Shashank ND:The Founder Building Healthcare Around the Patient

The Founder Building Healthcare Around the PatientHealthcare is one of the world’s most important industries, yet for many patients, navigating it can still feel surprisingly complicated.Shashank ND saw that problem early.As a young entrepreneur, he became interested in the gap between what technology could offer healthcare and what patients actually experienced. Medical information was often fragmented, appointments could be difficult to manage and finding the right healthcare professional was not always straightforward.In 2013, he co-founded Practo with Abhinav Lal, creating a technology platform designed to make healthcare discovery and access simpler.The idea was ambitious for its time.Instead of treating healthcare as a collection of disconnected clinics and hospitals, Practo attempted to bring doctors, patients and healthcare information onto one digital platform.Patients could use the service to discover doctors, read information about healthcare professionals and schedule appointments. Doctors and clinics, meanwhile, could use technology to manage parts of their practices.The concept arrived as India’s internet and smartphone adoption were accelerating.Consumers were rapidly becoming comfortable using technology for banking, shopping, travel and entertainment. Healthcare, however, remained comparatively offline.Shashank believed that could change.Building a healthcare technology company came with challenges that ordinary consumer startups did not face.Healthcare involves sensitive information, professional qualifications and a high level of trust. A platform could not simply focus on convenience; it had to convince both doctors and patients that technology could improve the experience without compromising reliability.Practo gradually expanded its services and became one of India’s better-known health-tech companies.Its journey also reflected a larger transformation in how Indians began interacting with healthcare.Searching for a doctor online, booking an appointment through a phone and accessing medical information digitally gradually became less unusual.For Shashank, the opportunity was never simply about putting doctors on the internet.It was about reducing friction.A patient should not have to spend hours trying to identify the right doctor.A clinic should not have to depend entirely on paper-based systems.And healthcare information should be easier to access.That philosophy helped Practo grow from a startup into a widely recognised health-tech platform.Shashank’s entrepreneurial journey also demonstrates how founders can build businesses by looking at industries that have traditionally been slow to change.Technology startups are often associated with entertainment, social media or consumer commerce.Healthcare is different.The problems are deeper, the regulations more complex and the consequences of mistakes more serious.Yet those same difficulties can create enormous opportunities for entrepreneurs willing to stay with the problem.Shashank ND’s story is ultimately about recognising that technology does not have to replace traditional systems to transform them.Sometimes, it simply needs to make them easier to navigate.The patient still needs a doctor.The doctor still needs a clinic.But the journey between the two can become significantly simpler.That seemingly straightforward idea became the foundation for one of India’s early health-tech success stories—and a reminder that some of the most valuable businesses are built by fixing the frustrating parts of everyday life.