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<ul><li>Twitter’s co founder, <keyword id="194394" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Biz-Stone">Biz Stone</keyword>, invests in ‘Visit’. </li><li>‘Visit’ is the innovation of BITS, <keyword id="6357476" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="pilani">Pilani</keyword> students. </li><li>The chatbot dispenses health advice using AI.</li></ul> Twitter co-founder, Biz Stone, has <a href="https://www.digit.in/machine-learning-and-ai/twitter-co-founder-invests-in-indian-ai-powered-health-chatbot-40664.html">invested</a> in the Delhi-based artificial intelligence (AI) company, Visit. The healthcare platform was created by students of the <keyword id="472692" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Birla-Institute-of-Technology-and-Science">Birla Institute of Technology and Science</keyword> (BITS), Pilani in <keyword id="6355588" type="LOCATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="rajasthan">Rajasthan</keyword>. Anurag Prasad, Vaibhav Singh, Shashvat Tripari and Chetan Anand came up with the idea of the AI-powered chatbot that dispenses health advice in 2016. The ‘advice’ it gives out is based on assisting doctors and learning from them. Stone <a href="https://medium.com/@biz/why-im-investing-in-visit-d3296c45d293">explains</a>, “People interact with the ‘Visit’ chatbot by sharing some symptoms. The bot follows up with relevant questions to collect more symptoms and risk factors (is the person hypertensive, diabetic, a smoker). This triaging is conversational and low stress.” How does Visit work? Visit takes queries from multiple people and learns from them. Since many queries will be the same, it allows the AI to learn more and pick patterns. In order to do so, Visit dispenses advice based on over 20,000 probabilistic relationships between variables (variables being family history, symptoms, conditions etc). This implies that if you have certain symptoms that may be more pertinent to a pre-existing condition in the family, then the probability calculations of that situation would be skewed to take that into consideration. The bot takes into account factors such as symptoms, risk factors, patient history, living conditions etc. Once the bot is able to determine which medical condition needs to be addressed, it connects the patient to a health specialist from anywhere across the country. Visit currently has over 2,000 doctors who can be contacted via video chat, phone or text. And it’s not a one-time deal. Patients will apparently have the option of keeping in touch with their practitioner for a follow-up. Stone also adds, “The objective is not to replace the doctor but to help practitioners in an assistive way by regular patient check-ins and reminders related to their care plan.” According to him, the goal behind Visit is to address the shortage of doctors in the nation using AI. In support of which he wrote - “Accessibility to quality health care advice is an overwhelming problem in a country with over 200 million people affected by lifestyle problems like stress, chronic conditions, obesity, skin conditions and more. This is where the technology approach by ‘Visit’ comes in.” The situation in India is <a href="http://indianexpress.com/article/india/less-than-one-doctor-for-1000-population-in-india-government-tells-lok-sabha-4760892/">reportedly</a> as bad a 921 patients per doctor. Platforms like Visit could make it easier for people to access healthcare services and doctors, exponentially. Visit isn’t alone in its endeavour. Many online consultancy services such as quickconsult, Practo, Portea and Zoylo already exist but they’re still depend on man-power exclusively. Visit has the potential to be largely self-reliant once the AI has reached a point where it has enough information.

Delhi-based health startup gets investment from Twitter co-founder

IIT Bombay has blacklisted nine organizations from its upcoming placement season, the establishment said in an announcement today. The organizations banned from grounds for a year incorporate LeGarde Burnett Group; GPSK; Johnson Electric, China; <keyword id="2106749" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Portea">Portea</keyword> Medical; Peppertap; LexInnova; Mera Hunar; <keyword id="3597213" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="cashcare-technologies">Cashcare Technologies</keyword> and Indus Insights. 
 The explanations behind boycotting incorporate everything from disavowing of offers as on account of GPSK, Portea Medical, <keyword id="2809732" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="PepperTap">Peppertap</keyword> and Cashcare Technologies to a deferral in joining dates as with Indus Insights and Lex Innova. LeGarde Burnett Group repudiated offers as well as the organization was observed to be fake with no legitimate office address while Mera Hunar accompanied an alternate name and employed understudies for another <keyword id="138263" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="startup">startup</keyword>. 
 
Since choices on boycotting are taken by the All-IITs Placement Committee (AIPC), and normally stuck to by all IITs, it is likely that the boycotting remains constant at the other more seasoned IITs too. 
 Infact, the consolidated rundown of blacklisted organizations at the IITs is liable to far surpass 9. Blacklisted startups alone are required to be more than 20. “These 9 are companies that had created issues at IIT Bombay," said <keyword id="3597214" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="shreyash-gupta">Shreyash Gupta</keyword>, placement manager at IIT Bombay 
 Strangely, regardless of postponing offers, <keyword id="6354742" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Flipkart">Flipkart</keyword> does not include among the rundown of blacklisted organizations. After a go ahead with the IITs, the ecommerce major had offered to arrange internships for affected students as a stopgap measure.

Portea and
Peppertap join 9 companies blacklisted by IIT Bombay

Krishnan <keyword id="6356252" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Ganesh">Ganesh</keyword>, has played a lot of roles in his life; from an engineer, to an entrepreneur, to now a venture builder, and his life has been nothing short of an trial. While his shoes have been too big to fill and as they keep changing, he is currently pioneering a unique model with Growth Story in India, which is probably only made popular by Rocket Internet in the country. GrowthStory is the venture-builder platform that Ganesh and his wife, Meena set up in 2011 which has promoted some of India's most disruptive start-ups including Portea Medical, Big Basket, Fresh Menu, Home Lane, AcadGild, HouseJoy, Social Frontier and many more. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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This model is unique due to the fact that while Ganesh and Meena come up with entrepreneurial ideas, they hire executives to pull it off. It is not primarily "investment" only, but where GrowthStory is the "promoter," but where the Partners are often the originators of the idea, work to get a founding team in place, drive fund raising early in the game, work closely with founders to scale the venture, guide strategic direction et al. This ‘express’ entrepreneurship that the power couple pull through is extraordinary and the back- story to it is a roller coaster that, you can’t forget. Early life and career Ganesh’s father died in an accident when he was just nine years old and as the eldest of three siblings, he felt the need to set an example. His mother was a hard-working government servant and bought them up to the best of her capabilities.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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So Krishnan, became a mechanical engineer passed out from Delhi College of Engineering, and even got a post graduate degree from IIM before realizing that he didn’t want to be an engineer or just an MBA graduate. Ganesh credits his entrepreneurial trials to <keyword id="44903" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Shiv-Nadar">Shiv Nadar</keyword>, under whose guidance he experienced different business function, “I worked for five years in various functions and also as executive assistant to Shiv Nadar. My first venture started in 1990, a company called IT&amp;T where me and my friends pooled in money to get it started,” he told Business Insider. He ran the company till 1998 and remained the largest shareholder and director of the company till 2003 when it was sold to iGate. He went back to the corporate life but after two-years stint went back to entrepreneurship with his second business venture called CustomerAsset with Meena and another partner. It was later acquired by ICICI Bank in 2002 and Ganesh made $ 20 million for his stake in the company.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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In 2003 he stumbled upon an innovative new company called Marketics which was started by IIT and IIM graduates. Ganesh was approached for investment, mentoring and guidance. This company was also sold off to WNS, for $65 million where only half a million dollars were invested in this business without venture capital funding. Then Ganesh again started his own business with TutorVista in 2006 which was bought out completely by Pearson for Rs. 1000 crore. His multiple hits have led him to be where he is, but that isn’t without the missus by his side. When the the last acquisition happened, Ganesh and Meena decided to take the hard road and continue their entrepreneurship journey albeit this time, differently. "Only 5 per cent of start ups succeed and Ninety-five per cent end up failing. I see still young entrepreneurs after starting a company against all the odds. I'm addicted to fueling that until I can," says Krishnan when asked about why his family still makes risky businesses instead of just ‘settling down’. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The Perfect Pairing When it comes to Meena and Krishnan Ganesh, their complementary skill sets have given fuel to the train that is Growth Story. Professionally, Meena is more lauded as the CEO of <keyword id="6398216" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Tesco">Tesco</keyword>,No.2 at <keyword id="10387" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Microsoft">Microsoft</keyword> and now CEO at Portea, but Ganesh is the visonary that knows they can achieve so much together. As co-founders and life partners, they know that team work is the key to making a venture start and keep it running.

Exclusive: K. Ganesh Made BigBasket and Portea Medical Blockbusters in India, and This is his Unique Life-story

The joint statement from the <keyword id="105472" type="General" weightage="90" keywordseo="us-treasury" source="Orion">US Treasury</keyword>, Federal Reserve and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) stating that depositors will have access to all of their money starting Monday, March 13 in connection with the <keyword id="630197" type="General" weightage="90" keywordseo="silicon-valley-bank" source="Orion">Silicon Valley Bank</keyword> (<keyword id="675965" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="svb" source="Orion">SVB</keyword>) collapse has come as a relief to the startups who were exposed to the bank. Startups hope the crisis would now be resolved soon. "FDIC's communication yesterday saying all depositors will get access to their funds is a relief to the startup community," said Prabhu Ramachandran, CEO &amp; Co-founder at Facilio, a property operations software provider. Facilio has significant exposure, as a "major portion" of the company's funds is with SVB. "But we expect the crisis to be resolved this week and we should get access to our funds. We have money outside SVB to cover 4-5 months of our operations. This gives us more than sufficient time for the crisis to be resolved, and for us to access our funds at SVB," Ramachandran said He added "while most SaaS (Software as a <keyword id="6359391" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="service" source="Orion">Service</keyword>) startups had some kind of exposure, most of them had diversified their funds and operations did not get impacted as such. Also, we knew it was only a matter of days before this issue would get resolved." "We understood the way it snowballed and most of us didn't get carried away by the noise. We took stock of our financials outside SVB and believed this problem would get resolved in a few weeks. We kept our internal teams updated on the situation. SaaS is a close-knit community here and we are speaking to each other to ensure the confidence within the community is held up," Ramachandran added. However, the number of startups that are affected is "minuscule" say some. "In the Indian startup ecosystem, the number of companies that have US bank accounts is minuscule. It is a problem for US companies, for Indian companies, a very minuscule section of the Indian ecosystem has been affected by the Silicon Valley Bank collapse," said K Ganesh - Serial Entrepreneur, Promoter - Bigbasket, Portea Medical, Bluestone, HomeLane. "None of the startups mentioned in a section of the Indian media - BlueStone and <keyword id="192259" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="tutorvista" source="Orion">TutorVista</keyword> - have been impacted by the Silicon Valley Bank crisis. This is a pure case of wrong understanding and sensationalising," Ganesh said. He added SVB had invested in these companies and taken equity or shares from them. "The money came from SVB. Both BlueStone and TutorVista received money from SVB and gave them shares against that. Tutor Vista got the money 16 years back. BlueStone got the money 10 years back. That money has been consumed and utilised. Subsequently, the shares have been sold and SVB is no longer a shareholder in any of these companies. Therefore, what happens with SVB has no relevance to these companies. Whether it is <keyword id="13538736" type="DOMAIN" weightage="20" keywordseo="paytm" botkeyword="" source="ET" sourcekeytype="COMPANY" meta.keywordsubtype="EQ" meta.aliasname="paytm" meta.entityname="One97 Communications Ltd." meta.entityid="2017785" meta.seoname="one97-communications-ltd">PayTM</keyword>, Bluestone or TutorVista," he said. Ganesh added, "if the same situation had happened 15 years ago, the news would not have spread so quickly. Now, the moment you get a whiff of a problem on social media or news reports, the internet and mobile banking help people move funds immediately. Something like 20 billion dollars was removed in a day. Mobile internet banking makes a 'run on the bank' possible. While not blaming SM or mobile internet banking, the lesson is that the banking regulators have to learn how to avoid similar situations repeating in the age of social media." Meanwhile, payment solutions and fintech companies are coming up with ways for affected startups to work around the issue. A Razorpay spokesperson said, "we have been working round the clock and have created a dedicated RazorpayX desk to help our fellow startups urgently move funds from their US banks to India. For all existing RazorpayX users, we are offering to move their money into their Indian current account as FDI through our partner banks. For anyone who is not a RazorpayX user, we are helping them move their money to a Nostro account through our partner banks." "We also understand that this event may cause a few companies to be unable to make payroll in the next 30 days. We are working on things internally to see how we can help resolve it. Our teams are working hard along with our banking partners to explore all possible solutions to reduce the panic amongst founders because we know if we don't come together and help them out now, these young disruptive startups may not see the light of day," he added. SEE ALSO: <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/finance/banks/news/billionaire-hedge-fund-manager-investor-bill-ackman-warns-more-banks-will-collapse/articleshow/98608905.cms">Billionaire hedge fund manager investor Bill Ackman warns more banks will collapse</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/india/news/very-seminal-issue-sc-refers-pleas-for-same-sex-marriage-to-a-constitutional-bench/articleshow/98609228.cms">'Very seminal issue', SC refers pleas for same-sex marriage to a constitutional bench</a>

Startups hoping for quick resolution of SVB crisis post FDIC intervention

<ul><li><keyword id="14562085" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="windo" source="Orion">Windo</keyword> raises $1.5 million in a round led by Unicorn India Ventures.</li><li>It plans to use this capital raised in Pre-Series A round for product development and international expansion.</li><li>The company claims to have over 200,000 downloads from users across 140 countries.</li></ul>Bengaluru-based social commerce-focused technology platform for individual and small-sized sellers, Windo, on Tuesday said it has raised $1.5 million in a round led by Unicorn India Ventures. Rapido India’s CEO Aravind Sanka, Portea co-founder K Ganesh and CapriGlobal also participated in the round, along with a few other investors. The company plans to use this capital raised in the Pre-Series A round for product development and international expansion. “The funding that we have raised is a big step towards realising our mission to help SMB (small-to-medium business) owners and solopreneurs in taking their business online and growing. We believe our unique approach to the problem will help us win in this space even amidst a seemingly crowded space,” said Silus Reddy, CEO and co-founder of Windo. Windo — founded by second time entrepreneurs Rakesh Vaddadi and Reddy two years ago — enables small businesses to manage their online businesses by increasing orders, helps them set up a professional-looking e-commerce store and market their products to Instagram users. The app has close to 200,000 downloads from users across 140 countries, and has 50,000 monthly active users. The company claims to host more than 100,000 online shops and plans to reach an annual revenue run rate (ARR) of $1 million in the next 12 months. “About 250 million small businesses and solopreneurs across the globe use WhatsApp, Instagram or phone calls to take orders. With the expansion there is a rapidly growing need for platforms that can support <keyword id="623994" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="social-commerce" source="Orion">social commerce</keyword> entrepreneurs since even the internet-savvy business owners find it hard to create and manage an online website,” said Sparsh Kumar, senior investment associate at Unicorn India Ventures. SEE ALSO <a class="tout-title-link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/corporates/news/it-is-attrition-rates-and-not-the-wage-hikes-dampening-indian-it-cos-earnings/articleshow/93120202.cms">It is attrition rates and not the wage hikes dampening Indian IT cos earnings</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/stock-market/news/tata-steels-net-profit-declines-in-q1-on-the-back-of-rising-raw-material-costs/articleshow/93116879.cms">Tata Steel’s net profit declines in Q1 on the back of rising raw material costs</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/need-more-than-35-say-swiggy-workers-who-threaten-strike-against-new-policies/articleshow/93114671.cms">Need more than ₹35 say Swiggy workers who threaten strike against new policies</a>

Rapido CEO, Unicorn India Ventures invest in social commerce startup Windo

<keyword id="913964" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Krishnan-Ganesh">Krishnan Ganesh</keyword>, needs no introduction as a serial entrepreneur and now his Growth Story does not seem to end. Over the past two decades, <keyword id="6356252" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Ganesh">Ganesh</keyword> and his wife Meena have created, and exited from, four ventures and stuck to the India-domestic consumption story even as others rubbish the e-commerce as a viable business in the country. 

 

 

 

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 Ganesh describes himself as a dreamer— focussing on networking, business strategy and looking at new business opportunities with investors and entrepreneurs. Meena, his wife is more of a technical person exploring how to hire, identifying operational glitches, how to scale up and so on. “We have incubated new companies in the internet and e-commerce sector that address Indian consumer challenges. In our country, there is a huge opportunity in every sector because there is a problem in every sector due to the sheer size of the population. We have been working hard to create solutions specific to India where we push the technology to solve the problems,” Ganesh told Business Insider talking about successes like Big Basket, Freshmenu, BlueStone and Portea Medical, the latter headed by his wife. 

 

 

 

 <div type="embedgroup"> <div type="Article" hostid="261" msid="58292743" title="Exclusive: K. Ganesh Made BigBasket and Portea Medical Blockbusters in India, and This is his Unique Life-story" rank="1.0" kind="RELATED" publishDate="Apr 21, 2017, 12:00 PM" mstype="2" mssubtype="0"></div></div> Ganesh believes that the last nine months have added fuel to the Indian start-ups, “Events like the launch of <keyword id="6354504" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Reliance-Jio">Reliance Jio</keyword>, Demonetization and recent round of <keyword id="6354742" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Flipkart">Flipkart</keyword> funding shows that the trust in internet companies in India have been increasing. Reliance Jio got the next 100 million online but we still have a long way to go. India needs internet companies as we lack infrastructure and can’t afford to keep a extensive range of products at one place.” His latest bet are in B2B companies like GrowFit which is a healthy food and diet platform and Social Frontier which is a SAAS platform for managing social media for companies. 

 

 

 

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 This seasoned entrepreneur knows how to start-up and create a growth story and you can get in touch with him on Twitter at @ganeshk03.

Exclusive: K Ganesh's Growth Story with Start-ups is Never-ending and Here’s the Next Chapter

<ul><li>In our latest interview series, we talk to brands to understand how they are coping with the new normal and their strategies towards navigating these difficult times.</li><li>In today's interview, <keyword id="8869254" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="arpan-biswas">Arpan Biswas</keyword>, VP – Marketing, <keyword id="6439410" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="housejoy">Housejoy</keyword> tells us how the startup adapted to this new way of functioning and all that it has been doing to keep all its stakeholders safe and connected with the brand.</li></ul> Since the government decided to impose a <keyword id="91743" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="lockdown">lockdown</keyword> on the country to curb the spread of Covid-19, businesses and organizations across the country, and the world, have been impacted. During this time, its organizations that have managed to stay agile and open to evolving how they function have been the ones that have been less impacted. Over the past few weeks we have read of a lot of organizations and brands that have diversified their businesses, in an attempt to stay relevant to the dynamic times. Among many other examples, we saw Housejoy, a tech-driven construction, renovation, interiors, and <keyword id="9385246" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="home-maintenance-company">home maintenance company</keyword>, launching a service for the delivery of essentials. The startup was able to pull this off right at the start of the lockdown, when people were stuck at home and were struggling to get essentials delivered as supply chain had been impacted too. This was a good example of how the startup (whose core offering in the construction and maintenance space came to a complete halt) innovated quickly to make itself relevant to the consumer’s evolving needs by expanding its offerings. We caught up with Arpan Biswas, VP – Marketing, Housejoy recently, to understand how challenging diversification under the lockdown was, and what kind of reception they have seen in the past few weeks. We also ask him what his learnings as a marketer from this whole experience has been and how Housejoy, as an organization, is gearing up to function efficiently in the post-Covid world. Excerpts: Q) How has the last 2 months been for Housejoy as an organization? Were you prepared as an organization to make the transition to WFH? Just like most other startups, the pandemic did have an impact on Housejoy and our operations given that our construction and maintenance services came to a complete halt. Now, we are back on track and all our businesses across all cities have resumed, except in containment zones. Our teams are back in office and our construction services have resumed. Though we were not completely ready for WFH initially, our tech and HR teams facilitated the transition and top management ensured the teams are well engaged with regular virtual catchups. Q) Your core offering is in the sphere of construction, renovation, interiors, and home maintenance. However, the lockdown has forced most work in the sphere to come to a complete standstill. How do you anticipate the next few months will pan out for you as an organization? Yes, construction and home maintenance do not fall under essentials. Hence, our businesses came to a standstill. During lockdown, we encouraged our construction and interiors customers to get their house designs finalized. We have also been working on building confidence among our existing customers and keeping them updated about our activities. As WFH will become a norm in the future, we foresee demand for home offices and an overhaul of how new spaces will be constructed. We anticipate a high demand for home maintenance, fumigation, and beauty services post the lockdown. Post easing of the stringent lockdowns, demand has picked up and our B2C business is getting more orders vis-a-vis pre-Covid period, partially due to the pent-up demand. We are also seeing considerable traction from construction and renovation. When our core businesses were halted, we took several initiatives like <keyword id="9385245" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="housejoy-mart">Housejoy mart</keyword> to ensure customers get super-fast grocery delivery and our idle service providers get a mode to earn. Additionally, we also collaborated with the Karnataka state government in their effort to combat the pandemic by offering free fumigation in public places. We recently joined hands with leading healthcare brands like Portea Medical, SRL Diagnostics, Biognosys and BAF to set up mobile COVID-19 testing camps across Bengaluru to arrest the spread of the virus. Q) How have you been communicating with your consumers during this time? As a marketer, what has your priority been, in terms of the marketing communications going out? Our external communication is focused on the essentials and customer’s needs like fumigation, grocery delivery, etc. We have stopped all spends on traditional mediums and primarily focusing on digital as a medium to generate demand and educate customers of our offerings. Within digital, the focus is on intent-based searches and quirky content to engage with our consumers. Additionally, we have reached out to all our existing construction customers on the delays and provided them assurance on their investments. A large chunk of our content is dedicated towards informing our customers about the measures our service providers have taken to keep themselves and our customer’s safe. Internally, we are trying to keep the team’s morale high by sharing all the media buzz we have received, the deals we have cracked. These are testing times for all employees and it’s important to assure them about the financial health of their organization. Q) What was your media mix pre-COVID and how did that change during the lockdown? Do you think you will tweak your media mix even after the lockdown is called off? Has digital seen most of your marketing investments? Prior to the COVID pandemic, it was a mix of traditional and digital. However, during the lockdown, digital marketing and PR have been our go-to medium. We are implementing and leaning toward strengthening our digital marketing strategies. Our strategy has been to engage customers with quirky and interesting themes and messaging, and we will continue to do this going forward. Q) Did content marketing play a big role for you during the lockdown? Content marketing is one of our focus areas and our single-minded objective on digital is to improve the shareability of our content. We wish to keep our construction and interiors customers updated with newest technologies, trendy designs, and latest ways to upgrade their lifestyles. For our on-demand customers, the focus is to educate them of the WHO-suggested safety measures we have implemented and keep them aligned to our new offerings like car sanitization and labor on hire. Q) You recently entered the grocery-delivery space. Was it a natural extension for the brand? What kind of uptake has this service seen during the lockdown? How have you been marketing this offering? Expansion to grocery-delivery was a natural extension as we have the necessary tech and supply for the same. Our primary focus through this initiative has been to ensure work continuity for our teams and helping our customers in this hour of crisis. We partnered with various Kirana stores and helped them in expanding their business. This is a very new field for us, and we are evaluating the business model currently. Once that is set, we plan to invest in marketing. Q) What have your key learnings from the COVID-19 experience been, both as a marketer and as an organization? As an organization, we have learnt that flexibility is one of the biggest virtues and we have exhibited the same. We entered two new categories – healthcare and delivery services – keeping in mind the growing demand. We have also realized that great companies are built when people stick together in such times of crisis. Our employees have exhibited immense character, took complete ownership and executed some tough projects. As marketers, we have learnt that marketing is not about big budgets. Focus should be on improving quality of content and adding value to our customer’s lives. The distribution is taken care of by customers. Q) While the lockdown might be lifted soon, things might still take a few more months to settle down. How are you going to cope with the post-COVID world? How are you preparing as an organization? Though the lockdown will be lifted, the fear of transmission will still loom large. There will be some permanent changes in customer’s behavior and way of consumption. We are trying to keep our eyes and ears open to understand and validate the changes and work on ways to connect with them better. There is no denying the fact that we must adapt to this new normal and we are doing everything possible to ensure things run smoothly.

Marketing in the times of Covid-19: Housejoy

For all of us, visiting a hospital for our loved one is no less than a nightmare. It’s not just painful to see our dear ones lying in the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Watson-enters-India-to-provide-individualised-cancer-care-across-the-country/articleshow/50014760.cms">hospital</a> bed in pain, it’s also the long lofty bills that can really hurt our pockets. 
	 
	But, there’s an alternative to it! Home <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Heres-what-is-killing-India/articleshow/49918471.cms">healthcare</a> services is increasingly being preferred by many in the city in order to not just give the best health care but also to save themselves a few grand. 
	 “We offered our services to a patient who lived in Khirki Extension in Delhi and needed intensive care. The patient was spending nearly Rs 70,000 per day at Max hospital in Saket. We gave him an ICU like setup at his home for Rs 10,000 per day. Thus, it home care is such cost-effective alternative,” Dr. Gaurav Thukral, vice president and business unit director at <keyword id="1910437" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Healthcare-At-Home">HealthCare at Home</keyword>, a joint venture between the <keyword id="3163103" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Burman-Group">Burman Group</keyword> and UK’s leading home care services firm Home Care at Home, told BI India in an exclusive interview. 
	 
	Off late, the home care segment in the health care sector has been attracting a lot of start-ups. However, the challenges are many. While logistics continue to be a challenge for many, it’s the expectations of their clients that remain the biggest task. 
	 
	“We also cater to very high-end clients, who sometimes are unreasonable. For instance, we have had clients, who demanded infection-free environment at their homes or wanted the nurse to keep standing for 12-hours continuously,” added Thukral. 
	 Globally home <keyword id="6354525" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Healthcare">healthcare</keyword> services constitute 6% of the overall healthcare industry. However, in India, this segment segment is still in nascent stages despite having the best nurses and health practitioners in the country. 
	 
	At present, the largest players in the market include Portea Medical, India Home Health Care (IHHC) &amp; Homital. HealthCare at Home currently operates primarily in Delhi, Punjab, Jammu, Mumbai, Bangalore and Hyderabad. The company aims to expand rapidly pan India and plans to raise funding for its future course of action. 
	 
	Image Credit: ehealth.eletsonline.com

Here’s
how home care services are a better bet than expensive hospitals!

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image">Triple Helix VenturingMicrosoft Ventures boss Nagraj Kashyap</div></div></div>Microsoft has launched a new strategic investment fund under the Microsoft Ventures name, and may consolidate its previous startup investment programs underneath this new program.To make this happen, Microsoft Ventures has a new boss, <a href="http://fortune.com/2016/01/25/qualcomm-microsoft-kashyap/">as first reported by Fortune</a> earlier today - Nagraj Kashyap, the former head of Qualcomm Ventures.<h2>What's changing?</h2>In recent years, Microsoft has created several programs that invest in startups, including BizSpark, Microsoft Reactor, and the Bing Fund. The goal of these programs has been primarily to get startups excited about and using technology from Microsoft, like its Azure cloud computing platform, and to improve Microsoft's relationships with venture capitalists. They have been run out of the company's developer evangelism group, which was <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-john-shewchuk-interview-2016-1">recently revamped</a>. In 2013, some of these programs were consolidated under the "Microsoft Ventures" name.At the same time, Microsoft has long made strategic investments into young companies that fit into its company goals. Its 2006 investment into Facebook, which gave the young company a then-shocking $15 billion valuation, is a prime example. These investments are run out of the corporate business development group led by former Qualcomm exec <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/peggy-johnson-ignition-interview-2015-12">Peggy Johnson</a>.Business Insider has learned that Kashyap's group will take over the Microsoft Ventures name, and he will be part of Johnson's team. The other programs will rebrand and work more closely with Kashyap. The new Microsoft Ventures won't be an independent VC fund with a single limited partner, as Google runs with GV (formerly known as Google Ventures). Rather, it will be a strategic investment fund controlled by Microsoft, like Google Capital.<h2>New blood</h2>On the surface, Kashyap is a non-obvious fit to lead a Microsoft fund.Qualcomm is a chip manufacturer, primarily selling its powerful mobile processors to smartphone manufacturers around the world. Microsoft is best known as a software company, with a <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/tech-company-mission-statements-2016-1">mandate to help people "achieve more." </a>There's a little more to this, though. A lot of Qualcomm Ventures' money went into startups like depth-sensing camera firm Mantis Vision or flying drone company 3D Robotics. That is to say, a major investment area for Qualcomm Ventures was in hardware companies building new kinds of things that would need Qualcomm chips, beyond just phone handsets. <div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">Business InsiderA Qualcomm Snapdragon-powered phone, demonstrating its ultrasonic-based fingerprint sensor.</div></div></div>But Qualcomm also sunk some cash into startups like social driving startup Waze, which got <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/how-google-bought-waze-the-inside-story-2015-8">snapped up by Google in 2013</a>. It's also invested in an eclectic mix of other startups, including India-based doctor-on-demand startup Portea Medical, gift card exchange Zeek, and business-focused translation service Reverie. Kashyap laid out his investment thesis in a <a href="http://nvcaconnection.com/quarterly-issues/september-2014-issue/21-2/">2014 interview</a>: Qualcomm is a leading R&amp;D supplier for the wireless industry, but many of us believed that we were not as connected as we could be to the end user of the services. QV was founded in 2000 to address this concern. While Qualcomm continues to focus on the primary customers, handset makers, QV enables the company to tap into the end user, as well as trends in the mobile technology industry.So, while Microsoft and Qualcomm are in different businesses, it sounds like Kashyap understands the importance of keeping tabs on changes in the all-important mobile market, even if the benefits aren't immediately obvious.Plus, both Microsoft and Qualcomm have invested in the hot startup <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/cloudflare-raises-110-million-2015-9">CloudFlare</a>, which helps websites run faster on every device, so there's some obvious overlap. It was a Series D investment - a little later-stage than most of Microsoft's usual seed investments. <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/funny-questions-to-ask-microsoft-cortana-2015-11">20 Easter egg questions you can ask Cortana to get a hilarious response</a></h3> <div> <div> <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="ptN2hveDqChq8i8yIRQHAKJKabK42hnz" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div> </div> </div> </div>

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