What inspired Dr. Suman of Medimojo to venture into entrepreneurship?

Dr. Shikha Suman started Medimojo as a result of a personal crisis. The aim of the venture is to improve treatment and care for those suffering from long-term or chronic illnesses. She shares her thoughts on “setting-up” and her future plans for the venture with SHEROES today.

Can you tell us a little about yourself?
Coming from a small town in Bihar, I am the first girl in my family to go to a convent school for an "English" education, and probably one of the first in my community, to start her own business! When I completed my PhD in Technology Management from IIT Kanpur, I was crystal clear about my future. Unlike any of my peers, I knew I wanted to play with numbers and drag out an abstract report from them to help companies grow. This is why I jumped into the gigantic ocean of research industry to provide niche scientific methodology to my clients and not just data collection service that many of the other research companies were doing. Thus came into existence 'Sampling Research', which I founded single-handedly in 2010 and we are currently among one top ten Market Research companies in India.

How did the idea of Medimojo come about?
The idea of Medimojo originated from a personal crisis. My Mother had a brain haemorrhage and doctors at that time said that symptoms would have shown since 2 years. A lot of travel was involved to get to Delhi and back for surgery and follow ups. That’s when I wondered how I can solve most of the problems revolving around chronic and long term illness…

What are the core services offered by your venture?
We see a huge potential in the long term illness segment, which requires constant health monitoring and predictive analysis along with doctor connect at regular interval and that’s where Medimojo comes in as your intelligent medical assistant who helps you create, curate and conserve your health records.

We are improving health outcomes with early detection and evidence based treatment by providing easy accessibility to doctors. We provide easy-to-read visually analysed reports that tell a story and empower decision makers. 

When setting up initially what were your biggest challenges?
Finance and resource crunch was a problem initially. But start-up challenges are same across the board. If you have the right intent and a great concept, nothing would deter you from pursuing your dream. The biggest challenge was putting a good team together, one who shares the same passion and has the same vision for the company.

How did you manage funding initially for the base operations?
Initial funding for base operations has come from founders’ bootstrapping.

What future plans do you have for the company and yourself professionally?
We are targeting a user base of 15000 by March 2016, with 1.5 lakhs health records getting managed over the platform.

What thoughts would you like to leave our readers with?
Believe in yourself. Do whatever you love, not what others expect you to. Challenges will always be there but not giving up is the key to success.