An entrepreneur must demonstrate strong staying power to succeed: Gautam Chopra

Adgully has been turning the spotlight on the entrepreneurs who fought against all odds to bring their dreams to fruition in our special series – START-UP STARS. We at Adgully wholeheartedly support the ‘Vocal for Local’ movement and have been featuring numerous local/ homegrown businesses, brands, and Apps in the country launched in the last few years.

BeatO is a digital app-based platform that provides clinically proven, comprehensive diabetes care programs to prevent, control & reverses diabetes under the guidance of experts. The results of these programs have been published by top institutions such as the American Diabetes Association (ADA) & International Diabetes Federation (IDF). BeatO’s ecosystem includes its innovative smartphone-connected glucometers that work in unison with the BeatO app and an experienced team of experts – health coaches, nutritionists and top doctors. BeatO’s AI powered app provides personalised insights and real-time, data-driven care via its experts. BeatO also provides a complete one-stop solution for all daily diabetes essentials such as medicines, lab tests, diabetes friendly foods & products.

In an interaction with Adgully, Gautam Chopra, Founder and CEO, BeatO, shares some of the insights of his entrepreneurial journey and the need for BeatO from a consumer’s perspective.

Please take us through your journey as an entrepreneur. What motivated you to establish BeatO?

My entrepreneurial journey began 7 years ago when I returned to India after working with the Lufthansa Group in Europe. I had more than 10 years of international experience in joint ventures and M&A, having led the largest transatlantic joint venture in the aviation industry between Lufthansa, United Airlines and Air Canada. But the urge to start something of my own spurred me on and I wanted to do something big and meaningful in and for my own country. Along with my co-founder Yash Sehgal, this led me to build a large, scalable, health-tech solution – BeatO, a digital app-based platform that provides clinically proven, comprehensive diabetes care programs to prevent, control and reverse diabetes under the guidance of experts. 

BeatO began by addressing a common pain point for me and Yash, my senior from school. When we met in 2015, both realised we were dealing with pre-diabetes and diabetes. Sharing our experiences, we knew there was a huge gap in the market to address this condition that had to be borne for a considerable period. Moreover, the treatment and management cost of this condition was mostly an out-of-pocket expense for patients. 

Diabetes needs constant monitoring, as well as continuous care and vigilance so that it doesn’t lead to other complications. To address the situation of 77 million people with diabetes in our country who needed an affordable and accessible solution for their condition, we decided to create BeatO, which signifies ‘to beat the ring of diabetes’. 

Today, BeatO offers comprehensive and complete solutions from simple monitoring to extensive care and counselling services to help control diabetes for more than 2 million users on our app and diabetes care programs.

What was the need for BeatO from a consumer’s perspective? What is the core business proposition?

India holds the second-largest population of people with diabetes after China, which is slated to triple in the next 20 years. Of these, more than 50% remain unaware or undiagnosed, which is most worrisome. Furthermore, the average HbA1c of a person with diabetes in India is 8.5, which makes their condition uncontrolled and puts them at high risk for complications due to the late diagnosis and lack of awareness in the population. Adding to this grave situation, less than 5% of specialists are found in Tier 2 cities and beyond to address the needs of people with pre-diabetes or diabetes. The only way to reach these people is through technology and digital healthcare solutions that are both accessible and affordable. This is BeatO’s mission.

BeatO is a digital app-based platform that provides clinically proven, comprehensive diabetes care programs to prevent, control and reverse diabetes under the guidance of experts. The results of these programs have been published by top institutions such as the American Diabetes Association and the International Diabetes Federation. BeatO’s ecosystem includes its innovative smartphone-connected glucometers that work in unison with the BeatO app and an experienced team of experts – health coaches, nutritionists and top doctors. BeatO’s AI-powered app provides personalized insights and real-time, data-driven care via its experts. BeatO also provides a complete one-stop solution for all daily diabetes essentials such as medicines, lab tests, diabetes-friendly foods and products.

Post-pandemic, BeatO has witnessed an upsurge of 5x new user registration from tier 4 cities and beyond. Today, it is serving Indians by making care accessible across more than 20,000 pin codes of India from Jammu & Kashmir to Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

What have been your key learnings so far? How do you see the BeatO ecosystem progressing in 2023?

Diabetes is a chronic condition and needs constant care, support and guidance from experts. Our studies published in international scientific journals have shown that BeatO’s smartphone-connected care ecosystem with real-time telephonic counselling triggered by self-monitoring of blood glucose helps improve glycaemic control. It also helps in improving the frequency of blood glucose self-monitoring. Thereby, a comprehensive and complete ecosystem of care such as that provided by BeatO can improve adherence and health outcomes for users. 

We have plans to expand this to cover other non-communicable diseases associated with diabetes such as hypertension, dyslipidaemia, mental health and hormonal disorders, for example, PCOS and thyroid. We are planning to expand in the domain of providing secondary care, which would include tests and care support for associated conditions such as retinopathy, neuropathy and more. We intend to add multiple products to our e-commerce section, which would include healthcare staples, supplements, wearables and monitoring devices to increase digital health adoption.

Over the next 2-3 years, BeatO will complement digital care with a physical touchpoint to become India’s largest diabetes and cardio-metabolic ‘clinic on the cloud’ with more than 5 million diabetic households under our proactive care. BeatO will collaborate with clinics to have a phygital extension for its clinically-verified virtual care programs.

How is digital helping you further your business?

Around 95% of people with diabetes live in Tier 2 cities and beyond, but only 5% of doctors or specialists are present in those areas. BeatO has been able to reach the most remote corners only by using technology and other digital means such as virtual consultations and remote monitoring, which allow people to have access to testing equipment at home. The data recorded through these self-monitoring tools help us with critical insights into the patient’s health, which we further leverage in a way that helps. Our coaches and doctors can reach out when they are needed the most and the relevant medicines are also delivered to patients’ homes in time. Therefore, it is also helping us solve a larger healthcare accessibility issue in the country. Another important point is the convenience that comes with it. Even if you don’t live in a small town, but live in a busy city like Delhi, you can do things from the comfort of your home, so you don’t have to plan your life around the doctor.

How did you identify your TG? Did you carry out any feasibility study prior to starting your business?

To identify and reach the correct target group, we undertook many consumer and patient surveys, including at hospitals and clinics, to understand our TG better. We were able to identify that people with uncontrolled diabetes continue suffering even though they may have been under the care of doctors. On investigating further, we found the problem lies in the fact that there is a lack of access, given the issues of convenience and distance. The other major problem we found was continuity of care. This helped us understand what target segment we should address. While there are about 80 million people with diabetes in India, there are those with uncontrolled diabetes, especially in Tier 2 cities and beyond, who do not have adequate access and face a lack of continuity in care. This section also emerged as the largest cohort of users within the community of people with diabetes.

What were the challenges that you faced in your start-up journey and how did you overcome them?

The journey has of course evolved over the last seven years, and there have been several challenges that we confronted at different points in time and diverse stages of the journey. Initially, it was more about identifying the pain point we needed to solve, so we switched our focus to the product market fit with the problem we were trying to resolve. Then it was about the go-to-market strategies that could help us scale up. Now it’s more about ensuring we can make the model sustainable. So, the journey has evolved and, with it, the nature of the problems we’re trying to solve has also evolved.

What would be your message for budding entrepreneurs?

There are a couple of key points. First, entrepreneurs, especially budding entrepreneurs, should note that “the only thing which is finite for us is time”. Therefore, we must push ourselves to get more things done, while undertaking more experiments within a finite period, which would give us the best chance of success in our business.

The second, of course, is staying the course. If you are expecting any idea that you’re passionate about will come through with a quick win or be done within a short duration, it may not always be feasible or possible. As an entrepreneur, you need to demonstrate that you have staying power. So stay the course. Of course, along the way that means many iterations and tweaking of things in the business or even the product or solution that you might be offering. There is nothing called overnight success. It takes time and patience. Accordingly, ensure that one has the hustle and assertiveness to continue and make the best utilisation of time. This is the most important point for an entrepreneur. An entrepreneur must demonstrate strong staying power to eventually succeed.

Start-up Stars
@adgully

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