Simply Blood – Making Smartphones “Smarter” through Virtual Blood Donation
You might have heard money can’t buy everything. Yes true! Money can’t buy education, money can’t buy emotions and above all money can’t buy “Life”.
Nature & God has given us few things which cannot be purchased by credit card, debit card, online bank transfer or any mobile wallet app. For that, God has created humans, so that they understand and help each other for the sake of humanity.
Blood – a very scientific, social and emotional thing.
Scientific, because it contains RBC, WBC and DNA. Many scientists and research organizations have spent billions of dollors and years on research to manufacture artificial blood, but failed!
Social, because we all people, all religion, all caste, colors have same blood.
Emotional, because its our blood relations that makes us sentimental towards each other.
Blood, one of the most essential part of our body, a life saving component of our life. According to various surveys, thousands of people die daily due to non availability of blood. Considering the facts, one out of 3 patients die every day in hospital as they are unable to get blood during an emergency. We run from pillar to post, asking help from neighbours, known people and even social media to get the right blood group for donation.
This is one of the most crucial need of the hour that there should be a platform where a person is able to find the right group of blood at the right time.
Meet Kiran Verma, the founder of Simply Blood – World’s First Virtual Blood Donation Platform. The loss he made in the early stage of his life is irrevoable and I simply believe he has got the right reason and cause to start such a wonderful app. Lets meet Kiran verma and read his entire journey behind Simply Blood
1. What is the Name of Your Venture?
Simply Blood – World’s First Virtual Blood Donation Platform
2. Who is your target Audience?
Everyone who needs blood!
3. Where is your venture based (city, state, country) at & What are your target areas?
I am based in Delhi, India but I am working from home. The target area for Simply Blood is the whole world.
4. What problems does your venture solve? What are your products or services?
We are going to reduce the time taken in searching for a blood donor and do away with the black market of blood donation.
In India, when a donor donates blood at a blood donation camp with a noble intention to save a life, the blood collected in many blood donation camps is being sold in black market and the donor is also not aware who is being provided with the blood. With Simply Blood, a donor can choose any date and we find the nearest person in need of blood. This not just allows you to donate blood with ease but also connects you directly with the needy.
Now, when a person is searching for blood donors, then the needy has to call so many people to find a suitable donor. In Simply Blood, we provide a one click solution to notify all the potential blood donors in the minimum possible time. This not just saves many hours but also increases the chances of survival.
5. Share the idea or story behind the venture. How did it come to an existence?
I know the pain of losing a loved one as I had lost my mother to cancer when I was just 7 years old.
At that time, I took a vow that I would save as many lives as possible in my lifetime. This is my lifetime goal. At first, I became a volunteer blood donor and started donating blood whenever possible. Later, I became a blood donor at all possible blood donations drives and camps. It was during this time that I realized that while many of these blood donation drives sell the blood donated free of charge by the donors in the black market for profit.
The cooling period between two blood donations is 90 days. So I started donating blood at the blood banks in the government hospitals on particular dates every year – 24 March, 23 June, 25 Sep and 27 Dec. In fact, I used to find a poor or a person who actually needed my blood and donated blood to such persons directly. This way, I could see the impact of my blood donation firsthand. This serves to be a great source of motivation and encouragement for me.
By this time, a few blood banks knew about me and they started sharing my number with people who needed blood. But I was able to donate blood only four times a year due to the cooling period. So I started gathering the phone numbers of other voluntary blood donors. I also became a member of a few groups where I used to post the requests for blood. Slowly, I started arranging for blood for hundreds of people. Soon I realized that getting a response from these groups took some time and the people in need of blood cannot afford to lose much time in search of blood. This prompted me to create a whatsapp group in August 2016. I was able to provide blood support to more number of people more quickly.
I had a rude SHOCK in Dec 2016. I had donated blood to help a patient from Raipur. However, I came to know through a random phone call that this blood was sold to the patient’s wife for Rs. 1500. This woman sold herself to earn the money to buy blood for her husband’s treatment.
That very day, I made a decision that I would float a platform meant for the poor and needy who cannot afford to buy blood for treatment. I quit my job to work on this full time. My wife Jayati supported me fully and took it upon her to run our family while I committed myself to this full time.
All the experience that I had gained from these 14 plus years of donating blood was put forth to develop an android app. I thought of all possible scenarios to save the maximum number of lives in the minimum possible time. I don’t have much technical knowledge in developing apps. SO I hired a company to develop this app. It took us just 26 days to launch our Simply Blood app.
6. How did you identify your co-founder?
I was working on the flow of the app and was searching for somebody to help me on the tech side. Luckily I met with Achal Garg from TechCruisers and they are committed along with to take this forward.
7. What expansion plans are you looking for in the next 2 years, next 5 years?
I am working from home and looking for a small amount of funding to develop a proto-type which will be a revolutionary thing to save more lives across the world. I had a target to save 100 potential lives by 2017 but as I achieved the same in the first month itself. So we have decided to go for saving 1000 potential lives by 2017 and every year we are targeting to save 10 times lives from the previous year, so that we can save 1 million potential lives through blood donation.
8. Where do you want to see yourself in the next 5 years?
I would like to save at least 2000 lives everyday across the world.
9. Have you raised any funding? Or have any plans for the funding?
We haven’t raised any funding and neither are we planning to raise any. We are planning to go for crowd funding and every year we will run a full month campaign to raise funds for our annual expanses. Whatever funds we collect will be used for our annual operations. This will allow us to focus more on our motto “Blood Donation Made Easy”
10.What were the problems you faced during the starting days and how did you resolve them?
I started my WhatsApp group which had only a hundred blood donors and due to the cooling period we used to face many issues in getting blood donors for the needy. Sometimes, the donor is away or they are not interested or do not respond. So to solve the issue, we allowed the donor to select the date and on these dates selected by the donor, we send notification to the donor for nearest requests for blood matching his/her blood group. This is the best possible way to get a blood donor without making any excuse.
11. Are you married, single or in a relationship?
I am married
12.What are your hobbies? What do you do in your non-work time?
I love travelling, big foodie, party with friends, writing and blogging most of the time.
13. What’s your favorite food & holiday destination?
I love to eat sea food with beer and Goa is the place I would love to go any day if I can.
14. Whom do you consider your idol or biggest motivator?
My Father, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, APJ Abul Kalam, Steve Jobs are the people I follow. My wife, my mentors Mr. Joel Gill and Ms. Rashmi Sharma are my biggest motivators.
15. What do you feel is the major difference between entrepreneurs and those who work for someone else?
Entrepreneurs are brave, bold and confident; those who work for them are scared of believing in themselves.
16. If you had the chance to start your career over again, what would you do differently?
I would have started Simply Blood 10 years ago before getting married. After getting married it’s very difficult to start a new venture and that too an initiative like this. It takes a lot for an Indian guy to start a non profit organization after getting married as it’s only his responsibility to earn for the family (not in my case, as my wife earns for both of us).
17. How has being an entrepreneur affected your family & Social life?
I used to spend a lot of time with my friends and family. After Simply Blood it’s very difficult to do so as every request is very important and we can’t afford to miss any. Our small ignorance can cost a life.
18. Anything, you would like to say to our readers or upcoming entrepreneurs?
I have learnt that “no matter what you do to fill your tummy, make sure to do something to fulfil the hunger of your heart”
19.Tell us something about your education & family background.
I belong to a lower middle class joint family of 20 people from East Delhi. I am a school dropout and also failed to do diploma in printing technology from Pusa Polytechnic.
20. What is your USP which makes it unique & different from other start-ups in similar domains.
Most of the blood donation platforms are working as a database of blood donors, where donors’ information is private and touts, credit card companies or stalkers can easily misuse contact numbers. In Simply Blood, only a registered user can see the contact number and that too up to 3 contact numbers in a day. This will not allow touts or people from the black market to use our donors’ data.
21. Please share complete name, address, phone number, email id & website of Your Business & Contact Person
Simply Blood
9810670347
[email protected]
https://simplyblood.com
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.simplyblood
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30KPwEmxCo4&feature=youtu.be
https://www.facebook.com/SimplyBlood
https://twitter.com/Simply_Blood
