Making Something From Nothing: Dr Vivek Lal Of ResBiotic On How To Go From Idea To Launch
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
After you analyze and validate your idea, one of the most important things you can do is surround yourself with successful people you trust who have your best interest in mind. Build a team of advisors who are experts in their field, ask them questions, and listen to what they have to say. You’d be surprised at how far a LinkedIn message could go in these cases.
As a part of our series called “Making Something From Nothing”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Vivek Lal.
Dr. Lal is a physician-scientist entrepreneur with more than 20 years of experience in lung research, clinical management, and healthcare entrepreneurship. He is the founder and CEO of ResBiotic and serves as the Director of the Pulmonary Microbiome Lab at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, which is funded by the National Institute of Health (NIH) and American Heart Association (AHA). A neonatal intensivist and pulmonary biologist by training, Dr. Lal has authored more than 100 original scientific publications, chapters, and abstracts, including groundbreaking articles on the critical role of the microbiome in chronic lung diseases.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a bit about your “childhood backstory”?
Absolutely. I was born and raised in Andaman Islands, India, where my mother and father instilled in me the importance of hard work and success. My journey into medicine started when I was 17 years old. I moved to the U.S. to pursue research and higher education in the field of medicine. I’ve always been an entrepreneur at heart, and it was my mother’s dream for me to become a doctor one day. I hadn’t exactly envisioned that for myself, but helping others quickly became a passion and led me to where I am today: an ICU physician and pulmonary microbiome scientist at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and the founder and chief executive officer of ResBiotic.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
“If you ever wonder how to do something, just start and you’ll end up looking back wondering how you did it.”
I’m not sure of the source, but this is a quote my father always told me, and it has pushed me to accomplish things I would have never thought possible. Throughout my life, I’ve found it true that if you have an idea, the key to success is getting started. As I look back on the milestones I’ve achieved as a physician-scientist and entrepreneur, I realize so much happened because I dared to take action.
Is there a particular book, podcast, or film that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?
The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz is a book that I often reference. Many business books tell you things you probably already know, but this one gives a raw look at what it takes to build a company from the ground up and get it to survive. Being the CEO of a company is rewarding, but it doesn’t go without serious challenges. As Horowitz says, “The only thing that prepares you to run a company is running a company.” You don’t have to own a company to benefit from this read. It’s an excellent book for anyone who wants to grow as an entrepreneur.
There is no shortage of good ideas out there. Many people have good ideas all the time. But people seem to struggle in taking a good idea and translating it into an actual business. Can you share a few ideas from your experience about how to overcome this challenge?
I really believe that ideas are a dime a dozen, and frankly, the greatest idea could be worth nothing if there’s no execution. Everyone has an idea and an opinion, but few take action to make those ideas come to life. You don’t have to knock it out of the park with the idea, but you just can’t sit with it. As I said, the key is actually getting started. A moderate to good idea complimented with an excellent execution plan will get you far.
Often when people think of a new idea, they dismiss it saying someone else must have thought of it before. How would you recommend that someone go about researching whether or not their idea has already been created?
It’s critically important to do your due diligence in the research. The internet has everything these days, making it extremely easy to discover if someone is already working on your idea. Patent searches go a long way in the beginning stages, and this is something you could do on your own. Subject matter expert interviews can also be helpful. In other words, find experts in the field and see what they have to say. This is also a great way to start making connections. Nevertheless, you’re not disqualified if someone else has done something before you. Ultimately, it’s about execution and your solution could be better.
For the benefit of our readers, can you outline the steps one has to go through, from when they think of the idea, until it finally lands in a customer’s hands? In particular, we’d love to hear about how to file a patent, how to source a good manufacturer, and how to find a retailer to distribute it.
After you analyze and validate your idea, one of the most important things you can do is surround yourself with successful people you trust who have your best interest in mind. Build a team of advisors who are experts in their field, ask them questions, and listen to what they have to say. You’d be surprised at how far a LinkedIn message could go in these cases.
Once your idea transitions to invention, you must act quickly to protect your work with appropriate patents. The resB® Lung Support formulation was the product of years of research in my lung microbiome lab and our Chief Medical Officer’s lung protease biology lab at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, so we were fortunate to have the support of the university in securing a patent. If that type of resource is not available to you, there are good patent lawyers who can help.
Choosing the right manufacturer is also a critical step in safely getting your product into the hands of consumers. Hold every company you outsource to the highest standards with manufacturing is at the top of that list. This is where LinkedIn outreach was really key for me in the early days of ResBiotic. I didn’t have any experience in this space, so I reached out to industry leaders to learn more about my options. I found some incredible advisors who helped us navigate the process — avoid potential missteps, adopt best practices, hold ourselves and our partners to the highest standards. I’ve taken similar steps for distribution as we are now securing local and large chain retailers to distribute resB® Lung Support.
There are many invention development consultants. Would you recommend that a person with a new idea hire such a consultant, or should they try to strike out on their own?
I believe you should always complete your own analysis of the process before making moves to bring other parties into the conversation. Getting validated expert help early in the process rarely hurts, but you must have a foundational understanding that you’ve developed independently. At the end of the day, it is your idea, and you will eventually know more about it than anyone else.
What are your thoughts about bootstrapping vs looking for venture capital? What is the best way to decide if you should do either one?
Deciding between the two is very business and founder specific. It depends on your goals: how fast do you want to grow, what is your exit strategy, and what is the timing of it? Bootstrapping is extremely important for a startup in the initial stages, but there should not be a fear of equity dilution and venture funding if you want fast growth. Both bring their benefits to the table, and there’s no wrong way to do it.
How have you used your success to make the world a better place?
As a pulmonary physician scientist, I often ask myself, “how do we improve the future of respiratory health globally?” My definition of success is making the world a better place. So ResBiotic is a mission driven business, introducing what I believe is a better paradigm for lung health. In a time where respiratory risks lurk behind every corner, we need a way for people to care for their lungs proactively and holistically. We need to destigmatize respiratory issues and normalize a level of care for our respiratory systems. The innovation that makes all this possible is our understanding of the airway microbiome and the dynamic connections between gut and lung health.
ResBiotic began at the bedside by observing that the airways exhibit a microbiome as early as a baby’s birth. Since then, there have been years of research at my lung microbiome lab and our Chief Medical Officer’s lung protease biology lab at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. We explored the gut-lung axis concept and how gut bacteria communicate with different organs, including the lungs. From there, we created what is now resB® Lung Support and acted quickly to make our innovation available to anyone who actively thinks about their respiratory health.
If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
One of the most important things to me is making the world a better place for those who will come after us. When I think about breathing, I think about how air pollution could affect the future generations. There’s the saying “leave it better than you found it,” and I believe that to be true for our planet.
Is there a person in the world, or in the U.S, with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.
Several people come to mind, from world-renowned physicians to some of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs, but there is an athlete who always has more than impressed me, and that is Michael Phelps. His work ethic and drive for success are nothing short of admirable. He is quoted as saying, “If you want to be the best, you have to do things that other people aren’t willing to do.” He leads by example in this; not only does he own swimming, he is the most decorated Olympian of all time, and he did it all with asthma. I would love to sit down with him to ask a few questions and hear about his journey as an athlete with respiratory disease. Who knows, he may be interested in giving resB® a try!
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
