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.
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.
Solving real problems faced by real people and getting paid to do 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.
Making decisions based on incomplete or imperfect information
Ability to prioritize ruthlessly
Having fun yourself and keeping your team happy
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.
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.
How and what do you learn from failed experiments? How do you really feel about balancing public good and profits?
When we made our first prototype and it worked. We jumped and smiled and showed it to all my friends and family. This feeling is addictive
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.
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