Founders' Forum

From Chaos to Clarity: Building a Purpose-Driven Business with Sathya Elumalai

• Marc Bernstein / Sathya Elumalai • Episode 81

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Picture this: your business is suddenly thrown into chaos by an unexpected global event. What would you do? This episode presents an invaluable toolkit for navigating such unpredictable challenges with resilience and foresight. Ang leads us into the world of contingency planning with a poignant story about her sister's struggles, while our guest, Sathya Elumalai, an accomplished engineer and technology CEO, brings deep insights from the healthcare sector. Together, we unpack the essentials of documentation, cybersecurity, and flexible funding strategies, all vital components for business survival in tumultuous times.

We dive into Sathya's remarkable journey of innovation in healthcare technology. Inspired by his mother's chronic health battles, Sathya founded Aidar Health and developed MouthLab, a groundbreaking device that leverages AI to measure ten health parameters in under a minute. His story is one of passion and perseverance, overcoming entrepreneurial hurdles to make healthcare more accessible and proactive. The discussion reveals how personal experiences can drive technological advancements that transform patient care, especially in home settings.

As we wrap up, we shift focus to building a purpose-driven company. Sathya shares the importance of aligning personal and organizational values to attract top talent and foster a culture of innovation. With an ambitious goal to impact a billion people in a decade, the integral role of data science in revolutionizing healthcare delivery is highlighted.

About Sathya Elumalai:
Sathya Elumalai, Founder and CEO of Aidar Health, is a visionary in healthcare innovation. He has received several prestigious awards for his groundbreaking work, including the development of the FDA-cleared MouthLab device, which measures over 10 vital health parameters in under 60 seconds. A passionate advocate for delivering high-quality care remotely, Sathya is dedicated to improving the lives of patients with chronic conditions and their caregivers.

Connect:
aidar.com
linkedin.com/company/aidar
instagram.com/Aidar.Health
instagram.com/sathya.elumalai
facebook.com/AidarHealth
facebook.com/selumalai30
x.com/AidarHealth
x.com/SathyaElumalai
youtube.com/c/AidarHealth

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Announcer:

The following programming is sponsored by Marc J Bernstein. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of this station, its management or Beasley Media Group. Entrepreneur, author and financial consultant, Marc Bernstein helps high-performing entrepreneurial business owners create a vision for the future and follow through on their goals and intentions. Ang Onorato is a business growth strategist who blends psychology and business together to create conscious leaders and business owners who impact the world. Founders Forum is a radio show podcast sharing the real stories behind entrepreneurship as founders discover more about themselves, while providing valuable lessons and some fun and entertainment for you. Now here's Marc and Ang.

Marc Bernstein:

Good morning America. How are you? Good morning Arlo, who happens to be in the other room, because we're remote today and Ang Onorato is back with us this week, so welcome back, Ang. In the commercials. Ang, while we were in the waiting room, there was a Halloween commercial and I'm thinking things are scary right now, but with everything else going on in the world, I hadn't thought about Halloween this week. So so there's a lot scarier things going on. So, with that, um, what's so? Some of the things that are going on there's right now. This is October of 2024. There's a war in the middle East. There is, um, uh, you know, a contentious political election, which who knows where that's all going to lead to, and we've got. But the biggest thing is probably the natural disasters that have occurred in this country in terms of how it affects Americans, and it's severely affecting Americans. And, Ang, you have a personal story to tell about that and, I think, a topic of the day that that brings on. So let's hear about it, yeah absolutely.

Ang Onorato:

Well, thanks for also mentioning Halloween. It's my favorite holiday and this year it does feel a little bit more scarier than normal. But yeah, absolutely, I mean like millions of people.

Marc Bernstein:

You are dressed in black today.

Ang Onorato:

I am dressed in all black and I kind of have that outfit on, but just give me the witch's hat right. But, like millions of us are either personally affected, but yeah, it just so happens, my sister is down there outside of Asheville and she happened to actually not live down there. She was actually house sitting for several weeks, so it was kind of a random thing and ended up prior falling and breaking her foot in three places and has three dogs that she's watching and it was just been a very, very, very couldn't get in touch with her for days. So fortunately we have connected, she's okay, but we still can't really get to her. So it's just bringing up a lot for many of us and for me it's as we were talking about the show today.

Ang Onorato:

I thought you know, it's kind of revisiting that topic of you know how to be prepared for the unexpected right, and I think and there's a lot of different ways to look at that, both as personal lives, as founders or business owners you know how do we prepare for, whether it's a major crisis or if it's just a key person leaving the business or an unexpected, you know, regulatory issue or whatever. I'm just kind of curious about how you and our guests I know we'll introduce in a minute, but how do you prepare for the unexpected as a business owner?

Marc Bernstein:

Yeah. So a couple of thoughts that come to my mind. I mean, I know in our company we're re-looking at re-documentation of all our processes, things like that. Of course there's cybersecurity issues you have to be concerned about and, uh, in a minute Sathya will talk, who's our guest today, and sure he is. He's a technology guy and engineer by background. I'm sure he has some thoughts on this. But, yeah, those those types of things for business preparedness. I also mentioned that, um, we've moved in my built, my, my uh office into a new building and it's um, it's. It was an armory in world war ii, so it's got very, very thick walls, like two feet thick concrete walls, so it's my bunker. You know, something happens, that's what I'm at. But, um, you know, so those kind of things occur. You're thinking as well. You know you've done some preparedness around that Ang. But, Sathya, what occurs to you on that subject?

Sathya Elumalai:

Yeah, especially as a CEO, one of my main responsibilities is to be creative and create a culture of resilience and flexibility, which means, like there's contingency plans for every scenario, especially when you're working in healthcare, right? A sector that is known for its unpredictabilities. So we always being proactive, not just reactive. We always have multiple options on the table and we try to even diversify our funding sources get, like, additional grants if the main funding doesn't work out. Look for partnership, not always for the big ones and also from a manufacturing process right, how we can reduce issues in every step of the process and everything like. Even COVID taught us a lot of things, right.

Sathya Elumalai:

2020 was a year for unforgettable year for everyone, and like that's the year we actually submitted to our FDA for technology. We. We did our CE mark, iso certification. Everything all happened in a single year and it was challenging, but today we definitely have a lot of playbooks and SOPs in place. We make sure that things are documented before and after, and also there is a backup system pretty much everywhere. Especially when we are impacting individuals' life through our technology, there's more scrutiny, so we ensure that. One thing that I tell everyone in the company would you give our technology to your mom. Would you entrust this and ensure that nothing happens to her? And the answer is no, then let's go find a way to fix it. So that's what I've been the cornerstone of our company over the past eight years.

Marc Bernstein:

I just want to say, you know I work with manufacturers. I have this thing called the Manufacturers Forward Focus Forum, so we talk about ISO certifications and all the kind of certifications and things you need to keep up to date, and I just wanted to mention that for you because, in fact, iso is one of the reasons you're not with us today in person in Philadelphia, and that's that you're having an audit today, which is part of the deal. It's another part of preparedness. You got to be ready, absolutely yeah. So with that, let me, let me introduce you formally to our guests. So, Sathya Elumalai, did I say that? Right? Yeah, thank you, oh cool. Ms, mba, um is founder and CEO of Adar Health Incorporated in Baltimore.

Marc Bernstein:

Maryland correct is where you're located, or outside of Baltimore outside, like right now in Columbia, maryland yep, um so, uh, Sathya is a visionary in healthcare Innovation and that says that in his bio, but I, I, I subscribe to that idea because he, when you hear what he's done, it's pretty amazing the work that he's doing. He's received several prestigious awards for his groundbreaking work, including the development of the fda cleared which is hard to do mouth lab device which measures over 10 vital health parameters in under 60 seconds. Um, talking about efficiencies in health care, a passionate advocate for delivering health, high quality care remotely, Sathya is dedicated to improving the lives of patients with chronic conditions and their caregivers. Um so, welcome Sathya.

Sathya Elumalai:

Yeah, thank you so much. It's definitely a pleasure to be here to share my story, especially because it's a story of passion, perseverance and learning.

Marc Bernstein:

And, uh, happy to be here, let's jump in thanks, yeah, so let's start with um, let's start with your childhood, your education and all that, and then we'll talk about the story that helped you create the business, the personal story.

Sathya Elumalai:

Absolutely. I was born in India. Like many of us, I grew up in a family that has instilled in me the value of education and hard work. It's a very close-knit family and I always wanted to learn to problem-solving, particularly in the field of science and technology. But I did not know that the time, how this is going to be and how my time in India actually helped me actually design what I am doing today.

Sathya Elumalai:

Mostly working in India and looking into different challenges, especially healthcare challenges in India, was one of the inspiration behind what I'm doing today. But after getting my education, I came to the US and I studied at Johns Hopkins University, got an MBA and public health degree and also had an opportunity to actually work with innovators and entrepreneurs, especially within the Johns Hopkins University ecosystem, which also gave me a firsthand view of how health care is delivered After my time at Hopkins, which was kind of the inspiration for me to look into other ways of finding care. I also worked at a data analytics company where I was able to do a deep dive on how to use data and analytics, which was also kind of something that helped me to drive some of the things that I'm doing today.

Marc Bernstein:

That's great. And then, after the data analytics company, is that when you started working on this creation of ADAR Health?

Sathya Elumalai:

Yeah, absolutely so. At Hopkins I saw all the clinical side of things and also from the analytics company perspective. I saw a lot of things from the health insurance perspective. But I felt like I was not really doing something directly to impact patient care. And when my mom was diagnosed with a chronic condition and within a year she had like two or three other chronic conditions, what was very challenging? And at one point she asked me you're in health care, can you do something so that I don't have to go back to the hospital? So that was a point where I thought, okay, I'm an engineer by training, so why not I do something to help my mom? And I met my co-founders at Hopkins. So I started working on something that can be more like a communication tool that helps communicate what's happening with my mom's health with her physician and also with me. So that was the starting point. But the main thing was I thought it's a two to three year activity and I was way too confident about especially medical device industry. But only to know it takes years, and especially right now I'm probably in the ninth year of what we are doing.

Sathya Elumalai:

But we are very fortunate that we built a technology. It's called MouthLab. It's actually a device that's more like a breathalyzer you breathe into the device and it measures around 10 health parameters in under a minute, and we use AI technologies to actually help identify changes in patient health from their baseline so that we can help predict or prevent a potential hospitalization or an ER event. So that was the whole point, and we also found that, okay, mouth is a great place to collect key health information because of the access to breath, saliva and also blood vessels in the lips. So what we thought was like okay, we don't want to build another one-off solution, it's a variable or another technology that measures just one thing. But what if we could actually create more like a gateway for measuring hundreds and thousands of health parameters all within a minute, so we can actually truly impact patient care from the comfort of a patient's home?

Marc Bernstein:

So just on that. I wanted to ask you because we last talked several months ago how many metrics can be gathered now and where is that headed in the future?

Sathya Elumalai:

so right now we have FDA clearance for 10 metrics right now, but we are working on four or five other things within that uh device itself, but also the advantage of measuring all these things. As I said right um, we can build algorithms from the existing data. So that has, like imagine 10 into multiple combinations, so the probabilities are significantly high. So right now we also have two software as a medical device products which are taking data from our device and actually predicting hospitalization or an emergency event actually predicting a hospitalization or an emergency event which will also get FDA clearance eventually. So even if you don't add another sensor, physical sensor to the device, we could come up with maybe hundreds of products just with what we have.

Marc Bernstein:

It's amazing so. So one of the great things about this program is we get to interview people that are doing all kinds of great things literally changing the world, and this is another one of those examples and it's you know a lot of companies, you know our vehicle, how we meet people, is on linkedin, so there are people in all different stages of development and it's um and it's it's just amazing. All the innovation. It really gives you hope for the future when you, when you see all the innovation that's going on and how people are really trying to make the world a better place, when you hear all the negative news that I kind of started out with the show. So it's really cool that we get to do that.

Ang Onorato:

So obviously and Marc not to interrupt, but it's also the product itself is a really great representation of our topic today, right, it's helping people become aware of the unexpected, right? So if there's certain health indications that you can determine with your product that can help take a different preventative measure health-wise. That's just fascinating.

Marc Bernstein:

It's right. You're exactly right. It's the topic of preparedness. It's really amazing. So obviously, Sathya and you've alluded to it entrepreneurship is not a smooth ride down the street. There's a lot of challenges along the way. What kind of challenges have you had just before we take our break, and then we'll come back and talk about how you dealt with it just before we take our break and then we'll come back and talk about how you dealt with it.

Sathya Elumalai:

Absolutely no, especially like in our health perspective. Like we are both hardware and software company, so naturally we're facing a lot of challenges. That goes beyond just software startups encounter right Hardware, especially medical device or medical hardware, is a tough space FDA submission process for a medical device. It has a lot of barriers and, as I said, like 2020 was when we are doing everything and thankfully fda was working with us because they wanted a technology like this in the market at that particular time. But it comes with a lot of challenges and because there was closures of all the testing laboratories, so we were not able to do a lot of testing and patients were not able to come in to perform some kind of analysis right.

Sathya Elumalai:

So we did a lot of comparison studies. We did a lot of invasive studies where we needed patients to be in there, but it was very difficult and, like every single person in the company risked their lives, right. So we, when everyone is having COVID, we were all coming together to the office and not even a single person took a day off during 2020. And they made a commitment not to even meet their friends or family, because they know even if one person is affected, it's going to be a huge challenge. So we went through those hurdles. We went through the not even meet their friends or family, because they know even if one person is affected, it's going to be a huge challenge. So we went through those hurdles. We went through the challenges of getting through every single data point that FDA needed.

Sathya Elumalai:

So that was a huge opportunity for us to come together as a team and, as you may know, for companies like hardware companies, funding is a huge challenge. Right, investors look at it more from like a hardware capital intensive industry. So there's not much funding that is there like, especially for us. Our bar for success and evidence is far higher than like an app company or another software companies. So I mean there are a lot of setbacks. There are a lot of failures that we went through, there are a lot of missed deadlines, but despite all these things, we are incredibly proud about, like where we are today. We FDA cleared, we were able to adopt this technology into various long-term care facilities and we are able to slowly scale this technology so that we can actually make a measurable impact in people's life.

Marc Bernstein:

Thanks so much for that. It's time to take a break. We'll be right back in a minute with Founders Forum and we'll talk more with Sathya about how he handles these challenges.

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Marc Bernstein:

We're back on Founders Forum and we're with our guest today, Sathya Elumalai of 8R Health out of Columbia, Maryland, and we're talking about the challenges of the entrepreneur and specifically, the challenges 8R Health has had. And my question to you is, Sathya, is what is it about you? What's built into you and you alluded to this a little bit, I think, with your upbringing, et cetera but that it gives you? You know, you have to be persistent, you have to be resilient you talked about resilience a little bit earlier. What is it about you and your leadership of the company that has a culture that allows you to keep going?

Sathya Elumalai:

I think, personal mission right.

Sathya Elumalai:

I think for me it was always been my mom and she has been the driving force for me to actually build a technology.

Sathya Elumalai:

I didn't even think that I would be able to commit to something for like nine years of my life and because it's not a problem that like it's not an easy problem that we are solving, it's the hardest problem that we are trying to solve and we are trying to change, like the trajectory, like of how we can actually go into what we're using with this technology right.

Sathya Elumalai:

So, specifically, like right now especially, this has been a brutal year for me personally because I lost my mom, was an inspiration behind ADAR in Jan and within three months I lost my father and it was very challenging for me, but I think honestly, I didn't even have a day to actually think back and react or feel anything. I have their pictures in front of me, but I just keep going because they live through this company and one of the things that's going to keep driving me forward is the fact that, okay, I don't want another person to go through what they went through and if our technology can help, we wanted to actually make every single person in this world to use this technology. That's what keeps me going and that's what actually I try to inspire or instill upon every single member of ADAR.

Marc Bernstein:

Ang, I'm watching you online. I know you have something to say.

Ang Onorato:

Well, you just kind of ended with the question I always like to go to, Sathya, which is, you know, you talk about the challenges that you have to overcome how to be prepared, your, why your story to be prepared? Your, why your story? But running a company that relies largely on funding and FDA and competitive nature and the challenge of med device and really even the competition for top talent right, because as great as the product is, how do you build a foundation where people want to come and stay and work for the business with the business bring their why? Basically, right, how do you approach that? Do you have a particular approach or a value proposition that you find attracts people to bring their talents, when they maybe could go to a Medtronic or something and have kind of the cushy, comfortable, 401k padded job? So how does that work for you?

Sathya Elumalai:

Yeah, definitely. I think every single time when I interview someone, I always ask their why and how this product is going to help them actually make an impact, like what is the value of the product? And most cases, if people say like, oh, this is a cool product and the company is cool, then I would say thank you very much. Right, I would rather look for a real story, and we have had people within our company who actually teared up when they actually talk about their personal story, their personal need. But, as you said, it's very challenging, like I think, the Silicon Valley of the world have made everything very difficult for smaller startups because everyone wants to be in the Bay Area, everyone wants to work the Googles or Amazons of the world, so it's very hard.

Sathya Elumalai:

I mean, that's the biggest challenge that I encounter every single day. How can we retain the existing talents? How can we get more talents? So you have to keep driving. I mean, probably I put in like 100 hours a week. Try to make sure that our team sees what we are doing. I could take a break, I could relax, but the point is, I think, continuously empowering them with okay, what we have, how it's going to change the world, although they don't see it today immediately, and I just want them to feel like when this product impacts millions and billions of people, their work, even if it's one day worth of work, is still going to be a part of it, which is what I just try to preach every day, and hopefully it sticks.

Ang Onorato:

I guess, Well, I think storytelling is near and dear to my heart and I think it's more. Business owners need to understand the value of yes, when you can connect the value of the business to the value you know, uh, the impact that people want to make.

Marc Bernstein:

It's a. It's a great connection. Yeah, so, Sathya, um, well, one of the ask you, obviously you're a purpose-driven company and you're finding people with purpose and you're uh, and and you've got um, a vision for the future. You're forward looking, which is one of the things again I love about this, because everything we do is about forward focus, et cetera. So tell us about your vision for the next three years. I know that's something you wanted to discuss?

Sathya Elumalai:

Absolutely, I think. For us, what we built, as I was saying, it's not a one-off product. It's actually a platform that actually continues to scale More, like we have different apps within our phones. This device can actually put in existing sensors, we can build new sensors and all the algorithm that comes out of it can be used to actually do a lot more things. So our biggest opportunities right now is like we can actually lead the shift towards delivering healthcare at home.

Sathya Elumalai:

Today, technologies are not available. You're just having subjective data. If you ask a patient over the phone like, how are you feeling on a scale of one to 10? It might be like four or maybe 10. We don't know. So, which is why a rich, objective tool like MouthLab would be phenomenal to help actually change disease management from patient's perspective and for us, as we start exploring and getting more data from this patient, we are transitioning more into a data science company, from a medical device company. So what we see is like at least definitely scaling our technology so that we can touch a million people. That's our goal, immediate goal, but ultimately we wanted to touch a billion people in a positive way through our technology. That's great. Do you see that happening in the next three years? Next 10 years is definitely a billion people yeah.

Marc Bernstein:

Okay, so we expanded to the 10-year vision. That's great. But a million in three years, I think, is what we've talked about before, right, exactly, which is wonderful. So you've already kind of alluded to your legacy, because you are changing the world. You want to expand on that for a second.

Sathya Elumalai:

Yeah, absolutely. I think, from my perspective, I'm someone who fundamentally not just wanted to be known as an entrepreneur or somebody building technology. Right, I want my work at 8R Health to be more synonymous to a shift in healthcare, something that's more proactive, something that's moved from fragmented to continuous care, moved from fragmented to continuous care. Similar to other big entrepreneurs, or like famous entrepreneurs who actually transform transportation or space industry or technology industry, I am confident.

Sathya Elumalai:

I think this technology and our company can transform healthcare, and it's a hard sell and we are trying to do our best. So I envision a world where, like, no patients feel like that, they are lost in the system right, we discussed about that during our pre-interview where accessibility and personalized and like impact is more clear to the patients. So we wanted to equip healthcare providers with tools and technologies, and I want my legacy to be about building a bridge between advanced technology and more compassionate care, making sure that healthcare is more centered around patient and ensuring that no one is left behind. I mean, in short, like I, I just wanted to be remembered not as a founder or entrepreneur, but someone who brought some meaningful transformation in healthcare that positively impacted lives of countless people in the world and I'm hoping towards that legacy and hopefully that that is not too far away.

Marc Bernstein:

Well, it's a grand ambition. I think you're well on your way towards it and certainly making a difference in the lives of people. There's no question about it. We have one minute left, so a quick question. I know you're a voracious reader. What are your favorite books? What do you like to read?

Sathya Elumalai:

I think there are tons of books that I love, and I know a lot of people talk about different books, but one book that actually helped me transform or like gave that reality check is Hard Things About Hard Things by Horowitz. So that really talks about all the challenges like entrepreneurs have to go through, and I always recommend somebody who says, hey, I love startup and I want to be a part of it, and or I want to start my own company, I want to quit my like high paying job. I tell them read the book and I'm like, maybe if you wanted to go through that hassle, then just do what you wanted to do. Of course, my story. Hopefully one day I wanted to write a book where it talks about all the miracles that we encountered to sustain the business and um, but I think this book is a true example of how entrepreneurs have to have that mindset of resistance.

Marc Bernstein:

Well, thanks so much, sachi being here. It's time to wrap up. Thank you, Sathya, for being here. It's time to wrap up, thank you all. Thank you, ant, for being here, thank you all for listening to Founders Forum and we look forward to seeing you next week. Have a great day, thank you.

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