1. The Beginning: Building Practo From Scratch
Practo was founded in 2008 by Shashank ND, Abhinav Lal and Siddhartha Nihalani.
The company's mission was simple but ambitious:
Make healthcare more accessible through technology.
Over the years, Practo evolved from a healthcare technology startup into a broader digital healthcare platform connecting patients, doctors and healthcare providers.
Today, Practo says its network includes more than 700,000 doctors and healthcare providers and serves millions of patients globally. The company is also present across more than 20 countries.
For almost two decades, Shashank was at the center of that journey.
He wasn't just the founder.
He was also the CEO.
But as Practo entered its next stage, the company decided to change how leadership responsibilities were distributed.
2. The Big Change: Founder Moves Away From CEO Role
On September 17, 2026, Practo announced a new leadership structure.
Shashank ND Singh was elevated from Founder & CEO to:
Managing Director & Executive Chairman
At the same time, Jagnoor Singh was appointed CEO, effective September 1, 2026.
This distinction is important.
Shashank has not left Practo.
He continues to play a major role in the company's future.
His new responsibilities include:
Overall vision
Product and strategy
Long-term innovation
Capital strategy
Inorganic growth
Corporate development
Meanwhile, Jagnoor is responsible for the company's overall strategy, growth and operations across global markets.
In simple words:
The founder is moving further toward long-term strategic leadership, while the CEO takes greater responsibility for execution and operations.
3. Why Make This Change Now?
Timing matters.
Practo says the company is currently growing at around 40% year-over-year and has remained profitable for the past two and a half years.
At the same time, the company is expanding internationally.
Practo has expanded its consumer platform into the UAE and United States, while also investing in AI-led capabilities across its products and new solutions.
That creates a completely different challenge from the one Practo faced in its early years.
A startup founder may once have been able to personally oversee almost everything.
But a company operating across multiple markets needs:
Strong operational leadership
Specialized executives
Faster decision-making
Global execution
Deeper management capabilities
Long-term strategic planning
And that's where the new structure comes in.
4. The New CEO: Jagnoor Singh
Jagnoor Singh isn't a completely new face at Practo.
He joined the company in January 2025 as Chief Operating Officer.
Since then, he has been involved in strengthening execution, driving the company's growth strategy and supporting expansion into new markets.
Before joining Practo, Jagnoor held senior operating positions at companies including:
Bharti Airtel
Unacademy
OYO
His experience spans telecom and consumer internet businesses.
Now, as CEO, his role is to lead Practo's growth and operations across its global markets while working closely with Shashank on the company's long-term vision.
That creates an interesting founder-CEO partnership.
Shashank focuses on where Practo should go.
Jagnoor focuses heavily on executing that direction at scale.
5. Practo Didn't Just Change One Position
The CEO transition is actually part of a broader leadership restructuring.
Practo has also expanded the responsibilities of several long-standing leaders.
Siddhartha Nihalani, co-founder of Practo, has taken on the role of COO - B2C, overseeing the company's consumer businesses.
Rowel Coelho, previously Head of Monetization, has become COO - B2B, responsible for Practo's enterprise and corporate businesses.
And Abhinav Lal, another co-founder, has become Chief Scientist.
His new role focuses on frontier AI applications in healthcare, research partnerships and building an innovation hub for future technologies.
So this isn't simply:
"Founder → New CEO."
It's more like:
Founder → Strategy & Vision
CEO → Execution & Growth
COO B2C → Consumer Business
COO B2B → Enterprise Business
Chief Scientist → AI & Future Technology
Practo is essentially building a deeper leadership layer around the company.
6. The Founder Problem: Can You Scale Beyond Yourself?
This is where the Practo story becomes particularly interesting for entrepreneurs.
When a company is small, founders need to be involved in everything.
They may handle:
Sales
Product
Hiring
Finance
Customers
Marketing
Partnerships
Strategy
That involvement can be necessary in the beginning.
But there is a hidden problem.
The founder can eventually become the bottleneck.
If every important decision requires the founder, the company cannot truly scale.
At some point, the founder has to stop asking:
"How can I personally manage everything?"
And start asking:
"Who can build and manage this better than me?"
That is one of the hardest transitions in entrepreneurship
7. The Biggest Founder Lesson: Your Role Must Evolve
The job that makes a founder successful at ₹1 crore revenue may not be the same job required at ₹100 crore.
Early-stage founders are often builders.
They build the product.
They find customers.
They create the team.
They solve problems personally.
Later, the founder needs to become an architect of the organization.
That means building leaders, systems and structures that can operate without constant founder intervention.
Shashank's new role is an example of that evolution.
Instead of focusing primarily on day-to-day CEO responsibilities, he will continue to work on areas such as strategy, innovation, capital and corporate development.
8. The Bigger Bet: AI + Global Healthcare
Practo's next chapter isn't only about leadership.
The company has identified three major areas of focus:
1. Global Expansion
Practo is expanding its consumer platform internationally, including the UAE and United States.
2. Deeper Healthcare Ecosystem
The company wants to strengthen its role across different parts of healthcare rather than simply being a platform for doctor discovery.
3. Artificial Intelligence
Practo is investing in AI-led capabilities across existing products and new solutions, while Abhinav Lal's Chief Scientist role will focus specifically on frontier AI research and partnerships.
So the leadership restructuring appears closely connected to the company's next growth phase
9. What Founders Can Learn From Practo
1. Don't Build a Company That Depends on You
If every decision requires the founder, the organization isn't truly scalable.
Build leaders who can own important functions independently.
2. Your Title Isn't Your Identity
Being the CEO doesn't have to define a founder forever.
A founder's responsibility should evolve as the company evolves.
3. Build Leadership Before You Need It
Jagnoor had already been working inside Practo as COO before becoming CEO.
That creates continuity rather than an overnight leadership change.
4. Separate Strategy From Execution
Long-term vision and day-to-day execution are both critical, but they require different kinds of attention.
A strong leadership structure can allow both to receive enough focus.
5. The Bigger the Company, the Bigger the Leadership Team
At scale, one person cannot realistically own every function.
Great companies need great leaders across operations, technology, product, finance, strategy and innovation.
6. Founders Should Think About the Next 10 Years
A founder shouldn't only ask:
"What do I need to do today?"
They should also ask:
"What kind of organization do I need to build for the next decade?"
That question can completely change how a company is structured.
Conclusion
After nearly two decades of building Practo, Shashank ND is no longer the company's CEO.
But he isn't stepping away.
He is moving into a different role: Managing Director and Executive Chairman, focusing on vision, strategy, innovation, capital strategy and long-term corporate development.
At the same time, Jagnoor Singh has taken over as CEO, with responsibility for Practo's growth and operations across global markets.
The bigger lesson isn't about a title change.
It is about the evolution of a founder.
At the beginning, you build the company.
As you grow, you build the leaders.
And eventually, you build an organization that can grow beyond you.
That's perhaps one of the hardest transitions in entrepreneurship.
And one of the most important.
What do you think: Should founders remain CEOs forever, or should their role evolve as the company grows?
Let us know your thoughts in the comments.