Dharmil ShethCo-Founder of PharmEasy Published On: Tuesday, July 26, 2016 Views 13192

"Float like a Butterfly, Sting like a Bee!"

A serial entrepreneur, Dharmil Sheth has an inborn instinct to bring a change in the community by making things better. After doing his bachelor in electronics engineering and working with major brands, he began his entrepreneurial journey in March 2014 with the launch of 91streets – a shopping companion & marketing platform for modern retailers.

In 2015, he came up with another successful startup called PharmEasy, now a leading medical and healthcare app in India that connects consumers with local pharmacies and diagnostic centres. At PharmEasy, Dharmil handles key areas of customer experience and also helms the operations and marketing divisions of the company.

Check out Dharmil’s interview with YoSuccess to learn more about PharmEasy and Dharmil’s future plans for it.

Please provide a brief overview of your product/ service.

PharmEasy is an offline pharmacy aggregator which connects patients with local pharmacies. Patients get flat 20% discount on all medicine orders with a free home delivery without any minimum order value limit.

What inspired you to build the above product/ service?

Fashion, accessories, electronics, apartments, vehicles – everything is sold online for convenience but there was no platform providing healthcare (pharma) delivery services to needy patients. That is what inspired us to build a platform which would make authentic healthcare services accessible, affordable and available to all.

What is your life mantra?

You just have one life, make it count!

What was the most challenging part of your journey till now?

Family, friends, team, vendors, customers & everyone seems to believe in what we are doing but there is lack of support from the regulators. We are yet to see some clarity regarding the governing laws and we have seen local regulatory bodies not engaging with us in a positive manner. This seems to be a temporary challenge though. Prime Minister’s Digital India movement has seen some changes in the vision of the government to encourage platforms like ours to improve the healthcare services in the country.

How did you overcome those challenges?

We are engaging with the concerned regulatory bodies at every level and are proactively suggesting the required changes in the old laws governing the online platforms in the healthcare space. Also, we have been actively engaged with competitors in the same space creating a community to have a dialogue with the relevant authorities to create a conductive framework for all of us to operate within.

Share some details about the investments that you have been able to fetch for the business till now.

We closed a seed round of funding through close friends and family.

How do you protect yourself from the problem of Brain Drain?

The kind of product/platform we are building has been quite challenging and people have been eagerly showing interest to take up bigger role at work than allotted. We believe in independence and accountability to be given to every employee that works at PharmEasy. This gives each one a sense of ownership and responsibility which leads to greater involvement in the organization. Rewards like equity also lead to have deeper skin in the game for the employees which tackle the issue of brain drain. Opportunities provided to employees at the organization help us deal with such issues easily.

According to you, what are the three qualities an individual must have to achieve success?

The 3 qualities that an individual must have to achieve success are focus, passion, and patience.

Which online tools/ services/ apps do you use the most and would like to recommend as well?

I use Evernote a lot for my To-dos. It helps me connect with my team well and be on top of pending tasks.

Share any one habit which you think makes you more productive.

I tend to spend 20 minutes every day to prioritize my tasks. That helps me structure my day and makes it more productive than it would have been otherwise.

Share any one habit which you wish to change in yourself.

I would want to sleep early (before 12) and wake up earlier (before 9am).

Answer in less than 50 words

One tip to success: Never Give Up
One mistake you believe every individual must avoid: Over Confidence
One most important lesson that you have learnt till now: You cannot make everyone happy.

What are your plans for next 3 years?

My plan for next 3 years is to build PharmEasy as the one stop shop for all healthcare services in the country and scale PharmEasy from the current 7 cities to 100 cities and towns in the country.

If you get a chance to start your career again what would you do differently this time?

I would move faster this time and try and avoid some mistakes.

What are your top three getaway destinations?

Top 3 getaway destinations for me are Goa, Hong Kong & Mcleodganj

Share a quote that inspires you the most.

“Float like a Butterfly, Sting like a Bee!”

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