually, if you do this, right? So that's when then we thought, okay, it makes definitely sense to sort of work with, of course, a, a great actor, of course, the most well-known face in India. So that's how we decided, okay, we'll use Amitabh Bachchan as our brand ambassador, and, uh, that will help us in continuing to build first trust. And then, second part I was telling, right? Every business, at one point of time, depending upon the nature of your business, if you are direct to consumer, you're having a lot of customers, uh, who are using you on a daily basis, and it can be doctor, lab, medicines, many, many services that we continue to build from there. Um, so you need to be in front of them, and you need to build the right brand proposition, as well as the right brand image. It takes effort, time, planning, execution, at scale, cost, but if you're doing a Pan India product, a Pan India solution, I think that's the right way to sort of go. And that's how we thought, okay, the right brand ambassador, the right campaign around it, will sort of help us get there. And that- and we are very happy, right? We are very happy that we have been able to do this. We have been very happy that a person in a small town, when he looks at MediBuddy, now there is trust that I can go to this place, find the right medical advice for myself or my family member. And the, mm, I think it's more about the company and the industry that they are in, but, uh, if you want to do things at scale, you should not be afraid. You should, of course, [chuckles] test and, and, and... Test, and we have done a lot of small testing before, so you do it without having the large-
- SPSpeaker
Sure
- SKSatish Kannan
... uh, let's call ambassador. You do it in small formats, understand. We call it rinse, repeat, right?
- SPSpeaker
Mm.
- SKSatish Kannan
Test, [chuckles] rinse, repeat. You do it again, and then you go to scale. Yeah.
- SPSpeaker
Very nice. Um, I, I- in this context, I want to ask you that, um, because you're a product builder-
- SKSatish Kannan
Correct
- SPSpeaker
... you started from the hardware product, software product. You're scaling the software product. Uh, in this, in both hardware product building and software product building, a lot of people believe that, you know, the product will speak for itself, and we don't really need that much marketing, and then we'll have a lot of word-of-mouth. If the product is good, customers will come. So now you're saying that, "Hey, but if you want to grow really fast, then you need to find a shortcut, and then marketing is like a short-" Is that right?
- SKSatish Kannan
See, I think I, I, I'll tell you, right? It, it... See, it's, it's very important. So I think a lot of, uh, uh, entrepreneurs
- 52:00 – 58:06
Pan India Product Marketing at Scale
- SKSatish Kannan
will find it in, in, very soon. See, initially, you, we all think that product will take you to the customer, but actually, you need to have a good handle of what we call as distribution, right? And, and of course, marketing and distribution, sometimes people use it synonymously, but I, I use it differently, right? So I'll tell you, talk about that also, right? So distribution means how do you find your customer or the customer finds you in the right economic manner, right? You need to also find the customer, means essentially we call it customer acquisition cost. We call it CAC, right? So in all digital businesses, distribution is key, right? A lot of founders either find it early or they find it late, but they'll find [chuckles] it that that is critical for them to become very large. So that's exactly what MediBuddy also did, right? So when we started out... Now, we have had the, the, the privilege to have worked in across multiple distribution channels. So what I mean by distribution channel is, how do customers find you? So one common thing that we all understand is customers find us through any digital channel. You can be on a social media, and then I will run ads on it. You'll see me, you'll see me on the TV, you'll see me on YouTube. So what we call as direct to consumer is one channel. The second channel that we have is called as corporate. So that's another channel that we had built out, which is if you work in any large company, it can be any of the large IT, IT years, it can be banking, any of them, your company uses MediBuddy, and you can use MediBuddy through your corporate, and the payment is done by the company. So it's called corporate channel. Three, we also work with large insurers. If you buy a health insurance policy in India, that insurer again works with MediBuddy, and, uh, through the insurers, we have a lot of customers who come and use our platform. So you can see, right? And then we also work with large NBFCs also. So which means these are called different distribution channel. So you have a great product, right? But how does the world know? That is marketing, right? But how does it reach the customer at the place that he is?
- SPSpeaker
Sure.
- SKSatish Kannan
That's called distribution. So both of this is exactly what is critical for scale. Um, and you will learn it, and you have to [chuckles] learn it over time.
- SPSpeaker
Sure.
- SKSatish Kannan
Yeah, yeah.
- SPSpeaker
I spoke to, uh, one of our alumnus called Ambi.
- SKSatish Kannan
Mm.
- SPSpeaker
Uh, he's a marketing expert.
- SKSatish Kannan
Yeah. Okay, yeah, yeah.
- SPSpeaker
Uh, he remembered you, and he said: "Oh, Satish, tell Satish I said hi."
- SKSatish Kannan
Of course, A- Ambi is, of course, joined in marketing. So when I started thinking about marketing, brand campaign, uh, Ambi actually came to our office and did a workshop for us.
- SPSpeaker
Okay.
- SKSatish Kannan
And when I chose, of course, uh, uh, Amitabh Bachchan as the brand ambassador, I spent some time with him understanding-... what is to be done, uh, how do I think about this? How do I think about brand? How do we think at scale? How do we think about, uh, we call it media campaigns. So of course, uh, great. That's it. Now, the benefit of IIT Madras is that many alumnus in that many different, uh, industries, and of course, I've talked to all of them to get more and more insights, and they've helped me significantly [chuckles] in my journey.
- SPSpeaker
So Ambi said once, uh, in his interview, uh, with- and so we, we, we, we did an interview on Best Place To Build.
- SKSatish Kannan
Ah.
- SPSpeaker
Um, we couldn't do it here. We did it in tour-
- SKSatish Kannan
Yes
- SPSpeaker
... uh, in Bangalore during the Sangam event.
- SKSatish Kannan
Ah, nice.
- SPSpeaker
So at one point I asked him this question about: what do product- what do, um, businesses who believe their products will sell themselves?
- SKSatish Kannan
Mm.
- SPSpeaker
He said, "Let them believe that." [laughing]
- SKSatish Kannan
[laughing] You will very lo- very soon understand that you have to build distribution, you have to build marketing, and it's critical. Yeah, yeah.
- SPSpeaker
Mm. And, uh, just for my own curiosity-
- SKSatish Kannan
Yes
- SPSpeaker
... and maybe audience will be curious to know, how does it feel? How does it... How is it- how is Amitabh Bachchan like on set, right? How is that experience been? And it must have been different, right?
- SKSatish Kannan
Yeah. [chuckles]
- SPSpeaker
I don't think as a first-year student you would have ever thought that you'll run a brand where Amitabh Bachchan is your brand am- ambassador.
- SKSatish Kannan
Oh, definitely, yeah. I think we have absolutely no understanding about marketing, branding, and all of them. See, I, I think one thing that of course struck me is, right... See, they have achieved so-- I mean, he has achieved so much, right? And, and, and s- look at the span, right? Look at the number of years in the industry that they have been. But the amount of effort that they put even today, right? We have what is called as, we had two rounds of discussion pre-shoot, and, uh, he initially wanted to meet, uh, meet us and meet me, and understand about the business first, what I was doing, what does the business do, and what are the plans for this business. Then, of course, we had shoot, pre-shoot discussions. But I would, I would say, I was inspired by the meticulous nature, as well as the hard work that they put even after being- [chuckles]
- SPSpeaker
At the top of the game.
- 58:06 – 1:11:22
Closing Thoughts | Reflections | Advice to IIT Students
- SKSatish Kannan
Yeah
- SPSpeaker
... which eventually morphed into Medibuddy.
- SKSatish Kannan
Medibuddy.
- SPSpeaker
And, uh, now you're operating at a scale where there are three crore patients using your p- platform.
- SKSatish Kannan
Yes.
- SPSpeaker
It's amazing. Um, I really want to understand, uh... I mean, I think my checklist manifesto [chuckles] -
- SKSatish Kannan
[laughing]
- SPSpeaker
... of whatever I wanted to talk to you is done. But I really want to... I'm, I'm very curious about what are the things you have as a message for us or viewers.
- SKSatish Kannan
See, I think I- I have two, three things I wanted to talk about. One, if you're a student, I think, mm, be enthusiastic, learn as much as possible, and, and, and, uh, uh, IIT Madras is a great place. [chuckles] Some of you should definitely join IIT Madras and, and do great stuff in your life. Uh, that's for, like, sort of students. Be curious, right? Just be curious, just learn as much as possible, and then keep tinkering. See, and, and, um, see, as we speak, we're sitting in CFI, right? This place, it definitely will look a little messy, right? When you walk in, it won't be spick and span. And, and I was just telling, um, uh, we were talking just before this conversation, that, see, building, right? When you start a company, a lot of things in your life is not necessarily super clean, right? It is never a straight line in, in life, and, and it is just a lot of ups and downs. But... And, and when you look, initially, it will look very messy, right? When you're starting a business, when you're starting a product, when you go to a new market, it's pretty messy. But what's important is you just be at it.
- SPSpeaker
Mm.
- SKSatish Kannan
So a lot of this is following the customer, like I talked about, just be at it. You will build what we call as your ability to take decisions, and some will go wrong, but many of- more often than not, you get a lot of them right, and then you pretty much build from there. So if you're running a company, running a startup, uh, get started. I think that's what I always tell. India has a lot of problems to solve, and, and we are in the right, right time, right? A lot of things are going well for the country, and we have a lot of opportunity ahead of us, and a lot of these problems, we have to solve. And I'm, I'm, of course, I'm solving in, in healthcare, solving in EV. So many things to do, right? So, uh, right time for India, and, and I, I believe, right, a lot of times we used to think that a lot of products are made in the West, and that's brought to India, and we adopt solutions from there. But what India is doing today is what we call as leapfrogging, right? A lot of this, we will leapfrog, and we know how to build at scale, at the right cost, right? And that's exactly what the opportunity is ahead of us. So hopefully, we continue to build, and, and in, in my case, I want to see how we solve healthcare in India, and, and my, my view, view has been always to see how do we make high-quality healthcare accessible to, like, a billion people across the world, right? And, and, uh, potentially, we will be able to do that, and, and-... make sure that people are happy, people are healthier, uh, families are happy to do, right? Yeah.
- SPSpeaker
I want to push you a bit in this. Um, I'm, I, I'm on your side, by the way. [laughs]
- SKSatish Kannan
[laughs] Okay.
- SPSpeaker
We're on the same side.
- SKSatish Kannan
No, no, definitely.
- SPSpeaker
Um, when students join IIT Madras or, um, a, at an undergrad level or at a post-grad level, this is a ticket-
- SKSatish Kannan
Correct
- SPSpeaker
... to prosperity.
- SKSatish Kannan
Yes.
- SPSpeaker
And, um, it's very difficult... I mean, it's very tempting-
- SKSatish Kannan
Yeah
- SPSpeaker
... to think that, "Hey, I'm, I'm here. I will do my course as well. I'll get a good job, whatever, NTI, Qualcomm, I can stay there for 10, 20 years."
- SKSatish Kannan
Correct.
- SPSpeaker
"I'll become a VP. Maybe I'll become a CEO, I don't know."
- SKSatish Kannan
Yes.
- SPSpeaker
Um, have a good life, you know, maybe a-
- SKSatish Kannan
Absolutely
- SPSpeaker
... Valley life.
- SKSatish Kannan
Absolutely. Go to the US.
- SPSpeaker
Send my kid to a international school, and then for a undergrad to, whatever, MIT or something.
Episode duration: 1:11:27
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