BWDisrupt interacts with Ms. Shipra Dawar, Founder & CEO, ePsyClinic.com to know more about her online psychology startup.Tell us about how you entrepreneurial journey and genesis of the idea behind creating an e-psych clinic?
A strong believer in the mission: ‘To bring health care services back to where they belong; as a basic right of every individual rather than a luxury available to a significant few.’ShipraDawar serves as the Founder & CEO of ePsyClinic that is India’s leading online mental health care provider.
Her key areas of work include devising strategies, marketing, new product & service/concept development and QAQC of services and technology. Her entrepreneurial acumen and professionalism help her juggle many roles at the organization.
She is responsible for conceptualizing the service, content, direction & offering of ePsyClinic and aims to make health care services accessible to everyone irrespective of their social status. Shipra pursued her MBA with distinction in Leadership & International Business from the Australian National University. She also holds a degree in Business Studies from the same university and has achieved special online certifications in Mobile Health & Technology Entrepreneurship from Stanford University through Novoed.
During her professional course, she has worked as the Corporate Strategy Sessional Academician at the Australian National University and Senior Associate at The Boston Consulting Group. She considers conceiving ePsyClinic to address the mental and emotional wellness issues of people in India while simultaneously dealing with a larger social cause, as one of the biggest achievements and a quantum leap in her career.
She strives to make ePsyClinic, the largest and the most trusted mental health care and wellness service provider in the world, both in terms of reach and users. She also plans to work for the growth and development of the parent company, Svieda Ventures Private Limited.
Share the start-up journey from inception to till now including?
ePsyClinic.com is an online platform that provides mental health care through world class therapies and counselling services to clients in the comfort of their homes, offices or wherever they may be. It delivers such impeccable services through the interactive modern technologies of audio, video, chat and messages. Svieda Ventures Pvt. Ltd., the parent company of ePsyClinic, was incepted in July 2013 and is based out of Delhi.
EPsyClinic.com was launched, on 12th March 2015. The USP of ePsyClinic lies in its fully online and convenient accessibility and its Quality focused private and safe mental health and emotional wellness services. The company aims to consistently promote mental wellness services and provide customer-centric and satisfying experience to its patrons.
Tell us something about this unique startup, describing some of its key features.
The idea of setting up my own online health clinic occurred to me first when I was in Australia, pursuing my higher education. I was away from home and went into depression. I could easily avail the help of a counsellor and I recalled how difficult the same would have been in India due to stigma, resource constraint and supply gaps and also the lack of awareness. I knew that technology-led service could fill in the three-way gap
What is your monetization model & what are the market opportunities you are looking at?
Monetisation model is consultation revenue based, over 4000 consultations a month, future plan is to expand in all cities of India besides the metros that we target right now and also currently we get young adolescent and clients in the age-group 19-25.
We will like to target other age groups for our wellness services as well. Market size is estimated to be 20 billion dollars by the year 2020.
Challenges faced on the market side are stigma related to seeking help for mental health issues. But currently, we are working round the clock 24*7
How do you think it your services are edge over your competitors?
Our consultations are issue management services have been specifically crafted and designed for Urban India. The process of availing our service is very simple.
ePsyClinic’s entire approach is novel and different. One of the biggest challenges that a person faces in seeking help is not just of stigma rather it is to know when to seek help. Providers of mental healthcare send out very technical information, like if you have persistent low mood, appetite changes etc. you need to seek help. Average person not trained in Psychology cannot interpret these symptoms easily. Mental stressors, anxiety and depression do have a chemical basis, but also more often than not, these stressors also have a life trigger. We speak in the language of life triggers.
Our specialties are structured around 12 such areas, care giving, professional wellness, lifestyle etc. as examples. So a person X may be the sole care giver to an aging parent and that could have kept him/her under pressure. When we approach the person with this language and addressing the issue that he/she is facing, establishing the connection becomes easier, reaching out for client becomes easier, and the treatment/assessment can be led by the provider there on. So the way we speak or initiate conversation with the client is totally client centric and inviting.
Secondly, our entire service is online. This means a person doesn’t have to be at a clinic/hospital. She/he can avail these services in a completely Private and anonymous setting from the comfort of their own location and with the mode (i.e. video, audio or chat) that they are most comfortable with. Along the issue management life cycle, client would use best online customized tools, planners, thought diaries, tasks to manage, recommendations from therapist and follow-ups.
How do you plan to grow in future?
This is the advantage of e-consultation with ePsyClinic.com. Everything that needs to be done remains at one-place for convenience backed by automated notifications and alerts, along with real time exchange of information and communication as and when needed.
We have, with our own R&D, developed training for the same along with other key modules and have a focused and extensive 2-4 weeks training program, without passing which no one can make it to our platform to face clients online. Our training just doesn’t stop here, even those who have had this training and are now available online to provide services at ePsyClinic.com, have to go for a weekly training to keep updated for online delivery of services.
Our bottom line is Positive Outcome driven healthcare delivery and we structure our processes with the bottom line goals.
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Soumya is a young writer and journalist, with bachelors in Multimedia and Mass Communication. She is an alumini of the Asian College of Journalism, and finds politics and sustainability intriguing beats to work with.
