eChai with Darshit Sheth, Co-Founder, Renova LifeSciences

Our today's guest for "eChai With an Entrepreneur" is Darshit Sheth, Co-Founder, Renova LifeSciences. an Indian specialty pharmaceutical company dedicated to developing, manufacturing, registering and marketing high medical value medicines throughout the Globe, essentially for Ophthalmological & Dermatological Therapeutical Products. Darshit earlier co-founded two ventures - Renova Healthcare and Renova LifeSciences which was started in a small scale but later on he merged both the entities to form a Private limited company which now has a significant presence in 7 countries.

Their portfolio deals with Product Selection, Product Designing, Employee Training, Promotional Strategies, Marketing, Selections of markets suitable for companies products, Client selection and building relations. Darshit manages a product portfolio of approximately 60 products bifurcated into 3 divisions. He has an aspiration to see his company present in all the continents by 2020 and have a global reach into all major countries by 2030. 

Darshit earlier co-founded Zenova Technologies, an IT start up but failed and discontinued the operations. He has also started a venture as a part of CSR and a dreams to have an outfit which works for betterment of world. 

Here is the insightful and candid conversation with Darshit. Join the conversation to ask any specific questions to Darshit.

Early Years: When did it first strike you to begin this venture and why? Your Eureka Moment (the moment you decided to be an entrepreneur).

I had been attending my Father's Business of Pharmaceutical Trading while I was in College. I had spent almost 7 years as a part time help to the business. But while attending the same I had been closely watching the functioning of the Pharmaceutical companies whose agency my father was catering. It doesn't mean though that I had been thinking of starting my own company by then. But around 2002-2003 we saw a major downfall in the sales of the companies we were agents for and looking at the pattern I found some striking similarities and that was the time I joined by MBA. By the end of the course I had a fair knowledge of some basic management principles and then it struck to me as to where the problem was with all those companies and what can be done to overcome the same. I used to poke my nose in day to day matters of the field force of those companies so as to enable them to keep a growing sales record so that my father's business also grows. But somehow I felt they didn't like it (It seems obvious now ;-)). But because of this my father started losing agencies one by one. Then it struck that instead of poking nose into somebody's business why don't we start our own company. And that was the Eureka Moment.

Business Venture: What is your business model and what problems does it solve? What are market opportunities? How is it different from your competitors? How do you generate revenues ?

We look and do research in the market and see what molecules are doing well and also which molecules would be in the market in future. Based on that we select the products and introduce them in the market with our Brand names. In early days we used to rely on manufacturers for the quality aspect but now we have our own QA and QC team which keep a close watch on the Quality of the products that the manufacturing unit is supplying. Initially for 7 years we were present in Domestic market and that too having zonal presence only. Now since 2 years we are having a major growth in the International markets even.

Talking about the opportunities I would say that now we have the whole world as our market and hence I don't think we would be having any issues regarding the new opportunities as we have always evolved in terms of product lines. We are not any different from our competitors but we try to serve the market in different ways to be in business. We have many models implemented in our business to generate revenues like manufacturing, contract manufacturing, private label contract manufacturing, service in terms of QA and QC Assistance, Regulatory works, Project based product developments, etc.

Sales : How did you make your first sale and how much time it took you from starting up to closing the first sale ? How long is your sales cycle?

Initially me and my partner ourselves used to work as sales person and promote the products. It was a tough time. My major breakthrough was after 3 months of launch where in out of approx. 10 districts we were working the 1st district came to a break even status.

Company Culture : What kind of culture exists in your organization? How did you establish this tone and why did you institute this particular type of culture?

Frankly, we were a small company with a work force of 4 people assisting me and my partner at any given time for almost 6 years of operations. Being a small company stability of the employees was an issue. But later on we grew to a head count of 15 people. Culture came into picture in last 2 years. Now we have finally found a really stable team since two years and the culture we are trying to develop is empowerment and innovation. By innovation I am not saying anything regarding the products but innovation in terms of doing the same thing in a different way which adds value to the culture and the ways of doing business and all the people associated with us are now empowered with the decision making authority so as to enable them to handle the work better. We are also now investing into knowledge development of people working with us.

Partnerships :Â What are your views about finding the right Co-Founder ? How did you find your business partner? According to you who is the ideal business partner?

It is indeed necessary to have a right Co-founder with whom you share the same vision. I think me and my business partner found each other at the same time. Though the story is he was already into this field for 9 years when we started this venture. So professionally and even age wise he is my senior. He had the capabilities of sales and marketing and I had management techniques. We were the ideal 'Jodi'. In fact my wife used to feel jealous of our companionship.

Hiring - How did you hire your first employee ? And in general what's your hiring policy ? How important have good employees been to your success?

We really had a tough time recruiting our first every employee. Nobody was interested in doing a job in a small company. This was obvious because talent always looks for a place where he/she can grow. We had nothing to show them. We were in a rented place with no proper office, me and my partner as the only two persons in the team!!! People used to come for interview and even before we reject them they used to say no to us.

We finally got an employee after 2 years of incorporation of our venture!!! We had to build his confidence that he would be able to grow at our organization and would be able to get big opportunities in future.

In these 9 years of operations we have come across few good employees some of whom we have been able to retain and some have left us for better future. But our main principle in hiring an employee is to see fire in the belly to prove something, genuineness, capacity and aptitude to learn and grow along with the organization. But I admit sometimes we have to keep our principles aside and hire an employee just because we do not want the work and growth to hamper due to unavailability of a person with all the qualities we are looking for.

Learning : How did you handle your disappointments and failures?

I think the best answer you can get to this is from my family. I am not a person who can handle disappointments and failures easily and nor do I forget the same. Professionally I try to achieve only those things which I feel I would be able to get. But sometimes out of over confidence if I try to achieve something which I would not be able to then I have my shares of disappointments and failures. I would go into a shell for some days, and then starts the thought process wherein I take it as a challenge to upgrade myself and my company to slowly develop ourselves to be eligible to achieve what we couldn't.

Vision: What's your vision for your venture. What do you want to accomplish in your life ? What are your future aspirations?

Vision is to be a quality driven global pharmaceutical player having businesses in those segments where people are afraid to enter. Like any Middle class Indian my list of accomplishments to be achieved by the time I retire is endless. But I would really like to leave behind a legacy for future generations. Future aspirations are to take my company to newer heights and be a strong and respected player in pharmaceuticals. I also aspire to start a venture whose sole motto is Philanthropy which I surely will.

Work-Life Balance : Â How do you find a balance between work family and social life?

Seriously, I am unable to do that. I can't manage to have that switch mode wherein I can switch myself from work mode to family mode to social mode. I have been taking New Year resolutions of maintaining such balance since a couple of years but seriously I am not able to. My father and my wife are the most worried and annoyed persons about it.

Risks: Which was the boldest decision you ever made to have this venture work?

Entrepreneurship itself is a bold decision one takes in his/her life. Rest everything is a part of the game.

Here are some amazing photos from his entrepreneurial journey.