It’s never too early to start a venture. Shashank ND of Naabo Solutions paves the way

Shashank ND is as busy as a successful entrepreneur should be. As the founder of Naabo Solutions, a web technology company that offers tailor-made IT solutions for the healthcare industry, he is steering his  two-year old company to hit its annual target of 500 health clinics by 2009-end.

His company, headquartered in Bangalore, is all set to scale up, with 10 full-time employees, 75 clients in its kitty and Rs 15 lakh in turnover.

This is not just another startup story. What makes Naabo’s story special is that Shashank is still a student! Just appeared for his final year engineering exams, majoring in IT at National Institute of Technology, Surathkal, Shashank started his entrepreneurial journey when he was in his second year, doing what he knows best—coding.

Shashank ND CEO, Naabo Solutions

How it all began
Shashank’s first steps towards an entrepreneurial career started in 2006, when he joined the newly formed NEN Entrepreneurship Cell in campus. The E-cell EFOREA (Engineering Forum for Entrepreneurial Awareness) was established in association with National Entrepreneurship Network, an initiative of the Wadhwani Foundation that is working with over 450 institutes across India, building their capacity to inspire, launch and support new entrepreneurs.

As part of the core executive group of EFOREA, Shashank helped organize over 25 events in campus, several of them involving NIT’s alumni entrepreneurs. He participated in entrepreneurship events across the country including IIT-Mumbai; ISB-Hyderabad, IMI-Delhi and PSG-Coimbatore. In this process, Shashank had the opportunity to practice his entrepreneurial skills, as well as experience the stresses and joys, relatively risk free.

His experience tempted Shashank to build his own company. “We were passionately involved in every aspect of running the E-cell. It was very hands on, almost like working in a startup. We learnt so much in the workshops and competitions and wanted to implement our knowledge in real life—and what better way than to launch a startup of our own,” shares Shashank.

Bootstrapped beginning
Shashank and his classmate and co-founder Prashanth H (who is no longer with Naabo) realized that they were first-time student entrepreneurs and like most first time entrepreneurs, they bootstapped their company, reaching into their own pockets to fund their startup.

They began by identifying potential customers for whom they could build software products. They held long meetings with marriage hall owners, suggesting web solutions for managing their business. They interviewed stockbrokers, exploring product ideas that could help them manage their portfolios. But their reactions were not exciting enough. It was Shashank’s idea to speak to private clinics as well, having observed the conventional way they ran their businesses, maintaining records in hard-bound registers and making patients wait for hours to see the doctor.

“Faced with growing competition from bigger hospitals, small clinics were under pressure to become tech savvy and efficient. We spoke to several independent medical practitioners and they loved the idea of having a software product that can streamline their clinics’ operations and help them connect better with their patients. Based on their inputs, we launched ‘DocTalk’ in August 2007, built on open source technologies for clinic management,” Shashank says. He admits that the product was not high on innovation, but did reasonably well as an application.

They were joined by like-minded entrepreneurial enthusiasts Abhinav Lal, Aditya Bheemarao and Srikanth who brought additional technical acumen and enthusiasm to the team. Within three months, they were itching to grow.

Team Naboo (l-r) Srikanth, Prashanth, Aditya, Abhinav, Shashank

The next big step
The breakthrough happened when a serial IT entrepreneur offered to acquire Naabo in November 2007, for over $20,000. Shashank turned to potential angel investors for advice. Three angel investors—Padma Ravichander, Ashok Waran and Srinivas V—saw value in what Shashank and team were trying to create and instead of advising them to sell the company, they became their mentors, guiding Naabo to the next level. With their technological and business inputs, during their association with the company for the next few months, Shashank’s team developed closed-source proprietary software for clinics. This is how ‘TurboDoc’, their new branded product, was born in June, 2008.

TurboDoc is a web-based clinic management product that helps clinics utilize the technology of the web and mobile to deliver better services to their patients. Apart from an end-to-end administration management system, TurboDoc also facilitates appointments through SMS and maintains patients’ complete case histories.

With 75 clinics already using TurboDoc, Shashank feels they have only touched the tip of the iceberg. Naabo’s target for 2009 is 500. This Shashank believes is a realistic goal. “The excitement is growing phenomenally and I can see huge potential to grow in the coming months,” Shashank reveals.

Work-study balance
Shashank puts in 14 hours a day towards running Naabo, which leaves him with very little time to study, forget a social life. “I have just barely managed to meet my attendance requirement. But my parents, faculty and friends have been very supportive and this has allowed me to focus on my startup. My partners Abhinav, Aditya and Srikanth, with their unstinting support, have played a very vital role in providing stability and growing the company to what it is today. Naabo is an excellent example of team effort and demonstrates the magical possibilities of teamwork,” Shashank says.

Despite the sacrifices that he has made for Naabo, the journey has been very fulfilling for him. “With Naabo, I have shown that it is possible to start a sustainable venture in college and run it successfully. Already, three of my juniors in college are on their way to launch their own ventures. I am passionate about entrepreneurship, so it is heartening to see the interest growing in our college with stories like ours,” Shashank adds.

More articles on www.nenonline.org. Content provided by NEN

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