Investors know to expect silly things from us, said Narayana Health's Viren Shetty

Dr Devi Shetty, founder and chairman Narayana Health in conversation with Viren Shetty, executive vice-chairman, Narayana Health at Moneycontrol's second edition of Startup Conclave.

Narayana Health, one of the largest hospital groups that is foraying into the health insurance segment, said that their investors have backed them every step of the way despite expecting silly things from them.

"They know that our company is meant to be weird. They have understood that if they want a traditional money-making hospital business, there are other companies to invest in," said Viren Shetty, executive vice-chairman, Narayana Health.

He said that the investors generally tend to give the company leeway. "It's maybe because they don't care enough. But I think they give us a lot of leeway and allow us to experiment. They know to expect from time to time that we will do silly things," he said.

Shetty said that they are already seeing good responses for the upcoming health insurance plans.

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"We are so convinced that it will work because when we got into this, despite how much we don't know about the business, the response we got from people who are interested in this plan has been phenomenal with no marketing, with no spend on acquiring customers, no broker network, we didn't have to do anything," Shetty said during a session titled 'Heart to Heart: When profit meets purpose' in Moneycontrol's second edition of Startup Conclave.

He said that the most important thing that will distinguish their health insurance policy from anyone else's is that they will not sell a card with some paper on it.

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"We are selling you the promise of health and it will be a promise that has been kept on both sides. You promise that you will listen to us, you will get your preventive checkup done on time, and you will take the medicine we prescribe you. You make that promise to us as a company, and we promise that no matter what happens, no questions asked, if you have our health insurance policy, we will take care of you."

Viren Shetty also said that the crazy things they do come from Devi Shetty, the famous cardiac surgeon who has always encouraged his children to do things differently.

Devi Shetty during the session highlighted that in India, they have the chance to innovate tremendously.

"We've tried running hospitals, opening up centers all over the place, getting into oncology, now doing insurance and building our own technology," Viren Shetty said.

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The father-son duo shared their journey of starting and scaling Narayana Health.

It all started in Kolkata. Devi Shetty who went to England in the late 1980s for medical training came back to India in a new city ---- Kolkata.

"Those days cardiac surgery training wasn't to that level as it is today in India. So, the only way I could learn the skill was to be working outside India, preferably in England, and that made all the difference. Of course it was after finishing the training program I had the option of settling down, but that was it. I wanted to come back to India. I didn't want my children to be brought up in England," Devi Shetty said.

After the cardiac surgeon came to India, he had the dream of building a heart hospital in Kolkata. However, getting capital was tricky.

"The then ICICI Chairman KV Kamath was a friend and I happened to meet him. I told him about building a hospital and he suggested that I approach them for a loan. However, they wanted some money to come from me and obviously I didn't have that kind of a capital then. Similarly, the then Tata Capital head who was a dear friend spoke about building a hospital and offered to help. But both parties wanted some capital to come from me. I went back to ICICI and told them that Tata Capital is investing, so you can also invest. I said the same to Tata Capital," Devi Shetty said.

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He added that while both of them knew I was telling a white lie, they trusted me and wanted to help me.

"For any entrepreneur, the reputation is the most important factor for you to raise money or build your business," he said.