Shuchita Gupta is a strong corporate leader who has worked as a Consultant CFO with tech startups such as e-enable technologies (acquired by 3iInfotech), adda52 (acquired by Delta Corp), Indiagift, Zupee, and others, with her most recent assignment as Director Finance at Moglix (60million USD Series D funding). Coming from a corporate background and willing to do something meaningful was her yearning. So, one day, she left her stable job and co-founded Care4parents along with Dr. Aman Khera.

"Elders have always been respected and placed on a higher pedestal in our culture. Seeing someone in agony and suffering is something that many of us would rather avoid. This is what drew me to this project. How many individuals throughout the world are concerned about who will look after their loved ones if something goes wrong? I wanted to do something to aid this cause. Sometimes, I even believe that helping the elderly is God's work, and I'm fortunate to have the chance," adds Shuchita Gupta in an exclusive interview with Women Entrepreneur Magazine. Shuchita Gupta enlightens us more about her professional traits and the unique facets of Care4parents.in.

Take us through the prior industry experience. Throw some light on the varied finance & IT related experience that you have earned over the years?

I have been working with startups at the CXO level since 2011. So, I've had the unique opportunity to understand, design, and implement transaction flow, control procedures, revenue recognition, compliances, and more in technology driven systems. Interacting with both tech and business verticals, I would act as a translator between the two teams to enable effective products with built-in efficiencies, thereby delivering the most value to the organization and its customers.

I'm able to leverage the aforementioned expertise (as a program manager) at care4parents, where Dr. Aman and I constantly multi-task, and work frugally with minimum possible staff strength to make sure that all aspects are taken care of, while ensuring the organization's growth.

What motivated you to establish C4P? Tell us about the underlying idea behind the platform.

Working at CXO levels with startups such as adda52, indiagifts, Moglix, and others provided me with a lot of learning opportunities, not only in terms of managing my consulting practice as a CFO, but also in terms of how startups begin, grow, and function, as well as how technology was bringing efficiency in processes or how services could be delivered to users in the comfort of their home. While conversing with Dr. Khera (my Co-Founder) one evening, I was wondering why the technological efficiencies and convenience of services could not also be employed for healthcare, and Care4parents was a natural consequence.

"I felt that my journey in a startup was complete after receiving ESOP value and I needed to focus on something of my own and close to my heart....eldercare"

What are some of the most pressing business challenges that you faced in your professional journey thus far and how do you mitigate those challenges?

When I was running the CA firm, there were some impediments in terms of other people's attitudes, since some seasoned accountants struggled to accept the idea that they had a female boss. However, once the assignment began, they were all appreciative of my hard work and dedication, even when there was personnel turnover to ensure that the work did not suffer. Consequently, my clients referred my name to more people and my practice grew. And they keep coming back even today. I feel morally obligated to help others in whatever way I can. I volunteer for the TiE program for emerging entrepreneurs for school and college children. I am a volunteer mentor at FLO Startup Cell.

Moreover, in addition to the conventional challenges of setting up the venture, COVID presented some personal challenges in the form of restricted physical movement. Finding the 'appropriate' team, establishing an office, having everyone come to the office, and meeting investors virtually have all been pressing tasks. And we have braved it out, like many others. In terms of work, COVID taught us that much can be achieved through video calls as well. This, in turn, enabled us to rapidly grow our presence across the nation through our partner hospitals and healthcare institutions much more quickly than we had envisaged. Today, we have customers in almost 80 cities in India.

“I felt that my journey in a startup was complete after receiving esop value and i needed to focus on something of my own and close to my heart eldercare”

What are the distinct services provided by Care4parents that sets it apart from the other organizations in the market?

While many organizations provide Healthcare Services, we are developing a best-in-class hybrid digital healthcare platform and Health APIs to enable all health-related data to be collected in one place. A hybrid digital healthcare system, though enabled by technology, also ensures human interaction with customers, providing them with a sense of connection.

c4p is an endeavor to provide all healthcare services at one point while enabling medical history online, real-time access to family members and access to a general physician 24x7Just like a family doctor, our doctor pro-actively calls each customer regularly, to take stock of the general health situation, record vitals and observe if everything is moving in the right direction (in the backdrop of the family history and other medical history of the customer).

The GP helps decide the future course of action in terms of whether a specialist consultation is required. If yes, which one. Complete support is also provided in terms of Home care services, Physiotherapy at home, Medicine delivery, ECG/x-ray at home, Dialysis at home, Lab tests collection from home, and Dentist at home.

Customers should have easy, efficient access to their own data, which would help them understand their own health and make more informed choices/share with others (including doctors):

-We do trend analysis from various lab reports

-Record steps, sleep, heart rate etc. from devices like FitBit, Apple Health, and more

-Auto-fetch blood sugar /BP data from devices like Accu-chek, and Omron.

What would your advice be to young women who also aspire to become business leaders & entrepreneurs in the future?

Women should not be afraid of experimenting or taking risks or afraid of failure.

My mantra: Experiment ­ fall ­ get up ­ succeed. And repeat.

Shuchita Gupta, Co-Founder, Care4parents

Unique blend of financial and IT experience, Shuchita has worked in diverse leadership roles across industry segments. With the intent of serving the elder people better, she left her stable job and co-founded Care4parents.