- ByStartupStory | February 3, 2021
“Leadership is all about understanding people.” – Sandesh Mishra, Co-Founder and CEO, Bima Garage
“While I and my co-founder were working in the insurance sector for around a decade or so, we saw that sales were the primary focus for all insurance companies. No one was bothered about the servicing side of insurance because the penetration itself is very low in our country for insurance. So we had this idea whenever we will start our own company it will be only and only on the servicing of the insurance, not sales,” says Sandesh Mishra, CEO and co-founder of Bima Garage in an interview with Startup Story Media.
Self-actualization
“For us, starting this company has been self-actualization.” – Sandesh Mishra
Sandesh tells us that the main aim of Bima Garage had been to make insurance claims easy and seamless for their clients. Always having had a dream of satisfactory positions in an insurance company, Sandesh and his co-founders soon saw the other side of the corporate world and decided to start something of their own.
“Our one aim was to give services to the customers and the second aim was to set up an organization that runs on the best of the principles that should be followed in the corporate,” he tells Startup Story Media while talking about his inspiration, vision and journey. “Certainly, it was also that we were very stable in our careers, so we had the certain financial freedom to start our own company. All of these things put together, we decided now was the time to start.”
Referring to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, Sandesh said, “At every step of your life, you are satisfied by different things. So, once you have everything, the last point in your life is self-actualization. For us, starting this company has been self-actualization.
Seamless services, easy claims
Realizing how fretful it can be for people to go through the lengthy and seemingly vague procedure of claiming insurance, Bima Garage set out to tackle this problem.
Explaining the traditional way insurance business works in our country, Sandesh says that hospitals are the service providers here and the insurance company has no control over them. When consumers reach the hospitals for their claims, they are at the mercy of the person sitting at the desk.
“So, we thought about where we could make a dent and that was the hospital’s cashless desk. We went to hospitals and showed them our project: you give us this desk, we will employ our trained staff on this desk who will manage everything – from customer welcome, till your payment comes, the reconciliation of payment for hospitals. So, we manage the entire credit business for hospitals,” Sandesh explains to Startup Story Media.
HobNob, changing entire customer experience on claims
When COVID-19 hit the country, like everyone else, Bima Garage also got affected as many small hospitals doing business with them got closed. Although the problems were huge, Sandesh says that COVID-19 became the precursor to HobNob.
“We thought this was the time when we could again think of something which could give us a speed. That’s when we all sat together and after much brainstorming came up with a product which is called HobNob. So, HobNob was born because of the COVID,” explains Sandesh to Startup Story Media. “If there hadn’t been COVID, so we would be doing our regular desk business only. This is the product which will change the entire customer experience on claims.”
True to what Sandesh said, Bima Garage genuinely changed the entire customer experience on claims with HobNob, which is almost revolutionary in the slow-paced world of insurance and claims. Bima Garage’s officers went from home to home, helping those who couldn’t get out of their houses due to Covid-19, and got them registered on HobNob. “So, our team went to their homes and registered them with Hobnob, processed their claims and we got great testimonials from these aged customers,” Sandesh tells Startup Story Media.
Although Bima Garage was successful soon, the biggest factors working behind its success had been years and years of experience and hard work. “There are no easy ways of making money, there are no shortcuts. Success always is hard-earned and comes with experience and hard work,” says Sandesh to all those looking forward to starting their own business.
When asked what makes a good leader, he told Startup Story Media that people management is the most important thing that a leader must know. “Leadership is all about understanding people. A good leader is one who keeps himself or herself always updated with the changing trends. The most important thing is people management – and unlike past days, carrot and stick approaches are no more valid. As a leader, you should keep reading different subjects, different books, and meet different people. It helps you have good relations with people.”