Anjali Joshi of Dhrishti, A Startup With A Difference




Kamla Bhatt Show show

Summary: (http://kamlashow.com/podcast/wp-content/uploads/photo-51-150x150.jpg)Meet Anjali Joshi, who has her eyes set on making a difference to people in the bottom of the pyramid in Karnataka, the state where Bangalore, "Silicon Valley" of India is located. Dhrishti (means vision), is a start-up she founded with Kiran Anandampillai, her techie husband. Dhristi's goal is is provide quality eye-care in underserved areas where people have far less income compared to their urban counterparts. Anjali and her husband worked for Infosys for many years, and went on to work for other companies. A couple of years ago the couple decided to do something different, where they could make a difference to people. After evaluating lot of options, they settled on eye care, an area where millions of Indians are still underserved and struggle to get effective and economical options. Healthcare costs says Anjali is one of the top reasons why the poor people get into debts in India. What is the number one reason for debt? Wedding expenses. The couple have teamed with Dr. Rajesh Babu, who brings in his medical expertise to Dhrishti. Dhrishti's initial goal is to test their business model in one district and turn into a viable and economical model and then scale it to different areas Karnataka (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karnataka) state. Currently they are testing their model in Devanahalli located right next to Bangalore, the IT and tech hub of India. Last year they raised an initial round of funding (http://www.medianama.com/2013/01/223-telemedicine-startup-drishti-eye-care-raises-funding-from-lok-capital/) from Lok Capital. In this interview recorded in Palo Alto Anjali talks about how they came up with the idea of Dhrishti, social entrepreneurship, their business model and future plans.