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'These days if you are a technology company and you don't have Indians it is a disadvantage'

As their medical spell-checker was creating impact, the four felt there had to be a more efficient way to reach the medical doctors and other medical professionals to sell other products and that there definitely was a problem in the current distributional infrastructure, says Sanjay Pingle.

"We set up a few websites for the products -- this was before e-commerce and the whole virtual shopping thing -- we just put up a few phone numbers. And people started calling in," he says. "That's when we realized we were onto something bigger here. We can build something that can really cater to the needs of medical professionals all over the world."

Soon the four identified and developed around seven or eight "channels" and focused on building products along those channels. Terms like "channel" and "vertical" turn up often as Pingle, Sundeep Bhan and Sameer Shariff talk with infectious enthusiasm about their company and their ambitions for it and throw the ball back and forth to each other as they present themselves as a dynamic team.

Rajnish Kapoor provides the quieter foil to this energy. One can see easily how the team has managed to gain strategic partnerships with established institutions of the health services industry like the American Medical Association.

"Our biggest strength was our relationship. We could go into a meeting and really sync and coordinate and get the most in a situation," says Pingle.

Adds Shariff: "Here we are at the end of a day's work, together in the conference room, laughing, doing work and having fun. That's not gonna change."

When Shariff says "vertical", it is bizspeak for their targeted area of commerce which is products and services geared towards the healthcare industry and its customers in general. The "channels" range anywhere from just information to communication to e-commerce.

Think of Medsite as a network of freeways connecting the medical community. You can take any information highway you need to get to the medical product or service destination of your choice. And the group at Medsite aims to make every destination accessible.

Though as Shariff says, "India is really home," the group's varied backgrounds and experiences give them a global outlook and a wider perspective.

Says Pingle: "Being Indian is useful. These days if you are a technology company and you don't have Indians it is really a disadvantage."

Sameer Shariff and Sanjay Pingle had realized their business instinct even in high school in India when they sold t-shirts and learnt that they had a knack for marketing and selling and above all, making money. Their training at UPenn helped them hone these skills and bring it to bear on their roles directing the sales and marketing efforts of Medsite.

With their knowledge and experience in the area of software product development and the global outreach of the Internet at their fingertips, they look set to continue in their money making ways. Having proved their mettle in plain old commerce as it always was, they have set themselves the goal of making it big in the new world of e-commerce.

Money was, however, a big problem in the early days of the business. They started out bootstrapping. Some money was raised from family and friends. Credit cards were maxed out, salaries were forgone, any revenues coming in were fed back into building the company.

"We once had to leave a restaurant because they would take only cash, no credit cards," Shariff, whose family owns restaurants in Bangalore, says with a sigh. "We were hungry but we just had to leave."

Initial hardships spurred the four to be stronger and be on top of things "The Boston Rule says that a technology company changes every 12 to 14 months. It's held true for us," says Sharifff. "We started out as a backend software developer for a medical publisher, then information website, then advertising, then e-commerce, in '98 what we did was establish the bookstore brand and e-commerce model and now, we are changing to an e-services model. We'll continue to evolve with technology."

Getting in early helped them establish a dominant position in the market. To manage the company and achieve dominance in their vertical, they had to let go of a lot of things they had worked on like their back-end services and software development. "We were focused on getting results", says Bhan.

Shariff says: "One of the things about being an entrepreneur is that ideas will come and go but you need to take the ideas and focus on them to succeed. Our goal is to tap into each segment or subsegment of our market and build services round their needs.

"Some doctors are buying books, some journals, some using Medmail, some use MedJobSearch. The company is growing by leaps and bounds. When we started out, we had one fourth of one floor of this building with five desks and now we have two floors of this building. We were four initially. Now we have 45 people."

Kapoor is grinning now: "In the beginning, our network was a Windows 3.1 with Sundeep's computer connected to mine."

Each of the four has a very specific role and is very focused on getting results in their specific area.

Shariff is focused on sales, Kapoor is focused on product development and Bhan is focused on strategic planning and financing. Pingle is involved with setting up the strategic relationships like the one that Medsite has with the AMA (American Medical Association).

"We provide innovative services to their members and in return we get revenues and customer base", he says.

Bhan continues: "We benchmark the companies doing well in various channels and bring those benefits to the medical community."

Shifting into management gear now, he outlines the vision they have for employees.

"Earlier, we represented the company. As we grow, our employees do that," he says. "We want a culture that is young, fun-loving, high energy, where people come in to work looking forward to the day and leave work in the evening looking forward to coming back next morning."

Kapoor chuckles: "In summary, hard work and...humor."

The culture of the Internet is a defining element in this. Bhan feels that everybody is an inspiration to everybody else in the dynamic sector of Internet business and this creates a momentum for more ideas and more new ventures. Talking about profitability, a big issue for Internet businesses at this time, they say that though they make a profit on everything they sell, their focus now is growth, to capture a significant market share by having a sizable number of the 730,000 doctors in the US as regular customers.

"It's not a traditional business where you make a huge initial capital investment," Pingle says. "Here we are building infrastructure on a daily basis as we continue to expand. On day 1 of launching medsupplies.com, we were able to put it in front of 100,000 people at no cost."

Asked about hobbies, Pingle mentions "Sleep!" first and foremost. Shariff, the only married member of the group, says wistfully that he would like to spend more time with his wife. "Work is work but when I am off work I like to give 100% of my time to my wife. It's not as much as I want to but whatever I can. So whatever her hobbies are they are mine."

Kapoor mentions the attractions of New York, the concert shows and the plays. Bhan does mention whitewater rafting and skydiving.

Medsite is, however, the focus of the next couple of years. Says Shariff: " We want the satisfaction of taking an idea and four guys building a billion dollar company."

What advice would the four give to young Indian entrepreneurs?

"We charge for that," Bhan says immediately with a smile. "Get started." The others agree.

"Many people have ideas but are scared to start. The reason why we are successful is because we started," says Shariff.

Pingle:" Take risk."

Shariff rushes in: "Tremendous risk! Be persistent and always on the move."

Bhan emphasizes the importance of focus. "Keep your eye on the big picture of where you want to be five years from now. Don't get lost in the day to day. Keep the company of brilliant and smart people."

A bit of rebellion would help, Kapoor says.

"As Indians, we have molds round us in terms of family, culture, way of doing things," he says. "Breaking out of that will help. Take the plunge and do what you believe in."

Medsite is headquartered at 60 East 13th Street, New York, NY 10003; the company's telephone number is (212) 253-6913; E-mail can be directed to info@medsite.com Medsite can be accessed at www.medsite.com

Anil Sivakumaran, a graduate of IIT Bombay, is currently employed as an information systems analyst. A P Kamath contributed to this story.

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