Learn from our community entrepreneurs! In this interview, Sandip Sekhon shares the story of building and growing Pathways, located in London, , United Kingdom.
Hi! Tell us about your business and what problem are you solving?
My name’s Sandip Sekhon, I’m 36, based in London, and my educational and professional working background is in finance and banking. That switched to Internet entrepreneurship 10 years ago, and I haven’t looked back!
I’m currently the CEO and Founder of the pain therapy app Pathways. Pathways uses a natural, mind-body approach to help chronic pain patients get rid of persistent pain. We operate a freemium subscription model, backed by a money-back guarantee.
What's your backstory and how did you come up with the idea?
My first major Internet business success was with the crowdfunding site GoGetFunding.com. It’s a business I continue to run, and I’m humbled to say that we’ve grown to be one of the largest fundraising sites out there, helping people raise millions each month for causes they care about.
I’d tirelessly work on the site, and eventually, that led to chronic pain throughout both of my arms, diagnosed as Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI). This left me unable to work, and even perform basic daily activities. I went through years of failed treatments, which culminated in two invasive and unnecessary surgeries on both of my arms.
It’s only once I met a physiotherapist with knowledge of pain science that I was able to understand and treat my pain. She explained how due to years of pain and pain-anxiety, my nervous system had become overprotective and sensitized - causing pain at any hint of danger. I had to train my brain and body away from pain.
I discovered that there are decades of science on central pain sensitization. I learned that when pain persists beyond three months, our brain and nervous system start to learn pain and irrespective of the condition of your body, you can continue feeling real pain long after an injury has healed.
That didn’t mean the pain was all just in my head or that I could simply think it away. It meant that I needed to practice both mind and body techniques to train my nervous system to be less sensitive and protective.
I finally understood how trying to find and fix ‘issues in the tissues’ that could explain the pain, was doomed to fail. No amount of physio, surgery, or diet changes could cure my pain. Instead, I had to tackle every thought, belief, and behavior that was keeping me locked in a pain cycle.
Using evidence-based mind-body techniques, I was able to become 100% pain-free in just a couple of months. Life-changing.
I realized just how many millions of people around the world continue to battle with chronic pain, which will fail to find relief unless they take a complete approach to pain treatment.
This fuelled immense motivation to create a product that could take a skeptical pain sufferer like me, to being pain-free. There was nothing like that out there, and knowing a product like this could make a huge difference to so many people, I decided to create it.
What’s your one biggest challenge you face and how do you overcome it?
The biggest obstacle throughout the project was the technical build of the cross-platform apps. The next major challenge was creating all the content needed for Pathways.
We needed to ensure the content was evidence-based, understandable by a large variety of people, and applicable to many different pain conditions.
To anyone looking to start or grow a business today, what three tips would you give them?
My vision is for Pathways to undoubtedly become the best digital pain product. Here are some of the improvements planned for the next 12 to 18 months to help that become a reality:
- Patient/Doctor Connect Facilities
- Doctor Dashboard to View Patient Progress
- In-App Social Features
- Offering a wider range of exercise class options
- Medication Efficacy Tracking
- Relaxing VR Experiences
- Hoping to triple our user base