Category: Startup Diaries

Can a personal experience be a universal story?

In my previous post, I had written:

Human Care Central is a child of immense pain, which did not stop to think about getting organised first before hitting the road. The idea was to immediately get going with the task of helping at least one person somewhere avoid the pain that we went through.

While the statement stays true from the perspective of the initiation of the enterprise, it is rather elementary that even if a person has no shoes, he has to choose a direction – unless it involves an escape against time.

So did we; we chose a direction that we believe could perhaps be a good path for others to walk too. A path that cares for the traveller in the widest manner possible.

The Genesis:

The birth of the idea was just a simple – and single – experience of mobility denial  to a critically ill elderly person by the current state of infrastructure around us. But the idea now stands for every single unique need of daily living.

Simply because during our study of the ‘human needs universe’ around us, from real life, mind you, we became increasingly aware of a truth that stares our world right in the face – and yet is largely invisible:

You may be perfectly healthy but still find it challenging to carry out a particular activity of daily living, right?

And therein lies the evolved expanse of the original idea.

We understand how an unwell, unfit or under-blessed person can find daily living a taxing exercise. And they form the ‘immediate and emergency recipients’ of our proposed universe of solutions. But that is an obvious response, isn’t it? The real idea of care is to reach up to a person who might not look to be needing acute care.

That, dear friends, is one of the most complete forms of the idea. And that has evolved from a single, personal experience.

Thanks for reading the EveryCare Diaries. I would be indebted if you support further evolution of the idea us on other platforms too.

Sincerely,
Anshuman

[The series shares with you the ‘behind the scenes’ world of #humancarecentral and shall continue till the launch day]

[These are personal notes and hence may not always pass through stringent linguistic quality checks that our business adheres to]

We put our eventual course ahead of the immediate cost.

Any random article on magazines/portals like Forbes or Inc., thesis papers by IIM-A, Stanford or Harvard university and advice by consultancy firms like Boston Consultancy Group and McKinsey & Company would guide you to (some form of) these steps for startups prior to product/business launch:

• Have an ‘A’ team (because you need to have many experts to be able to execute an idea)
• Have an ‘A’ business plan (especially including fancy financial projections)
• Identify the product (in terms of the ‘customer pain’ that it solves)
• Know your market (who is going to buy your product – age, gender, class etc)
• Shore up your plan and budget

Frankly, while it would only be natural for us to be doing some, many or all of those – which again are some or many of many more – we did NOT start working on our idea with those guidelines.

Human Care Central is a child of immense pain, which did not stop to think about getting organised first before hitting the road towards helping if only one, just one, person somewhere avoid the pain that we went through. It was a pain of watching and being part of moving around of a critically ill elderly man. It was a pain of not having enough solutions around, despite having, perhaps, enough means. It was a pain of not having realised earlier that many around us and millions across the globe go through it every day – without having the luxury or purpose of speaking out.

No, we couldn’t have waited to ‘validate the idea’ from the perspective of finding out the profitability prospects of the idea. No, we can’t be worried about that enough to abandon the pursuit in the event of unfavourable business advice.

Does that mean that we disregard the need for those steps?

No, it just means that we would give our best to incorporate that wisdom to reach our already defined destination.

It just means that sometimes some things need to be done irrespective of conventional wisdom or order. People who recognise that come up early in the idea lifecycle to support you, while others would wait for the idea to get some business ‘traction’ before coming forward to join hands. Fair enough: Venture funding is not charity.

Though, I do believe that the phrase ‘angel investor’ shouldn’t be applied to hard-nosed, bottom-line-driven bankers. An angel should be someone who has more courage than other investors – and backs an idea even if it is risky. It is not an angel investor’s ‘duty’. It is just that many of the best communities were formed after one single person took a journey, and was soon joined by many, one pair of feet at a time.

You are witnessing the birth of that journey right here on the Facebook page of #everycare, India’s first #humancaremarketplace. We could have had fake visitor posts on the page, but we waited to have one by a genuine supporter of the idea who is not attached with us. And we had it today, many weeks after we first formed this page.

I would be indebted if you support us on those platforms too.

Sincerely,
Anshuman

[The series shares with you the ‘behind the scenes’ world of #humancarecentral and shall continue untill the launch day]

[These are personal notes and hence may not always pass through stringent linguistic quality checks that our business adheres to]

We appreciate your patience!

Even as we continue with, what often feels like an almost insurmountable mountain, there are always voices of encouragement that work as a massive shot in the arm. Every founder of a startup will tell you that every minute shot of that nature is worth its weight in gold.

Yesterday, I had a rather satisfactory conversation with a senior professional working with India’s biggest software company – both in terms of the sheer employee size and the revenue generated. He was quite emphatic in his approval of our idea, and the venture as a whole. He, without any shred of make-believe, told me that our forthcoming human care marketplace does indeed solve a critical customer problem and is a promising business too. Over the period of conversation, we seemed to agree on many points about the venture in particular and the process of launching a new venture in general.

One of the easy agreements, unfortunately, was about the need to not divulge too much of the idea of a new venture to ‘outsiders’.

There are two things that stand out for me in that agreement: First, I have had the misfortune of experiencing the ‘folly’ of sharing or discussing an evolving idea – actually the complete blueprint of the idea – with ‘leading lights’ of that particular idea’s domain. Twice; I’ve experienced twice – in different domains – the pain of an idea being hijacked by strangers with whom I had discussed the ideas about new ventures. So, there is absolutely no doubt why I would agree to be extremely wary – if not suspicious – of my idea changing clothes.

Second, I still believe there’s no other way out! How can you, just one individual, sit tight with an idea sans resources? Eventually, as the old Hindi saying goes ‘Jungle Mein Mor Naacha Kisne Dekha’ (What’s the worth of an idea not seen/heard/known by people outside its home).

Hence, and displaying faith in fellow professionals again, every startup founder goes out and meets hundreds of people to discuss his/her idea. I do that too. And so do my worthy team members – many of who have seen more life than me.

But it takes time. It takes time to identify the most appropriate people to validate your idea. It takes time to identify the most honourable – out of those appropriate – people to validate your idea. And when those guiding souls, who can be anyone, from an old uncle to a college drop-out business wiz in early 20s, the idea finally starts taking a better shape.

Sometimes, the idea continues to evolve to a point where it becomes (ever so) slightly different from the original idea. And then, the cycle repeats.

In other words, again, it takes time. We wish to give a good idea to you. We hope you’ll be patient with us. #everycare, the #humancaremarketplace, eventually, is about both of us.

Sincerely,
Anshuman

[The series shares with you the ‘behind the scenes’ world of #humancarecentral and shall continue till the launch day]