Every person in society has certain social responsibilities. But, only a few people are addressing these real problems and are providing world-changing solutions. While the entire world is running behind tech startups, there is also a group of people silently working for a noble cause, away from the spotlight wanting to bring a change: small or big. One becomes famous once their product grabs the attention of people but, how many of us have ever thought about having a socio-startup? A socio-startup is framed to work for a social cause which will help the common man. Here, we present to you some untold stories of such socio-startups.
- Socialblood
Blood is as essential to life as food or water. One understands the importance of getting blood on time only during emergencies and crises. Social blood was founded by an aspiring tech entrepreneur Karthik Naralasetty in 2011. Social blood, one of the largest online startup is building a network of blood donors who are motivated to donate blood, thereby serving their social responsibility. Social blood uses Google maps to look for blood donors in the nearby areas and reaches out to them quickly. They also have their own android application. In addition, Socialblood helps hospitals manage data related to donors, available blood stock levels, etc. using the cloud. This story of a young entrepreneur working for such a noble cause truly inspires us to be a part of his mission and contribute to society in a small way.
- Mentor Together: Mentoring the necessitous
Mentorship is a relationship where an experienced and knowledgeable person guides an amateur in their related field of expertise. After returning from the Manchester School of Business, Arundhati Gupta felt a strong urge about doing something in the educational field related to mentorship and hence founded Mentor Together. It is a Bangalore based one-to-one youth mentorship startup that guides the underprivileged youth to make wise and better career choices in life. Students in their teenage often need mentorship when it comes to choosing the right career paths. Students from the age of 12-17 belonging to shelter homes and government high schools are provided guidance here. Any individual willing to contribute to this social cause is selected as a mentor after a three-phase evaluation process. Using a matching algorithm based on common interests, language, personalities, mentors are allotted to mentees. This noble work of Arundhati and her team should be appreciated by us.
- Project Mudra
There are almost 7.8 million visually impaired people in India which accounts for 20% of the visually impaired in the world. Project Mudra is an ed-tech socio-startup. BITS Goa graduates, Sanskriti Dawle and Aman Srivastava developed a flagship product called Annie, a ‘Braille Dicta-Teacher ‘. They got this innovative idea during a workshop on Raspberry-Pi. This simple product makes Braille learning spontaneous and easy. It was developed using Raspberry-Pi attached to a small box with 6 pegs. It works in 3 modes, Auto mode, Browse mode and Exam mode. It surely can battle against illiteracy among the visually impaired in India and worldwide. A small effort like this can make a big and positive difference in the literacy rate.
- Milaap
Milaap is one of the largest crowd-funding platforms for a personal and social cause which was founded in 2010 by three young entrepreneurs. Milaap allows people to raise money for a cause or a person in need. It also funds rural Indian entrepreneurs. They have a worldwide group of donors and lenders in around 120 countries. Soon after it was launched, it became one of the most important crowdfunding platforms to help thousands of people for charity, medical expenses, educational purposes, natural calamities, etc. There have been contributions of about Rs. 63.34 crore for 49,310 projects. Milaap is not an NGO but a mission-driven startup for a social cause. They have helped in saving the lives of many kids, in setting up art schools, music classes in poverty-prone areas, helped children pursue their dream of playing sports. Our small contribution to this venture can help us change someone’s life.
- Practo
Practo Technologies is a unique startup that was found by Abhinav Lal and Shashank ND in 2008. Practo aims to be the one-stop destination for patients to find their doctors, pharmacists, gyms, etc. Patients can easily locate suitable doctors and today, over 2 million people are already using Practo. Doctors from over 310 cities in India are a part of this base. Their app helps you book appointments within seconds. Nearly 30,000 appointments are booked by patients through Practo. The application helps you to stay fit and healthy always. You can immediately inform your doctors about your health conditions and immediately get your doubts solved online. Practo Ray is one of the largest online clinic management software provider in Singapore when it comes to market share, Practo has achieved this in less than 2 years after its launch. Practo has provided a very efficient and easy way for a common man to get in touch with medical practitioners.
Anup Mehta
Co-founder, Z Nation Lab
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