Start-up YourDost spots big opportunity stress-solving in India

YourDost helps people with professional counselling support to deal with everyday problems in their personal, academic and professional lives. The start-up has raised funding of over $1.2 million from angel investors and a pre-series round from SAIF Partners. Richa Singh, CEO and co-founder, YourDOST.com, tells Ashish K Tiwari about the business model and future plans.

What led to the conceptualisation of this venture?

The idea took birth out of personal experiences. When I was at IIT Guwahati, my hostel mate committed suicide due to an anticipation of bad placement. None of us had any clue of her suffering before she took the drastic step. I strongly felt that it could have been avoided had she sought some help. That is when I realised that even though we had counsellors and psychologists in the campus, hardly anyone was seeking their support. When I started working, I noticed people around me were stressed due to job pressures and relationship issues. However again, most of these people were not willing to talk about their problems fearing social implications and for the fear of being called mentally ill. In this period, I discussed the idea with my co-founder Puneet Manuja who had faced similar experiences. He had faced placement pressures even though he was a gold medalist in his batch of NIT, Calicut. We brainstormed together, did a lot of primary research by talking to students, working professionals and psychologists to understand how we could solve the gap which exists in solving the problem.

How challenging was it to put together?

It was challenging to understand the situation since this was a completely new category and we both (Puneet and myself) did not come from a psychology background. During our primary research, we figured out that people are going through stress due to personal, professional or academic issues. We figured out that there is a huge gap between the solutions available to people who were stressed – either they had friends/ family or professional counsellors. The former was a little unqualified and biased at times while the latter was a stigma since people would start judging us. Also, family and friends would not be suitable for sharing a lot of issues like sexuality, relationships etc depending on the openness with them. This made us start thinking of a way of breaking the stigma and making professional counselling more comfortable and accessible to people.

Are there any data points indicating the size of this business opportunity in India?

According to World Health Organisation (WHO) report and reports from reputed institutions like NIMHANS, one in four people in India need counselling where only 10% of them are taking therapy. This makes it a huge gap that needs to be addressed. Additionally, the way our society is moving, economies are changing, stress levels are increasing. Stress has become a lifestyle for all of us now. It is not a small problem; it is rather a big problem that needs to be solved at a scale that makes it a multi-billion-dollar opportunity in India itself.

How much have you invested in this venture?

We had invested close to Rs 5 lakh each initially for building the minimum viable product (MVP) out for trial with institutions and with people directly. We were lucky to have angels like Sanjay Anandaram, Phanindra Sama, Bharathi Jacob who believed in us very early and were ready to back us with funds.

What was your pitch for raising funds for this business?

The angel investors were very mature and it was easy to sell our vision of creating a happier and stress-free India. Thereafter came SAIF Partners which was also comparatively easier given their experience with similar business in China.

How many investors are on board and how much money has been raised in the venture already?

We have raised two rounds - Angel round of $400000 and Pre-Series (from SAIF Partners and a few angels who participated again) of $1.2 million. Among notable angels who invested include Sanjay Anandaram, Phanindra Sama (Redbus), Aprameya (Taxi4Sure), Bharati Jacob, Paula Mariwala, Venk Krishnan and Subba (from NuVentures) and Aneesh Reddy (Capillary).

When will you be raising the next round? How much will it be and for what purpose?

We would be looking to raise funds soon. We would want to scale our business model and move towards a more sustainable and healthy business metrics.

What's the business model? How do you make money in this venture?

We have two parts of the business – B2C is like retail consultations which are freemium. People can subscribe or buy counselling sessions after their free sessions are exhausted. In addition, we are also signing up institutions (colleges and corporates) where they pay for the services being used by their employees or students. We are working with top institutions such as IIT Madras for more than a year and have seen good engagement with our model. We are taking the same model and solve the engagement issues most of the corporates are facing with their current employee assistance programme (EAP) solutions.

What kind of revenues has the business registered in the last couple of years? What has been the growth like?

We have served more than 12 lakh users till date on our platform. We do more than 2,000 one-to-one counselling sessions on a daily basis. We have made more than a crore in revenue in the past six months.

Is the business profitable? When are you likely to break even?

Not yet. Given the new category, we are building it would take some time to reach profitability. We expect to reach there by 2019-20.

The counsellors on your site, are they hired full-time or they pay money to be on your site and then there is a revenue sharing agreement?

We have a very lean team in-house. Experts work out of their own places. They are paid according to an incentive model - which takes into account the number of hours they spent, the number of sessions, quality of sessions etc, for calculating their payout.

Are there similar businesses in India/overseas? Please provide their names?

There are a few comparable in the West like Talkspace, Joyable etc which are trying to solve the affordability and convenience issues since stigma is not the primary concern. In India, there are companies such as ePsyclinic, Juno Clinic etc, which is trying to solve the mental health problem in their own ways.

Are you operating it in India only? Any plans to take it to international markets?

Yes, for now, we are trying to solve the problem we have experience around us. We would be looking at the international market in a couple of years.

Will the business be about counselling only or you intend to add more features going forward?

It would include everything a person needs to take care of their emotional wellness both proactive and reactive – be it counselling sessions, resources, content etc. We look at creating that ecosystem for emotional well-being.

How do you envisage the future of this venture?

We envision YourDOST becoming a complete wellness coach for people. Be it preventative or reactive, people should feel open about seeking psychological support. Like how people can have a fitness trainer, who helps them to be physically fit, YourDOST is an emotional wellness coach for people, which helps them to be emotionally well and be a better version of themselves.