Medical Access Goes Off the Beaten Track

Practo started off by digitizing administrative tasks for doctors; 16 years later it's become a one-stop shop for online healthcare consultation

- S SHANTHI

Practo's co-founder Abhinav Lal's love affair with computers started in 1998 when his school in Jharkhand set up a computer lab. The time spent at the lab convinced him that a career in computers and mathematics was something up his street. But to his surprise, he couldn't get into any good coaching institute for IIT entrance preparation. So, after grade 12, he chose the next best option available and took admission in NITK Surathkal in 2005. This is where he met Shashank ND, now co-founder and CEO of Practo.

In the first year of college, Lal and Shashank joined the entrepreneurship club 'Euphoria'. The first activity that was organised by the club was a visit to the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad, for an event where one of the key speakers was Ajit Balakrishnan, founder of Rediff. "We loved when he talked about building a product and a company," Lal says. That led the duo to organise more such events.

In the process, they also understood the nuances of building a company from scratch. The college also had a club called NITK STEP that focused on fostering entrepreneurship and innovation among students. Lal and Shashank, both in their third year of B.Tech, and a bunch of friends started building products as part of this club in 2008. But, almost all of those products were "utter failures". This was also the time the public market crash had happened.