This Bangalore Based Startup Develops Accurate, Cost-effective and User-friendly TB Diagnosis Devices

We are publishing an interview of Mr. Sourav Karmakar, Founder, Infinos – A Bangalore based startup that provides accurate & early stage of TB detection solutions with cost effective & user friendly module as per present scenario.

How would you introduce your startup?
We’re developing accurate, cost-effective and user-friendly TB diagnosis device. Our Startup is based on Hardware & Software research and applications.

What motivated you to start your venture?
Tuberculosis is a contagious disease and a global threat for humanity. There is a requirement of early detection of TB. It’s spreading randomly due to lack of early detection. (WHO) TB statistics for India for 2015 give an estimated incidence figure of 2.2M/9.6M globally It’s really important to eliminate TB at early stage for a better world. There was a Show about TB in in Satyamev Jayate, I was shocked to know about the statistics of TB patients in India and the threat behind TB for common people as well. I had a conversation with few doctors and I’ve realized the need of such quick diagnosis device for TB.

What were your biggest hurdles or challenges while setting up your startup?
Quick and cost effective way to design and fabricate sensor for TB at this stage. Also we’re lagging in research funds which is very important at this stage. Along with it, we also require a good number of teammates to execute the task as soon as possible and make a MVP. Setting up a sustainable team with same vision is a big challenge. One of our Co-founders left the startup itself and it’s very difficult to manage such tasks further. Funding backup is a continuous challenge for us.

How did you manage to overcome the above mentioned hurdles?
We’ve started the research and design of the sensor and complete device (MVP) with some open source softwares and trying to build the MVP with a cost effective mode.
In general, a startup always needs funding backup to initiate or invest in some new business or activities. We’ve generated own funds by conducting workshops on hardware & software domain.

Have you faced any failure throughout the journey? If yes, then do share it because failure have a lot to teach us.
I think everyone motivated me to go ahead, but there is no such support for technical design and fabrication at this moment. Also we’ve faced the lots of issues due to lack of knowledge on technical or business perspectives. Our biggest failure is connecting customers regarding our products and workshops. Also we’ve failed to do a good marketing as a startup to provide our services as per need. We’ve to be more professional to go ahead in such cases.

What all different roles have you played while building up your startup?
I’d perform the research lead and business developer. Also I’d perform the marketing lead for my product from pitching to investor to final product launch. Even may be in some case with the help of my team I’ve to handle the partnership aspects for the product with different hospitals and pharmacies.

Is there anything, other than these questions, that you would like to share which, you think, can inspire or motivate people?
I think healthcare is very important factor for the humanity. If we can develop such diagnosis device which can actually save lot of lives of human at early stage. If anyone in the world can make something better for humanity, they should definitely try for it. Because we are all connected to us and it is we who will make the future beautiful for this world.

How would you like to acknowledge your pillars i.e. your team? Their inputs must be really valuable to you through the journey; they do deserve a token of appreciation.
We’ve a common vision. We’re working for making our vision successful. They are always supportive to me for taking team decision and carry forward in any situation. It is really important to support each other at any point of situation. My team mates are from different places and staying in bangalore. So it’s a great team of cultural varieties with a same team spirit. We’re calling our team mate as “infin-i”. My Co-founders are Kavya U and Kumar Kaushik. Kavya is from Mangalore and she is a great sports-girl and achieved lots of medals in Kabaddi and Karate, she is electronics engineer and like to deal with tech-educational perspectives. Kaushik is a cool techie guy. He loves to dig into different perspectives of technologies and entrepreneurship and love to travel. Our software lead is Srinivas Reddy, he is decent guy loves to do work with passion. He surprises me by with his ideas and smart steps for benefiting startup and our product designer is Rakshitha R. She is a multi-talented girl with wonderful vision for our startup. She likes to add quality of design to make product more beautiful. She loves different performing arts. We are like a family to grow our vision to establish our startup into a great company for the betterment of humanity.