I am Richa, an IIT guwahati alumnus. All through my life, I have seen people around me suffering emotionally. When I was preparing for IIT-JEE in Kota, A friend of mine, Ankit went into severe depression due to family expectations and intense competitive environment. Even after coming to IIT, I saw people suffering. One of my friend, Akshita (name changed) committed suicide due to anticipation of bad placement. but none of us had any clue of her suffering before she took the drastic step. I think this could have been avoided.

That’s when I realized there is a need for an emotional support system. When I started working, people around me were stressed due to job pressures and relationship issues. However, most of these people were not willing to talk about their problems fearing social implications and for the fear of being called mentally ill. This cemented my belief to fix this problem by doing something myself. With a team of like-minded people , I started www.yourdost.com. It an emotional support system for people like you and me to anonymously discuss our problems with qualified and experienced individuals. We support people in every possible way we can - by making them comfortable, listening to their problems and striving to be the friends of those who need someone to talk to.

Research states that 20% of Indians suffer from depression and every 4 minutes a person commits suicide in India. Have you ever wondered why? If you look at people around you, you will realize a lot of your friends having problems, or times when you wished you had someone to talk to. When people are usually shy to go to a counselor to discuss their problems, they can anonymously chat (online/offline - text, voice, video) with counselors on D.O.S.T, get into peer-peer discussion, read self help and feel better.

“We have successfully touched the lives of 300+ people and are determined to help all those who need emotional support. Currently, we our work voluntarily to help the people in need. The portal, developed by us, has the basic features and can support only limited number of people. Lately, with increasing awareness, we have been struggling to meet the needs of those seeking help. With every person we fail to support, we increase the risk of a drastic step being taken somewhere. This is our motivation to develop our portal so that it can handle the increasing demand and for this, we need to hire software developers at the earliest.

What did users say about us?

i was thinking to personally meet a professional life coach or something because i was getting overwhelmed with my recursive thoughts but since i have you guys helping me... i think my search has ended here
(BTech Graduate, preparing for banking exam and struggling to find herself)

i am not going to give up...let life throw any thing on me
(Dejected, lost due to failure in exams)

seriously feels good, the work you guys are doing for others, hats off
I am so thankful to you for such an inspiring reply. Really a heartfelt thanks. I have already started working towards getting a job.
(Gay person feeling rejected from society, speaking to us at 3am and then again few days later)

Please join us in our initiative so that together we can help those who need our support and create a happier society”

Our Team

Richa Singh: Richa is the Co-Founder and Conceptualizer for D.O.S.T.

She has led the product development for webfluenz for 3 years - Now, webfluenz is ranked among top 15 social media analytics tool. In March 2014, Webfluenz got acquired by Mu Sigma, leading Big Data and analytics solutions provider.

She has also worked with D.E. Shaw & Co and o9 Solution in Interaction Designer and Product Management Roles

She is a graduate from Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati with specialization in user-experience design.


Satyajeet Nandekar: Satyajeet is the Co-Founder and Conceptualizer for D.O.S.T

He is also a senior software engineer at HCA (earlier Patientkeeper) USA. Prior to this he has handled product development in mocospace - USA, Oracle - USA and Atos Orgin - India.
He has done his Masters in Information Systems from Northeastern University Boston, USA