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Ed Gaudet:
Welcome to Risk Never Sleeps, where we meet and get to know the people delivering patient care and protecting patient safety. I'm your host, Ed Gaudet.
Ed Gaudet:
Welcome to the Risk Never Sleeps podcast, in which we discuss the people that are protecting patient care. I'm Ed Gaudet, the host of our program, and I'm pleased to be joined today by Shankar Somasundaram. And Shankar is the CEO and founder of Asimily. I love your tagline, by the way, healing the devices that heal, really tells you everything you need to know about what you do, I think, in a nice, concise way. So I assume you're still using that as a tagline or?
Shankar Somasundaram:
Yeah, I mean, we are. I mean, we are basically, the company was initially looking at a tagline, for we are using it for now.
Ed Gaudet:
Okay, excellent. So tell us more about Asimily. Tell us more about what you're doing, how you work with customers.
Shankar Somasundaram:
So I started Asimily in late 2017. Our focus is really around helping health systems secure and manage their medical and IoT devices in the healthcare environment. So today, we are working with pretty much health systems across the globe in US, in Europe, and in Asia in helping them understand what devices are there in the environment, helping them with, prioritize the most critical devices from a vulnerability perspective, have them mitigated with a proprietary recommendation, find out what kind of risks or anomalies are there, help them from forensic analysis perspective, help them from an asset utilization perspective, pretty much go across the entire spectrum of use cases from inventory, cyber security, and operational management. And we work with health systems which are pretty small to mid-size to very large health systems that are spread across states, countries, and thousands of beds across the organization.
Ed Gaudet:
And we share an investor and a customer.
Shankar Somasundaram:
That's right, we do.
Ed Gaudet:
In Memorial Care.
Shankar Somasundaram:
That's right. And they have been a great partner, I would say, along the journey. I'm sure it's the same for you all. That's how I would designate them now. And the good part about healthcare is there are organizations like Memorial Care who become partners more than customers or investors. They become partners along the journey, and that's the beauty of healthcare.
Ed Gaudet:
That's right. Nothing like a customer that is much more than just a customer, but they are a true partner. They work with you and not only helping understand their problems and how you can solve for them, but they really help you build your business, which is pretty cool.
Shankar Somasundaram:
Exactly.
Ed Gaudet:
So how did you come up with the idea?
Shankar Somasundaram:
So I used to run the business at Symantec, and I was, I had started it. So I had initially designed the strategy for Symantec on what they should do in the entire, broadly speaking, IoT space, enterprise IoT space, if you can put it this way. And then, when the time came to start the business, they chose me. I had a product and engineering background before, so I started it. And through that journey, I ended up looking at different verticals: retail, industrial, healthcare. And then, as I grew, as I dug deeper into healthcare, I found aspects of healthcare. I mean, already had a background, some background with healthcare, so I found aspects about this entire device management space in healthcare pretty fascinating. And it became clearer to me that this was a problem that needed to be solved differently from IoT devices, and, you know, a sequence of events that led to this, but that finally led me to starting Asimily.
Ed Gaudet:
And is there any relevance to the name in what you do, or is it just a name that you picked or?
Shankar Somasundaram:
Yeah, Asimily actually means to assimilate data. So, you know, there's a bigger story around it, but in short, really, the idea is we assimilate different data sources, whether it's network documents, network sources, logs. I mean, we're pulling everything together, online sources, our own research, and that's what it really is. It's really a data analytics platform fundamentally, which is being purpose-built to solve these problems. And so Asimily was the fundamental idea that we would assimilate all this data and analyze it. Yeah, and that's how it was born.
Ed Gaudet:
Now, how did you get into healthcare?
Shankar Somasundaram:
I wanted to be a doctor long ago, so.
Ed Gaudet:
There it is, there's the personal story.
Shankar Somasundaram:
I've been wanting to be a doctor long ago. I even ... my medical entrance ... in India, and I was about to go in and enroll in a top college, and a series of circumstances didn't allow me to be that, but I've done other stuff in healthcare. I ran a remote healthcare monitoring, I built a remote healthcare monitoring product in India. You know, I actually built like this app long before in India, which actually allowed you to figure out when you needed blood, who was the nearest donor who matched your blood type. So there's some stuff I've done. A lot of people in my family are doctors, my cousins, and so on, in US, in India, everywhere. So there's this history around healthcare, in the family, and in my own background, and I've always been fascinated by the industry. So I've not been a doctor, I've been always fascinated by it, and I've been touched by it in many ways. So, you know, I think it was natural at some point, I'd find myself doing something in this market.
Ed Gaudet:
And I'll bet you when you go to family gatherings, you now at least can tell them ...
Shankar Somasundaram:
At least I am part of the family.
Ed Gaudet:
And they understand it right now. Exactly.
Shankar Somasundaram:
I don't think they understand what exactly, what I do, but they know I do something in healthcare. So now, if I'm not a doctor, there's something I do in healthcare, and that's still better than not doing anything.
Ed Gaudet:
Yeah, exactly. No, I found that when I went into healthcare, I could have richer conversations with my parents about what I did because everyone's a patient, everyone knows a patient. They at least kind of understand the business, if you will. And the shared mission is really interesting with customers, unlike any other industry where we work in concert with, again, protecting patient safety.
Shankar Somasundaram:
Yeah, the work that you do and the work that we do here at Asimily truly has a mission to it. We are not just building a business, we are saving patient lives, is how I see it. And we are hopefully making the health systems better and more efficient with that.
Ed Gaudet:
That's right, and keeping the bad guys out and allowing their operations to continue in a productive way, and obviously making sure that patients are taken care of. So what keeps you up at night as an entrepreneur? There's so many things I'm sure.
Shankar Somasundaram:
You know, that does change from year to year. You know that very well. What keeps you up today will not be the same thing that keeps you up next year. I would say, you know, part of what keeps me up there, among all the great things, healthcare, the rate of adoption in healthcare is slower. And when the market slows down, you know, the overall broad market, when it starts slowing down, you have people who think of cybersecurity as, sometimes as a, you know, I can postpone this project, or I can worry about it next year, or I can do some small piece of it, and I can worry about the rest next year, or I can do it only for a subset. And that does worry me both from, you know, you're going to an environment where you're trying to secure them, and then you see problems in the environment, and the, they refuse to see it, and it worries me, you know, what happens if something were to happen in that environment? What would be the impact? That worries me, that keeps you up at night. And then you worry, is this an ecosystem that is not going to understand the problem as deeply as they should? Because we deal with global organizations, I'm seeing this globally. It's not just the US problem or a Europe problem. So that does keep me up at night. If you are in a place where you see the problem, where the industry understands the problem and absorbs it equally across this spectrum, I think that makes everybody's life easier. Then it's a question of, are you solving the problem the right way? And I think there are budget constraints and there are operational issues as well, which I understand. So I get it, but I think the problem is severe enough that should be in your top three priorities at the minimum, and does keep me up with that many times people don't see it that way.
Ed Gaudet:
That's right, yeah, and whether an organization chooses our products or not, they still have to solve the problem, so the problem is they must have solved.
Shankar Somasundaram:
That's exactly the point.
Ed Gaudet:
It's so critical and so, and there's certainly obviously ways to solve it, but that's what makes it interesting, and that's what makes the role of the entrepreneur in some ways so exciting, in some ways such a high-risk endeavor. Last year, as you said, pointed out, the last couple of years have been challenging with the pandemic. I think we get certain types of CEO founder badges now, right, because we lived through a pandemic, right? Not every CEO had the opportunity to live through a pandemic, especially in healthcare. So given some of the challenges we've had, what are you most proud of over the past year or couple of years? Personally and professionally?
Shankar Somasundaram:
Professionally, I would say the company has grown through this pandemic. I mean, pandemic brings a lot of uncertainty, as you very well have lived through it. And you don't know exactly, you know, when you have investors like both of us have investors, when you have employees, you are constantly weighing risk between what you should and shouldn't do, and then you're getting advice and pressures from all directions. And so taking all of that and then making the right decisions, such as the company should grow, and you're actually adding value to your customers, adding value to your partners. I think that we have done, I would say, decently, at least, so I think that is something to look back and say, we didn't just survive, we thrived through the pandemic. Personally, I have two kids. The pandemic gave me more time to spend with the family, and I think, yeah, being a better father, spending more time with the kids is definitely something I'll look back and say, you know, I'm happy that I could do that, and so that's something to actually look back and be happy about.
Ed Gaudet:
Yeah, it's so great that you said that. I almost feel guilty when I say that. Like I had a positive experience in the pandemic because I was able to spend more time.
Shankar Somasundaram:
Yes, I agree.
Ed Gaudet:
So I'm glad to hear you say that. You know, our listeners always love to hear about what entrepreneurs would be doing if they weren't doing this. So if you weren't doing this, what would you be doing? What's your other passion?
Shankar Somasundaram:
Well, it's hard to say. I mean, I've wanted to be different things at different times. I told you about the story of wanting to be a doctor. In a different dimension maybe I am a doctor. Who knows? I was just so close. I could have been one of the two, and I chose to be an engineer for a variety of reasons, but I think I ... doctor, and just, it's a coin toss at that point in time what happened. But, you know, outside of that, you know, I probably would have gone into sports. I played a couple of sports at an advanced level in college, and so on. I probably would have tried my hand at that. Again if there was money in sports in India outside of cricket, right? That's all money goes to cricket in India, so there was no scope.
Ed Gaudet:
Which sports were you involved in?
Shankar Somasundaram:
I was involved a lot at chess, at that point, and ping pong, so I would have probably pick one of them and.
Ed Gaudet:
Awesome.
Shankar Somasundaram:
Old passion, but anyway, so I think.
Ed Gaudet:
You still play chess?
Shankar Somasundaram:
A little bit. No, I mean, I've stopped. It takes a lot of time. ... games, I think no, so time for ... games. But I would say outside of that, the other passion I have is economy, like, so I would have probably been an economist trying to analyze how markets move, and international markets move, but that's a more nerdy thing to do.
Ed Gaudet:
So interesting, interesting. Yeah, so if you could go back in time, what would you tell your 20-year-old self?
Shankar Somasundaram:
You think that certain things are made the way they are, you think certain things act the way they are. My thing is, everything can be changed. All rules were made to evolve, all technologies were made to get better. Pretty much the rules that bind you today will not be there tomorrow. And so not to be bound by any rules or anything that appears to be done well, because, you know, every few years things evolve and rules change and technology changes and so everything can be done better. That's the thing I would tell my 20-year-old. So think when you're young, you sometimes think that certain roads are closed and certain things are the way they are, and there is nothing like that. I mean, pretty much anything and everything is going to be done differently in five years from now, and we have seen that evolution.
Ed Gaudet:
Absolutely. That's such great advice. And it's certainly interesting how that could apply to culture too. You know, as you think about your culture and what you're building. Talk to us about your culture. What makes it different, what you're proud of, and some of the areas that you're thinking about evolving over the next couple of years?
Shankar Somasundaram:
Yeah, I would say, look, as a company culture, there's a high amount of innovation that is part of the company culture, which goes back to my fundamental thing of what I've told my 20-year-old. The company is launching new modules every six months net new modules, not just incremental features, but net new modules every six months, nine months. That's part of how we see the stack that everything can be improved. The second thing I would say is high degree of customer obsessiveness in the company. So you're constantly worried about how does the customer view the product, use the product, you know, engage, how do they operationalize the product, and I think there are constant improvements being made to make sure that enhances there. And there's a high degree of collaborativeness inside the company and information flow, so there's a lot of openness and collaborativeness inside the company coupled with accountability, of course. So I would say the innovativeness, the high degree of customer obsessiveness, and the collaboration with accountability, I would characterize those. From an improvement perspective, I think as a company, the company has been growing. We have hired a lot of people, we continue to hire, we continue to grow. I mean, both of us have raised similar amounts of money, which is not a lot, to be honest, but to continue to grow through that. We are basically, I'm sure you have been capital efficient as well, and so have we. But, you know, as you continue to grow, your operations have to continue to evolve to make sure that things are running smoothly. And that's an area that, as the company scales, every company continues to evolve its operations so that the processes and the operations scale seamlessly without having any issues.
Ed Gaudet:
Absolutely agree with all of that as well. I think it's interesting, it's, which is what makes growing a company so exciting, especially a tech company, is today's problem is not going to be tomorrow's problem.
Shankar Somasundaram:
Yes, I agree.
Ed Gaudet:
Which is, again, for someone like myself who likes to stay stimulated intellectually, you have that opportunity every single day to do something different, learn something different from your customers and from the market or your investors and your board, etc.
Shankar Somasundaram:
That's right.
Ed Gaudet:
As we think about that last point, what are some of the hard lessons you learned in your career that really helped evolve the way you think about building a company, building great products? That customer obsessiveness you talked about.
Shankar Somasundaram:
Good question, I'm thinking about it for a second. I would say, you know, I started off as an engineer. I mean, moved from the fact that I want to be a doctor, then became an engineer. I started off as an engineer, and when you become, when you're studying engineering, and you're doing everything, you look at the world from a technology lens, like everything is technology, you build great technology, but at some point, you realize it's all about people. Whether you're selling, whether you're building a company, whether you're running a business unit, whether you're going somewhere, it's all about people. And ultimately, you know, you need to talk to people as a human being, not as a prospect or as a revenue source. You need to talk as a human being, and you need to really understand the pain points they have or what is it that they want, or what is it that their aspirations are. If you're actually building the company, you want to understand the aspirations, you want to keep them motivated. And so if you can really master the art of working with people and forming a relationship with people and driving what is important to them, then I think, whether or not somebody buys a product or not, I think long-term, you'll be successful. Whether or not you make money in the short term, long-term, you will build the right relationships. I'd say they're right because sometimes you just don't want to have a transactional, you want to have a long-term relationship where you're helping people. And I think that lesson, that technology is good, everything is good, but fundamentally it comes down to people. For an engineer, it was a hard transition early on in my career because you're made to think as an engineer and that the world has to be looked through the lens of technology. And when you.
Ed Gaudet:
So true.
Shankar Somasundaram:
So the shift. Yeah, you know, you know the drill, Ed. You have been in the industry for a long time.
Ed Gaudet:
Yeah, no, it's so true. And it's so great that you came to the realization because, you know, even entrepreneurs that have been in it 30, 40 years, they still don't get it. They all think it's about the technology or it's about the operations or, you know, it's a formula, it can be driven formulaically, and it is always about people, and people are very complicated and very complex.
Shankar Somasundaram:
And there is no formula, there is no standard cookie-cutter approach you can apply to, every person is different. And so you got to continuously adjust, right? So I think that really makes a difference. I mean, by the way, at Asimily line, we have almost 0% attrition. Like I won't say almost, we have 0% attrition. And part of the thing is there's a lot of emphasis on people and what their needs are. So that focus on people has been a big shift in my career.
Ed Gaudet:
Yeah, that's really great. So I think I'd be remiss if I didn't ask this question, given that the name of this podcast is Risk Never Sleeps. What is the riskiest thing you've ever done?
Shankar Somasundaram:
So I would say starting a company is always risky.
Ed Gaudet:
That's true.
Shankar Somasundaram:
You know that very well, Ed, but, I don't know if you know, in L.A. National Forest there's a bridge, it's called the Bridge to Nowhere, it's 200ft above the ground. It was built for something, but it doesn't really go anywhere. It's just a bridge, it's 200ft above the ground, and below the bridge, there is this faint amount of water that flows filled with rocks and a little bit of water. And there is a company which takes you, it's an eight-mile hike to the bridge and eight-mile back, so totally 16-mile hike in the day. And then you go in the middle of the forest, it's right in the middle of the forest, that's why it's called the Bridge to Nowhere, and then you do a bungee jump from the bridge right into the water.
Ed Gaudet:
You've done this?
Shankar Somasundaram:
Yes, I've done that. And they do it in the evening, so you have the nighttime. It's right in the middle of the forest. It's not like it's like a populated area. You really have to hike through the forest and through water and so on to get there.
Ed Gaudet:
So if the forest doesn't kill you.
Shankar Somasundaram:
You have the bungee jump.
Ed Gaudet:
Yeah.
Shankar Somasundaram:
And you can do a front jump and a bad jump and a back hop and there are all ways to do it, and I would say not knowing, like I just went with somebody, but really researching the company or where I was headed, I just decided to bungee jump, I'm going to go for it. In retrospect, I would probably do that the same way again.
Ed Gaudet:
Only the one time too, right? You just ... go back up and do it again?
Shankar Somasundaram:
Yeah, I did it four times in that bridge just to try different.
Ed Gaudet:
You did four times?
Shankar Somasundaram:
Not four trips, but in one trip you can actually wait and do it four different ways, and so I did it four times, since I was already there, four different kinds of jumps. And a different bungee jump actually is not one. Anyway, there are 4 or 5 different ways you can do bungee jump, and so I.
Ed Gaudet:
What was your favorite bungee jump? What's the best way to do it?
Shankar Somasundaram:
So it's like a back walk. You just walk casually, like you don't look at the valley where you, you're on a step, you're looking forward and you're just walking backwards like it's a casual walk and it falls straight down. You don't jump, you just fall straight down like you just.
Ed Gaudet:
Whipped around, right? Because you're going straight down and then.
Shankar Somasundaram:
You go straight down, like straight, and then, when it pulls you up, you feel as if somebody yanked your stomach for a second. It is not fun, but that's the experience of suddenly walking and seeing no ground below you is something to be experienced.
Ed Gaudet:
I love that. Was that? That was fanta-, I was not expecting that, Shankar, not expecting that. That might be the top riskiest thing anyone's ever done on this program. That's fantastic. All right, well, is there anything else you'd like to leave with our listeners? Any other words of advice or considerations?
Shankar Somasundaram:
Advice for me is, I think, risk is real, for anybody who's listening to it. Some people say that if you know the risk, but you kind of aware of the risk, but you don't really know it, then you don't really have to act on it. I think that's not the right way to look at it. Risk is real, I think risk never sleeps, that you have as a podcast title is, perfect title for this. The risk is real, you got to act on it, you got to look at it. I think both of us, Ed, our mission, why we started the company, it could be doing a lot of other stuff. Why we started the company is truly to bring down the risk. And I'm sure you have seen with me, I would gladly talk to a customer to advise them if they didn't bring to our, then buy our product to really give them our views of what the industry and what they should be doing. My only view is like, people should really look at risk as a real thing they have to do and take it seriously and not something that just needs a solution. And maybe it's not a solution, maybe it's a process, maybe it's something ...
Ed Gaudet:
No, it's real. It's not an academic exercise. That's a great way to end it. Thank you very much for your time today. This has been fantastic. This is Ed Gaudet coming from the Risk Never Sleeps podcast. I want to thank all of our listeners, and if you are on the front lines protecting patient safety, thank you for your service. And remember, everyone, stay vigilant because risk never sleeps.
Ed Gaudet:
Thanks for listening to Risk Never Sleeps. For the show notes, resources, and more information on how to transform the protection of patient safety, visit us at Censinet.com. That's C E N S I N E T.com. I'm your host, Ed Gaudet. And until next time, stay vigilant because Risk Never Sleeps.
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