00:00:00 – 00:00:08 Nitin Bajaj

Hey everyone, welcome to the Industry Show. I’m your host, Nitin Bajaj. And joining me today is Faye Sahai. Faye, welcome on the show.

 

00:00:09 – 00:00:12 Faye Sahai

Oh, wonderful to be here and looking forward to the discussion.

 

00:00:13 – 00:00:17 Nitin Bajaj

Likewise, great to have you here. Let’s start with the big question. Who is Faye?

 

00:00:21 – 00:01:01 Faye Sahai

Ever evolving from that. But if you kind of look at what I’ve done to where I am now, it I spent 30 years in healthcare, insure tech consulting. I founded a few of my own companies and finance and venture capital. So I did not have a linear path. And as I’m looking at the young generation, we’re so stressed about what is my career? I’m like, you can have many careers from that. But I really have enjoyed in each one. Basically, the common pathway was that it was a lot of change, a lot of disruption. And that just attracted me from that standpoint.

 

00:01:01 – 00:01:06 Nitin Bajaj

When you said, I haven’t had a linear path, I was like, that would be pretty boring if you had one.

 

00:01:07 – 00:01:32 Faye Sahai

Yes. Yeah. But I led the Kaiser Permanente Innovation Lab and Innovation Fund and advanced technology. And we got to see what’s transforming in healthcare to AIG’s global innovation to what’s happening in venture capital and also trying to diversify that. Different ones, but I think all builds up all the skills you build up from each just translate to the next one.

 

00:01:32 – 00:02:05 Nitin Bajaj

True. And what I love about the way you’ve got to experience these things is that you’ve been on the both on the startup side of the equation, also the corporate side of the equation, but even from there, you have supported a lot of innovation in startups. So you’ve been on the leading edge of things as they are happening. So let’s talk more about that. Tell us more about Vinaj, what is it? Why did you start it? And what’s the scope and now the size and scale of the operations?

 

00:02:06 – 00:02:45 Faye Sahai

So Vinaj Ventures, we work on like strategy and execution for venture capital innovation, corporate innovation. So we work with a lot of Fortune 500 companies and large organizations. That are really wanting to innovate, not get disrupted, leverage the venture capital system, implement innovation from that standpoint. So what I like about is we get to work with all kinds of companies, companies that want to create corporate venture capitals, due diligence, deep dives, working with startups that are evolving from that. So that has been a wonderful opportunity.

 

00:02:45 – 00:03:02 Faye Sahai

And we did with that have our own venture capital fund with that, and we were really investing in digital wellness, mental health, online experiences, which is definitely very interesting right now. And so I really enjoyed working with them.

 

00:03:03 – 00:03:04 Nitin Bajaj

What made you start this?

 

00:03:07 – 00:03:17 Faye Sahai

It was originally my friend that started it, and then I came on when we were starting the venture capital fund. So I was a founding general partner with him on the fund.

 

00:03:17 – 00:03:46 Faye Sahai

And There was a gap in the market. So when I led innovation at AIG and Kaiser, it’s a very lonely time because you’re kind of the pointy spear of the company trying to transform them, change them. And these Fortune 500 companies are not easy to change. It’s like steering a ship. And sometimes it can be very lonely doing that. And you want that assistance. You want to have that insight and where it’s going from that.

 

00:03:46 – 00:04:08 Faye Sahai

With this company, we both have had that experience in innovating and bringing that support, insight, the additional arms and legs, but mind thought and share from that. So I wish I had that kind of organization as I was leaving. And I hired that when I was bringing that organization. So it’s a perfect fit for me.

 

00:04:08 – 00:04:18 Nitin Bajaj

Amazing. You mentioned the different industries and domains you invest in? Are there certain geographies that you focus on more than others?

 

00:04:19 – 00:04:34 Faye Sahai

We have focused on U.S. and Canada. One is just given the regulatory environment, the tax implications work. So as you go into multiple geographies, we also like to be very tied in support of our founders.

 

00:04:34 – 00:04:42 Faye Sahai

But if you then go on, we want to have a partner and team and staff in each of those countries. So that’s why we focused on the U.S. and Canada.

 

00:04:43 – 00:04:58 Faye Sahai

We have several collaborators partners in our venture capital network in Asia and Europe and other and in South America that we refer, share leads, help do diligence with each other from that standpoint. So definitely an ecosystem.

 

00:05:00 – 00:05:19 Nitin Bajaj

Now, as you traverse through these highly innovative companies, businesses, startups, and the regulatory framework, I’m sure you come across a lot of different challenges. If I had to ask you to call out the biggest one, what would that be?

 

00:05:21 – 00:05:47 Faye Sahai

There’s, I think right now it’s such a dynamic time. As you look at the pundits and the futurists, they’re looking, there’s been a lot of IPO and merger and acquisition that have been waiting in the wings and watching the dynamics of what this year has been a slightly roller coaster, let’s be honest on it. So the hopes and aspirations is next year, people that have been waiting for their IPOs and M&As will jettison off.

 

00:05:47 – 00:06:07 Faye Sahai

So I think that’s as we look at the important dynamics of it, any venture capital, private equity, and as we also looked in the non-dilutive research funding, we know that has gone down. Philanthropy is trying to take some of its place but can’t fill all the need. It’s just such a dynamic market from that.

 

00:06:07 – 00:06:38 Faye Sahai

And I think Part of it is asking yourself, where are you in the market? Where’s your company? How are you positioning yourself for resilience? I really encourage people to do scenario planning, right? Scenario, your ideal market, your ideal outcome, but then also like a worst case, the best case, what happens if the market goes down? What happens if you can’t IPO at this time? What happens? So play out those scenarios and be prepared for them and look at it. It’s a very dynamic time and being ready.

 

00:06:38 – 00:06:46 Nitin Bajaj

It is indeed. Now, on the flip side of challenges come opportunities. What’s the one you’re most excited about?

 

00:06:47 – 00:07:09 Faye Sahai

If I didn’t say AI, where would I be? But I would say that it just from a future cap, you see a lot of money just going there, right? But for me, what I see, because I’ve been focused in my latest years is in healthcare investment, and it really can transform. To personalize medicine for you.

 

00:07:09 – 00:07:10 Nitin Bajaj

Yes.

 

00:07:10 – 00:07:20 Faye Sahai

A diagnostic that is prompt, proactive. If you think about it, if we had truly personalized drugs, we won’t have side effects.

 

00:07:21 – 00:07:21 Nitin Bajaj

True.

 

00:07:21 – 00:07:30 Faye Sahai

That long litany of things that you read on that piece of paper that you never read, right, will start to go away because now it’s really customized for you.

 

00:07:31 – 00:07:41 Faye Sahai

And as we look at it, we’ve been also focusing on digital wellness, mental health. And you think about it, like half of that mental health illness starts in your teens.

 

00:07:41 – 00:08:02 Faye Sahai

It doesn’t get diagnosed for 10 or 11 years to get the right diagnosis intervention. And that with rare diseases and with all the things happening with cancer, meaning now we can really be proactive personalized preventive predictive on that. So it’s really exciting time.

 

00:08:03 – 00:08:06 Nitin Bajaj

How far do you think it is?

 

00:08:06 – 00:08:29 Faye Sahai

I think we are just scratching the surface on that. I think there is some really interesting kind of AI discoveries and really using the current medicine we have for current diseases, but then also where we are with interventions, disease states, diagnostics. I think it’s going to be very interesting.

 

00:08:29 – 00:08:59 Faye Sahai

And in our children’s lifetime, can you imagine that our grandkids could live to 120? It’s just like mind blowing. But then I’ve also been working on longevity and investments. society Our is only built for us to live to 60s, right? We don’t architect, we don’t have financial systems, we don’t have work systems. So It’s going to be transforming and our society is going to be transforming. So I think it’s an exciting time, but I would say it’s also scary too.

 

00:09:00 – 00:09:28 Nitin Bajaj

It indeed is. And as we look forward into the future, I love to pause and reflect. And I’d like to invite you to share two moments from your life and career. One, where things did not work out as you had expected. There was failure, disappointment, lessons, and another instance where things exceeded your own expectations and became a success beyond your imagination.

 

00:09:30 – 00:10:22 Faye Sahai

Oh, so we can always count like all the different failures in our life. Interesting one. And I’m just going to put this one out there is I was leading AIG Global Innovation and then traveling every week for that because I had such a widespread across 100 countries from that. And then my mom had just had a series of strokes and it was very stressful managing the team in a dynamic time and budget cuts and everything like that. And I just felt I was failing, right? I couldn’t take care of my mother as well as she was in LA, I was in San Francisco. Headquarters in New York and then all the offices around the world. And I just felt like I was failing at every task, right? Because I wasn’t fully present at every task.

 

00:10:23 – 00:11:03 Faye Sahai

And that’s when I just asked my boss that I’m like, you know what? I think I need to go. I don’t think I think I need to focus on my mom. I think I need to take care of her. And then I’ll figure out a game plan. And so I just raised the flag. I just said, okay, it’s not the right time for me and not the right place. And the company, they were amazing. They’re like, we’ll figure out a way. Like remote work and this and there you can see Family Medical League. Then amazing Lisa Martin. But I said, no, I can’t give it my all. I can’t succeed with being so torn personally right now. And so I did. I left.

 

00:11:03 – 00:11:44 Faye Sahai

And that was part of the time I got. And I just said, lay me off. Just lay me. And then I’m like, and I’m like, oh, I got this nice package. And I’m like, man, I need to be laid off more often. Because it was such a fear for me. I had to raise the white flag and say, okay, it’s just not the right time for me. So I would say that was a failure, but a good lesson for me. Know your own limits, know where you are. And then that opened other doors. When my mother got better, I That’s actually when I started the venture capital fund, an opportunity came by, right? So that wouldn’t happen if I just slugged it out, right? Like those new opportunities.

 

00:11:44 – 00:13:06 Faye Sahai

So that was one of sometimes I really want to be the superwoman and try and do it all. It doesn’t always happen. Interesting kind of successes was your other question. And that one would actually be we’re working with this cross-functional team across Kaiser envisioning the future. And where it would be. And doctors and nurses and kind of team members and technology people. And we basically, and this is 10 years ago, we basically came up with a vision that it’s care anywhere. It’s not about you going to the doctor or to the hospital or to the lab, but how can we envision that care is anywhere? Care is where you are, where you want to be at the time you want to be. And we actually laid out kind of some of the game plans and strategies and scenarios for all of that. And it’s been so amazing in some senses of how that got accelerated by COVID. COVID saw where their gaps are in the healthcare system, but also pushed us into virtual care. I think it’s just been really interesting from that. And so that kind of, really set a foundation for where we’re going with remote monitoring, hospital at home, and really taking that for the care of our patients.

 

00:13:07 – 00:13:41 Nitin Bajaj

It’s amazing how that the core thinking, the strategy behind the vision that comes together, how it impacts millions of lives. And these are fundamentally very small things that change, but it changes the mindset of people that are providing the care and touching these lives. So thank you for everything you do in bringing a lot of thinking and strategy behind, especially in healthcare and especially in this country. We do need that.

 

00:13:42 – 00:13:45 Nitin Bajaj

Now switching gears, what do you do for fun?

 

00:13:46 – 00:14:31 Faye Sahai

Oh, I love hiking, traveling, eating chocolate, being with friends, family. I’m also exploring more art. I’ve gotten to pickleball. And then dance. I did Bali X dance last quarter. I’m gonna try K-pop this quarter. I’m gonna try there’s a Mexican folk dance. You know, American line dancing. It just, I think, part of it is the joy of music, a part of movement and being with friends together. Just I feel honored and grateful kind of that times with kind of friends and family.

 

00:14:32 – 00:14:39 Nitin Bajaj

Yeah. Love that. Is there a book or a podcast that is a favorite and you would like to recommend?

 

00:14:40 – 00:15:14 Faye Sahai

No. Okay. I am definitely a TED Ted talk in, but I do the whole gamut of just interesting talks from that. You knew one of the professors that I’ve been working with at Stanford who’s on basically speaking. It is how you talk smart and think that I gotta get the right phrase for you, but he’s amazing. Matt, I can share that with you later too, as well.

 

00:15:15 – 00:15:47 Faye Sahai

I think also our vulnerability and her talks and Ted talks too, because for me growing up as a Thai American and my parents immigrated here, that wasn’t something we showed. Vulnerability did not mean strength in business, but there is something about the power of knowing who you really are and people knowing who you really are versus the superficial professional armor that we put on from that. And I learned that later in my career. I wish I’d learned that earlier.

 

00:15:47 – 00:16:05 Faye Sahai

And it was the power of people and relationships. I was taught when I was young, work hard, give it your all, heads down, just work, and then you’ll get recognized for it. I’m like, no, it doesn’t work that way. And so I, in a sense, relearned what it is to work here.

 

00:16:06 – 00:16:31 Nitin Bajaj

Yeah, that’s a very core foundational, I guess, infrastructure that our cultures have given us. And we as parents now have to nuance for where the world is today and the environment we live in to make sure that our children have what they need, which is to be vulnerable, to be transparent, to truly build relationships that take them forward.

 

00:16:32 – 00:16:49 Faye Sahai

So. Yes. And resilience. Resilience at this time. So critical. It makes me sad to know, you know, that the suicide of our young people is like one of the top one and sometimes two killers of our young population is suicide.

 

00:16:50 – 00:17:06 Nitin Bajaj

True. Now, switching gears onto something more exciting. Onto my favorite part of the show, which we call the one line life lessons. Faye, I would love for you to share a few of your life lessons with us.

 

00:17:08 – 00:17:20 Faye Sahai

The life lessons I said is it’s the power of the power of people and relationships is, I think, so important. It’s how you make people feel.

 

00:17:23 – 00:18:06 Faye Sahai

And taking from our Silicon Valley, I do the be hungry and humble from that, and that there’s always something to learn. So for me, I consider myself a lifelong student from that, and that there’s always something else to learn and be. And even if you’re a mentor to someone, there’s so much you can learn from that relationship too. So it’s always a two-way street. From that. So those are just a couple of them, but I believe in the power of all of us having unique talent to offer this world. A unique presence, a gift for this world. So it’s discovering what that is for you and what your sense of meaning and purpose is and can contribute.

 

00:18:07 – 00:18:34 Nitin Bajaj

So true. Faye, thank you so much again for making the time to share your journey, your story. And your life lessons. We really appreciate it. Thank you again for everything you do to move healthcare and humanity in the right direction. We obviously need it and would love to continue to stay in touch and bring you back on and share more about your successes because I know you’re just getting started.

 

00:18:36 – 00:18:37 Faye Sahai

Thank you. Wonderful to be here.