Avocare helps reception desks in the healthcare industry reduce their phone volume. They do it by enabling two-way channels of digital communication – text message, Facebook Messenger, and web messaging. To drive efficient communication, they further support both patients and practitioners by automating requests and conversations with our in house developed AI powered assistant. The outcomes are reduced costs for healthcare clinics, and improved patient access and satisfaction.
We sat down with Vikram Luthra, CEO & Founder, to find out more about his company:
Who started the company? Do you / team members have tech background?
The company was founded by Vik Luthra, an experienced entrepreneur and corporate executive. Subsequently, Vik partnered with Taylan Pince (CTO & Parner @ Avocare, and an experienced technology leader), to build Avocare’s products. Avocare has a talented team of designers, developer and advisors. Another partner in the business is Dr. Manisha Verma (a family physician), who is a partner and the companies Chief Medical Officer.
How are you being financed?
Avocare has raised pre-seed capital from some early stage investors, including its founder and partners.
What do you think will be / is a big obstacle to overcome?
A major obstacle will be barriers to technological change in the healthcare industry. Typically, technology is dominated by larger incumbents and switching and integration costs from existing solutions can be high. Furthermore, especially in Canada, adoption of new technologies is slow – for a number of reasons. Our challenge will be to drive change in a way that lessens the impact of these obstacles and factors on practitioners and patients.
How do you go about finding good developers / IT guys for your company?
Taylan, our CTO, has years of experience developing junior technical talent, and also brings with him a wide network within the tech community. Our team and recruitment has been built on this platform.
Who is your biggest competition?
Our biggest competition is web-based technologies that are offer digital services to patients on behalf of clinics. However, it’s important to note that our value proposition and product features differ in many ways – for one, we strive to make our services as accessible and efficient as possible to all parties, with great focus on helping clinic administrators run better practices. Providing great customer service and very simple user experiences help too.
How are you intending on taking your company to million dollars in revenues? In what markets?
There are many initiatives that we are working on from both a product and scaling perspective – including growth of our product and expansion into new markets in Canada and the US. We have a pipeline of clinics that are interested in the benefits that our product provides. Ultimately, it requires that we sign on as many clinics, practitioners and patients as possible, as quickly as possible, across key Canadian & US markets.
What is the big lesson you’ve learned (success or failure) with this project.
Building an incredible product and launching with our first clinic within 5 months is a huge success, however arguably we could have gotten to market sooner. We had recognized problems that needed to be solved long before the start of Avocare, but it took a long time to fully take the plunge – a consequence of over-analysis.
Lesson: As an early-stage startup, moving fast, and constantly iterating on and testing ideas with real world users is the most important thing we can and will continue to do. If we fail at things, it’ll be okay, as long as we pushing hard and fast to drive progress on our path.
Learn more about Avocare here:
