DocAsap

CHRIS CRISMAN

DocAsap

Puneet Maheshwari, CEO of the four-employee Philadelphia company that is developing an online system for matching doctors with time in their schedules with people who need a quick appointment:

The idea started out from a personal problem. Shortly after I moved to Philadelphia in 2007 to go to Wharton [for an MBA], my son, who was a year old, had an ear infection. We couldn't find a doctor quickly, and we ended up in an emergency room. That gave me some food for thought. The initial thought was, "You should be able to book a doctor appointment online." The idea got conceptualized over six to eight weeks in a Wharton class.

We spoke to a lot of doctors. The biggest thing we realized is that doctors don't want to lose control of their schedules. And doctors also hate no-shows and cancellations. And there was no solution for all of that. I think we are solving a big problem in health care.