Varad Puntambekar, co-founder of Peurity
Varad Puntambekar is a medical professional and DPhil (PhD) candidate in Clinical Medicine, focused on improving healthcare delivery.
Varad Puntambekar is a medical professional and DPhil (PhD) candidate in Clinical Medicine, focused on improving healthcare delivery. He's the Co-Founder and CEO of Peurity, and they are a 2 person team dedicated to developing innovative urine collection devices for infants. They're currently fundraising to build prototypes and conduct experiments on them.
What is your background? What made you decide to become an entrepreneur?
I trained as a medic in India, where a collaborative workshop between my medical school, an engineering school, and a business school opened my eyes to the power of entrepreneurship in solving healthcare problems. I have a keen eye to spot healthcare problems and the creative freedom that comes with solving them made me decide to pursue entrepreneurship.
What is your definition of entrepreneurship?
Solving real problems faced by real people and getting paid to do it
How and when did you know your idea was good enough to develop it?
Whenever I spoke to parents asking them to recall the troubles they had collecting their kids' urine, all of them, unanimously, responded with deep sighs, exclaiming that they had such a bad experience doing it and some of them even had to give up. That's when I knew, I was solving a real problem.
What would you say are the top 3 skills that needed to be a successful entrepreneur? Why?
Making decisions based on incomplete or imperfect information
Ability to prioritize ruthlessly
Having fun yourself and keeping your team happy
Having fun yourself and keeping your team happy
What is your favourite part of being an entrepreneur?
Having mentors instead of a boss, living by my own rules, and shaping my own path. I'm deeply invested in the success of my company and the impact of the products we create.
What individual, company or organization inspires you most? Why?
Google's approach to constant experimentation, even on minor features like the hue of a color, deeply impressed me. Despite their pervasive user data tracking, their commitment to accessibility stands out. By offering many products for free, Google has empowered individuals from Low and Middle-Income Countries, like myself, who otherwise couldn't afford these services. This inspires me to build technologies that are universally accessible.
If you had 5 minutes with the above individual/ company/organization, what would you want to ask or discuss?
How and what do you learn from failed experiments? How do you really feel about balancing public good and profits?
What would you say have been some of your mistakes, failures or lessons learned as an entrepreneur?
Jumping too soon to conclusions and assuming too much. Because I'm a medic I thought I knew a lot about the clinical question, speaking to more medics provided much more nuance to the problem in my head.
How have you funded your ideas?
Through grants
Are there any sector-specific awards/grants/competitions that have helped you?
What is good about being an entrepreneur in Oxfordshire? Bad?
We received funding at the ideation stage, with no expectation of equity or any motives other than wanting us to succeed.
There is a clear pathway for your startup to progress and there exist program appropriate to your companies needs at all stages from ideation to launch
There is a clear pathway for your startup to progress and there exist program appropriate to your companies needs at all stages from ideation to launch
If a new entrepreneur or startup came to you looking for entrepreneurship resources, where would you send them?
Any last words of advice?
Have fun.
Are there any Business or Entrepreneurship Related Courses that you would recommend?
You can keep up to date with Varad and Peurity by following them on LinkedIn.
