Impact dialogue with Naveen Jain, CEO, Viome & Sanjiv Goyal, Chair, IIT2020

Author: Sanjiv Goyal, Managing Partner, Adroit Capital

Are you a dreamer? Do you want to change the standard of living for billions? Can you imagine living in a world where we fulfill our loftiest human potential? Setting greatness into motion could be as simple as asking three questions.

I recently interviewed Naveen Jain the CEO of Viome, a microbiome testing, and personalized nutrition company, but don’t let him catch you calling it that. He gleefully resists reducing his operation to a one size fits all label, insistently returning the focus to his grand vision: “Imagine living in a world where illness was optional.”

To disrupt the status quo, whether it comes to gut health or outer space exploration, you need a vision, and you need to ask the right questions. Jain has proven that it isn’t about which answers you have, but which questions you routinely ask.

Think about it; once you become an expert, you become an incrementalist because the best thing you can do is make something five or ten percent better. But when you come from outside of an industry, you can challenge the foundation of everything the experts have taken for granted. Being a novice can work in your favor.

We live in the information age. We have the internet in our pockets, and access to the greatest minds and vast databases is the tap of a finger away. Breaking into new industries isn’t the challenge that it once was.

You no longer need to be an authority on a subject, because you can assemble a team to advise you. The people making things happen often aren’t the most educated guys in the room, or the most specialized; they are the ones asking, “What if it were possible?”

The Three Questions Every Entrepreneur Needs To Ask

These are the three most important questions to ask before moving in the direction of your entrepreneurial dreams: Why this? Why now? Why me?

Posing the question “Why this?” shifts the focus to the exciting implications of achieving your goal. You have to ask: Is this a problem that, if solved, will help a massive amount of people? Will it drastically increase the standard of living? And lastly, is it a problem you are obsessed with solving?

If you answered all three questions with a resounding yes, it’s time to move on to question two: Why now?

Because now is the future of the dreams of our past. With modern technological advances, especially in AI, there will continue to be a steady stream of previously unsolvable problems waiting to be worked out.

There are opportunities for innovation that were impossible even five years ago for anyone with a creative approach and an entrepreneurial mindset. Every time there is a change in tech, there is a new set of available tools that allow us to approach problems in entirely new ways.

And so we reach the third question: Why me? If the question you are asking is the same question that everyone else is asking, you solve the same problem that everyone else is solving. Are you thinking outside of the paradigm? Do you think you could be successful where others have failed?

Lastly, make sure the solution addresses an issue’s root cause rather than merely suppressing the symptoms. Though integral to healthcare, opportunities lie in wait for those who apply this same principle and these inquiries across industries.

Assembling A Great Team

So, you have an innovative idea, and you answered the questions in the affirmative. Now what? You need a team, a great team. How can you recruit the most brilliant minds of today on a budget? Simple: you have to make sure the problem is worth solving.

If you’re solving a problem that has world-wide implications, you’re going to attract the best and the brightest minds. With a compelling vision, you attract the best team, and the best team attracts the capital, and the capital gives you the resources to solve the problem. But it all starts by asking, “What if?”

Persistence Of Vision

It isn’t about what you are doing, but about having a clear vision of what life could be like if you hit your mark against all odds. That is what will inspire people to join your cause.

It’s essential to picture your objective. Most companies have a mission statement that they can’t visualize. For something to be a vision, by definition, you need to be able to imagine what is being described in your mind’s eye.

Persistence of vision and the drive that comes from imagining the impact for billions of people globally if you meet your goals will instill you with contagious enthusiasm and the joie de vivre of a young child excited to meet each new day.

When you launch a company, people want to label it and reduce you to the first thing you are doing. Jain’s advice is to correct them. When they say, “Viome is a microbiome testing company.” I say: “No. We are a healthcare company that will solve the issue of chronic disease for good.”

Launching Viome in 2016 was a no-brainer. There has never been a better time to disrupt the healthcare industry.

Jain had the tools to digitize the data which made it easily accessible. He had the ability to decode the human body through gene sequencing. And he could decipher it all by utilizing advanced AI in unconventional ways, streamlining the entire process.

He focused on the three fundamental questions, and it took him farther than anyone could have imagined. How far could asking the right questions take you?

Check Viome.com and the IIT 2020 Global Summit