A Rare Startup Focusing On Yoga And Past Life Regression

She is brutally honest when she says many registered but nobody turned up for their events at first. We speak to founder and CEO of Healclinic, Deepti Arora.

Why did you decide to found this venture?

We had a personal experience wherein a close relative who was suffering from an autoimmune disorder was not responding to conventional medicines and had developed severe side effects. A friend suggested alternative treatment approach.

Then started the struggle to find a practitioner who was good and close to home. After a prolonged search and meeting several practitioners we were able to zero in on one. The treatment was successful. Since then many of the family members resort to alternate treatment and done so successfully.

Healclinic was conceptualised in December 2015, by my husband Vishal Arora, who is also cofounder of Healclinic, and I. Through Healclinic, we started working on connecting millions of patients globally to traditional complementary and alternate medicine (TCAM) like yoga, ayurveda, reiki, pranic healing, PLR and homeopathy.

Today we offer online consultation across therapies to clients, hand holding our clients from the time they approach us through to consultation with an empanelled practitioner and other services.

On our website we provide natural and holistic products, complementing the therapies we offer.

This enables us to become a one stop platform offering services and products related to alternate therapies.

Share with us what’s special about this venture and how it’s different from its competitors?

The quality of client experience and the range of therapies offered is where we are different.

To maximize client experience we have trained counsellors handhold the client from the time they approach us till the end of the treatment. Based on the health challenge and client requirement, we design customised treatment plans for them. We take care of the environment while the practitioner and client concentrate on getting cured.

We offer a range of therapies offered. Currently we have over 30 non-intrusive therapies helping clients with chronic and acute illnesses, preventive healthcare, relationship issues, professional issues, financial issues, behavioural and emotional issues.

How did you manage to fund this idea?

This venture is currently self-funded using family savings, we are running a lean, boot strapped organisation.

What are/what will be your monetization paths?

Our monetization model is providing online consulting (healthcare packages) to clients globally and selling natural and holistic products online.

Tell us how the business has grown so far

We have already treated over 50 paying clients, with over 200 practitioners who are empanelled with Healclinic.

We offer online consulting in ayurveda, homeopathy, yoga, hypnotherapy, reiki, pranic healing, theta healing, tarot reading, nutrition, past life regression, vaastu and counting. We are aiming to become cash positive in about 6 to-9 months’ time.

We offer online shopping for natural and holistic products, some of the categories include fashionable yoga apparel, ayurveda, nutritional supplements, aroma oils, rudrasksh, and skin and hair care. We are also proactive in adding more products and brands every week.

What marketing strategies and plans are in place to grow the business?

Some of our marketing strategies include but not limited to social media platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, G+; tie-ups with complimentary websites; sponsoring, participating and networking at industry events, and promoting the venture through influencers.

What is the market size and opportunity?

The alternate therapy consulting market is upwards of 1000 crore rupees, if you’re looking at just the top 10 urban cities and the NRI community. In North America, clients spend 30 billion dollars every year on complementary remedies. The holistic and natural product market size also runs into a few thousand crores.

Any challenges faced setting up? Anything unique to your situation?

For any startup, the first thing you have to do is prove your credibility to clients as well as practitioners.

In the beginning empanelling of practitioners was a challenge since we did not come from the same domain and were not trained practitioners. The next biggest challenge was creating a structure and professionalism on the supply side.

One of the unique challenges we faced was not just proving our credibility to the client but also of our practitioners since there are loads of misconceptions about this field.

Share with us some best and worst memories while running the business

The best memory was when we signed up our first international client from South East Asia, the client was suffering from thyroid and was overweight. Our yoga practitioner through online video consulting brought her weight and thyroid in control within 6 weeks.

One of the worst memories was when we had organised a webinar on a specific health condition and even though many registered, no one turned up on the actual day. It was a big learning for us that given the serious nature of the illness, people preferred anonymity.