Seed, Speed, Sacrifice, Serve, Stress, Scale, Serendipity, Success
A Startup Story
So I’m sitting here thinking of a ‘cool’ title for a story about myZindagi (Urdu for ‘my Life’) a health-tech startup from Pakistan. As I jot down an outline for the story I find a whole bunch of words starting with the letter ‘S’ on a piece of half torn paper (the paper is mostly filled with indecipherable doodles of art, which highlights my inability to concentrate in any art class ever!) — Unintentionally the ‘S’s also chronologically define the story of this startup and many others.

So I thought I’d just write about the ‘S’ words. (This probably just highlights my inability to concentrate in any English literature class ever! Or just plain laziness — you can be the judge)
Seed
The Seed is the idea. (Please do not confuse with seed funding). The seed is pretty and simple, it has the ability to grow into anything, it has potential (provided the right conditions), but most of all it has a future — limitless & boundless.
The seed/idea behind myZindagi is to provide better, easier healthcare. A novel idea/cause but amazingly hard to execute. Such a broken global health system, the whole space requires disruption. Adding to the woes; starting in Pakistan as a test bed made matters exponentially harder, yet a hell of a lot more interesting :)
The seed is just a seed without the right conditions it will just wither. Execution was everything whilst launching myZindagi
Speed
Talk to as many people as you can to validate your market and your consumers, simple. Try out lots of thought & practical experiments (Imagine, envisage & assess what things would be like in an ideal situation & how things would look like according to Murphy’s Law. Expect Murphy’s Law, Make backup plans then execute. As soon as execution starts, It’s all about Speed

@myZindagi_pk we tested our Doctor Video Consultation service with over a thousand people before releasing it publicly. Each consult had a 20 point checklist just to get each users feedback. Here’s a stack of these forms (There’s a lot more too!). Monitoring & analytics of every data point is ridiculously important for any startup!
A little off topic but because we are talking about one of the ‘S’s Speed; Ever seen an office built in two weeks?
As soon as we launched we needed to expand. View the images below, we have written a separate detailed article for our Startup Space lovers out there

Office construction timeline
Sacrifice
Plan in place — Time to execute — Attention to detail is the catalyst for sacrifice & success
Forget everything, you have a one track mind — Live, eat, breathe, dream the business. There will be a lot of sacrifices; lifestyle, health, friends & family — prepare for this.
Sacrifice was one thing I learned very well from two close friends Sidra & Waqas (Founders of Markhor) — You should definitely read about their inspirational story!
Just get it done whatever it takes — It will take a lot!!
That’s exactly what we managed to do at myZindagi
Serve
Your consumers are your teachers. Learn from them talk to them. Get your first loyal consumers, your early adopters, your brand ambassadors, create an echo effect, go out of your way, it’s all about how consumer-centric you are. Empathy is the key — Create technology that users need, not what you think they need.
Health is one of the most, if not THE most important aspect of one’s life. It’s very personal. Human intervention is the key to providing a good service. Technology & automation are tools & aids only — That’s what we have instilled in every member of the team, this has led us to serve consumers in such a great way that we have received written thank you notes & people calling the consumer experience team praying for individuals & praising the service
The more you serve, the more you learn, the better the tech you build.
I recall the startup story of Kayak.com where every member of the team including 150k a year engineers were made to answer calls so they could learn from the consumers.
That’s how dedicated you need to be & that’s how dedicated the team @myZindagi is
Stress
So we managed to build a great service with some pretty exceptional technology. We partnered up with companies such as Twilio, used the technology in such a unique way that the engineering team @Twilio praised our efforts & the uniqueness.
15000+ Doctors, 40+ Cities across Pakistan, 2500+ Hospitals — We literally built a Medical Skype in a matter of weeks! — Plus some great loyal consumers
Now the questions & doubts come into your mind — the What If’s… Fear of Failure as Steve Jobs used to define it.
But you just have to control your emotions, ride the roller coaster, push through the bad days & focus on solutions not get fixated on issues.
Scale
Pakistan as a nation is deprived of healthcare. 1.2% of GDP dedicated to the government health sector, 2.5% of GDP dedicated by the private healthcare sector, 200 odd public sector hospitals for a population of over 200 Million, $40 USD per Capita spend on health — Comparatively the UK spends around $4000 per person — Even Afghanistan is nearly $60 per person (According to World Bank Figures)
Needless to say the environment if more than ready for disruption & innovative solutions, but these solutions have to be indigenous.
The potential Scale is there, the issue is how to educate consumers, funnel users to the service & maintain quality during the rapid growth phases. Close monitoring of all data points, feedback loops, consumer monitoring, quality checks; all whilst spending the right amount of time & money on R&D— Its a balancing act!
Serendipity & Success
Luck, as any entrepreneur would tell you, is a great factor in determining the future of any business. But luck only presents itself when you are present and active.
We have just started. Success is a constant & consistent effort, it has many faces. At every stage of a company success is measured differently. What you thought was a great achievement 3 months ago or even a month ago might not be so appealing today. That’s the nature of a startup — You move so fast that the successes fly by.
But there are some basics contributing to success that stay constant: The right team, The right motivation, The right dedication, The right culture & The right fervor for innovation.

So I sit here trying to write this short account of the ‘S’s only two days after the consumer launch of myZindagi also thinking of all the ‘M’s (Mistakes, Measuring, Maybes, Madness, Margins & Magic) that we as a team are about to experience. (I shall try write about the ’M’s — hopefully quite soon)
We have achieved a lot but it’s just the start. Just like it’s the beginning of the budding tech ecosystem in Pakistan. Both have immense potential.
As humankind evolves luxuries become necessities. Healthcare once a luxury is now a basic necessity. We all need to play our part: Illness is Universal; Access to healthcare is not! This needs to be rectified.