In recent months, the MedTech industry has grown exponentially and ushered in a new era of healthcare. Apparent doctor-patient disparity, minimal access to facilities and high cost of treatment are amongst the few gaps the industry seeks to address and companies like Speedoc are attempting to do just that. Speedoc is a local home medical services start-up focusing on affordable home healthcare services using a mobile application. Working with a team of doctors, Speedoc aims to provide medical care in the comfort of their patients’ home.
Dr Shravan Verma, founder of Speedoc saw an opportunity to scale his mobile app and sought assistance from our Business Advisor, Nadhirah, who guided him towards positioning his business in the fast-growing market.
Challenges
Through sessions of business advisories, Nadhirah identified two challenges Speedoc was facing: Lack of brand identity and working capital cost.
Lack of brand identity
At the start – Dr Shravan and his team struggled to create awareness for the brand which ties in with the mobile application. This deterred them from getting interest from a pool of stakeholders and prospects. Hence, Nadhirah encouraged Dr Shravan to develop a corporate brand deck.
“Since they’re new players in the industry, having a corporate brand deck and visual identity will come in handy when they meet investors or potential clients. Having a strong (visual) brand identity is crucial at the early stages of a startup; it determines your position in the market and creates that first long-lasting impression,” explained Nadhirah.
After a month of brainstorming, Dr Shravan and his team developed their first corporate deck and presented it during their meetings with potential investors. Their corporate deck allowed investors to measure their USP and assess their financial plans.
“The corporate deck allowed us to show investors the milestones we’ve made so far. It also gave us the opportunity to better explain what Speedoc does and how it hopes to make a difference in the community. We started to notice that people were a lot more responsive and willing to discuss partnerships/collaborations after seeing our deck. Within 4-5 months of using the deck, we had a 90-100% response rate,” explained Dr Shravan.
Lack of capital
From the beginning, Speedoc has been bootstrapping. After further discussion, Nadhirah recommended Dr Shravan to apply for the Startup SG Founder Grant which provides mentorship and startup capital grant to first-time entrepreneurs with innovative business ideas.
“The Startup SG Founder grant will provide mentorship and capital to first-time entrepreneur. The funding will greatly assist Speedoc in achieving their milestone and business growth plan which includes enhancing product development as well as marketing for the coming year,” explained Nadhirah.
After a thorough assessment with Spring and the Accredited Mentor Partner (AMP) for the grant, Dr Shravan and his team received funding of $30,000 from the Startup SG Founder Grant and has since taken bigger steps towards scaling his business upwards to meet markets’ demands.
“Most of the funds will be allocated towards technology development. Plans are also in the pipeline to create partnerships with health insurance companies. This will push us towards credibility and a bigger audience,” shared Dr Shravan.