From the platform of PakWired, we are creating a gallery to display your startup/business. With Business Showcase we aim to put forth an exhibit of YOUR success, YOUR journey and YOUR story. It is a celebration of the entrepreneurial spirit at work in you!
Business Showcase is an idea born out of the need for a gallery of the fiercely promising entrepreneurial culture in Pakistan. To develop a comprehensive and unbiased industry profile, we invite you to take your part and make your contribution, regardless of your years in the industry and the revenue generated. Let us join together and celebrate each success and each struggle contributing to our striving ecosystem.
The platform is envisioned to grow into a hub of opportunities and resources for those with experience and those struggling to have any. Write your entrepreneurial story, we will feature it. Not good with stringing words? No worries! Take your camera, show us your product. Let us see with you, your dream.
Today, featured at the Business Showcase is RedDrop, first product by Care House.
By PakWired, interview with Atif Nauman, Co-Founder and Project Manager at Care House.
Describe the company-elevator pitch
RedDrop aims to improve connectivity between Blood Donors & Blood Seekers. The idea is very simple: building a channel connecting people who are in need of blood transfusion to the volunteer blood donors. The main objective behind RedDrop is to solve the blood shortage problem – not only in Pakistan but across the world, by promoting this initiative world-wide.
Studies have shown that over 90% of total blood transfused in Pakistan is donated by close relatives and friends. The concept of voluntary non-remunerated donors is quite latent due to the lack of a blood donor recruitment and retention strategy, primarily because we do not have any proper platform for this purpose.
RedDrop is actively looking for funding and support to sustain and expand its operations.
What is your product/service idea?
To improve connectivity between Blood Donors & Blood Seekers.
When was the idea born? And how long did it take before you began working over your idea?
The idea was born around 18 months back. We started working on it 12 months back.
What has been your basic motivation for working over your idea?
Personal experience & experience that our close friends faced motivated us enough to develop this platform.
What doubts did you have about the success of the idea?
The only doubts we had were about social support & earning brand endorsement since this is a non-profit based start-up, struggling with limited supply of funding.
Where did you work before you began working on the idea?
I was working in the private sector.
At what stage of startup cycle / business phase do you find yourself now?
having launched only last year, I’d say we’re still at the infancy stage.
What technique/business model have you used?
We have developed an app to develop a blood donors recruitment pool. We’ve integrated our app with Facebook, Twitter to allow maximum synchronicity between the donor availability and the need of blood.
Why did you use this technique?
To ensure that blood request reaches the maximum audience, thereby, increasing donor base.
What have been the most daunting challenge/s you faced?
Lack of marketing, due to lack of funding.
What has been the greatest risk you took that contributed to the way things turned out?
We’re still at a very early stage of business, so there hasn’t been any such situation.
What has been your greatest strength that made a difference in the outcome?
Commitment and consistency.
What strengths did you receive from external sources that helped make a difference and how?
We’ve been able to generate a sound, positive word of mouth wherever we have pitched the idea. At the current phase of the start-up, this is quite significant for us.
What has been the happiest moment of this entire journey, and why?
We received feedback from a far off friend that in a time of an urgent need of blood, they were able to have the need answered without any hassle through RedDrop. Realizing the difference we can make in people’s life has been a great joy.
What has been the scariest moment, and why?
None so far.
What has been the saddest or most disappointing moment, and why?
We receive excellent word of mouth, however, we haven’t been able to avail any ripple effect as people don’t contribute by installing & taking part in promoting the app further.
We all make blunders climbing a new ladder. What has been the funniest moment in your entrepreneurial journey, and why?
Not any till now, or perhaps none in my mind at the moment ☺
What mistakes did you make that, if given a chance to redo your journey, you’d make sure to avoid?
Revenue Generation Model to keep APP alive
Where do you want to go from here?
We aim to stay consistent and develop more initiatives under the Care House banner, with more elaborate strategy.
Your advice to entrepreneurship aspirants?
Spend majority of your time in planning. Don’t go for something that is half-cooked in your mind, and never try anything halfheartedly.
How would you rate your experience with the following in order of difficulty: (1 least difficult, 10 most difficult).
Tech know-how: 5
Planning: 5
Launch: 8
Business Strategy: 8
Product/Competitor research: 3
Time and asset investment: 5
Hiring right resources: 3
Seeking mentor: –
Finance planning: 6
Marketing: 8
Please also rate the above in order of their significance (1-10, 1 is least and 10 is most significant) for your particular enterprise.
Tech know-how: 5
Planning: 9
Launch: 8
Business Strategy: 9
Product/Competitor research: 7
Time and asset investment: 7
Hiring right resources: 5
Seeking mentor: 5
Finance planning: 7
Marketing: 9
How would you want the audience to reach you?
Email: atif.nauman@carehouse.pk
Website: http://www.carehouse.pk/
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/reddroppakistan/
If you would like to have your business featured in the PakWired Business Showcase, get in contact with us via editor@pakwired.com or on Twitter: @PakWired
Leave a Reply
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
