Portrait No. 001
Sandhya Tiku
Founder and CTO
Sinustim
Raised — Currently in Raise
I grew up in a family who believed in Ayurvedic and other traditional medical practices that enable a patient to help themselves, and I dreamt of a world where everyone could believe in themselves to heal. That is what took me down the path of Biomedical engineering, towards medical devices that heal and remove harmful reliances on chronic medications. When I shadowed at the Johns Hopkins Hospital and interfaced with hundreds of patients with Chronic Rhinitis and learned of the limitations in their current care paradigm I was moved to utilize my skills as an engineer to innovate in this area. These patients only have two options: medications every day for the rest of their lives, or surgery and then medications every day for the rest of their lives. When we invented SinuStim, and tested the device in our first patients, I knew it had the potential to transform lives the way I had dreamt. No medications, no reliance, but self healing. A simple mouthguard that stimulates nerves in the mouth to regulate the autonomic system and relieve symptoms in 5 minutes.
In her words
“For future women founders: I want them to never hear "we'll bring in a CEO type." I want the path I had to fight for to be the floor, not the ceiling.”
Chapter I
The toughest challenges you've faced as a founder.
As a young woman in an executive role it is a common experience to be initially overlooked. When I began my startup, I didn't realize how much of a personal journey it would be outside of growing my company. I didn't anticipate the situations where investors, doctors and other KOLs would only make eye contact with my male co-founder, or I was referenced as his assistant in several occasions. Initially these situations weighed on my mind, I then tried to be the louder voice in the room and the one who fought for attention. My true journey as a founder has been learning that the most commanding presence in a room is not the one that is loud, or that I needed more male-like characteristics to be taken seriously. Instead, I have grown to realize that remaining true to myself, and utilizing my innate skills as a woman of empathy, vision, and multitasking have served me the most. It has been this growth that enabled me to lead our first in human study in 30 patients, amass over $1M in non-dilutive and dilutive funding, and build a product truly designed for the end user within one year of the concept. My true barrier as a founder has been to learn that I don't need to fit the definition that others have of a \"perfect founder\" but instead to highlight my unique and daring qualities that make me a tenacious and successful leader.
Chapter II
Your vision.
A stuffy nose is miserable, you can't breathe, have brain fog, and worst of all you can't even sleep. Imagine feeling like that EVERY single day. Over 40 million patients in the US alone wake up every morning feeling like they have a cold. They can't breathe at night, sniffle the whole day, take a cocktail of medications, and barely perform daily tasks. Patients spend decades cycling through medications, procedures, and doctor visits searching for a cure, and most patients end up \"just living with it\" and claim that its \"just normal for me\". Despite its prevalence, millions of patients are underserved and suffer daily from many symptoms of their disease. SinuStim is the first device that takes drugs and surgery (and their side-effects) out of the equation, and provides patients easy and transformative symptom relief. Using this simple mouthguard for 5 minutes, SinuStim treats the root cause of the disease and melts away ALL symptoms to create a whole new world for patients. This device gives millions of people a way to breathe better, be stronger, and feel alive.
Chapter III
The impact you want to leave behind — for your industry, your community, and the women who come next.
I want women to see \"traditionally female characteristics\" as those that build the best leaders. These characteristics in a leader build companies that are driven by empathy, community, and incredible novelty. I want to lead the movement that women don't need to become like men to be leaders as some may think, but instead need to harness our innate strengths and wield those to empower our communities to be better, healthier, and safer. I try to remember this everyday, and will leave the legacy that our belief in ourselves is what powers us, not the perspective of anyone else.