Interview with Relavo co-founder, Tejasvi Desai
The following is a transcript of TCO’s interview with Tejasvi Desai, a cofounder of Relavo.
Tejasvi is a senior studying biomedical engineering at Johns Hopkins University. She loves contributing to the biomedical engineering community at Hopkins, as she is president of the Biomedical Engineering Society, leader of a design team, and has been a TA for several courses within the BME Department.
What is your Startup?
“I am a co-founder of Relavo, a medical device venture preventing infections in at-home kidney dialysis. There are two main forms of dialysis. The first, and most commonly known type, is hemodialysis. For hemodialysis, patients must go to a clinic for about 16 hours per week in order to receive treatment. It is really taxing on patients due to the need to travel. The second option for dialysis is called peritoneal dialysis. Peritoneal dialysis is done at home and actually has improved health outcomes compared to hemodialysis. However, it is underutilized because of its higher risk of contamination. Patients are doing the treatment by themselves at home, and whenever they make connections between the tubing, it’s easy to accidentally touch one of the tube ends. This introduces a contaminant into the system which is flushed into the body, resulting in a 30% risk of infection. This is where Relavo comes in. We are trying to prevent those types of infections in at-home dialysis.”
How did you get involved with your startup?
“I was very lucky. Like most freshmen in the biomedical engineering department, I really wanted to join a design team. I interviewed with a lot of different design teams with many cool projects, but this team [Relavo] stood out to me. It seemed like such a simple problem that it was stupid that it hadn’t been solved yet. I really wanted to work on something that seemed tangible, something that wasn’t necessarily complicated and could impact the world at a large scale. Our team began in the design team program, but over the years we just kept continuing with the project. I was lucky that I got to join the team as a freshman, as it has been a constant throughout my entire Hopkins career.”
What are Relavo’s goals for the future? Where do you expect to be in the coming years?
“We want to take this all the way. Our product will be a Class II medical device and we are hoping to submit to the FDA in about 2 years. Our goal is to launch to dialysis clinics in about 3 years and have our device used so that we can prevent infections in at-home dialysis. We want to see our device being used to improve patients’ lives.”
What will your role be like now that Relavo is more of a startup and less of a design team?
“Transitioning from a design team to a startup is a really big task and it is something that we have spent the last year doing. I am the chief operating officer, and currently, I lead R&D. My focus is to develop a really solid design that solves the clinical problem. We have a wonderful R&D team of student engineers; I really enjoy working on the product with them. In terms of what my role will be in the future, for the next few years it will be product development and conducting testing for FDA submission, and then working on the FDA submission itself. One of the important things about a startup is that roles are so fluid, especially when you’re an early member of the team, so I definitely see my role adapting to whatever is needed in the company. There are a lot of things I may end up doing so it is hard to say right now.”
What has been the most rewarding aspect of working with Relavo?
“That is a tough question. If I have to pick one, it would be this summer when we were granted a $500,000 award from KidneyX, a joint partnership between the US Department of Health and Human Services and the American Society of Nephrology. That was super exciting because we are a team of student inventors, right? We don’t have PhDs, we don’t have MDs… we are currently getting master degrees, that’s the furthest education any of us have done! This started as an undergrad project. We applied to this huge award and we were selected as one of only four or five winners, competing against teams led by doctors and research PI’s. To have a student-led team, where our PI on the application was our Design Team student leader, and just to be able to get that recognition on a national level was huge validation to us. We truly realized then that the clinical and scientific community was accepting of our idea and invention.”
Besides the FDA paperwork, has there been any major hurdles in the process?
“Something important, especially since I am leading R&D, is being open to changing the design if it is important or beneficial. It has been more than 3 years since we started, so a lot has changed since then in terms of our understanding of the clinical background as well as the national environment around kidney care. Because of these changes, it is important to challenge and revisit your assumptions. This has happened several times for us. For example, we follow one pathway and realize something isn’t financially feasible, or maybe it won’t work out in terms of manufacturing. There are a lot of different issues you can have with your design. Being open to the idea that it is in the best interest of the team to pivot the design is something that is really important for an early stage startup [and the R&D leader] to recognize.”
Do you have any advice for students looking to create a startup or those who are getting involved in entrepreneurship?
“I’ll say a couple things. One would be to really take advantage of university resources. When we were starting out and I was a freshman, Hopkins didn’t have as many entrepreneurship resources as we have now. TCO has played a big part in this, as well as Fast Forward University (FFU). There have been a lot more resources added in the last few years. I can only imagine what our path may have looked like if we were starting now. Really take advantage of student resources and reach out to fellow student founders. I think it’s great to have a community of people you know who are interested in an idea. Reach out and make connections. Another thing I would say is… well, it’s interesting because my path has been slightly different than the normal academic path. In general I have been much more focused on extracurriculars than coursework, and even so, I do take my academics very seriously. I found that I prioritize my startup’s work over school work even if it is hard at times, especially seeing so many friends who were very focused on academics. I had to be accepting that I am on a different path and that I don’t need to be pressured by my friends who had different goals than me. It was okay for me to focus on what I thought would be most beneficial. It ended up working out because the thing I spent so much time on is what I will be working on after graduation. So don’t be afraid to take a nontraditional path. When I was going through school I didn’t see a lot of student founders, but I would really encourage you not to be afraid to take that path.”
Is there anyone you would like to give a shout-out to?
“FFU, especially Kevin Carter, has been a huge motivator for us. He has given us really helpful connections. Also, the design team program was really instrumental in getting us off the ground. That’s where the project started and how we were first paired up with Dr. Alicia Neu, who is a clinician at Hopkins hospital. She was the one who first presented us with the problem of high infection rates in at-home dialysis. I would say that Dr. Logsdon, who was our first faculty advisor, has also been a champion for us along the way. We have also made some connections through the tech transfer office and the people there. The Hopkins network has been helpful, especially Hopkins alumni. We were able to reach out to many people through Hopkins connections. Even in the Design Team class, we would have industry workers or Hopkins alumni come talk to us. I would make connections with them and learn from their experience, and we just kept the relationships going. There is a decently sized Hopkins alumni network specifically in medical device startups that has been a great resource for us.”
Throughout this whole process, what are some big lessons you have learned from working on your startup?
“A lot of engineers think that your startup is defined by your invention, but what I have come to learn is that your invention, or your device, is only a small part of the company. There are so many other factors such as pricing, commercialization strategy, reimbursement landscape, etc. Many other factors, some more important than the product itself, need to be considered. Engineers especially overlook that aspect.
There are so many “unknown” unknowns, meaning there are things that you don’t know and you don’t even realize that you don’t know them. That is where our mentors have been instrumental. For example, one of our mentors told us about quality systems, which is something most people don’t know about. Even though it isn’t taught in the design team program, it is an extremely important part of a medical device startup. Being exposed to the idea of a quality management system and having that awareness was instrumental for us to actually move forward as a start-up. There are so many things you don’t realize you will need. Then, once you realize you need them, it may seem overwhelming to implement them. However, it is definitely something you can get advice from mentors on how to tackle.
Lastly, the most important thing is to learn and adapt. My startup, all co-founders and members included, has learned so much by being open-minded and willing to learn. We had a pre-submission meeting with the FDA, and it was a really big accomplishment for us. I never thought I would be talking about bringing our medical device to market in a meeting with the FDA as a student startup. A lot of that was us sitting down, looking at the websites, reading the documents, and absorbing as much information as possible. I feel like we learned so much just from having an open mind and working hard. A lot of us have good work ethics from being at Hopkins, and what I learned is that you don’t need to be an expert in what you are working on. You can learn so much just by being willing to learn. This whole process has been really rewarding. It really shows the power of young, passionate people working towards a goal and accomplishing big things.”
Anything you want to add?
“Don’t be afraid to follow a non-traditional path. I was scared at first because I always imagined myself going to industry. I am a Hopkins BME student who will soon complete both a bachelors and a masters. It is definitely a more secure path to go into industry and get a job at a large company. However, I felt like I had worked for so long on a project I believed in, and I wanted to see it improving patients’ lives. A lot of people can be successful going to a large company, that’s fantastic. I just thought this was a very unique opportunity: pursuing a startup. At Hopkins I gained a lot of skills in innovation and strong experiences, so I just wanted to pursue something different. Don’t be afraid to pursue non-traditional career paths.
If you have any questions and want to learn more, I am always willing to talk to people. Feel free to reach out to me!”
To learn more about Relavo, visit them here:
Website: https://relavomedical.com/
LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/company/relavo
Twitter: http://twitter.com/relavomedical
