00:00:00 – 00:00:07 Nitin Bajaj

Hey everyone, welcome to the industry show. I’m your host, Nitin Bajaj, and joining me today is Rishi Reddy. Rishi, welcome on the show.

00:00:07 – 00:00:08 Rishi Reddy

Thank you for having me.

00:00:09 – 00:00:12 Nitin Bajaj

Great to have you here. Let’s start with who is Rishi?

00:00:13 – 00:00:38 Rishi Reddy

You know, I think I’m still trying to figure that one out, but you know, I’m a father, husband, brother, colleague, friend to many. I think that in all these relationships, I try to bring my authentic self and be as present as possible. Again, still a work in progress, but I’m also a healthcare investor and entrepreneur broadly, and that kind of was my way of growing up.

00:00:38 – 00:01:21 Rishi Reddy

My father was a physician, and when I would get dropped off to school, my dad was already in the clinic at 5:00 a.m., and he wouldn’t come home until 11:00 p.m. But when I got dropped off, I would see these uncles in the neighborhood walking their dog, and then when I’d come home from school, I’d still see them walking around the neighborhood. And I asked my mom, like, how can these uncles do this when Dad is working, you know, 5:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m., seeing patients, all these things? And he said, she told me, “Well, they’re businessmen, they’re entrepreneurs.” And that was when I was, like, 8 or 10, and I was like, you know what, that’s what I want to do when I grow up. And so, long story short, I went to school, studied entrepreneurship, came out, did finance, started a company, and now I’m here at a firm investing and also starting new companies. So that’s kind of my journey.

00:01:22 – 00:01:23 Nitin Bajaj

That’s an amazing work in progress.

00:01:23 – 00:01:23 Rishi Reddy

Yeah.

00:01:25 – 00:01:30 Nitin Bajaj

Give us a sense for, you know, I typically ask people why they do what they do.

00:01:30 – 00:01:30 Rishi Reddy

Mm-hmm.

00:01:31 – 00:01:36 Nitin Bajaj

So to add to that, what, you know, give us a sense for what gets you out of bed.

00:01:36 – 00:01:36 Rishi Reddy

Yeah.

00:01:36 – 00:01:40 Nitin Bajaj

All excited, motivated, inspired to do what you do.

00:01:40 – 00:01:59 Rishi Reddy

Yeah. Early on in my career, I was very focused on, you know, this quote-unquote success, hard charging, all these things, and other people’s definition of success. And now how I view why I do what I do, it’s my aspiration is I just want to do, and this sounds simple, it’s interesting things with interesting people. Like, that’s my goal.

00:01:59 – 00:02:26 Rishi Reddy

And in my line of business, which is more technology-oriented investing in companies, I’m really focused on either helping people or myself changing the world for the better. And I know that sounds cliché but if we can create products, services, companies that really create value, I think that’s, and changes the status quo, that’s always exciting to me. And of course, if you do that the financial returns and economic success will follow.

00:02:26 – 00:02:26 Nitin Bajaj

True.

00:02:26 – 00:02:27 Rishi Reddy

That’s really what drives me.

00:02:28 – 00:02:33 Nitin Bajaj

And this is something we’ve talked about before, kind of measuring the why.

00:02:33 – 00:02:33 Rishi Reddy

Yeah.

00:02:33 – 00:02:35 Nitin Bajaj

With the how and the what.

00:02:35 – 00:02:35 Rishi Reddy

Mm-hmm.

00:02:35 – 00:02:41 Nitin Bajaj

So give us a sense for how you evaluate things, how you decide to go into something.

00:02:41 – 00:02:42 Rishi Reddy

Mm-hmm.

00:02:42 – 00:02:52 Nitin Bajaj

Which is primarily the impact of what you invest in, what you work on, what you’re building. And give us a sense for what that impact has been so far.

00:02:53 – 00:03:16 Rishi Reddy

Yeah. I mean, I think the why, it’s, again, it’s correlated, right? At least the way I look at it, it’s, if you can create this big impact, that means that you can probably create a very, very big outcome. And that’s what we kind of look for. So we don’t look for incrementality, or I don’t, when getting involved with something, right? We want to partner with people that really want to create really, really big companies.

00:03:16 – 00:03:17 Nitin Bajaj

Mm-hmm.

00:03:17 – 00:03:36 Rishi Reddy

Right? And so that’s really, really what I look for. And then you look for, like, the personality traits, like tenacity integrity is always one. And so, and then there’s just a vibe component of it. So that’s really, that’s really what we look for and, like, you know, why, why, why we do what we do.

00:03:36 – 00:04:04 Rishi Reddy

And then I do focus quite a bit on healthcare, and that is a passion area for me. Maybe it’s unconscious because my dad was a doctor, right? Type thing. But I think that if you don’t have health, right, you don’t really have anything, right? You can have billions of dollars if you’re not feeling well. And so even the most recent endeavor that I’ve embarked on is really focused on that. So that’s, that’s something that you just can’t measure in dollars and cents, right? The health of any one individual.

00:04:05 – 00:04:09 Nitin Bajaj

Yeah. As they say, you can have many problems, but then when you have a health problem.

00:04:09 – 00:04:09 Rishi Reddy

Yeah.

00:04:10 – 00:04:10 Nitin Bajaj

You only have one.

00:04:10 – 00:04:11 Rishi Reddy

Yeah, exactly.

00:04:12 – 00:04:18 Nitin Bajaj

So give us a sense for, through the various investments and also through this new initiative.

00:04:18 – 00:04:18 Rishi Reddy

Yeah.

00:04:18 – 00:04:19 Nitin Bajaj

You’re working on.

00:04:19 – 00:04:19 Rishi Reddy

Yeah.

00:04:20 – 00:04:27 Nitin Bajaj

What’s the existing impact and what are you looking at maybe six months to a year out from now?

00:04:27 – 00:04:47 Rishi Reddy

Yeah. So you know, from an impact perspective, scale perspective, you know, you know, we say this publicly, right? Like, we have billions under management. So, like, just from a financial quantitative perspective, that’s the rough, that’s the rough scale. And the new company, Chronicle Bio, we’re just getting started.

00:04:47 – 00:04:48 Nitin Bajaj

Mm-hmm.

00:04:48 – 00:04:55 Rishi Reddy

But our goal really is to, you know, reach at least a million patients in the next five to seven years.

00:04:55 – 00:04:56 Nitin Bajaj

Mm-hmm.

00:04:56 – 00:05:09 Rishi Reddy

With the therapies that we’re focused on which, you know, will not only just create tremendous value for folks, but, you know, obviously, if we’re able to achieve that create a pretty meaningful company.

00:05:10 – 00:05:10 Nitin Bajaj

True.

00:05:10 – 00:05:10 Rishi Reddy

Well, yeah.

00:05:11 – 00:05:18 Nitin Bajaj

Now, in doing all of this, healthcare primarily comes with a lot of regulation, which brings its own challenges.

00:05:18 – 00:05:19 Rishi Reddy

Mm-hmm.

00:05:19 – 00:05:23 Nitin Bajaj

If you had to call out the biggest one, what would that be?

00:05:25 – 00:05:34 Rishi Reddy

Ah, I mean, there’s so, there’s so many. I guess, I guess broad, I guess broadly there’s a lot of inertia.

00:05:35 – 00:05:35 Nitin Bajaj

Mm-hmm.

00:05:35 – 00:05:45 Rishi Reddy

In healthcare and the way things are done. And so it’s really breaking that. It’s decades of institutional behavior.

00:05:45 – 00:05:45 Nitin Bajaj

Mm-hmm.

00:05:46 – 00:06:16 Rishi Reddy

Right? And so trying to move this glacier, right, with disruption is never easy. And most of it’s not structural, it’s psychological, emotional, behavioral. So that’s the biggest thing. I will say with this advancement of AI, that’s changing pretty rapidly. And I think, like, the next 10 years will potentially be more innovative and more progress across healthcare and bio than the last 50 or maybe even 100. So.

00:06:16 – 00:06:22 Nitin Bajaj

I agree. Yeah, this is a great time to be in the midst of being able to make that change.

00:06:22 – 00:06:22 Rishi Reddy

Yeah.

00:06:22 – 00:06:30 Nitin Bajaj

And make it happen. On the flip side of challenges come opportunities. What’s the one you’re most excited about?

00:06:30 – 00:06:50 Rishi Reddy

Yeah. I think it, I think it has to be I think it has to be, you know, Chronicle Bio. We launched it a little over a year ago, and the premise is there are tens of millions of individuals that have complex conditions that don’t fit within the modern medical apparatus.

00:06:50 – 00:06:50 Nitin Bajaj

Mm-hmm.

00:06:50 – 00:07:05 Rishi Reddy

And these patients go from doctor to doctor, no diagnosis, no FDA-approved treatments, but we know something’s going on with them. And everyone may or may not have, like, one or two degrees of separation than someone who’s kind of been down this journey.

00:07:05 – 00:07:05 Nitin Bajaj

Mm-hmm.

00:07:05 – 00:07:13 Rishi Reddy

And so what we’re doing is generating proprietary data on these patients, actually through samples, like multi-omic, not just, like, clinical records.

00:07:13 – 00:07:14 Nitin Bajaj

Mm-hmm.

00:07:14 – 00:07:21 Rishi Reddy

And generating our own AI models to better stratify them and then bring therapies to these patients as quickly as we can.

00:07:22 – 00:07:22 Nitin Bajaj

Very exciting.

00:07:22 – 00:07:22 Rishi Reddy

Yeah.

00:07:23 – 00:07:31 Nitin Bajaj

Now, as we look into that future of possibilities and helping improve lives, I’d like to take this moment to pause and reflect.

00:07:31 – 00:07:32 Rishi Reddy

Mm-hmm.

00:07:32 – 00:07:39 Nitin Bajaj

I’d love for you to share two moments from your past life. One where things did not work out as you had expected.

00:07:39 – 00:07:39 Rishi Reddy

Yeah.

00:07:39 – 00:07:42 Nitin Bajaj

There was disappointment, failure, lessons.

00:07:42 – 00:07:43 Rishi Reddy

Yeah.

00:07:43 – 00:07:50 Nitin Bajaj

And another where things exceeded your expectations and became a success beyond your imagination.

00:07:50 – 00:08:04 Rishi Reddy

Yeah. I think the first one, the first one’s actually easy for me. I’ve always, on paper, you know, done okay. And then my first investment I ever made as well which doesn’t happen.

00:08:05 – 00:08:38 Rishi Reddy

My first investment I made, major investment, the company I think three years later, I won’t name the name of the company, it ended up going public. So I went to the NASDAQ, I rang the bell, all this stuff, stocks shot up, we made, you know, hundreds of millions, you know, on paper. And then I watched after that and I was like, you know, everyone’s like, congratulations, all those things. And you feel like the spotlight is on you because of the success. And then after that, I slowly watched that stock go down dollar, dollar, dollar. And honestly, it ended up, after I don’t remember the time, completely wiped. Right?

00:08:39 – 00:09:06 Rishi Reddy

So that, like, high of, like highest to lowest. And that was, like, seemed like the biggest, that was the first major failure in, like, in my mind, like, public failure, right? And the lesson there is, like, when you take big swings, like, things happen and you just got to put your head down and move on. And honestly, like, we live in a country where no one really cares that much. Those things happen, so you just keep going and eventually things will work out. So yeah.

00:09:07 – 00:09:07 Nitin Bajaj

True.

00:09:07 – 00:09:08 Rishi Reddy

Yeah.

00:09:08 – 00:09:10 Nitin Bajaj

Well, thanks for being vulnerable.

00:09:10 – 00:09:10 Rishi Reddy

Yeah.

00:09:10 – 00:09:13 Nitin Bajaj

It’s not easy to go through it.

00:09:13 – 00:09:13 Rishi Reddy

Yeah.

00:09:13 – 00:09:16 Nitin Bajaj

But I want to live back through those moments.

00:09:16 – 00:09:16 Rishi Reddy

Yeah, yeah.

00:09:17 – 00:09:21 Nitin Bajaj

And but on the other side, if you don’t take those swings.

00:09:21 – 00:09:22 Rishi Reddy

Yeah.

00:09:22 – 00:09:25 Nitin Bajaj

You never know which ones will become a home run and.

00:09:25 – 00:09:25 Rishi Reddy

Yeah.

00:09:25 – 00:09:27 Nitin Bajaj

Which ones will miss the mark.

00:09:27 – 00:09:27 Rishi Reddy

Yeah.

00:09:28 – 00:09:31 Nitin Bajaj

Now, stepping aside for a bit.

00:09:31 – 00:09:31 Rishi Reddy

Mm-hmm.

00:09:31 – 00:09:38 Nitin Bajaj

And talking about things you love to do to de-stress, to relax. I mean, we were talking pickleball.

00:09:38 – 00:09:39 Rishi Reddy

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:09:39 – 00:09:43 Nitin Bajaj

But what are some things that help you de-stress?

00:09:44 – 00:09:46 Rishi Reddy

Yeah. I definitely like to stay active.

00:09:46 – 00:09:46 Nitin Bajaj

Yeah.

00:09:46 – 00:10:08 Rishi Reddy

Right? So exercise is there. I do, I grew up playing tennis incredibly, and so I used to play tennis around here, but now everyone plays pickleball. So I’ve been getting into that which is great. And then I also more recently, about 18 months ago, I started writing. So I’m a big TV fanatic. And I had this idea for a show. And so I’ve been writing a TV series in pilot.

00:10:08 – 00:10:09 Nitin Bajaj

Nice.

00:10:09 – 00:10:26 Rishi Reddy

That I’ve actually started socializing with people from industry and stuff like that. So that’s been, and it’s, it’s, it’s a lot of work, but that has actually been a big de-stressor. It’s like a creative outlet. I don’t know where it came from. I have no idea how to, how to do this or any training, but I’ve just kind of done it. And so, you know, that’s been, that’s been relaxing and fun for me.

00:10:26 – 00:10:31 Rishi Reddy

And then, of course, hanging out with my family and my daughter and daughters now.

00:10:31 – 00:10:31 Nitin Bajaj

Yeah.

00:10:31 – 00:10:33 Rishi Reddy

My wife. So, yeah.

00:10:33 – 00:10:42 Nitin Bajaj

Sweet. In terms of, you mentioned writing, so that makes me think about a book or a podcast that is a favorite that you want to share.

00:10:43 – 00:10:45 Rishi Reddy

Yeah. So I don’t, you know what’s really bad? I don’t read that much.

00:10:45 – 00:10:45 Nitin Bajaj

Yeah.

00:10:45 – 00:10:52 Rishi Reddy

I’m on X a lot, but I recently read this book. I’m, I’m pretty, I don’t know about big, but I’m, like, pretty fascinated with spirituality.

00:10:52 – 00:10:53 Nitin Bajaj

Mm-hmm.

00:10:53 – 00:11:09 Rishi Reddy

And manifestation, all this stuff. And I recently read this book, The Frequency Effect. It’s not, like, popular at all, but if you Google it, it, like, kind of blows your mind about you know, just a lot of things. So that’s one that I would, I would recommend, The Frequency Effect. You can just Google it.

00:11:10 – 00:11:10 Nitin Bajaj

Sweet. Awesome.

00:11:10 – 00:11:11 Rishi Reddy

Yeah.

00:11:11 – 00:11:12 Nitin Bajaj

One of my favorite part of the show.

00:11:12 – 00:11:12 Rishi Reddy

Yeah.

00:11:13 – 00:11:15 Nitin Bajaj

We call this the one-line life lessons.

00:11:15 – 00:11:15 Rishi Reddy

Yeah.

00:11:15 – 00:11:18 Nitin Bajaj

And I would love for you to share some of your life lessons with us.

00:11:18 – 00:11:41 Rishi Reddy

Yeah. So five. So the first one I’ll go with, and this is from my dad. I don’t know if he made it up or stole it from someone, but it doesn’t matter. One of his advice was always, don’t chase money, let money chase you. So just making money for the sake of it may not fulfill you, right? Just focus on what you’re good at, your zone of genius, and do your best, and then success will come.

00:11:43 – 00:12:16 Rishi Reddy

That’s one. Two, on the flip side, this has actually surprised me from one of my younger cousins recently. And I think this is, this is a known quote, but comparison is the thief of joy, protect your peace, right? So he reminded me of that. And this is, I think, especially true in South Asian culture because growing up, you’re always like, you know, Arjun got a hundred on the test or have you heard this guy’s a doctor and got in this residency program and is constantly comparing, comparing. And, you know, that’s, that’s kind of all BS. You got to just sit in your lane, do your best, like, you know, focus on what your superpower is and then go forward.

00:12:17 – 00:12:55 Rishi Reddy

So that, that’s the second one. Third one this is a known one, but it’s a Theodore Roosevelt man in the arena, right? It’s, it’s not the critics who count. I think that one’s very important because obviously everyone’s going to naysay what you’re doing, but it’s pretty interesting that it’s rarely, probably never the super successful people that are criticizing. It’s always someone who’s jealous, you know, whatever it is, someone who’s not really done anything. So all that matters is that you’re, you’re doing it and you’re focused on it. I think another one is and this is from, like, my favorite rapper hip-hop artist don’t trade authenticity for approval.

00:12:56 – 00:13:41 Rishi Reddy

We’re so scared of being our true selves because we don’t want someone to, like not love us or whatever it is, all that fear. But I think being your authentic self is really, really the most important thing and way to go. And then the last one, I think it’s a Jungian one. Two years ago, this kind of scared me and should scare a lot of people, that 95% of your actions are driven by the subconscious, not your conscious self, which means, like, you can be going through life just kind of on zombie mode and not really know why you’re doing certain things. And I think that there’s some quote about, like, really digging in and finding out your why, you asked earlier, is a very, very important thing and get you to where you want to go. So those are my five. I remember them all.

00:13:41 – 00:13:41 Rishi Reddy

That’s good.

00:13:43 – 00:13:43 Nitin Bajaj

That’s amazing.

00:13:44 – 00:13:44 Rishi Reddy

Yeah.

00:13:44 – 00:13:45 Nitin Bajaj

Rishi, thank you so much.

00:13:45 – 00:13:46 Rishi Reddy

Yeah.

00:13:46 – 00:14:09 Nitin Bajaj

For making the time, for being with us, sharing your journey and story, but more importantly, for doing what you’re doing, helping improve lives. And in a world where the healthcare system is more than messed up, is extremely important. And I’m glad that you’re at the helm of this. And I can’t wait to see the outcome and the results of what you and the team are working on. Thanks again.

00:14:09 – 00:14:11 Rishi Reddy

Thank you so much. I appreciate it. It was fun.