The week that was: from startups that pivoted to the iconic Prathap Reddy of Apollo Hospitals

Life is all about learning to adapt and startups know this all too well. Founded in 2018 by Suket Amin and his father, Dipak Amin, Ahmedabad-based Sunbots Innovations LLP is an iCreate-backed startup that uses automation, mobility, sensor technology, and artificial intelligence to develop outdoor security and surveillance robotic systems. 

In the time of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the startup took on a personal pain point and pivoted to launch a UV-based disinfection device. Sterilite is a UV-C tower that can be used to disinfect hospitals, clinics, offices, hotels, and homes.

“My wife is a dentist; she needed to visit her clinic and attend to her patients even during the lockdown. It was a concern as she would come in contact with patients. UV-C-based Sterilite was initially developed for her to keep her clinic disinfected. But it led to the development of a new product line as we started receiving queries,” Suket tells YourStory.

Products are what help startups scale and every good entrepreneur knows that product and market fit go hand in hand.

In September 2018, when Vineet Rao, Sankar Bora, Sourjyendu Medda, and Rajat Shikhar started DealShare in Jaipur, Rajasthan, they had decided to build a social commerce model that primarily targeted non-metro and middle-income Indian consumers with mass market products. 

“DealShare focuses on building a complete ecommerce solution for Bharat, from the ground up and based on first principles,” Sourjyendu says.

The founding team of DealShare Technology is at the core of social ecommerce startup DealShare’s business. It works closely with consumers and businesses, determines their needs, and builds solutions. 

“Our unique target customer group and business model poses several technical challenges. The key problems we have been addressing revolve around solving problems for new internet users, efficient and cost-effective logistics, creating supply and distribution side platforms, digitising businesses, and growing the customer base with low acquisition cost social marketing,” Sourjyendu says.

From DealShare, let's move on to BharatShare, a file sharing app.

Launched nearly three weeks after the first ban at the end of June, BharatShare, a tech startup focused on building platforms for influencers and creators, was able to quickly pivot to fill the gap left by SHAREit and others by using the underlying technology it had built for another application.

“The Indian government’s ban on Chinese apps worked in our favour. We saw an opportunity to enter the market and launched BharatShare. The time was right and people needed to have Indian alternatives,” said Utkarsh Roy, Founder and Creator of BharatShare.

Now, on to an icon of the healthcare industry.

Apollo Hospitals Founder Chairman Prathap C Reddy started by opening the doors of India’s first corporate hospital in Chennai (then Madras), in 1983. It introduced international quality healthcare to India, at a cost that was a fraction of the comparable costs in the West.

Naysayers were many around Dr Reddy at that time. They even called him a “fool” for daring to attempt something like this. He was around 50 years old at the time.

“The moment they heard that I was wanting to do this, people called me a fool. So that became my strength,” Dr Reddy revealed in a recent conversation with YourStory Founder and CEO Shradha Sharma.

From the first 150-bed multi-speciality hospital that Apollo Hospitals opened on Greams Road in 1983, it has expanded to 71 hospitals across the country with 12,000 beds. It has 3,400 pharmacies, over 90 primary care clinics, and 150 diagnostic centres.