Dr Manasi Tripathy & Dr Prasant Tripathy, a successful dental surgeon couple and entrepreneurs of Odisha

What made you strike this business idea?

Who doesn’t want a beautiful smile? Is it really affordable and accessible to the people at large? No.

Considering the fact that in a vast country like India, there are only 6000 Orthodontists who are responsible for the correction of irregular teeth and giving a beautiful smile to the patient with the help of braces and aligners, whereas the number of people in need of this treatment is in crores.

Our method of solving this problem is to bring on board lakhs of general dental practitioners who are capable of providing this type of specialized dental treatment under the remote guidance of orthodontists. Our mobile and desktop application “Ortho Konnect” would solve this problem to a great extent and would act as a bridge to connect the general practitioners with specialists anywhere in the world, thereby reducing the gap of demand and supply. We are banking heavily on technology along with the traditional approach to train doctors without compromising on the quality of patient care.

Our other initiative is to indigenously develop high-end dental equipment and dental software under the mentorship of Software Technology Park of India.

One of our ideas involving AI technology has been shortlisted out of hundreds of applicants for “NEURON”- An STPI CoE in AI, Data Analytics, IoT & Audio-Visual Gaming Open Challenge Program (OCP).

Name of the company?

Smilexone Educare Pvt Ltd, based in Bhubaneswar, Odisha

Name of the founder?

Dr Manasi Tripathy Managing Director

Dr Prasant Tripathy, Director

About the Promoters

Dr Manasi Tripathy & Dr Prasant Tripathy, a successful dental surgeon couple and entrepreneurs of Odisha. They have been managing a chain of dental clinics and a Dental academy. They are the recipients of Times Health Icon Awardsin year 2019 and The Times Best Dental Clinic Award consecutively for three years in a row.

What inspired you to start this company?

We launched this company with the sole intention of bridging the gap between demand and supply especially in the dental industry and to make the expensive dental treatments affordable and accessible for common people and for those who are living in the interior parts of the country.

When did you start your business?

Three years back we incorporated the company Smilexone Educare Pvt Ltd, but the onset of pandemic and the platform of Start-Up India gave us a huge opportunity to think out of the box and we worked tirelessly throughout the lockdown period to develop a few products and to provide innovative service. Till the onset of Pandemic, we had trained around 100s of doctors but now we are ready to train a few thousand doctors in every nook and corner of India with the help of technology.

What does success mean to your company?

If our innovative idea can solve the problem then it would be a great success for us.

How are you performing currently?

We have started the operation in 3 states namely Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Assam. Our main focus is on the East and North-East states of India and Bangladesh. We have collaborated with companies from France and Germany.

What is the biggest risk to your company?

We don't have any competition so far as the entire business model is concerned but we have to face challenges from big MNCs regarding some of our products as our product pricing and marketing strategy would be a market disruptor.

What are your plans for the funding?

Till now we have been funding it on our own and through bank loans but now we have started discussing with angel investors and strategic partners from some European countries.

What is the biggest challenge you faced during your start-up setup?

In the initial days, many people laughed at our ambitious plans but after watching our developments and well acceptance of the concept by the doctors and patients now those same people have started talking positively and are offering their support.

Getting the right talent especially people having experience in AI technology and developing high-end dental equipment locally would be another challenge. We are confident we could overcome these challenges.

What does growth mean to you and your business?

We don't want our business model to be confined to India only - we are eyeing the SAARC countries as well as other developing countries.

How does your product stand different from others in the market?

Made in India products with a highly affordable price for the end-users and with the right marketing strategy are enough to create a new market for our products. Rather than competing against the existing market players, our products create a whole new market for themselves.

Where are your start-up services spread?

Odisha, Assam and Chhattisgarh. Soon we will be launching it in West Bengal and other North-Eastern states.

What are your services/products?

Ortho Initia, a learning initiative to provide on-site and online training to general dental practitioners to help them to provide correction of irregular teeth to their patients.

Ortho Konnect is a unique mobile and desktop application.

My Smile My Rules, a portal for patients looking for correction of their irregular teeth through Orthodontic treatment. Doorstep treatment service can be provided through the portal.

Aestheticalign, a clear and transparent dental aligner made in India with technological collaboration from Germany & the USA. It would be the most cost-effective dental aligner system.

EZ Braces, another product meant for doctors. This product would be able to make the task of the doctors in providing conventional braces to their patients.

SCAN D, a scanning on-demand service to be available for the doctors as well as the patients. It's a service to record the details of the patient's mouth with the help of high-end intraoral scanners from France.

What does it feel like to be the founder of your start-up?

It's a great journey. Of course, our entrepreneurship skills are there since our college days when we thought about concepts like e-commerce and online consultancy in the year 1998s, whereas those terms were unheard of in India during that time.

How does it feel getting up every morning and getting on to work?

Many days we didn't have to think about getting up in the morning as our passion and excitement encouraged us to spend sleepless nights, especially during the lockdown period.

Where do you see your business standing in the next 5 years?

Five years down the line it would be a great Start-Up company in the dental industry.

Who supports you to stand this business and how? Please share this thing in brief.

Some of our patients who are successful in their respective fields have motivated us and the turning point was our chance encounter during our Europe trip with a very successful management person named Marco Gadola from Switzerland.and successful doctor as well as entrepreneur Dr. Shahvir Nooryezdan. We have learnt a lot from them and we always look up to them for inspiration.