Legacy and Evolution of Ayurveda

With a show of hands, how many of us had Chavanprash even once while growing up? That's a lot of us. For all of you who don't know, Chavanprash is a black, bitter, sticky, inconvenient nutritive jam that most Indian kids have while growing up as an immunity and energy booster. Now, the more important question, how many of us actually like Chavanprash? Not that many. As expected. Good morning. My name is Arjun Vaidya. And Vaidya, my last name, means Ayurvedic doctor. I come from a legacy of 150 years of Ayurveda in my family. Like most of you, I also grew up having this black, bitter, sticky paste. But because of my family's Ayurveda legacy, I had many more pastes. My grandfather used to call them parikas, powders and oils while growing up. Ayurveda has been a part of my family and I. and is called to us. And this is the story of Ayurveda and my family over the last 150 years. Ayurveda means the science of life. It's the traditional Indian science of healing using herbs and minerals from nature's bounty. This science has been in the Indian subcontinent for more than 2000, some say more than 5000 years. Basically a very very long time. Sages like Dhanvantri, Charak and Sushruta spent their lives researching herbs and creating formulations that have stood the test of time. Veds or Ayurvedic doctors passed down these formulations from generation to generation so that they could be used extensively by our forefathers. Somewhere along the way, the British came to India. With them, they brought trains and cricket, but they also brought their form of western medicine. Ayurveda stood in her corner peacefully as allopathy came to the fore. Ayurveda did not fight for her role, but only stayed relevant to those that cared. And slowly, this number began to reduce. The veds earnestly and tirelessly continued their practice, complaining as little as possible. It was during this time of reduced interest to Ayurveda that my great-grandfather Moved from Gujarat to Bombay. Yes, Bombay was the name of the city at that time. He came with his belongings, his scriptures and his secret family formulations. He came to the city of dreams to practice his trade. But what he didn't realize is that Ayurveda was losing relevance. He struggled with the stall in Masjid Bandar, the business area of the city. He had faith in his formulations, but nobody gave his Ayurveda. and his work much importance. Almost done with what he had in terms of resources. Dheeraj Lal Vaidya was about to give up and move back to his hometown. As with most stories like this, the Almighty presented an opportunity at this time. And as with most opportunities that people get at this time in their story, it was a hail Mary play. There was an old influential lady in the area who was suffering an All the doctors had given up on her. She needed somebody to help her. My great-grandfather saw this as an opportunity. He knew his Ayurveda could heal her, but he knew it was a risky play. Because if he did it wrong, he would be kicked out of the area. He thought to himself, I have nothing going for me anyway, let me give this a shot. And with nervousness, he decided that he was going to heal this lady. He stayed with this patient tirelessly, day and night for three days. And lo and behold his Ayurveda healed her. So grateful was this lady that she actually gifted him an office space which he owned and demanded that he start a clinic. This clinic is where our story begins. As was customary at the time my grandfather followed in his father's footsteps and went to medical school. In 1957 he graduated from medical school and joined his father and in 71 His father gave the reins of the clinic to him. For the next 30 years, Ayurveda and my grandfather had opposite fates. India had gotten independence, the economy was growing, millions were lifted off the poverty line. But India began to resent the quality of anything that was Indian. We became obsessed with imported products. Ayurveda had a similar fate as well. Ayurveda was perceived as the thing of grandmothers, poorly packaged and something urban India completely ignored. My grandfather on the other hand assumed legendary status. In his micro market, he used to see 350 patients on a daily basis. As word spread, thousands across India would write to him via post. This number swelled to 12,000 at its peak. My grandfather was a man of service. He believed nobody should be charged to talk to a doctor. And so to all these patients, he offered a free consultation. While Ayurveda struggled in urban India, my grandfather was somewhat of a lone crusader. His practice grew so large, he actually built a factory to produce the medicines that he dispensed through his clinic. This was my grandfather, a man of service. In the late... In the late 80s, my father graduated from college. He had grown up with my grandfather. He had grown up with Ayurveda and he saw the potential of the work. He wanted to create a brand that took the work of my grandfather from hundreds and thousands to millions. Unfortunately, doctors and businessmen don't see eye to eye. My grandfather said to him, why do I need to pay to market my product to people when we have hundreds walking into our clinic on a daily basis? Being a branding and marketing junkie, my father couldn't cut in the clinic. And so, after almost 120 years of what we can trace, the Ayurveda tradition in my family broke for the first time. Unlike many, I grew up with Ayurveda. I lived by the doshas, I lived by the Ayurvedic principles. I also grew up suffering from juvenile bronchitis. I grew up with pumps and inhalers. I was the kid who had to be away from dust. The kid who couldn't take the smell of... pain. I was a kid who couldn't have coca-cola but after 14 years of rigorous Ayurvedic treatment by my grandfather I was completely cured. I grew up in an India that was obsessed with imports. I was gifted a Japanese electronic pencil sharpener for my 11th birthday. I was taken to stores which stock solely imported products but in this India I grew up with my grandfather. I spent a lot of time with him and I was the one in the family who tried our family formulations from the scriptures to the computer. My grandfather would talk to me about the sages. He talked to me extensively about the place he believed Ayurveda should hold in modern India. I used to watch him read, read and read more. My grandfather was an inspiration to me because his commitment to Ayurveda was undying. This is a very old photo of me. Ten years ago, graduating from this very school. In 2009, I graduated from this school to go to Brown University for my undergraduate education. My grandfather made me promise to him that I would study biotechnology at Brown and come back and take on the family Ayurveda legacy. He said he would pay for my education if I did this. I went to Brown in 2009. I didn't go to a lab ever, ever in my time at Brown. I studied economics and international relations and my grandfather stopped paying for my education. But my experiences at Brown shaped the way I think. I was in the Northeast and experienced the natural organic products revolution. I saw the whole foods of the world. I saw consumers there show much more value and pay much more for products with natural ingredients. This is something that excited me because it's not something I saw much in India. I also saw what happened with yoga and this fascinated me. Yoga pants, yoga mats, yoga gyms, lululemon, this was a 20 billion dollar plus industry in the US. What happened here though? The West saw some value in what we have in yoga and while we were sleeping, they took it, repackaged it and created a mammoth industry out of it. Genius, right? Yoga today is a household name around the world, but I'm not sure we have much to do with it. Being a patriotic Indian, this bothered me. I've worn this band with the Indian flag on my hand for the last 10 years. And thus, I came straight back to India after graduating from college. I didn't really get into Ayurveda at that time and took up a private equity, but I was back home. Unfortunately, my grandfather had become ill by this. And three months into me moving back, he passed. He left us. I had come back to a new India though. An India that was proud, an India that was happy to consume Indian products and confident. Ayurveda had also woken up in this India. Ayurveda was undergoing somewhat of a renaissance. When the government changed, the Ministry of Ayush, that's Ayurveda, Yoga, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy was created. This was a monumental time in the history of our industry. Large consumer companies that had traditionally ignored Ayurveda, saw urban consumers demand herbal products and created completely herbal lines. This was exciting. At this time though, I thought Ayurveda... I had missed a trick. While urban consumers wanted Ayurveda, Ayurveda hadn't adapted for urban consumers. Ayurveda was still boring, old style and poorly packaged. Ayurveda was just not cool. During this time, I was also undergoing a journey of personal transformation. While I enjoyed my career in private equity and spent a lot of time on the Indian consumer story, I also wanted to create a brand. I wanted to create value myself. It was at this time of frustration and struggle that I was invited to speak at my father's office for his 50th birthday. I gave a speech on how my father inspired me and how his work ethic moulded the personality I have today. A few people came to me and exchanged pleasantries after the speech and as I was leaving, my grandfather's nurse of 17 years came up to me. She said, while you're talking so much about your father's legacy, Are you going to let your grandfather's legacy die? This to me was a powerful statement. All those memories of spending time with my grandfather came back to me. I had made a promise to him. He had asked me to make a promise. Stuck by it during my time at Brown. This was the time I could go back to it. This was my aha moment. I quit my job in private equity and embarked on a journey I knew very little about. Most people, including my grandmother, thought I was crazy. A 35-year-old getting into an industry that was categorized by grey hair and experience. But I knew Ayurveda had to evolve. I knew that Ayurvedic products had to become cool, sexy, fun and aspirational for modern consumers. And this was the journey we embarked on. I believed we had to create age Ayurveda, or Ayurveda for the 21st century. And because all of this came to me from my grandfather, the company would be a tribute to my grandfather. And so I called it Dr. Vaidya's after him. Remember the Chavanprash that I talked to you about earlier? The problem with Chavanprash is that although a lot of us know that it's good for us for immunity, energy and health, we just can't fathom having that black, bitter, sticky paste every morning. But I thought to myself, this is a problem. 1000 years of Ayurvedic goodness in this Chavanprash but we can't have it every morning so something needs to be done about it so we created this Alactability was the problem so we took the 21 active ingredients of Chavanprash super concentrated it and put it into a toffee and voila! kids actually started enjoying Chavanprash this was the difference we've taken bold steps repackaging and rebranding Ayurveda to solve modern lifestyle problems like a hangover, PCOD and stress. Understanding the needs of modern consumers and presenting Ayurveda in a modern avatar. We've made many, many mistakes along the way in the last three years. But we've grown from four to three. It's a series A round of capital. And today we're one of India's, if not India's largest digital Ayurveda brands. Someone asks me what the real impact is. We've stayed cold. Grandfather believed in a free consultation and with the data and smartphone revolution happening in India we took this online. Today anyone from across this country can reach out to us via WhatsApp, phone call, whatever medium they may so choose and have an Ayurvedic doctor talking to them on the other line. With this, we've been able to reach as far as Jammu and Kashmir in the northeast. 83% of our consumers actually live in 10 cities. This is a real impact, taking forward my grandfather's service. Looking back, It's been a rollercoaster ride, actually a rollercoaster ride. Ups and downs of emotion, a lot of learning, a lot of failure. But through my startup, I've learned ambition. But most of all, I've learned grit, to fail and come back even stronger. Looking forward, I think there's a lot... that's still left to be done. We have the good fortune of inheriting so much, whether it's from my family, from the science we have, but as Indians, all of us in this room have a duty. Our country has a lot to offer and we need to be the ones taking this forward. If we look at what we have, sometimes it seems uncool and unsexy to us, but if we dig deeper, it's our responsibility to find the cool. The West dug deeper and found the cool in yoga. And this is what we need to do for everything else. For example, we took an 80-year-old long-term liver protector and repackaged it as a hangover cure. Each one of our products at Dr. Vaidya's bears the mark Proudly Indian on it. And in five years, we want to see this mark of India in 50 countries. Taking forward a family legacy is never easy. Especially when it's in your last name. But if someone asks me what the biggest success has been or the biggest achievement, it's not growing the company, it's not raising capital, it's not launching new products, it's this. One day I came back from work at 10pm, very tired. I went to say hello to my grandmother before I was going to bed. She looked at me, smiled, looked at a photo of my grandfather and said, He would be proud of you wherever he is. Ayurveda is becoming cool and my grandfather is smiling at us from the heavens. Thank you.

Now, the more important question, how many of us actually like Chavanprash? Not that many. As expected.

Good morning. My name is Arjun Vaidya. And Vaidya, my last name, means Ayurvedic doctor.

I come from a legacy of 150 years of Ayurveda in my family. Like most of you, I also grew up having this black, bitter, sticky paste. But because of my family's Ayurveda legacy, I had many more pastes. My grandfather used to call them parikas, powders and oils while growing up. Ayurveda has been a part of my family and I.

and is called to us. And this is the story of Ayurveda and my family over the last 150 years. Ayurveda means the science of life.

It's the traditional Indian science of healing using herbs and minerals from nature's bounty. This science has been in the Indian subcontinent for more than 2000, some say more than 5000 years. Basically a very very long time. Sages like Dhanvantri, Charak and Sushruta spent their lives researching herbs and creating formulations that have stood the test of time. Veds or Ayurvedic doctors passed down these formulations from generation to generation so that they could be used extensively by our forefathers.

Somewhere along the way, the British came to India. With them, they brought trains and cricket, but they also brought their form of western medicine. Ayurveda stood in her corner peacefully as allopathy came to the fore.

Ayurveda did not fight for her role, but only stayed relevant to those that cared. And slowly, this number began to reduce. The veds earnestly and tirelessly continued their practice, complaining as little as possible.

It was during this time of reduced interest to Ayurveda that my great-grandfather Moved from Gujarat to Bombay. Yes, Bombay was the name of the city at that time. He came with his belongings, his scriptures and his secret family formulations. He came to the city of dreams to practice his trade. But what he didn't realize is that Ayurveda was losing relevance.

He struggled with the stall in Masjid Bandar, the business area of the city. He had faith in his formulations, but nobody gave his Ayurveda. and his work much importance.

Almost done with what he had in terms of resources. Dheeraj Lal Vaidya was about to give up and move back to his hometown. As with most stories like this, the Almighty presented an opportunity at this time. And as with most opportunities that people get at this time in their story, it was a hail Mary play.

There was an old influential lady in the area who was suffering an All the doctors had given up on her. She needed somebody to help her. My great-grandfather saw this as an opportunity. He knew his Ayurveda could heal her, but he knew it was a risky play. Because if he did it wrong, he would be kicked out of the area.

He thought to himself, I have nothing going for me anyway, let me give this a shot. And with nervousness, he decided that he was going to heal this lady. He stayed with this patient tirelessly, day and night for three days.

And lo and behold his Ayurveda healed her. So grateful was this lady that she actually gifted him an office space which he owned and demanded that he start a clinic. This clinic is where our story begins. As was customary at the time my grandfather followed in his father's footsteps and went to medical school.

In 1957 he graduated from medical school and joined his father and in 71 His father gave the reins of the clinic to him. For the next 30 years, Ayurveda and my grandfather had opposite fates. India had gotten independence, the economy was growing, millions were lifted off the poverty line. But India began to resent the quality of anything that was Indian.

We became obsessed with imported products. Ayurveda had a similar fate as well. Ayurveda was perceived as the thing of grandmothers, poorly packaged and something urban India completely ignored. My grandfather on the other hand assumed legendary status. In his micro market, he used to see 350 patients on a daily basis.

As word spread, thousands across India would write to him via post. This number swelled to 12,000 at its peak. My grandfather was a man of service. He believed nobody should be charged to talk to a doctor. And so to all these patients, he offered a free consultation.

While Ayurveda struggled in urban India, my grandfather was somewhat of a lone crusader. His practice grew so large, he actually built a factory to produce the medicines that he dispensed through his clinic. This was my grandfather, a man of service. In the late... In the late 80s, my father graduated from college.

He had grown up with my grandfather. He had grown up with Ayurveda and he saw the potential of the work. He wanted to create a brand that took the work of my grandfather from hundreds and thousands to millions. Unfortunately, doctors and businessmen don't see eye to eye.

My grandfather said to him, why do I need to pay to market my product to people when we have hundreds walking into our clinic on a daily basis? Being a branding and marketing junkie, my father couldn't cut in the clinic. And so, after almost 120 years of what we can trace, the Ayurveda tradition in my family broke for the first time. Unlike many, I grew up with Ayurveda. I lived by the doshas, I lived by the Ayurvedic principles.

I also grew up suffering from juvenile bronchitis. I grew up with pumps and inhalers. I was the kid who had to be away from dust. The kid who couldn't take the smell of...

pain. I was a kid who couldn't have coca-cola but after 14 years of rigorous Ayurvedic treatment by my grandfather I was completely cured. I grew up in an India that was obsessed with imports.

I was gifted a Japanese electronic pencil sharpener for my 11th birthday. I was taken to stores which stock solely imported products but in this India I grew up with my grandfather. I spent a lot of time with him and I was the one in the family who tried our family formulations from the scriptures to the computer. My grandfather would talk to me about the sages. He talked to me extensively about the place he believed Ayurveda should hold in modern India.

I used to watch him read, read and read more. My grandfather was an inspiration to me because his commitment to Ayurveda was undying. This is a very old photo of me. Ten years ago, graduating from this very school.

In 2009, I graduated from this school to go to Brown University for my undergraduate education. My grandfather made me promise to him that I would study biotechnology at Brown and come back and take on the family Ayurveda legacy. He said he would pay for my education if I did this. I went to Brown in 2009. I didn't go to a lab ever, ever in my time at Brown.

I studied economics and international relations and my grandfather stopped paying for my education. But my experiences at Brown shaped the way I think. I was in the Northeast and experienced the natural organic products revolution.

I saw the whole foods of the world. I saw consumers there show much more value and pay much more for products with natural ingredients. This is something that excited me because it's not something I saw much in India.

I also saw what happened with yoga and this fascinated me. Yoga pants, yoga mats, yoga gyms, lululemon, this was a 20 billion dollar plus industry in the US. What happened here though? The West saw some value in what we have in yoga and while we were sleeping, they took it, repackaged it and created a mammoth industry out of it.

Genius, right? Yoga today is a household name around the world, but I'm not sure we have much to do with it. Being a patriotic Indian, this bothered me. I've worn this band with the Indian flag on my hand for the last 10 years. And thus, I came straight back to India after graduating from college.

I didn't really get into Ayurveda at that time and took up a private equity, but I was back home. Unfortunately, my grandfather had become ill by this. And three months into me moving back, he passed.

He left us. I had come back to a new India though. An India that was proud, an India that was happy to consume Indian products and confident. Ayurveda had also woken up in this India. Ayurveda was undergoing somewhat of a renaissance.

When the government changed, the Ministry of Ayush, that's Ayurveda, Yoga, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy was created. This was a monumental time in the history of our industry. Large consumer companies that had traditionally ignored Ayurveda, saw urban consumers demand herbal products and created completely herbal lines. This was exciting. At this time though, I thought Ayurveda...

I had missed a trick. While urban consumers wanted Ayurveda, Ayurveda hadn't adapted for urban consumers. Ayurveda was still boring, old style and poorly packaged. Ayurveda was just not cool. During this time, I was also undergoing a journey of personal transformation.

While I enjoyed my career in private equity and spent a lot of time on the Indian consumer story, I also wanted to create a brand. I wanted to create value myself. It was at this time of frustration and struggle that I was invited to speak at my father's office for his 50th birthday. I gave a speech on how my father inspired me and how his work ethic moulded the personality I have today. A few people came to me and exchanged pleasantries after the speech and as I was leaving, my grandfather's nurse of 17 years came up to me.

She said, while you're talking so much about your father's legacy, Are you going to let your grandfather's legacy die? This to me was a powerful statement. All those memories of spending time with my grandfather came back to me. I had made a promise to him.

He had asked me to make a promise. Stuck by it during my time at Brown. This was the time I could go back to it. This was my aha moment. I quit my job in private equity and embarked on a journey I knew very little about.

Most people, including my grandmother, thought I was crazy. A 35-year-old getting into an industry that was categorized by grey hair and experience. But I knew Ayurveda had to evolve. I knew that Ayurvedic products had to become cool, sexy, fun and aspirational for modern consumers.

And this was the journey we embarked on. I believed we had to create age Ayurveda, or Ayurveda for the 21st century. And because all of this came to me from my grandfather, the company would be a tribute to my grandfather. And so I called it Dr. Vaidya's after him. Remember the Chavanprash that I talked to you about earlier?

The problem with Chavanprash is that although a lot of us know that it's good for us for immunity, energy and health, we just can't fathom having that black, bitter, sticky paste every morning. But I thought to myself, this is a problem. 1000 years of Ayurvedic goodness in this Chavanprash but we can't have it every morning so something needs to be done about it so we created this Alactability was the problem so we took the 21 active ingredients of Chavanprash super concentrated it and put it into a toffee and voila! kids actually started enjoying Chavanprash this was the difference we've taken bold steps repackaging and rebranding Ayurveda to solve modern lifestyle problems like a hangover, PCOD and stress. Understanding the needs of modern consumers and presenting Ayurveda in a modern avatar.

We've made many, many mistakes along the way in the last three years. But we've grown from four to three. It's a series A round of capital.

And today we're one of India's, if not India's largest digital Ayurveda brands. Someone asks me what the real impact is. We've stayed cold. Grandfather believed in a free consultation and with the data and smartphone revolution happening in India we took this online. Today anyone from across this country can reach out to us via WhatsApp, phone call, whatever medium they may so choose and have an Ayurvedic doctor talking to them on the other line.

With this, we've been able to reach as far as Jammu and Kashmir in the northeast. 83% of our consumers actually live in 10 cities. This is a real impact, taking forward my grandfather's service.

Looking back, It's been a rollercoaster ride, actually a rollercoaster ride. Ups and downs of emotion, a lot of learning, a lot of failure. But through my startup, I've learned ambition.

But most of all, I've learned grit, to fail and come back even stronger. Looking forward, I think there's a lot... that's still left to be done. We have the good fortune of inheriting so much, whether it's from my family, from the science we have, but as Indians, all of us in this room have a duty.

Our country has a lot to offer and we need to be the ones taking this forward. If we look at what we have, sometimes it seems uncool and unsexy to us, but if we dig deeper, it's our responsibility to find the cool. The West dug deeper and found the cool in yoga. And this is what we need to do for everything else. For example, we took an 80-year-old long-term liver protector and repackaged it as a hangover cure.

Each one of our products at Dr. Vaidya's bears the mark Proudly Indian on it. And in five years, we want to see this mark of India in 50 countries. Taking forward a family legacy is never easy. Especially when it's in your last name.

But if someone asks me what the biggest success has been or the biggest achievement, it's not growing the company, it's not raising capital, it's not launching new products, it's this. One day I came back from work at 10pm, very tired. I went to say hello to my grandmother before I was going to bed. She looked at me, smiled, looked at a photo of my grandfather and said, He would be proud of you wherever he is. Ayurveda is becoming cool and my grandfather is smiling at us from the heavens.

Thank you.

Transcript for:Legacy and Evolution of Ayurveda

Transcript for:
Legacy and Evolution of Ayurveda