Beating clots while you sit: Meet the SitWalker

Hindustan Times

2 days ago

PUNE Atul Kherde's (L) life took a serendipitous turn in 2018 when he unexpectedly reconnected with an old friend, Dr Shilpa Gosavi, during a trek in the Himalayas. (HT)
Atul Kherde's life took a serendipitous turn in 2018 when he unexpectedly reconnected with an old friend, Dr Shilpa Gosavi, during a trek in the Himalayas. A seasoned anatomist, Dr Gosavi shared a troubling pattern she had observed over two decades of dissecting cadavers.
'The veins in the legs are increasingly problematic. We're seeing more blood pooling, which leads to clots—and in many cases, that's what causes death. One in every four diabetics in India risks developing foot ulcers that could lead to amputation. Every day in India, we witness 450 foot amputations,' Dr Shilpa said.
What could have been a casual exchange between old friends sparked deeper curiosity in Atul. Dr Gosavi explained that the main culprit behind such clots, arteriosclerosis in the leg veins, was a sedentary lifestyle.
'People sit all day—at work, at home—and barely move, especially the ankle, which plays a vital role in pushing blood back up to the heart,' she noted.
Atul, a computer engineer from Pune, had always been drawn to machines and gadgets.
'Even before graduating, I was fixing factory machines in Bhosari—soldering, lathe work, you name it,' he recalls.
What Shilpa told him on that trek lingered in his mind.
She explained the role of the body's 'secret' blood pumps—the calf muscles, particularly the soleus and gastrocnemius.
'Every time the ankle moves, these muscles contract, squeezing deep veins and pushing blood toward the heart. Without that motion, blood pools in the legs. Swelling follows, then varicose veins, and eventually ulcers—especially dangerous for diabetics, as these wounds heal slowly.'
The issue, Atul realised, wasn't a lack of awareness—most people knew the risks, but a lack of time and movement. People don't get up. The insight hit him: if the ankle could move while a person remained seated, especially without bending the knee, the body's natural blood pump could still be activated.
By the end of the trek, Atul had already sketched a prototype: A device that would stimulate the soleus muscle without requiring the user to walk. Soon after, he filed a patent for what he called the SitWalker.
Now to make the SitWalker
Excited about the potential of their new invention, Atul and Shilpa each invested ₹50,000 with a simple pact: 'If we fail, we'll consider it part of the journey.'
Once again, serendipity played its part. 'During my student days, I had met VL Latkar from the Chinmaya Mission in PCMC,' Atul recalls.
'When I told him about SitWalker, he generously offered me access to his computers and even agreed to manufacture the first 20 prototypes. 'After that, we'll talk business,' he said.'
Latkar happened to run a successful medical products manufacturing company. Between his factory's shifts, Atul used their computers to create CAD drawings of the SitWalker. Remarkably, within three months of his initial sketch, he had the first prototype in hand.
But, as with most proof-of-concept products, it was far from perfect. 'I had imagined something sleek and practical,' says Atul.
'But the prototype was bulky; there was no way someone could comfortably use it under an office desk.'
Several more prototypes followed, but none matched his vision. Frustration set in.
'I remember sitting under the famous tree at Bhau Institute (COEP), feeling completely dejected,' he says. 'And then after two hours of solitude, I thought I wanted a gadget that people can use very easily. It is ultimately a footrest and hence should look like a footrest,' he thought. And so the idea of housing all mechanics inside a plain, elegant box emerged.'
After 47 design iterations, SitWalker finally arrived at the compact, user-friendly form it has today.
Money spinners
Early on, the duo bootstrapped with ₹50,000/- each. With the sweet intervention of Lady Luck, his two friends Vijay Pandita and Yogesh Thokal invested in his company and boosted the initial corpus to ₹15 lakh. One even transferred ₹10 lakh upfront, saying, 'I trust you'll do what's right.'
Meanwhile, Atul enrolled for the TiE Pune Mentorship program. At that program, one of the mentors, Shashank Deshpande, saw his SitWalker and bought it right away for his mother. Providence was slowly working. 'I met Anand Deshpande of Persistent Ltd, who is another mentor at TiE, and he got interested in my project. He told me that if I get another investor, then he will invest in my company because he could not keep tabs on my work and was willing to invest with another investor who would watch our work.'
Within two years and two funding rounds, Atul had raised ₹1.87 crore. This capital fuelled product development, sustained the team through the harsh COVID phase, supported early marketing, but more importantly, helped place around 300 SitWalkers that are still in active use.
Challenges
When Atul was making his initial 350 SitWalkers, he knew clearly that investing in a manufacturing unit would be too difficult and not help him in his goal of building this gadget that could help people saddled with a sedentary lifestyle. So he decided that he would outsource the manufacturing of different parts to different vendors and assemble the product himself.
But that was easier said than done. Says Atul, 'The problem all start-up founders have to tackle is how to procure goods in small quantities. You cannot place large orders, nor do you have the funds. You are starting out, and based on the performance, your order size will increase. But vendors look at scale, not potential of the product.'
So Atul had to work his way to finding vendors who would agree to deliver small quantities.
In the early days, Anand Deshpande had introduced Atul to Narendra Kale, who got him to be part of the Bhau incubator at COEP. 'We used the table there to assemble our gadgets.' However, he had by then hired a team of 10 people who worked to design the product, packaging, and literature. Things were moving up, and Atul realised he needed more money to scale up.
'In 2022, I applied for a ₹50 lakh grant from the DST (Department of Science & Technology). With that, I could scale up my business, spend some more on marketing, hire more staff, and manufacture more SitWalkers.' However, sadly, that did not come through. 'That was a horrible time for me. We were low on funds, and even my co-founder, Shilpa, felt we should shut down the business. But I stood firm. In my mind, I decided that SitWalker would not shut down simply because of this.'
Staying afloat
Atul put in his own funds of ₹15 lakhs to keep the ball rolling. 'I was in a bad shape financially. At that time, I saw an ad on LinkedIn where there was an event on diabetes, and Anand Deshpande was doing a segment where he was presenting five start-ups that were ready with their products. I told Anand that I had a ready-to-sell product, and he included my SitWalker and himself presented it to the doctors attending the event.'
As luck would have it, an Indian doctor based in Germany got interested in the SitWalker. 'He was more cued in to the start-up game and asked me what my problems were. I told him that I needed funds and an outreach that doctors like him could provide.'
Today, SitWalker is sold D2C (direct-to-consumer), largely through word-of-mouth, as there is no paid advertising since the setback. Over 70 units were sold in 2023–24, with rising demand and zero price resistance, even as unit prices increased from ₹14,000 to ₹22,000. The conversion rate from Facebook ads once touched 10% — far above the industry average.
What comes next
With lean operations now breaking even at just 3–4 units a month, Atul plans to scale mindfully. He's hired two staff for sales and outreach, and is preparing for a re-entry via social media marketing. He's also eyeing institutional sales — hospitals, corporations, and government agencies.
Is VC funding on the cards? 'Eventually, yes — but not until we have our numbers. I want the right investor, someone who understands preventive health-tech.'
The future
The journey from the foothills of the Himalayas to now has been nothing short of a rollercoaster. But Atul has managed to survive up to now. The recent fund infusion has helped him. 'I have hired two people, and I plan to use Facebook ads that in the past have had good results. The conversion rate is generally said to be 1 to 2% but we would get a conversion of 8-10% with our FB Ads.
Till then, Atul will find ways to grow slowly but surely. After all he has been through, he is not likely to give up. Maybe Lady Luck and surely his persistence will work some magic.