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Hospital Digitization in India: Building Healthcare for Bharat | Shyatto Raha, MyHealthcare

Shyatto Raha left more than 20 years at NDTV to build MyHealthcare, a cloud platform for hospitals. He explains why paper-based care persists, how doctors adopt technology and what health tech founders should know.
Shyatto Raha, MyHealthcare on The Builders Club Startup Founders Podcast
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Walk into a top hospital in India and you may find the best machines and doctors, yet the patient still carries paper reports from one counter to the next.

That gap pushed Shyatto Raha to leave more than two decades at NDTV and build MyHealthcare, a digital platform for hospitals. In this episode of The Builders Club Startup Founders Podcast, he explains how hospital digitization in India really works.

What does hospital digitization in India require? Shyatto Raha’s core thesis

Shyatto’s view is that Indian healthcare delivery is fractured because it runs on paper and has no care continuum linking doctor, hospital and patient. MyHealthcare aims to be the plumbing between the three, an operating system for the hospital rather than a single point tool.

He argues the opportunity sits mostly outside the big chains. By his figures India has about 69,000 hospitals, around 49,000 of them private, and the large corporate groups make up only a small share.

  • Build the continuum. Connect inpatient, outpatient, remote monitoring, home care and the patient app on one platform.
  • Win the doctor first. Doctors drive roughly 80 to 85 percent of the buying decision, so the product must save them time.
  • Sell as a managed service. Per-bed SaaS with cloud hosting and upgrades included takes the burden off hospitals.
  • Respect the sector. Healthcare is sensitive, so launch only a stable product with clear intent.

Why did a media executive start a healthcare company?

Shyatto spent over 20 years at NDTV, building new businesses from digital media to mobile and e-commerce. Around 2016, while working on hospital website content, he saw a top Gurgaon hospital where records were still on paper and patients ferried their own test results between doctors.

He saw no other consumer sector that would tolerate this, and few health tech companies serving hospitals directly; most were consumer-facing and weighed down by acquisition costs. He left to start MyHealthcare with two former colleagues.

  • Divya, co-founder and chief product officer, brings long experience in digital product design.
  • Anish, co-founder and chief information officer, is an ethical hacker by profession.
  • None of the three had a healthcare background, which he sees as a source of fresh thinking.

What is a hospital operating system and what does MyHealthcare offer?

Shyatto describes the product as an integrated system for care delivery inside the hospital, remote patient monitoring outside it, a home care platform for nursing, and a patient app. Insurance is integrated too.

He sums up the idea with a triangle of doctor, hospital and patient, with MyHealthcare running the pipe that connects them.

  1. Care delivery inside the hospital, including clinical records.
  2. Remote patient monitoring beyond the hospital walls.
  3. A home care platform for nursing and care at home.
  4. A patient app that ties the experience together.

How do you convince hospitals to switch technology?

Shyatto says timing helped. After the pandemic, the electronic medical record became more important to hospitals than the billing system, because margins are under pressure and hospitals want better patient engagement and lifetime value.

MyHealthcare is also fully cloud-based. He says none of its partner hospitals runs on-premise systems, and he positions the company as a managed service so hospitals can focus on care while it handles updates and optimisation.

How does the pricing and onboarding work?

The platform is priced per bed. Shyatto says guided workflows have cut nurse training time to about two days.

What about healthcare financing?

He describes a planned launch of financing inside the app, including loans or guarantees to hospitals and zero-interest EMI options over 18 to 24 months, aimed at patients who pay in cash and often drop off because they cannot afford admission.

How did the pandemic shape the company?

The team had been working on a primary care record for clinics when lockdown approached. Shyatto says they built a teleconsult network within days and integrated it into the systems of their first large hospital client, going live in early April 2020.

Consults rose from about 100 a day to several thousand a day within weeks. The team then moved into inpatient systems, and he credits long hours and a sense of purpose for the pace.

How do doctors and nurses adopt health technology?

Shyatto says doctors care about one thing: whether the tool saves time with patients. Doctor compliance on the platform, he says, rose from about 2 percent in December 2022 to above 78 percent, and one tier-two hospital reached 98 percent.

He also sees a newer generation of doctors who are comfortable with voice-to-text and analytics, and older department heads who are now asking for digital tools.

  • Design for doctor efficiency before anything else.
  • Make interfaces guide the user, especially nurses.
  • Expect tier-two hospitals to adopt as fast as metros.

What advice does he give health tech founders and investors?

Shyatto says outsiders can succeed if they invest time understanding the problem, spend time with frontline staff, and hire experienced healthcare leaders who know what has not worked. He argues the product must be good enough to sell itself, with strong salespeople to position it.

On funding, he advises choosing investors carefully and finding a mentor outside the sector. He warns that very rapid growth in healthcare is a red flag, and cites Simon Sinek’s golden circle idea of starting with why.

  • Go deep rather than scratching the surface.
  • Launch only a stable product; hospitals rarely give a second chance.
  • Treat entrepreneurship as a marathon, not a sprint.

Further reading and sources

Frequently asked questions

Why is hospital digitization in India slow?

Shyatto Raha points to paper-based processes, fragmented care with no continuum between doctor, hospital and patient, and slow change management. Doctors drive most buying decisions, so tools must save them time. Mandated digital records in markets like the US and UK have sped adoption there.

How does a hospital operating system charge hospitals?

According to Shyatto, MyHealthcare is a SaaS platform priced per bed and delivered as a managed service. Cloud hosting, updates and optimisation are handled by the vendor, so the hospital does not need to build its own technology team.

Can AI replace doctors in healthcare?

Shyatto says no, and calls the idea a fool’s paradise. He expects AI and data management to make doctors more efficient, reduce errors, power early warning systems and eventually support precision medicine, once healthcare data is structured.

Conclusion

Shyatto Raha’s story shows that healthcare is a long game: understand the doctor, build for the whole care journey and offer hospitals a managed service they can trust.

If you are building in health tech, spend time with frontline staff, hire people who know the sector and pick investors who support the long haul.

Want more conversations like this? Join The Builders Club, our community of 35,000+ founders and CXOs, and explore more episodes of the Startup Founders Podcast.

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Silicon Valley VPs vs. Indian Family Business Promoters

The Executive Sponsor Trap: Selling to Silicon Valley VPs vs. Securing Commitments from Indian Family Business Promoters

A Silicon Valley VP can usually sign inside a budget they own. An Indian family business promoter often holds the final say but delegates the evaluation, and that gap is where deals stall. Treating a friendly mid-level sponsor as the decision-maker is the most common mistake in cross-border enterprise sales. Here is how the two models differ and how to secure a commitment that survives promoter review. What is the executive sponsor trap? It is the assumption that the person championing your product has the authority to buy it. In US enterprise sales, a VP or director often does hold budget. In many Indian family-run groups, authority sits with the promoter or family council, while managers and professional CEOs run evaluations. How do US VPs make buying decisions? Delegated authority. A VP typically owns a departmental budget with a defined spending limit. Process-led approval. Procurement and legal run a standard path once a business case is approved. Rep-free research. Buyers do much of their research independently, as shown in Gartner’s 2026 sales survey, so your first call is rarely the start of their evaluation. How do Indian family business promoters make buying decisions? Final say at the top. The promoter or a small family circle may approve significant spend, even when a professional CEO handles daily operations. For context, see Business Today on professional CEOs in Indian business families. Trust over process. A recommendation from a known peer, advisor or existing vendor carries heavy weight. Group thinking. Decisions consider the whole group, not only one business unit, which can slow or accelerate a deal sharply. Tech caution. Research on Indian family businesses by Inc42 describes growth-driven but technology-cautious attitudes, which means proof and references matter. Academic work such as the Indian School of Business research on family business groups offers background on how these groups are structured. Sponsor authority compared: Silicon Valley vs family-run Indian groups Factor Silicon Valley VP Indian family business promoter Budget ownership Often in the VP’s own budget Often approved at group or promoter level Who evaluates The VP’s team Managers, CIO or professional CEO What builds trust Data, ROI case, peer reviews Personal credibility, references, introductions Typical blocker Competing priorities and budget timing No access to the final decision-maker Commitment signal Signed order form Promoter or senior leadership endorsement, then paperwork How do you secure a real commitment from a promoter-led company? Ask the authority question early. “Who gives the final nod on a decision of this size?” is polite and effective. Arrange a senior-to-senior meeting. Your founder or most senior leader meets the decision-maker with the sponsor’s backing. Use a trusted introducer. A mutual contact, existing client or advisor opens doors more reliably than outreach. Give the sponsor a promoter-ready summary. One page covering outcome, risk, cost, and references in plain language. Confirm the paperwork route. Once approval is verbal, ask who triggers legal, security and procurement. What if you cannot reach the promoter? Work through the professional CEO or CIO, and ask them to describe what the promoter will want to see. Prepare that material in advance. FAQ Who makes the final software buying decision in an Indian family-owned business? It varies, but for significant spend the final approval often rests with the promoter or a small family group, while managers and a professional CEO run the evaluation. Ask early who gives the final nod. How is selling to a US VP different from selling to an Indian business promoter? US VPs typically own a budget and follow a defined buying process. Promoters weigh trust, references and group-level considerations, so you need senior access and credible introductions. How do I get a meeting with a promoter or business owner? Use warm introductions from mutual contacts, existing customers, advisors or community events. Ask your internal sponsor to request the meeting and prepare a short, outcome-focused briefing. Conclusion Do not mistake enthusiasm for authority. In the US, test whether your VP owns the budget. In Indian family groups, find the person who gives the final nod, and get there through trusted introductions and a promoter-ready summary. Need warm introductions to promoter-led enterprises? Join The Builders Club. References and further reading Gartner Sales Survey: 67% of B2B buyers prefer a rep-free experience (2026) Gartner: The B2B buying journey and how to optimise it Business Today: Why Indian business families are hiring professional CEOs Inc42: Indian family businesses are growth-driven but tech-cautious Indian School of Business: Family business groups in India About the author: Sohail Khan is Founder and Director of The Builders Club, a professional community of 35,000+ founders and CXOs across India, UAE, Singapore and the US.

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Why the Self-Serve PLG Playbook Fails with Indian Enterprise CXOs (And the High-Touch Assisted Model That Actually Wins)

Self-serve PLG works when the user is also the buyer. In Indian enterprises, they almost never are. A product-led funnel can get your tool into a team’s hands, but it rarely gets a CXO to sign. The model that wins is a high-touch, assisted motion that uses product usage as proof, not as the whole sales strategy. Here is why the standard playbook stalls in India’s large organisations, and what to run instead. Why does the self-serve PLG playbook fail with Indian enterprise CXOs? Product-led growth, as described by pioneers such as OpenView, assumes that users discover, try and adopt the product themselves, and that revenue follows usage. That assumption holds for tools with low risk, low price and individual buyers. Enterprise buying in India breaks all three conditions at once. The user is not the buyer. An analyst may love your tool. The budget sits with a CIO, CFO or business head who has never opened it. Risk is organisational. A CXO signs against security, vendor-continuity and reputational risk, none of which a free trial answers. Trust is personal. Decisions often move on credibility, references and conversations with someone they respect, not on a sign-up flow. Does a free trial or freemium plan ever work in Indian enterprises? It can work for teams, departments and SMB-sized units, where one manager has a card or small discretionary budget. It rarely scales to the top accounts without a human who turns usage into a business case. What does the high-touch assisted model actually look like? Assisted does not mean old-fashioned. It means every stage of the product experience is paired with a person who removes a specific obstacle. Stage Pure self-serve PLG Assisted model for Indian enterprises Discovery Organic search, product trial Warm introduction, peer room, referral Evaluation Self-guided trial Guided pilot with named success criteria Decision User upgrades with a card Business case built for the CXO and the committee Contracting Click-through terms Negotiated MSA, security review, procurement Expansion In-app prompts Account lead plans rollout across divisions How do you turn product usage into a signed enterprise contract? Use the product as the evidence, and a person as the translator. A practical sequence: Find your champion. Identify the user who gets the most value and ask them to explain the problem in their own words. Quantify the result. Convert usage into time saved, errors avoided or revenue influenced, in a one-page summary the CXO can read in two minutes. Map the buying committee. Ask your champion who else must say yes: IT, security, finance, legal, and the business owner. Run an executive conversation. A founder or senior lead speaks to the CXO about outcomes and risk, not features. Offer a scoped commitment. A defined pilot or first-division rollout with clear exit and expansion terms reduces perceived risk. When should you still invest in self-serve? Do not abandon it. Use self-serve as the top of the funnel and as a signal engine. Track which accounts have several active users, which teams invite colleagues, and which admins explore security settings. Those are the accounts your sales team should call first. Think of it as product-qualified leads feeding a human-led close. Many global companies now run exactly this hybrid, and it fits Indian enterprise buying better than a pure self-serve approach. FAQ Is PLG dead for B2B SaaS in India? No. PLG is useful for building awareness, usage data and champions inside accounts. It fails as the only motion for large enterprises, where committees, security reviews and relationships decide the contract. A hybrid model works better. What is a product-qualified lead (PQL)? A PQL is an account or user whose in-product behaviour suggests buying intent, such as multiple active teammates or admin-level exploration. Sales teams use PQLs to prioritise who to approach with a human conversation. How many people does an assisted enterprise sale need? It depends on deal size, but you typically need one senior owner for the relationship, one technical resource for security and integration questions, and a customer success lead after signing. Founders often cover the first two roles in early deals. Conclusion PLG gets you into the room, but it does not get a CXO to sign. In Indian enterprises, winning sales pair product evidence with human trust: a champion, a business case, a guided pilot and a senior conversation. Building an assisted enterprise motion? Meet founders and CXOs who have done it at The Builders Club, and bring your toughest sales question to our next roundtable. Join The Builders Club. About the author: Sohail Khan is Founder and Director of The Builders Club, a professional community of 35,000+ founders and CXOs across India, UAE, Singapore and the US.

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