Karthik Naralasetty’s Socialblood started as a Facebook group for blood recipients and donors and was later made also into a website. People who require blood post the request on the Facebook page or website and donors respond. Each blood group has a different Facebook group. The Facebook groups saw more than 10,000 joining and actively participating within a month of its launch. Many around the world noted the success and Naralasetty received invitations from organizations in more than 20 countries to start operations in those regions. Bengaluru based Naralasetty, who was then running a startup that built and managed third party websites, decided to convert his side job into a full-fledged NGO. Thus was Socialblood born, in 2012. Today, the platform is available across several platforms, including app, website and Facebook, and its vision is to build the largest network of blood donors, hospitals and blood banks on the web.
Once on a trip to the United States, Naralasetty met Facebook founding president and investor Sean Parker and the two happened to discuss the former’s plans for Socialblood. “Parker advised against making it a non-profit as it would then end up looking for grants and funds all the time. So we decided to generate income that would be enough to sustain us,” says Naralasetty, who now splits his time between the firm’s New Jersey (US) and Bengaluru offices. “if there is value addition, there will be revenue,” he notes.
The company today has more than 150,000 users with big user bases in India, Brazil, Bangladesh, and the United States. The company does not see any revenue potential in India as requests for blood are from individuals. In the west, in contrast, blood banks have an advertising budget to solicit blood. Socialblood helps the blood banks do the donor acquisition at one tenth of their usual marketing spend.
Naralasetty was born and brought up in Guntur in Andhra Pradesh. His father wanted him to pursue a career in the United States. But Naralasetty returned mid-way through his computer course in New Jersey to start something of his own. He, however, chose to come to Bengaluru. “I did not see my future as a person repaying loans and getting an H-1B visa,” he says. “Of course, my parents were upset. But now they look at me with respect. A lot of my father’s friends tell him that they read about me in a newspaper or saw me on television, and that makes him happy,” he adds.
The Socialblood homepage greets you with a quote from Hollywood actor Will Smith: “If you are not making someone else’s life better, then you are wasting your time….” Naralasetty is driven by this value. “Despite the many serious problems the country faces, educated Indians prefer building billion-dollar consumer companies rather than aiming for social impact. Success has to be measured in the number of people you are impacting rather than the revenue you are generating year after year,” he says. This could change, Naralasetty believes, if more Indians enter the social space. Many say investors are not as interested in social startups as they should be. “There are several impact-focused funds, but regular VCs do not want to invest. Raising money is always going to be tough,” says Naralasetty, whose Socialblood is backed by Google India and South East Asia managing director Rajan Anandan, Nasscom product council chairman, serial entrepreneur and angel investor Ravi Gururaj and seed fund Blume Ventures.
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