Not very long ago, when I was in my twenties, I had an idea about looking at wellness beyond the conventional lens. I wanted people’s behaviour around it to change and do away with the fear attached to it. What a world it would be where one can make these decisions easily and lower their pain!
What’s your why?
Also, won’t it be great if checking your vitals is as easy as checking WhatsApp and monitoring and tracking your health is as effortless as looking up your Facebook memories? That’s how easy we have made it. Not just for one individual but also for your family. That's why EYVA was born. So the first thing I would want the young innovators to know is recognise the ‘Why’ of it — the purpose of your innovation and the solutions you are offering.
Design counts
The next thing of course is that advanced tech might often be the hardest to crack, but you should never discount design. And we saw this give us the best results! We’ve been told by the community of users that the gadget was so revolutionary — zero discomfort and looks great even as you carry and flaunt it around!
Choosing the launch platform
EYVA is the world's first gadget that measures six vitals in 60 seconds with a simple touch, including non-invasive blood glucose. Sounds surprising, right? So we felt we needed the world's eyes on this gadget, it had to be launched on a world stage, the pinnacle of tech. Choosing the right platform is crucial. After all, it was the first gadget of its kind.
We chose the influential Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January 2022 for the launch. What does a small gadget wrapped in a rather good-looking box even have to offer, they wondered. Its pocket-sized convenience and ability to provide six key vitals – blood glucose, blood pressure, ECG, HbA1c, heart rate and blood oxygen and it had everyone in awe the moment it was unveiled.
We managed to get our Made-In-India EYVA quite the acclaim. When the Government of India requested us to represent at VivaTech Paris, we knew we were headed in the right direction. The hardware, the enclosure, the packaging — all played a crucial role in creating a product that would be visually appealing and user-friendly. And young start-up entrepreneurs have to pay attention to all of these.
Slow and steady
Also, surpassing 7,80,000+ scans, finding customers in 26 out of 28 states also means that somewhere, the idea of making technology relatable had worked! And that’s one thing that young innovators need to realise. The recognition from Telangana’s IT Minister, KT Rama Rao, being selected as one of the ground-breaking medical gadgets from the state, was gratifying too. It indicated that the behavioural change that we set out to initiate is happening slowly but steadily. So innovators, have patience and work on making your product as relatable as possible. The rest will follow. This was indeed a different world from strategies that are typically crafted by corporate giants in distant ivory towers.
Also, the other important point is taking your community seriously. We couldn’t have done it without their support, right from the beta phase onwards. Listening to our community has been essential in shaping the EYVA story and their faith in us from the very early phase, and their feedback helped us improve and grow. In a world where there’s a lot of stress in general, having an easy way to just focus on your health, I felt, made a world of difference for them. And it was easy to use, easy to monitor and track.
Even in India, consumers have evolved, their expectations of products have grown. They have access to the best! So we worked hard on EYVA to make it world-class, revolutionary and ‘cool’, as youngsters say.
So, all of you young founders taking bold steps towards making something new in the world of HealthTech, listen to your customers and do so very carefully. If you manage that, the world is your oyster.
(The author is Founder & CEO, BlueSemi; the company behind the gadget EYVA. Views expressed are his own)
