Alum Ventures: ConnectedH – Suresh Singh, PGP 2014

Sometimes our life’s calling comes in different ways. Most times some personal experiences influence your thoughts so much that it paves way for new ideas and big changes. Nothing could be truer in the case of Suresh Singh, founder of ConnectedH. ConnectedH goal is simple – to simplify healthcare. They connect different sectors of healthcare system and give the patients complete control over their information.

Suresh decided very early on in his business journey to quit his corporate job and become an entrepreneur. His journey has not been easy but he and his team are determined to fulfill their dream and lead ConnectedH to great heights.

Can you please tell us about yourself?

I am the founder of ConnectedH. I graduated from IIM Bangalore PGP 2012-14. I come from a defence background and have roots in rural Rajasthan. Being exposed to both urban and rural life has helped me better appreciate the privileges I have had in life. That has also motivated me to ensure I put the privileges to good use and not shy away from taking on unchartered territory. This has led to a continuous strive to improve myself. I am a reader – primarily non-fiction, self-taught photography enthusiast, and love to drive and keep myself fit. 

How and when did you start ConnectedH? How did you get into this space?

The seeds of ConnectedH were sowed by my personal experience when I had moved to Gurgaon after graduating from IIMB. I had a health incident and seeking treatment for it gave me first-hand experience of issues plaguing healthcare delivery. I faced problems at every stage – right from finding the right doctor to getting the right treatment. That started a series of brainstorming discussions with friends which led to the realization about unorganized healthcare data being the root cause.

From there I started the quest to figure out the best way to organize healthcare data. In the meanwhile, I also realized the need to get hands-on experience of scaling ideas and building teams and joined CEO’s team at CarDekho. Fortunately, I also met my co-founder Shubham there. We started in 2018 and spent more than 6 months meeting different healthcare providers – diagnostics centers, hospitals, doctors – to figure out the right starting point. We zeroed in on diagnostic space and Rahul joined Shubham and me to complete our team.

What exactly does ConnectedH do and how is it making a difference?

ConnectedH stands for Connected Healthcare. Our vision is to simplify healthcare by organizing healthcare data which will be achieved by working with different healthcare stakeholders. This will be a multi-stage journey for us, completing one stage at a time. Today we are focussed on diagnostic space to simplify diagnostic delivery for different stakeholders. We want to become the default partner for anyone either running or planning to run a diagnostic business. We have already achieved that with our partners in specific areas. At the same time, our focussed approach has enabled us to organize diagnostic records of 4.5 Million patients.   

ConnectedH has received funding recently, how are you planning to use these funds?

The last round was our seed funding – the initial belief in our vision by seasoned entrepreneurs and investors. The objective is to refine our playbook to replicate and improve our initial achievements at a larger scale and prepare the foundation for expansion into new geographies.

What has been an ‘aha’ moment in your entrepreneurial journey? Any learnings that you would like to share.

While there have been many aha moments with respect to our offerings directly helping diagnostic partners, our biggest aha moments have been the requests made by our diagnostic partners to provide organized diagnostic records of their patients even before we had launched the product. We have been able to help critical cases involving pregnant ladies, chronic patients, elderly patients by providing organized diagnostic records going spanning months and years. Those incidents have been the biggest validation of our vision.

Future plans for ConnectedH.

We have big plans for ConnectedH. Our vision is to simplify healthcare which will require working with all the stakeholders – Diagnostics, Doctors, Hospitals, etc. Today we are solving a very specific problem for the diagnostic ecosystem in a specific geography. It is just the beginning for us. Our medium-term goals are to expand our offerings both in terms of geographic presence and the value propositions for diagnostic centers.  In the long term, as I mentioned, we will work with major healthcare stakeholders to Simplify Healthcare for patients.

Any words of wisdom for young entrepreneurs?

I am at a very early stage of my entrepreneurial life, so probably it is a little too early for me to start giving advice. One thing I would say is to have a very strong reason to start on your own.  I am borrowing from Peter Theil here – one should have a strong conviction to solve a problem, and then a clear answer for why starting on your own is the best way to solve that problem.

I say so because the resolve is tested multiple times during the journey and one will have to say No to a lot of times. Having a strong Yes to why one is working on their idea will make that easy.  

A life lesson that you have carried from your days at IIMB.

The life at IIMB was an experience and boiling it down to a few, life lessons are probably not the best way to reflect back on it. Rather than specific lessons, it is the way the culture and environment at IIMB moulds ones thought process and mindset that is the real takeaway.