Dr Anish Kaushal is an interesting guy – he worked hard to become a doctor but an administrative hiccup led to discovering a career path in VC which he found more interesting than simply practicing medicine.
Now a Venture Capital associate at Amplitude Ventures, Anish invests in companies providing innovative solutions to the industry he almost worked in.
In addition to investing in startups, Anish is also an author – he’s written a ‘ niche guide to navigating career transitions’ as well as a book of poems (one of white he reads for us at the end of this podcast.)
LINKS
- Anish’s Website: https://www.anichexperience.com/
- Anish on LinkedIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anish-kaushal-md/
- Amplitude: https://amplitudevc.com/ – Amplitude Ventures is a Canadian healthcare VC firm launched by BDC departing partners Dion Madsen and Jean-François Pariseau. The Firm’s geographic focus is on Canada and has offices in Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal. The Fund invests across all segments of Precision Medicine, including therapeutics, medical technologies or other emerging areas including Artificial Intelligence enabling Precision Medicine, Healthcare IT and Services.
In a rush? Here are some highlights from this conversation
- Medical career paths and venture capital. (0:01)
- Studying medicine in the UK and personal experiences. (3:21)
- Career choices and setbacks in medicine. (7:00)
- Career path and job search in the pharma industry. (10:45)
- Interning at a pharmaceutical VC in Amsterdam. (14:28)
- Entrepreneurship, investment, and problem-solving. (17:50)
- Entrepreneurship, funding, and sustainability. (21:37)
- Entrepreneurship, venture capital, and career development. (25:03)
- Healthcare investing and entrepreneurship. (27:50)
- Venture capital fund management and distribution of profits. (30:51)
- Healthcare investment trends in Canada. (34:19)
- Challenges in scaling healthcare innovation in Canada. (36:59)
- Career changes and the challenges of navigating different industries. (40:29)
- Writing, self-doubt, and motivation. (44:10)
Spend time with this conversation - here's the full transcript
Dr. Anish Kaushal 0:01
So I talked to my parents and I was like, I want to leave like, this is just not it. I think I've a year, I was like, I want to try to do something in this year, because the advice I got consistently was, anytime you can get a job like real life work that's more valuable than a degree, because a degree is great, and it'll teach you a lot, but on the job learning is really what you're gonna get the most from, like, Okay, we'll give you a year. But if you don't get it in, like you should go back to medicine. I was like, that's a reasonable like, compromise, like, let's see how it goes. And I started talking to just everybody. I talked to people in banking, consulting, pharma, medical science, liaisons, physicians, like anybody who would speak to me, but I think I submitted like, I don't know, 75 200 job applications and went nowhere. So I was like, Okay, well, I'm not what I'm stuck. Fine. Like, I'll go back to school, no problem. And then mid August. So this was like six weeks before I was about to start. My dad's like, Have you heard of venture capital? I was like, What is a venture capital? Like, I do not know what that is. Because I was in medicine my entire life. And my the only idea I had of venture capital was a show Silicon Valley. So I don't
Qasim Virjee 0:52
know how accurate its lens on the world. It really is in technology.
Dr. Anish Kaushal 0:55
Absolutely. Your pitch. Exactly. Two weeks later, I jumped on a plane and to the Netherlands, which was a crazy change of events in life, for sure. But so you were interning, I was interning at a place called M ventures. So it's called Merck ventures. It's the corporate VC of Merck. So very large pharma, Big Pharma.
Qasim Virjee 1:17
Founded in 2017, start well, is Toronto's independent hub for innovators to collaborate, our podcasts relate perspectives from the world's most diverse urban population to reflect unique insights into global business? Media, and culture?
Qasim Virjee 1:38
Anish Kaushal., Dr. Anish Kaushal. Welcome.
Dr. Anish Kaushal 1:41
Thank you. So thank you very much. Really creative studio. It's a setup.
Qasim Virjee 1:45
Thank you very much. Yeah, we're pros, as well. So you know, I love that the place is ready to rock always. But yeah, I'm excited to talk to you because we bumped into each other. Of course, for our listeners, how we met, was to do with an event actually at an event that my wife told me to get out of the house and go to Yeah, and well, yeah. That's where we met because my wife's family doctor, interested in all sorts of, you know, evolutions that will help the health care system in Canada at least get better, if that's possible. Ideally, yeah. Hopefully, we're all doing. And so tell me a little bit about that part of your life about you know, the medical side, you are a doctor, I am no doctor, are you?
Dr. Anish Kaushal 2:28
So I am not a Well, it's funny, because somebody told me you're a dentist, man. I'm not a dentist. I'm not that I am a real doctor. I did go to medical school, but I am not a specific doctor. So what happened for me was I went to medical school, I spent six years there, finished it. And then before going into residency and choosing a path of you know, family medicine, or internal or dermatology or whatever, I left, and I moved into the venture world. And so that was five years ago now originally working for a company in Amsterdam. So I spent a little time there. Wow. Which is really cool. And then worked for a corporate VC of a large pharma company. We're the largest in the world. So that was really awesome. And so yeah, I ended up kind of avoiding all the residency and continuing down certain paths. All my friends are still physicians, my brother's a family doctor and my best friend's radiologist, you know, have friends that are families and internal and pathology and ophthalmology and all of that, and I just decided to do something different. So that's how we end up here.
Qasim Virjee 3:18
How did you? Well, firstly, where'd you go to school?
Dr. Anish Kaushal 3:21
I went to the University of St. Andrews in the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. Wow.
Qasim Virjee 3:25
And you're from where? toronto, toronto? I'm from Richmond Hill. So congratulations.
Dr. Anish Kaushal 3:29
Thank you. Three years ago. Thank you.
Qasim Virjee 3:31
What what was the impetus for going to Scotland?
Dr. Anish Kaushal 3:36
A few reasons. One of them at the time was medicine in the UK is actually an undergraduate degree. Yeah. So you can go directly out of high school. Oh, wow.
Qasim Virjee 3:43
You're Dougie Hauser. Who didn't practice?
Dr. Anish Kaushal 3:47
Yeah. That's, that's, I've heard that a few times, for sure. So yeah, it was I mean, I was really young. And essentially what happened was, I was in high school. I was always one of those science kids good at science and math. That's what I thought it was going to do. And then actually, in grade 11, I took economics for the first time, and was really like, wow, what the hell is this, this is really cool. And so after that, when I was applying to university, I applied to sort of a bunch of business programs, a bunch of science programs, all over Canada, but then I also applied elsewhere. So I took the SATs applied to the US, I applied to schools in Ireland, I suppose the schools in the UK, and I think a lot of that comes from my parents, especially my dad, he, you know, he kind of works in the healthcare finance industry as well. But his his motto was always education, particularly education abroad, and if you can get it really high quality universities, you know, his belief was at the cost of sending you and, you know, the experience that you'll get while there is worth it. And you know, very grateful Touchwood to you know, have that and yeah, have that, you know, role model kind of in my life. And so he was very, you know, kind
Qasim Virjee 4:43
of like in touch with where to make noise, but that's okay. I know he's
Dr. Anish Kaushal 4:47
got to touch but but so yeah, so I was very fortunate that he was like, you know, him and my mom were supportive of me like trying to apply and do all these things. So I you know, I think I applied to like 40 or 50 programs. By the time I was in high school, I was applying to everything ah, Doing a lot all the exams, tests resume stuff. And then yeah, the reason that the program actually came up was, so it was a brand new program at the time, it was specifically geared towards Canadians. And the idea was that it would take Canadians out of high school, train them in the UK. So you spent six years at two of the top universities in the world. And then through that you also do clinical electives in Canada. So I spent a summer in Edmonton. I spent four months there doing glorious beautiful Edmonds Yeah, we called it Edmonton. Yeah,
Qasim Virjee 5:25
I was born in Deadmonton. I got out of there when I was 6!
Dr. Anish Kaushal 5:31
Yeah. Probably a good thing. Again, it's, I mean, Touchwood we're very lucky. We spend time in the summer I didn't live there in the winter. But yeah, it's, it's, you know, I had a great time, I was really happy with it. I'll be out anyway, through that program, spent some time in Canada, and the idea being of the program was to get people back to residency jobs here. So essentially, you know, the Canadian system, as you may know, is you know, you do undergraduate you do your MCAT you interview, hopefully you get into medicine, but obviously, it's super competitive and really hard. And then once you get in, you decide kind of what you want to do. So for me, it was the choice was I would avoid all of the stuff I had to do on the getting into medicine side in Canada. But then the big struggle was sort of getting a job, right? Because you're applying as an international so that was the sort of, you know, sacrifice. I guess I kind of made but it worked out. Um, nope. Yeah. So okay, we took Glasgow and where else? Edinburgh and Manchester. Yes. Edinburgh University St. Andrews. We're so it's an hour outside of Edinburgh. It's the home of golf. If you're I
Qasim Virjee 6:27
don't know if your goal for yourself. Right. There's, there's Yeah, I know. There's a movie that came out about this chariots of
Dr. Anish Kaushal 6:30
fire was filmed there a long time ago. And then also the thing that is known for his wheeling Kate. So princess will Princess Kate and William. They both met went to St. Andrews and met there. So it's, it's a it's a very posh University in the middle of nowhere in Scotland. But it was amazing. Yeah,
Qasim Virjee 6:45
man. And so are you like scared straight? Will you ever deep fried Mars bar ever again?
Dr. Anish Kaushal 6:51
Um, probably not. It's very tasty. But we that is a thing.
Qasim Virjee 6:56
It's a real? Oh, yeah, for sure.
Dr. Anish Kaushal 6:57
It's a diabetes on a stick on here. So we got it. I remember. My first one was like second year at a chip shop. And it was like on a night out. And like we just passed in just like oh, deep fried rice was like, Oh, I've never heard of that. And yeah, you have one bite. And you're like, This is really good. But also like, this is so much sugar. Yeah, I can't keep eating this. Yeah. How did you hear about that? And I've always have, I don't know, man. Yeah, it's kind of like the word on the street or that, you know,
Qasim Virjee 7:20
gotta get it. Scotland. It's like, yeah, scotch. Deep fried everything. Pickles. Yeah, apparently.
Dr. Anish Kaushal 7:26
Yeah. And then obviously, Vegas. I'm trying to hurt it. I guess. Yeah. I did not enjoy that. Particularly.
Qasim Virjee 7:33
Taste, you know, six more years. Maybe you would have had that I think I would have ruined for haggis every Thursday night. I would have absolutely. Okay, so when you left there? Yeah. And, and you were looking for for gigs. You were thinking what to do next? Yep. Why this kind of jump in a VC stuff. So
Dr. Anish Kaushal 7:49
I didn't. It wasn't by design. And that's the thing I always tell people is my life has been a lot of luck and circumstances, the right timing the right place the right time, essentially, the MO or what happened was, I was in my final year, I was studying for finals. And I was just not happy with it. I was just like, you know, I was you know, you're studying all of medicine, you've learned so much to do. And I was just like, Is this really going to be the rest of my life, like always studying, always doing stuff. And so at that time, I started having conversations with my dad, and he was like, you know, you don't have to stay involved. And again, I attribute a lot of again, luck, like, you know, I just was very fortunate. I had a role model in my life who was like, You're not stuck in medicine, you could do something else, which I think for a lot of people, especially physicians, you don't really know that right? Like you think life is very one track minded. Who
Qasim Virjee 8:29
takes you 20 years. Yeah, medicine to figure out like, Hey, wait, what? I can stop for a minute, you know? Yeah. And then what? Who am I? Yeah, yeah,
Dr. Anish Kaushal 8:38
yeah, exactly. People never I really ask themselves a question, because I think you're always on the treadmill. And you start really, I mean, I was on it for free until I left. And I don't think people ever get off sometimes. And they never really realized. And so for me, again, the timing rationale was essentially, he was like, okay, you know, also at this time I was sitting for finals, I was applying for Canadian residency programs. And at the time, there was two exams that you had to take. So one of them was a multiple choice exam. And then one of them was a clinical exam. So like in Oski. And the clinical exam, I did really well, like, you know, had top marks, but the multiple choice exam, unfortunately, the time I was given wrong information by one of my advisors who set up the program, that all you have to do for that program was pass. Turns out that's not the case. It turns out, you have to do really well. And so the issue had happened was, there was essentially a threshold mark in order for you to apply to medicine. Never
Qasim Virjee 9:23
good advice when someone says, oh, yeah, the bottom. The bottom is enough. The bottom bar is what you want to aim for. Yeah,
Dr. Anish Kaushal 9:29
exactly. So and again, I don't know if it would have changed how I did stuff, or whatever. I mean, I'm not blaming him, it was on me. But at the same time, what happened was, there was a threshold, there was a pass mark, which is about 250. The threshold mark to apply for any program is 325. And I ended up right in the middle like 276. And the issue at that time was you couldn't retake the exam. So you were like, another year or whatever? Yeah, for another year, a couple years. Yeah. And so you're stuck. And so the problem was for all of the applying to medicine at the time, the first thing they looked at was that score, it was nothing else. And so I had done five Six years of observer ships worked, I had five papers as first author published in a variety of journals. By the time I graduated, I spent every summer working, I was like ready to be, I was committed to do it to becoming a doctor. Because of one test, everything disappeared. And again, I'm very grateful for it. And now looking back, because I ended up here, and I'm like, the happiest I've ever been. But at the time, it was very, like, you know, you go through a lot, because especially, I mean, the time of like, when I found out, and you know, I had friends who had applied and gotten in and interviews and doing all of that, and you're sitting there like, I have nothing. And I'm graduating then also at the same time was through a variety of circumstances with our program. They didn't allow us to stay in the UK. So I couldn't stay there to residency there either for a year. So I essentially a year off dealing figure out what works for us leaves exactly forced leave. And it turned into the best thing ever. Because for me, that was like, okay, that's what happens. Yeah, so I talked to my parents, and I was like, I want to leave like, this is just not it. I think IV year, I was like, I want to try to do something in this year. They're like, Okay, we'll give you a year. But if you don't get it and like you should go back to medicine, I was like, that's a reasonable like, compromise, like, let's see how it goes. So essentially, I started reaching out to people, you know, networks to my parents to people that I met, I called emailed and I started talking to just everybody I talked to people in banking, consulting, pharma, medical science, liaisons, physicians, like anybody who would speak to me of just like, What should I do what you know, this, my path is what I'm doing. So at the time, I was originally actually my goal was actually consulting and banking. So I ended up interviewing with a firm called Jeffrey's in New York, and also a consulting firm in London called Le K. And I got to find out interviews and then didn't get it. And so I was like, Okay, what am I going to do now? And so at the time, I actually was talking to a couple friends of mine from undergraduate, and they told me, one of them told me about this program in London. It was a one year master's. And it was in drug discovery and pharma management. So basically, the idea was like to learn about the pharma industry and how it works. And people could get jobs out of it. So she did the program got a job out of it. I went down to London. So I was still in the UK at the time, I met the program director, and they're like, yeah, like your profile like nobody has, because it's a master's but like, so it was mostly people who were doing undergrad.
Qasim Virjee 11:56
So you went straight into med school anyway, straight into a master's? No, no, hold
Dr. Anish Kaushal 11:59
on. That was the plan. That was the plan. Okay. That was the idea. Yeah. Do it hit a Do you hear that? Do you hit a wall? Yeah, well, wall or just luck. So I, so that was the plan. That was a goal. And then I applied, got into the program. And this was like, chill June 2018. July, but my program didn't start till October, like early October, late September, early October. So the entire summer, I was still applying to jobs reaching out to people, because the advice I got consistently was, anytime you can get a job, like real life work that's more valuable than a degree, because the degree is great. And it'll teach you a lot, but on the job learning is really what you're getting from. So anyway, applied all these, you know, all these consulting, banking, I think I submitted like, I don't know, 70 or 200 job applications and went nowhere. So I was like, Okay, well, I'm not, I'm stuck. Fine. Like, I'll go back to school, no problem. And then mid August. So this was like six weeks before I was about to start. My dad's like, Have you heard of venture capital? I was like, What is a venture capital? Like, I do not know what that is? Because I was in medicine my entire life. And my the only idea I had of venture capital was a show Silicon Valley. So I don't
Qasim Virjee 12:58
know it's a pretty accurate. Its lens on the world.
Dr. Anish Kaushal 13:01
It really is in technology absolutely repeated. Exactly. But I didn't think it was I was like, I thought it was only tech. Like, I didn't think it was healthcare, right. I thought it was only like California or the US like my dad's like, no, like they have international firms all over the world that invest the same venture, but also in healthcare, like in biotech in med tech and digital health. I was like, Oh, I didn't know that. And so basically, there was one Sunday in August, I looked up the top 75, VC firms and healthcare around the world. I just called email them. And I said, Hey, my name is Dinesh, I just graduated medicine. I'd love to talk to you if you're open to it. And as you can imagine, a lot of people don't respond, because that's the way the world works. Yeah. But a few people got on the phone and some people wrote me emails, some people spoke to me like, I remember one guy, he was like, in San Diego. He's like a partner at like McKesson ventures or something. And he did his PhD at the University of Dundee, which was like, 10 minutes from St. Andrews. So the only reason he talked me because like, oh, Scotland, like I remember, I used to live there. I was Scottish. And, and that was when Mars born exactly these organizers. And so I was really grateful. And then one firm came back and said, Hey, we actually have an internship program. Are you interested? And what's crazy is it wasn't advertised at the time. So I didn't know it existed. It was totally a shot in the dark. And so I was like, yeah, in my head, I was like, absolutely. But at the same time, like I'd been rejected from, I don't know, 100 plus things. At this point. I was like, There's no way I'm gonna get it, like impossible. And so I interviewed with them. It was the three hours of interviews and then two days before I was about to move to London for this program, like I was, you know, setting up my house, I was gonna live with a friend. I was like, you know, getting bank account and that phone and all that stuff ready for London. They're like, can we really like you? We'll see you in Amsterdam. So yeah, two weeks later, I jumped on a plane and to the Netherlands, which was a crazy change of events in life, for sure. So you were interning, I was interning at a place called M ventures. So it's called Merck ventures. It's the corporate VC of Merck. So very large pharma company. Yeah, Big Pharma. So I was on their therapeutics team, which is about two and a 50 million US of the 500 at the time. And they're investing primarily for mercs related areas. So the number was what their funds fund size. Yeah, the total fund size was 500 million
Qasim Virjee 15:00
that's Greenfield or that's like evergreen annual commitment. Evergreen evergreen, that's
Dr. Anish Kaushal 15:04
the word evergreen. Exactly. Greenfield basically the same thing. Okay, every basic capital just constantly gets recycled. But they've been around for about 10 years, and they did really well in the therapeutics team, but they had like four divisions. So they had a therapeutics department, life sciences department, materials department and the tools department. So I wouldn't turn for the therapeutics team, which was the biggest end sort of largest team at that time. Yeah.
Qasim Virjee 15:25
Nice.
Dr. Anish Kaushal 15:26
Yeah, it was crazy. I
Qasim Virjee 15:27
was living in Amsterdam, everything that you know, when people it
Dr. Anish Kaushal 15:31
was it was it was actually a lot nicer and more chill, because I think people from the west feel very chill. It's the West. Yeah, it feels on the west. Think of like, you always think of coffee shops or the red light district. And like, that's not it when you're there. Like it's very clean. It's very pretty. The Summertime is unbelievable. It's super easy to get around everybody bikes. Like you know, there's there's a very famous thing there's there's like more bikes than people in Amsterdam. Yeah. Like, there's literally bikes everywhere. And it's yeah, it's super. And it's just like, very historical, like a lot of really cool museums. The parks are beautiful. So yeah, I had a really great time. I was unfortunate, just timing because I was there over winter. So it's like, I mean, we lived in Canada. So you know, it's it was a little bit better than that. But, but yeah, the summertime and just like the ability and access to like the rest of Europe and be able to travel and have friends come visit like it was it was awesome. Really?
Qasim Virjee 16:17
What was it like interning at this internal pharmaceutical VC? And also, yeah, with that you're in Amsterdam, but I'm sure there's deals all over the world that they're looking at?
Dr. Anish Kaushal 16:28
Yes. So they were predominant focus on Europe in the US. We never got to travel for that talk, because I was intern at the time. But you know, you you talk to companies obviously everywhere. And, and so so yeah, it was it was amazing. It was like we just had
Qasim Virjee 16:39
to go to the coffee shop to get the spliffs for you know, for managing director, director. Yeah,
Dr. Anish Kaushal 16:45
I mean, to be fair, and people never really talked about the office. But anyway, that's a different conversation for overtime. But no, it was it was really, I think eye opening because for me, I think the like I came from the medicine background, my clinical, and all the stuff that we did was very early stage science. So it was a lot of like reading papers, reading research, talking to professor's talk to me about that, like literally just starting companies. And I come from the far end of that, right? Because if you think about the way science works is like you start in the lab, you do basic science, then you do translational, then you get to clinical medicine, and then you get to physicians, because they're actually prescribing it. So I came from the other side, right. And so I was like learning on the fly, because also like I didn't go to school for this, like I had no background, like basically the first couple of months. Touchwood I'm very grateful that like I got I had research background. Yeah. And so like, that was helpful, if any, like understanding and picking up papers, but that firstly, couple months, I was like, I don't know what I'm doing anytime, which I think a lot of people feel at different stages of life, doing different things. But I was again, very grateful, really good team.
Qasim Virjee 17:41
But that's wicked wheel, that feeling of kind of like not knowing what you're doing yet being in a position where like, you're fairly comfortable to be able to figure it out. Yes,
Dr. Anish Kaushal 17:49
it's kind of awesome. Oh, yeah. And I think to your point, that was an experience that like I think gave me the confidence to be like, if you go into a new area, it's like you're supposed to not know, because most everybody when they start, they don't know anything we don't like when you started this. And when you're doing anything like that, when I started writing and doing venture and doing every single day, every single day.
Qasim Virjee 18:06
Like I don't know how to do Yeah, like, I don't even have an alarm clock, you know? Yeah, like, I just I wake up, and I do start out exactly the list every day. I gotta get stuff done. So I thought
Dr. Anish Kaushal 18:16
Yeah, well, I mean, you're telling me about, like, you know, the LED thing you had in the background, and to your point, that's just like a, you know, you see a problem that somebody talks to you about, and you're like, I think I can do something about that. And like, let me see if I can figure it out. And I think for me, that experience was like, cemented that we do have the ability to figure it out. And then I think if you stick with something and you're resilient, you ask questions. I think also, if you're around really good people, and I think that really matters, like speeches, especially people that are like, willing to teach you willing to, like, you know, help you go through that process. Like that's a big thing. I think a lot of people sometimes don't have like, you know, the mentors or the people next to them, like friends even to say like, yeah, you're doing a good job, right? Because I think there's so many times where we're in our own heads, we don't think we're doing anything great. Like somebody's we're always comparing ourselves to somebody else. And I
Qasim Virjee 18:56
have this great thing. I learned this long time ago about myself that like, I know when to stop, you know, when I'm building something, something new. I know that I've done enough. When I look at it, and I think is this awesome? Or is this a piece of shit? Right? And I don't know the difference then at that point. I'm like, I'm done. I'm done. It's got built is great. I just probably amazing. Yeah, but I can't tell anyone
Dr. Anish Kaushal 19:21
I was gonna say so how do you is that like in conversations with other people that you then figure out what which one that is and whether you should continue or not? Or is that more a personal like,
Qasim Virjee 19:30
honestly, it's never it's never shit? No, that's I say, yeah, it
Dr. Anish Kaushal 19:33
was a long time. No, but yeah,
Qasim Virjee 19:34
it's always people around me. And it's definitely you know, it. That's a whole like, can of worms to take this conversation down or read? That's okay. It's a great point. And it's it's definitely a subject of a vlog that I have cooking on entrepreneurship. I'm starting this thing called entrepreneurship one on one cool and it's not really just little snippets of lessons from the field for, you know, new entrepreneurs. Yeah,
Dr. Anish Kaushal 19:57
well, I'm happy to give the investor side if anybody ever wants to Think so? Yeah, we're going to do another time. But
Qasim Virjee 20:01
yeah, we'll have you on the vlog as early. But yeah, so like, my thoughts on this are very much that like, you know you want to you, you want to be very careful, I think going in entrepreneurship with seeking soundboards. Yes. Because if he accurately, kind of receive feedback, parse through the lens of assessing the worthiness of perspective you're receiving, yep. Then you won't learn anything. Absolutely. And a lot of entrepreneurs fail, especially in technology, because they sorry to say this bluntly, take the advice of investors. I agree, but I was not, you know, and assuming that that's someone that's within their company, that's someone that understands their perspective that someone that like, is looking through their eyes. Yeah. And your employees will not be able to see everything you see
Dr. Anish Kaushal 20:48
No, not at all? Well, I think also, it's to your point, it's, I think, the feedback portion, you're so right. I think, like for me, one of the things I've read about is like you should never take advice from someone you don't want to be or you don't value, or someone who's not done the thing you're trying to do. I think investors sometimes, you know, I mean, I look at many different things every day, but like, I've never built a real company doing that thing. And I think also the other feedback is really the feedback should not come from investors, if I'm coming from customers, right? Like, those are the people that your saw. And to me, it's always and I think this articulation is a VC. I mean, I talked about a lot with people that we advise and people that come to me is your articulation of the problem. Yeah. And the articulation of why your solution is the best reason for that problem. And figuring that part out and articulating and communicating that is so important, because that's recruiting that's talking to people that's talking to me and you that's pitching this doing all of that, and I think a lot of people kind of fall short is like, why is this a problem? And why is this the best solution? Yeah.
Qasim Virjee 21:37
And also, you know, for the VC talk, I think there's something interesting there, which I always tell people is in a non super capital intensive business. So like, if you don't need a ton of money just to prove a hypothesis, doled it? Well, no, I'd say yeah, build it, sell it, you take it if you if it can help the outcome for the business. Yeah. And you can manage the cap table. And that makes sense for your future. Yep. But businesses need to be designed to be sustainable. Yeah. Yeah. Before you take capitals or in situ with taking capital, it has to be sustainable. Because, you know, I look at it also as a very interesting thing, but like so many entrepreneurs who take venture capital for early stage. Yep. Get on the funding track of thinking that now their destiny is locked into an IPO or m&a That's after series D or something. Yeah. And it's like, You're stupid. You don't need every single business doesn't need a prompt with cash doesn't
Dr. Anish Kaushal 22:32
In fact, you shouldn't do it unless you absolutely have to. And also, unless you think you can get a 10 to 15x outcome for your investors, it's probably not. And
Qasim Virjee 22:40
at the same time, so many investments get made as throw it in the trash investments, that like the people who are being invested in as that 90% failure rate don't look at their own destiny as a failure. Yeah, of course. So they should take a step back off in cases and say, Well, what, okay, I've locked in a bunch of investment now, how long can I ride that out? Yeah. Why do I need to fulfill my investors mandate for my investment? Yeah, cuz I'm running a company. They're just buying some equity.
Dr. Anish Kaushal 23:07
Yeah, yeah. Well, it's also to your point, it's also I mean, there's a lot of things to be said about, like, you know, runway milestones, like hitting on specific things. And to your point, I think the other thing that, again, I find the shift, like, I think we're fundamentally going through a different change right now. I mean, we were talking a bit about macro before and kind of where we are. And I think the issue, not the issue, but I think entrepreneurs, the last sort of 15 years have grown up in a QE low rate environment, where money was always free and available, and you could always get it. And that is fundamentally changed. And so money's not free and available, and the cost of capital is high, and your hurdle rate now is even higher, especially to your point from capital intensive businesses. And, and so anytime you take on new money, you got to make sure you're really like, you know, like, you know, really, you know, performing and really getting somewhere because I think a lot of people could just dilute and dilute and raise and raise and somebody out there was a series, you know, the soft banks of the world will always have money, and they're always around and they could always, you know, it didn't really work go bankrupt yesterday. Yeah. 47 billion to zero. And, yeah, so it's, I think that's the thing that's changed, especially, I mean, like, you know, there's different types, like, for example, the biotech business that we do you need capital to fundamentally like, in order to get the drug to market, you need a lot of money. Yeah, that's different than, you know, selling a software to, you know, customers around the world, like, really, at the end of the day is execution. I think also its sustainability. Like suddenly you thought, right, I think people for a long time investors prioritize growth. Yeah. And that's what everybody always heard is Grow, grow market sales, you know, spend suspend. Now to me, it's sustainability. It's like profitability, and it's like, can you grow sustainably? I mean, yeah, sometimes you need extra capital to grow. If you you know, see product market fit and you want to scale and, you know, you have to fulfill a lot of what you're doing. Absolutely. But like don't overreach for that, right, because you're that route next round of financing may not come. And then what, right, and we've seen that I mean, business like there's another business I saw, I think was called all of health or something like that. They raised I think, $800 million. I mean, we saw this in our thing, valued at like four or five A billion has gotten to zero. Right? And that's a lot of money. That's gone. Right? Yeah. And so that's the other thing, too is just like, especially as entrepreneur, like, the prioritization should be sustainability, profitability, you know, finding customers getting feedback iterating and building a real business, not just a venture backed, you know,
Qasim Virjee 25:16
so easy to spend money. So it's so easy to spend money, it's very difficult to make money. And also, I look at it like this to be committed to making money. Yeah. Like, most venture backed companies are not committed culturally to making money. No. And you know, there's a nuance to this, because and I always say that, again, my my benchmark for a pain threshold of an entrepreneur is whether they could bootstrap a company. Yeah. Yeah. It's not about the ingenuity involved in creating a product and service. Yeah. It's literally about the grind. Yeah, the grind and resilience, not just being in the soup operating, but committing to the career of solving problems daily. And being in something. Yeah. And and there's a lot to talk about there, for sure. But so on the other side of the table on the investor side, yeah. You know, what was the evolution out of this? Because you were at work? You said, we're about a year,
Dr. Anish Kaushal 26:13
no, about seven months. So it's a six month internship. And then I took some time off just to travel. Yeah. And so then after that was, so basically, the story was that it was because of his internship, I found out three months in, that I wasn't gonna stick around. Like, they didn't have an opportunity for me to have a full time job. Yeah. So at that point, I talk to my parents, and they were again, you know, the, in the back, it was like, if you don't get a job, at the end of the year, you have to go back to medicine. And in my head, there was just no way I was going back to medicine, like impossible, because I like, to me it was the first month I'll never forget it. It was like a, it was like November, early November, and I woke up one day before my alarm. And I was like, excited to go to work. I was like, I can't wait to get to work to try and learn something. And I never ever felt that medicine ever. And so to me, I was like, well, that's a sign that honestly, this is really interesting. So this venture thing, I was like, this is really cool. So basically, after the three months, I reached out to probably 100 VCs around the world cold email network, the LinkedIn contact asked for, you know, show up to conferences, anything, just to talk to them to see advice to ask about opportunity to see where they would go. And a lot of them I'm still in touch with today, which is great that as you know, helped my career down the road. But then I ended up getting to a place where I had three final interviews with three firms around the world. So one was with a firm in San Francisco, one was with a firm in Germany. And then when was with a firm in Canada called amplitude. And so I had been gone from Canada for seven years. And you know, they were starting from scratch. And they wanted to build something really big here. And so I was like, You know what, like, my skill set was obviously differentiated. It's very rare that you find a doctor with venture experience, especially internationally. And so I, you know, decided to join and that's when I actually moved to Montreal. So I lived there for almost a year before. COVID. Right? And then COVID Shut down the world. So I ended up moving home to my parents house, and then in Toronto. So that's how I kind of got into where I am now. So
Qasim Virjee 27:53
tell us Okay, so the event that I met you at in the beginning, it was amplitude, it was Halo health event, Halo, Halo Halo health. So break it out for me, what's who's
Dr. Anish Kaushal 28:00
who. So amplitude, were a large venture fund that we do sort of like we're you know, we're now on our second fund, managing almost half a billion dollars, investing in biotech medtech. And health tech, Halo health is sort of a smaller fund, but they're almost like an angel group of investors. Okay. And so what they do, they're sort of differentiation is all of their members are doctors. So that's me, imagine what your wife got in touch or in writing, right. So a lot of people that are there are actual physicians, so like, you know, understand the problems are working day to day. And so this is all all the hill health people are kind of doing it on the side. So it's, you know, physicians are practicing, have some practice for a long time, and kind of want to help and do other things or see how they can, you know, leverage and benefit from that. So, you know, Luke has a friend of mine, and you know, met him as well. And now based in Calgary, so he started that many years ago, I really want to grow and scale and now he's built a team, and they have a lot more, sort of, they're accessing a lot more doctors all over the country. And it's really helpful because if you're a company, like if I'm a medical device or digital health company, and I can get a doctor on my cap table, right, knows my product, knows the problem can help me and advise me on directions, especially as a technologist, I find sometimes especially in the medical field, especially in the digital health world, we have a lot of tech people being like, oh, I can solve healthcare. It's so easy. And that is not the case. As I've seen many years for many years, it's hard. It's difficult. There's a lot of issues, there's a lot of nitty gritty that unless you're working day to day in the system, you don't really appreciate. So you know, having people like that on around the around the table is really helpful. So anyway, that's how Halo health I got in touch with them a few years ago during COVID. I always kept in touch with Luke. And so that's how we ended up meeting at the event because I think they they hosted something around the conferences we were at, and that's how we got in touch. So amplitude
Qasim Virjee 29:38
is where you are. Yeah. And what's who is amplitude like it's a
Dr. Anish Kaushal 29:45
so we are a spin out of the BDC so people may have heard of the BDC. So our
Qasim Virjee 29:50
partners for our non Canadian listeners and viewers. The BDC is the Business Development Bank of Canada very unique institution. That is a parastatal of some degree. So organization kind of funded by an owned by the government crime court. They do a bunch of stuff. A lot of it is debt. Yep. For all sorts of
Dr. Anish Kaushal 30:12
openers, yeah, yep.
Qasim Virjee 30:13
I didn't, maybe I didn't know this, but I forgot. Yeah.
Dr. Anish Kaushal 30:17
So essentially the SR partners who started the firm Dion and JF, and then two other folks brought Nelson, they were at the BDC, running their former healthcare fund. And then they essentially had a big exit, one of the companies they started actually got acquired for over a billion dollars, called Columbia pharmaceuticals. And so because of that, they then wanted to spin out and sort of start their own fund outside of the BDC. Because as you can imagine, a Crown Corporation, lot of bureaucracy, a lot of stuff, you have to deal with a lot of things that, you know, can restrict sort of the vision that they had. And so they ended up spinning out and started, you know, raising money. And so that's when I got hired, and myself and two other members of our team as early employees. So this was back 2018. And I was hired before we even raised any money. And then we raise the first fund, which ended up being 200 million Canadian, which at the time was the largest initial fund ever in Kane, history, and biotech. And then the second fund we've been raising for the last year and a half, two years, is going to be 200 million US. And it's really cool, because I think it's a testament to what we're trying to build in Canada and what we're trying to show. And yeah, it's been super exciting to kind of be a part of the ride. So the fund primarily invests in Canadian opportunities, primarily, yes, we do invest outside, too. So we invest in us, we have investments in Europe as well, but most of our capital is allocated to Canadian companies. Let's
Qasim Virjee 31:24
break this down for anyone interested in venture capital. How it works. Yeah. Because also, it's interesting talking to someone who had to learn it to do it. Yep. And has learned it just in the last few years. Yep. Okay, so you mentioned that investment from the BDC. Yep. Yielding. And these guys going off spinning off their own thing. Yep. So if you're a VC working for, you know, an employee of a venture capital fund, yep. You know, writing checks into companies? Yep. If those companies that you write checks into, have an exit, yeah. And the fund wins on their investment? Yep. How does that get dispersed into people's pockets as employees?
Dr. Anish Kaushal 32:02
So is decided usually by the manager says it by the GP as a bonus, so they, then it depends on what's called an LPA. So it's called a limited partner agreement, essentially, that's the agreement that we have with our investors. So for example, let's say I'm a GP managing a fund, and you're my investor. So we, you know, negotiate what the terms of our funders, right, and then we decide. So for example, if we have a big win us, as the GP, make the decision also with, you know, advising our investors and talking to a lot of people and seeing whether we return the money, or whether we can also sometimes recycle capital. So for example, when we had an early exit on one of our initial companies in fund one, the decision was made, because it was so early in the fund cycle, because usually funds, you know, last seven years, exactly, yes. And again, because they last a long time. And this was very early in the when we thought about we recycled the capital. So therefore, you know, you could put into, you know, higher performing companies, you could, you know, ideally add more returns longer term. So, that's a decision made by the GP and it's negotiated with the investors. So it really depends. Yeah. Okay.
Qasim Virjee 33:01
But typically, the industry standard is is 220 model, right? So 10% of whatever you raise as a fund from your LP or your investors is fees, is fee so you can kind of like pay people salary and rent and stuff off of that. Exactly, somehow. Yep. And and then the 20% is your share of the win. Yeah, exactly.
Dr. Anish Kaushal 33:18
And so if you have let's say, for argument's sake, you know, you raise a $10 fund, and you have $100, that gets dispersed. That's a great fun. That's like an unbelievable fund that very unlikely to happen, right? Well, let's say for argument's sake, you got 100. So $80 of those goes back to investors. So they made an 8x on their initial $10 investment. And then the GP, which is the partner that started it, they make the $20 out of that, right, yeah.
Qasim Virjee 33:41
So sorry, the BDC people who founded this fund, had a little bit of a payday. They didn't, it was at
Dr. Anish Kaushal 33:48
an exit and a big exit. So a company that they started called Clemente pharmaceuticals. At the time, it was the largest one of the largest acquisitions of a Canadian biotech company in history. I was quiet for $1.3 billion. And they were the first check. So as you can imagine, that did really well. And so because they had the exit on that side, then they eventually got to spin like B, they were able to spin out. And then BDC was what's called an anchor LP. So they put the largest check initially into the first fund, which typically
Qasim Virjee 34:15
happens in every LP or every fund in Canada write
Dr. Anish Kaushal 34:18
a large check. Oh, you mean the BBC? BBC. BBC has invested a lot of funds. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.
Qasim Virjee 34:23
And then did they move their health investment business over to this fund?
Dr. Anish Kaushal 34:28
Yeah. So BBC doesn't have a healthcare business anymore. Interesting. Yeah. So and that's a long term arrangement. You while Yeah, but I mean, there's no there's no idea to go back. They're still the so the people that were on the old BDC team are still managing some of the portfolio because the portfolio didn't necessarily disappear. So there's still managing some parts. So there's still in touch with the BDC and still doing a lot of that work. But otherwise, amplitude is completely separate, independent entity.
Qasim Virjee 34:48
Yeah. Okay. So amplitude invests in all sorts of different health care, mostly
Dr. Anish Kaushal 34:52
biotech. We do technically have an mandate to invest in medical devices and digital health as well. All So AI in diagnostics, but most of our capital is dedicated biotech.
Qasim Virjee 35:03
So quick glance at the Canadian landscape for innovation. Yep. What are the top trends you're seeing in terms of? If there are, you know, areas of focus within that, that companies are being founded to solve? Or is it across the map, different entrepreneurs tackling different problems?
Dr. Anish Kaushal 35:22
I would say probably the second one, there's a lot of areas that again, it really depends on the type of industry you're going into. And like biotech is very different than devices in different than digital health. So for example, like, let's just take biotech. So Canada does really well, on the cell and gene therapy side, we have like the CCRM, and NRC, and also like a company called Accelera, that was built out in Vancouver, you may not know about it, but they actually developed the first COVID antibody with a company called Eli Lilly, they ended up doing really, really well because of that. And you know, they ended up you know, actually IPO during the time, the IPO their valuation, again, this was the craziness of 2020 and 2021. Update a $15 billion valuation. Yeah, and it was a deal we missed out on. So that's, that's another topic for another day. And so anyway, they did really well. And Vancouver is doing really well for selling gene therapy. So this company called signworks, that was based out of there on the sort of antibody side, there's company called precision nanosystems, that was based out of there as well. So that's a sort of a bigger hub in that in that direction. In Toronto, we have a really strong culture of research, obviously, you know, all the universities that around Toronto, are really, especially on imaging, there's a lot of really interesting imaging on the device side, that's in and around Toronto. And then also on the digital side, what I find in Canada is that we have a lot of really early stage digital health entrepreneurs, so a lot of really interesting people, you know, targeting interesting ideas, so that you, for example, you see mental health startups everywhere, you're seeing, you know, startups related to, you know, AI in clinical trials, or, you know, how to, you know, process medical information quicker. So, for example, if your doctor, you know, if you are you able to, you know, dictate faster and like, you know, you're able to go that route, everyone hates charting, exactly, everybody hates charting. So to your point. So I think there's, there's a lot of really interesting ideas. But I think the problem in Canada is you can't get scale, because the regulatory environment amongst each province is very difficult to try and to go across provinces is hard. And at the end of the day, you're just not going to get paid, right? And so the business model is really difficult, because we're a public healthcare system. How do monopolies
Qasim Virjee 37:14
in Canada lock innovation out of implementation? Oh, that's
Dr. Anish Kaushal 37:20
a great question. Um, this in your mind? Yeah, in biotech, so a lot of it is related to health Canada and the way they operate, and also the reimbursement, right. So, for example, for me, as a biotech investor, if I invest in a cancer drug at an early stage, the goal of that drug, if it gets to market is that I can sell it for 100 to $200,000, for treatment in that indication, because that's what the US market is the thing with Canada, because the money comes from the Canadian government, they're just not going to reimburse that, right. So we're going to use a lot of generic treatments like chemotherapy, radiotherapy, surgery, stuff that's been off patent, because we're just not going to pay for it. So that's the thing that Canada, the Canadian healthcare system is, and it's just again, it's just by design incentives, like, you know, I'm very grateful that we get to go to the doctor, and it doesn't cost us an arm, a leg versus the US is very different. But at the same time on the venture and investor side, and company side, the markets, just not here in Canada, like the way I think about it's just it's like being smaller than one state in the US, which is like the scale is just completely different.
Qasim Virjee 38:17
It's an interesting perspective there, then innovation, finds markets, you know, like, businesses will try and find clients and customers and go where the market is, which may take them out of their borders. Absolutely. Especially in this space because of healthcare, so crucial for you know, advancing humanity. Yeah. Well,
Dr. Anish Kaushal 38:41
and I think I mean, the thing is just, it's like, at the beginning, you almost have to like the US market, you have to be in basically more or less just because of size and where it is, yeah, the idea being that, you know, 1015 years down the road, it's a real product that's really off patent, it will eventually come back to Canada and will help and it's part of that.
Qasim Virjee 38:57
But we have no government infrastructure to help keep that kind of innovation at home and nurture it and replace a customer as the government like procurement on
Dr. Anish Kaushal 39:06
this on on, not on the biotech side, I think on the device side and the digital health side. Yes, but it's not, it's just not the same scale, right. So for example, like I'm looking at this opportunity, that's a medical device as a catheter that you can use during stroke treatment, really interesting company really, really cool. And they're starting to sell in Canada, which is great. So you're actually seeing patients and it's actually changing people's lives. Like there's a case that they did in London, where, you know, this person came in with a stroke, within 10 minutes, they operated using their device, and she was able to walk home two days later, and like has full function, which is unbelievable, especially as a physician or a new device or new device. Yeah. Which is incredible. But again, that cost of that treatment in Canada, is let's say, for argument's sake $5,000 For that surgery in the US, that's $20,000. So the company again as an investor, and this is where sometimes I get sort of the paradox of what I invest in, because at the end of the day, I want treatments and outcomes to be better for patients. But fundamentally my job as an investor is to return money to buy investment and also to help companies scale and build and grow. And in order to do that you have to be in the bigger markets, you just can't be here, right? So they can sell to every doctor in all over Canada, this device. And yet if they go to one state and have every doctor in one state use it, they'll make more money. Plus, there's 50 Other states that they can go after. So to me, that's the struggle that I think we have. And I think, especially as healthcare entrepreneurs is like, you have to be geared towards the US. Unfortunately, it's just the way the way the world works. Or at least my world works. Yeah, yeah. Definitely
Qasim Virjee 40:30
a macro economic problem and political problem to discuss in another episode. Yeah.
Dr. Anish Kaushal 40:34
Oh, yeah. We can talk. We can talk about that. Right. Yeah, absolutely.
Qasim Virjee 40:37
We'll do one. Yeah. Let's do another episode of the struggle podcast, please. I would love to, hopefully a roundtable to do with this kind of, you know, the health industry of Canada. Yeah. For
Dr. Anish Kaushal 40:46
some, because there's a lot of there's a lot of innovation. I think on the ground, there's a lot of people doing really cool things. It's just the scale of where I sit, because we're a VC. Yeah. And you you know, VC economics work as you put in one to make 10. Ideally, you just can't build that. 100. You mean, right. Exactly. Ideally? Very hard to get there. But yeah, in healthcare it is. But But yeah, so that's, that's also why it's kind of you just you have to be geared to kind of the US. So
Qasim Virjee 41:10
I see the confliction that can fundation. There are those identities that you're navigating doctor, yep. Investor, investor and author and now author, we're sitting with these books. Yeah. Thank you for bringing them to the studio. No problem. Thank you giving them to absolutely no, probably will go in the start. Well, library once I've read them. I love that. Okay, so what am I looking at? Yeah,
Dr. Anish Kaushal 41:31
so there's two books there. So one of them is called stolen thoughts, which is a small black book. Yep. So that was, that's actually a book of poetry. So very randomly, about a year ago, I started writing poetry. And I found I would always go back to this very specific format and style that I didn't see anybody else using. And so over the course of a year, I just whenever I had ideas, I kept writing and sort of keeping track of it. And you can kind of see, as you read through exactly kind of starts Yeah, with repetition. And the idea of you start with an initial line, and then kind of extend it out to see where you can take it. So that is the poetry book, it's very new, sort of part of my writing and my life. And then the other book that you're you have is the blue book called from here to there. And that's honestly about exactly what we talked about today. It's about my sort of journey and how to change careers. And so the kind of first chapter starts off with everything I've kind of talked about, especially, you know, a little bit more into the detail of how I lashed the emotional journey, what are the what was the process, and really, the book is a guidebook for people that are trying to, you know, find out what they want to do, how to shift careers. And also just like, logistically, because I think a lot of times is, you know, theoretically, I can talk to you about changing careers, but actually doing it and what are the steps? And, you know, how do you reach out to people? How do you set up a LinkedIn? How do you set up a resume? How do you interview? How do you do coffee chats? You know, what do you ask from them? How do you like all of these steps? I find that there's no good resources, right? Or to do it, because especially for young people, I mean, like I had no, there was no playbook, you know, I mean, like, when I left my career, like, I had, like, left medicine to go to another thing. There was nothing like I had nothing there that was in front of me. And so genuinely, I wrote this for my younger self, like I wrote this to give to me when, you know, in medical school or university, and so okay, like, you the way I think people, especially young people, is you kind of you go down one path, and you feel like you're stuck. Yeah, I feel like that's it and that there's nothing else you can do. And I think the goal of this book is to try to show people like that's not true.
Qasim Virjee 43:16
Literally, you have article you have things here letters that say, Dear younger
Dr. Anish Kaushal 43:20
Yeah, yeah. So the function of the book is Each chapter has like, the first part of the chapter is steps is to like how to change. Yeah, and the second part of chapter is do younger niche. And it's like, here's the things I wish I knew when I was your
Qasim Virjee 43:30
age. Brilliant. Yeah. And each where can people find this book. So
Dr. Anish Kaushal 43:34
Amazon is probably the best way to it's called from here to there, you can just if you type in from here to there in a niche, it does come up. And yeah, it's the goal isn't designed behind it is like is a very short book, it's about 100 pages, you can literally read in an afternoon, it's super easy to read. And I've gotten feedback from friends who are already who have thought is really good. So I think anybody that's like, and it doesn't even have to be a young person. I think anybody that's looking to change careers, or think about how to do it. Yeah, this is kind of a stepwise process, or one at least has worked for me. And what's really cool is I remember, you know, the genesis behind the book was actually, during COVID, my sister was talking about, she was just graduating university, she's like, how do I apply for jobs? What do I do, and I was like, Oh, I could write about that. Because like, I remember doing it myself. And so I wrote a blog post called, so you want to be a VC geared towards like, getting into specifically venture but also a bit more broad. And it was, like, all the steps that worked. And I mean, it was really interesting as like, you know, my sister, and even my brother as well, who's thinking about leaving medicine at a different time, which is a whole other topic, you know, was able to get interviews and talk to people across careers and industries, and got, like, you know, got to final stages, because of just, you know, being able to use some of the tips in this book. So it's, it works, or it has for me, and it's worked for some people in my life. So yeah, just you know, that's why I kind of wrote it and want to give it to people as a resource to help them
Qasim Virjee 44:43
How did it feel writing and penning your thoughts and now being able to share those thoughts? Is this something that's going to continue to
Dr. Anish Kaushal 44:49
think Oh, absolutely. Oh, I mean, this will be my life. I started writing 2018 When I left medicine, I've been doing everyday sense. The other thing that you know, we didn't really talk about but I just started a blog a few years ago. So 2021, I kind of set up to start a goal of writing 100 blog posts in a year ended up writing 500 In one year, which was pretty nuts. Yeah, I just really loved it. And essentially, that's never stopped. And so I've been writing since that like literally since 2018. I have about 150 blog posts now on my website. And so these are just functions of some of them. Sure. But I have a lot of other thoughts, ideas, things I've been writing about and still write about all the time. So this Yeah, this will be forever. And you'll see a lot more of like, I think the next, you know, the next part of my life or a big part of my life is going to be I think media and really scaling content. Because I think, you know, if you can teach people stuff that they don't see or hear, and do it in a way that you know, gives it to them and whatever they like, whether it's writing audio video, I think that's super valuable. And so I've just basically built this content based last five years. And so the next part, you'll see a lot more, so I love it. Yeah.
Qasim Virjee 45:51
I absolutely love it. It was such a pleasure. Spending some time with your niche and hearing about your journey, please. Absolutely. Yeah. I'm excited to see where you go from here.
Dr. Anish Kaushal 46:00
Yeah, it's super exciting. And well, I would love to be back. And if whenever you want to have a conversation, I'm always open to it
Qasim Virjee 46:05
for sure. And if you're up for it, I think listeners might like this. You want to read one of your posts. Absolutely. I'm happy to I just I stopped on this one because I think it's kind of compelling. Okay. And I'm waiting. Yeah, yeah. So if you will, yeah, definitely read it for us. And then you can just look in that camera. Okay. Okay. And insert. Yeah. Okay, cool. Stop waiting. Stop waiting for the right time. Stop waiting for the perfect moment.
Dr. Anish Kaushal 46:32
Stop waiting for someone to push you to stop waiting for someone to show you the way to stop waiting for someone to tell you you're doing a good job. Stop waiting for someone to pat you on the back. Stop waiting for the validation. Stop waiting for the praise. Stop waiting for the support. Stop waiting for the right time. Stop waiting for someone to pick you up. Stop waiting for when you feel ready. Stop waiting for people to like what you're doing. Stop waiting for the self doubt in your mind to disappear. Stop waiting for tomorrow.
Qasim Virjee 47:11
Stop waiting to go. I like it. Thank you. I like that a lot is very poignant, man. Thanks for your time. Thank
Dr. Anish Kaushal 47:20
you so much. Appreciate it, sir. Thank you. This was awesome. Thank you so much.
