Modernizing Contraception with Your Choice Therapeutics’ Akash Bakshi

Akash Bakshi: [00:00:00] If you believe strongly that what you're working on can have a positive impact, or if that's what motivates you, and that's what motivates me, I think that the likelihood of success increases significantly.

Paul Shapiro: Welcome to The Business For Good podcast to show where we spotlight companies making money by making the world a better place.

I'm your host, Paul Shapiro, and if you share a passion for using commerce to solve many of the world's most pressing problems, then this is the show for you. Welcome friends to the 61st episode of The Business for Good Podcast. Did you know that two out of every five births in America are unplanned? Now, that is of course, not to suggest that an unplanned baby is gonna be an unloved baby, needless to save, but it is to suggest that family planning does tend to offer advantages for those families, especially for families with fewer means since high birth rates make it particularly D.

For children to escape a vicious cycle of poverty. Smaller family sizes not only are helpful for poverty reduction, they also have environmental benefits for a planet [00:01:00] currently experiencing exponential growth of the human species and all of the associated concerns that come along with that exponential growth from climate change to deforestation and more unfortunately.

Despite major revolutions in science and technology in recent decades, innovation and contraception just has not kept pace, making it harder for both men and women to thoughtfully decide when or even whether to procreate. And now admittedly, women do have lots of contraceptive. Choices, but they tend to have some pretty unsavory side effects, especially those that are hormonal in nature.

Men on the other hand, basically have two choices, condoms, which aren't always the most popular, or vasectomy, which can be daunting for obvious reasons. As a result, the burden of pregnancy prevention has typically fallen disproportionately on women. Enter Your Choice Therapeutics, an early stage contraception startup, developing non-hormonal, non-permanent methods of contraception, both for men and for women to use.

As you'll hear from company c e o, [00:02:00] Akosh bhi, your choice started as an idea in a uc. Berkeley lab ended up going through the prestigious Y Combinator accelerator program and is now we funded startup aiming to bring new contraceptive categories to. One is a contraceptive gel that's both effective at reducing the risk of pregnancy and STDs, and the other is an oral, non-hormonal pill that men can take to render their sperm temporarily unable to impregnate a woman's egg.

Considering how high the stakes are contraception, innovation is a topic I really don't think that we hear enough about, so I'm particularly grateful to get to devote an entire episode here to hearing the story of one startup seeking to make it easier for us to make. Fewer of us. I now bring you your choice Therapeutic.

C e o, Akosh bhi Akosh. Welcome to the Business for Good podcast.

Akash Bakshi: Thank you. Good sir. Uh, fancy seeing you here, . Yes. What

Paul Shapiro: a shock. I know. That must be very, very surprising. . Awesome. Well, I'm really looking forward to talking with you about this because this is a, a topic of great passion [00:03:00] of mine. Uh, something that I have thought a lot about but don't know a lot about.

Because I have, uh, real concerns, um, relating to many of the things that you are trying to solve. And so I'm psyched to learn from you. And when I ask you just to get started here, Akash just hit me. What's the problem? Why do we need innovation and contraception right now? Like what, what is the problem that people can't just keep doing what we've been doing?

Akash Bakshi: That's a great question. And I think, um, there's a graph that we often show when we're pitching, which shows the contraceptive failure rates. And what you'll see is that the, that condoms actually have a nearly 60% failure rate over a five year period, and that the pill has about a 40% failure rate in a five year period.

And. Really we need to create products that are highly effective but also that are newer and and are meeting people where they're at, because obviously those contraceptives which exist right now are just not good enough. Hmm.

Paul Shapiro: Okay. So there's a problem that, you [00:04:00] know, they're not foolproof, basically, uh, that you could still have, uh, you know, some, uh, uh, it's, for lack of a better term, sometimes the goal isn't doing their job and, and the ball gets through.

Uh, that's right. Okay, so, so that's one problem. But uh, in addition, you know, if you think about, especially male contraceptives, there just aren't a lot of options out there. Right. So it seems like for a long time, mostly the burden on contraceptive has largely been on women. Is that how you see it? .

Akash Bakshi: That's right.

I, well, I mean, I think before the 19 hundreds, the, the, the, uh, the burden was all put on men. Actually, the two contraceptives that were developed for men were all developed in the modern, or at least the modern versions of those contraceptives were all developed in the 18 hundreds. So, for example, Um, what's surprising is that the vasectomy was actually dev, I believe, developed first in 1841.

Paul Shapiro: Please tell me that [00:05:00] that came after the advent of anesthesia.

Akash Bakshi: Uh, actually this is a really good question. I know that it was first performed in dogs. Oh man, that's horrible. And then I think it was done on prisoners. Um, if I'm not, if I'm not remembering incorrectly, but I

Paul Shapiro: mean actually, cuz if you think about like, you watched these Civil War movies and they didn't have pain relief back then, so, and that was 20 years later.

So, I mean, I, I, I can't imagine too many men were volunteering to sign up for an Unanesthetized vasectomy.

Akash Bakshi: Exactly. I think it was more of a punishment than anything else. But what's crazy is the next thing is that Charles Goodyear, the man, they gave you your tires. Also developed the, the mo, the modern version of the condom, the vulcanized, the rubber condom.

And it was really him thinking, you know, what else can I do with vulcanized rubber, which I think also results in where the name rubber comes from for, for condoms as well. So for men, [00:06:00] all of the con, all of the contraceptives that men have been using, uh, have predominantly been developed in the 18 hundreds, let alone what innovations we think may have happened over the 19 hundreds.

We're all using old technology.

Paul Shapiro: Huh, interesting. So when did it start becoming then the responsibility of women? Because I mean, o obviously, you know, silk condoms are a big business, but a lot of people don't wanna wear them for obvious reasons, and they have all types of deficiencies other than that too.

So, uh, you know, generally, at least in, in my view, it has seemed to be the responsibility of women in recent generations, uh, to start taking some type of a hormonal supplement, like a pill or whatever. When did that come?

Akash Bakshi: That this is a very good question. So, because up until that point, there were no real mm, real female contraceptives that one could use, and so.

What's crazy is, I think in the twenties, Lysol was actually a vaginal douche to [00:07:00] actually prevent pregnancies. And there are ads that, um, at least I've read about, I have not seen, um, that essentially show that, you know, Lysol was used as like a feminine hygiene product that would. Clean away, uh, sperm and keep your family happy by decreasing family size.

Uh, Seth

Paul Shapiro: sounds about as effective as using, uh, disinfectant bleach to prevent covid.

Akash Bakshi: Well, yeah. I, I think it's just, it's such a different time to, and I think that also just highlights, um, You know, what few options were available that, you know, uh, this kind of feminine hygiene product was really, really what was available to women.

But then came to your point, the pill, and after the pill came the i u d. And then of course you have like, you know, injections, implantables, um, vaginal rings. But what's important to think about is all of these, or predominantly all of these [00:08:00] female contraceptives have all. , hormonal based. So it's the idea of how, you know, how do we prevent ovulation, uh, or how do we use hormones to prevent pregnancy?

Um, and so really it's just, you know, one innovation that we're really focusing on, um, for women as well. And to think that there, there's no real choice here for women to think of other options or perhaps other non-hormonal options. I think that's where. Again, why we think that there's such a key opportunity.

And so maybe we go back to male contraceptives because I think you actually hit on, uh, hit on how condoms are really not things that men particularly are good at using and not actually something that, um, they like using either. So, so like you mentioned, so, so we can talk about also how hormonal contraceptives or Yeah, there are many women who don't do well with [00:09:00] them, but if, if the predominant mechanism that, that men have to prevent pregnancy or condoms, let's just think about how men use those condoms.

Right? So first off, what, what scenario are we finding men in? I mean, the likelihood is that they're probably under the influence of something, or you know, maybe they. Well, I, I, I would assume many of them are probably have maybe drank a little bit or, or there's something. The next step is that they're probably also in the dark, right?

And then the next step of actually putting on a condom properly is that you have to have an erection in order to properly put your condom on. and then you have to put the condom on. And I think men jump through a lot of steps here as they're putting the condom on to, to move past the fact that they actually have to stop doing maybe the fun stuff to get along to, to the protection part.

And that's actually where we see the human error, the human component, bring about a great deal of [00:10:00] error. in male contraceptives or in the condom. Mm-hmm. . And it, it's what results in like a 17% failure rate for the condom.

Paul Shapiro: Wow. So what led you then Akash to co-found the, uh, the company? Like why did you think, hey, you know, there needs to be something more here and that I'm the one with my colleagues here to do this, and what was the problem that you wanted to.

Akash Bakshi: So really Nadia and I, uh, got together and so I'll take a step back. So Nadia, it was, uh, is was a researcher at uc, Berkeley in Paulina LICOs lab, yeah. Okay.

Paul Shapiro: And so there's Nadia, what's her last name?

Akash Bakshi: Nadia Manz.

Paul Shapiro: Minowitz. Okay. And Paulina as well. And what's her last name? Paulina. Liko. Got it. And so those are the three co-founders

Akash Bakshi: of the.

That's right. So Pauline Lesko, uh, is a faculty member at uc, Berkeley, and it was in her lab that, that they originally identified this target called a H D two. Um, [00:11:00] which we identified as, which they identified as a great target for developing non-hormonal contraceptives. And they even identified a plant-based compound which hit that target.

And ultimately, you know, decreased sperms ability to fertilize the egg, which is exactly what you need in a contraceptive. . Um, and what's even more amazing is that a decade earlier, a group in India had essentially shown that oral administration of that compound in rats actually made them, uh, unable to fertilize the egg or, or to fertilize female rats.

And this is, this is non-hormonal. That's right. Non-hormonal. Cool. So it was, it was just something that those rats were fed every day that ultimately, you know, resulted in them being healthy otherwise, but, um, but resulted in them not getting female rats [00:12:00] pregnant. And,

Paul Shapiro: and if you stop taking it, then it's effect is, is no longer Yeah,

Akash Bakshi: that's right.

You kick back the ability for sperm cells to, to have that, to have the ability to. Uh, fertilized eggs.

Paul Shapiro: Mm-hmm. . Okay. And so then the idea was this could be something that could be used both or orally by both men and women. Is that, is that the idea?

Akash Bakshi: That's right. And, but I have to be honest, in 2018, we only were really focusing on the female aspect of this.

We just didn't have the ability to think about how to work on the male. .

Paul Shapiro: Okay. And so how did you get, how did you go through the idea of starting a company? This had been researched at uc, Berkeley for years. Other people had thought about it, let's say in India, like you had just mentioned Akosh, but uh, at some point you thought to yourself, I want to actually move this out of the academic realm and into the commercial realm.

So what happened? Like, where did you start to come up with this idea for a. [00:13:00]

Akash Bakshi: So the, the idea phase was actually just, you know, Paulina and Nadia had written a paper. They were looking to spin the company out and had applied for grants and we were just then, um, looking for additional funding to move that program forward.

And we're just super grateful that we got into. Y Combinator, which ultimately gave us that first trache capital to leave our jobs. Mm-hmm. .

Paul Shapiro: And, and, and for those who, uh, for those who aren't familiar, Y Combinator, the prestigious accelerator program that gives you, what is it, like $150,000, um, in exchange for I think 7% of your company.

Is that right? And then that's, they also give, you get a lot of mentoring to help get your company off the ground.

Akash Bakshi: Absolutely. So we were very lucky that, that we were accepted into the program and essentially then, You know, we're able to focus our time, full-time on how to develop this, uh, develop contraceptives.

And at the time we were only thinking [00:14:00] about, we were really focusing on female contraceptives. While we were in that program, Paulina actually made another, uh, found, she found another target that was actually, um, specific to sperm cells and opened the doors to really think about something that could be used a, as a male contraceptive far more easier than the original target that we were working on.

And that's when the lights turned on. and along the way she actually even identified that there was an already f d a approved drug that kind of hit that target and could potentially be used as a contraceptive in the near term. So it, so the company kind of flipped on its head, if you think about it.

Mm-hmm. , we started a company saying, we're gonna go look for a molecule to, to develop into a contraceptive. And while we're in Y Combinator, just, you know, towards the end, all of a sudden, look, [00:15:00] here's another target and here's actually a drug that you can develop into a contraceptive. It was just, uh, you know, flipping the company on its head almost entire.

Wow. Wow.

Paul Shapiro: Well, you know, a lot of startups do that. Of course. They, uh, start with an idea of one thing and then end up pivoting to something else. Um, do your co-founders, uh, Nadia and Paulina share your concern about, you know, making contraceptive. Easier not just to help, uh, the, the people using it, but also as the other benefits that you all talk about, which is small.

What family? Small. Excuse me. What, uh, smaller family sizes can do, uh, both for the children who are born so they have more resources available to 'em, and a greater chance to succeed, but also to help address some of the climate problems that you guys have talked about as well with. .

Akash Bakshi: Yeah. So our focus is on developing new contraceptives that can meet men and women where they are in their lives, right?

And [00:16:00] so there are phases in a man's life when a condom may be the best approach, um, for him. But there might be other times when a, uh, when a man is in a long-term committed relationship where a male contraceptive might actually be. . And similarly, similarly, there are likely times in a woman's life where hormonal contraceptives are just not cutting it, and there's still a need to prevent pregnancy.

Um, and either, you know, because hormonal contraceptives do come with side effects. And so thinking about how we develop something that doesn't have or has a different side effect profile or, or fewer side effects so that women. Don't have to pick and choose what they wanna do and still prevent pregnancy.

That's, that's the goal here. But to your point, I think contraception is, it plays a really important role in socioeconomics. It also plays an important role within [00:17:00] how we think about, um, climate change as well. Right. Because to some extent climate change is happening because population growth has just been.

You know, exponential, right? And so it's important to think, consider that even in the United States, unplanned pregnancy rates are nearly 42%. And so if that's the case, and you know, two outta five pregnancies are unplanned, if we pre created better tools, I wonder if we could show that that number, that two in five, uh, unplanned pregnancy rate would go.

and of course that would have a positive impact on, on the climate. And I think also it would provide a better opportunity for those that are on the lower rungs of the socioeconomic strata to to be able to save more or be able to, to not dip below the poverty line. . Mm-hmm. ,

Paul Shapiro: right? E E, exactly. So, you know, [00:18:00] the, the evidence is very clear that especially for people with fewer means, having fewer children really is part of the ticket to escaping that cycle of poverty.

And there are other environmental benefits that you allude to as well. So, w let me just ask you, Akosh, why is it. There aren't more male contraceptive options. I mean, pretty much the options are condoms or vasectomy, right? So why is it that there hasn't been more innovation in male contraceptives over the past several decades?

Akash Bakshi: I think the easiest answer is probably it's hard. And so, um, and I don't know. Um, it's hard. And so I think it, I think developing that final product is, is. Not for the faint of heart, but at the next level. You know, I think the, the idea that a man would be willing to take on the burden of contraception or family planning might also be considered something new as well, [00:19:00] right?

Like, I don't think in the 1950s version of America that we looked at, I don't know whether one would think that, um, men would take on the burden of family planning. And I think another way of thinking about that, um, perhaps more crudely, is to think about what did you know paternity tests do to the burden of, of family planning or unplanned pregnancies.

So if you imagine pre 1980 or 1990 when, you know, paternity tests were not as available, if a woman had an unplanned pregnancy out of wedlock and she said, you know, I think that this is the father. That gentleman could of course say, no, that's not my fa, that's not my child. And there's no way of moving that forward.

And I don't think it's until, and this is of course not my data, this is actually, uh, a report that I read from a, a farmer [00:20:00] company who actually showed that. As fraternity tests became available, men then became interested in, uh, preventing unplanned pregnancies because it was the first time that their lives ultimately changed as a result.

Paul Shapiro: The stakes, I can imagine the stakes get a little bit higher when there's all of a sudden some evidence there .

Akash Bakshi: Exactly. Otherwise, it's just. No . Uh, and, and actually the, the report actually said stuff like, you know, um, that men would say, oh, she's blaming me, but imagine if she was with me. She was probably with so many other men, and they're prob, they're the ones who are actually the father of this child, not me, and they're able to, to run Scott free.

And yet it's very clear that this woman's life has, has ultimately changed.

Paul Shapiro: Hmm. Right, right. Of course. So my understanding and, and tell me akasha if you think this is wrong, is that a attempts to create male contraceptives in the past have had some pretty unsavory side effects. Uh, so some of them that just could never get off the ground would be things like side [00:21:00] effects, like reduced sex drive or uh, even erectile dysfunction, other things that pretty much no man is gonna sign up to take.

Right. Is that like, how are you, is that all because they're, they've been hormonal in nature, comparable to the pill? Uh, and if so, how? Like how are you getting around that? I know that what you all are doing is not, um, hormonal, but how can you guarantee that there aren't such deleterious side effects associated with the, your choice?

Uh, answer here.

Akash Bakshi: It's a really good question. And so, um, I think what's funny. Uh, is that many of these side effects that we say are non-starters for men are the base side effects that women deal with day-to-day with the pill, right? So they deal with headaches the same that have been shown for men.

Decreased sex drive is there for both couples. Weight gain is there for both. Tender breast is there for both. Um, and so really you're looking at a product at least for the hormonal male and the hormonal female contraceptive you see very similar. , [00:22:00] um, side effect profiles, and yet you see that women are willing to take on this risk benefit profile of, of taking on the risk of, um, hormonal contraceptives because, again, unplanned pregnancies drastically change their lives.

And so, to your point mm-hmm. , we really do have to be somewhat sensitive to, to developing a product that men will be able to stomach and ultimately continue using. . And I think the, the way that we're doing that is, um, or the way that at least we're trying to do that is by focusing on a, uh, on just sperm cells and not do, not developing, uh, a drug that has, um, that has side effects to other, um, other.

I don't know how to say this in another way. Other targets or other proteins, right. Hormones are very non-specific. They, they're able to, you know, go through your entire body and, and have a cascade of [00:23:00] effects that we see, um, are, what we're hoping is that we can develop something that is specific to sperm cells and not to other, other types of cells, so that the effects are really specific to, to decreasing either sperm motility or sperm.

Paul Shapiro: Interesting. So how far are you, you say what you're trying to do, so just tell me akosh, like how much money have you all raised and how close are you to actually achieving that goal of creating something that has all those characteristics that's effective without the side effects.

Akash Bakshi: That's a good question.

So for the pill for Men, I think we're still a decade away. Um, and you know, we raised 1.8 million and part of that money, of course, has gone to developing the pill for men. But what's, what we've also found on the way is this other compound that we're developing as like a vaginal lube. Um, that can, in, that can, um, prevent pregnancy, but also prevent the spread of [00:24:00] STIs as well.

And, and so we're, that's actually the product that we see going into the clinic first. So, Uh, if we perhaps rewind a little bit, right, and think about what options are available to men and what options are available to women and how they differ. Right? Men are left with condoms, which we call on-demand.

Contraceptives. Contraceptives that you know, you could use just before intercourse, uh, to prevent pregnancy. And I think to, you know, to some extent, that changes the psychology of how, of how men approach intercourse that, you know, don't like they're ready whenever, because all you need to do is have a condom.

Women on the other hand, predominantly all of the options that they have available to them. Are those that have to be used, you know, three weeks before intercourse happens, and it leaves women in a position where, you know, they're planning to protect [00:25:00] themselves in case they have intercourse. Um, and those options that are available on demand, like, um, spermicides or um, or diaphragms, diaphragms are, are.

are similar to condoms in, in that they're a barrier based approach, but have, you know, lost favor almost entirely in, in most of the world. And, um, you know, spermicides are not highly effective. And, and those spermicides that have been developed, um, prior to, prior to the two thousands, all of them actually increased women's risk of getting H I v.

They use a product called Nonoxinol nine. and cause vaginal irritation. So really men, women are left with no great on-demand contraceptive option. And so kind of one of the products that we're developing is this, you know, vaginal lubricant that women can discreetly keep in their purses and just apply just before intercourse.

That would [00:26:00] prevent. Pregnancy. And what's very cool is that the active ingredient within this lubricant also prevents the replication of H I V and HSV two, the virus that causes genital herpes. Um, and we think that that will be something very exciting that women would love to use. And the added kicker is that I think that to the point is that this could also be a great condom coding.

So if you remember, I said men are not particularly great at using condoms, but if we thought in the near term that we could do something to coat condoms with our product and ultimately make them more foolproof or more effective, I think that that would also be a game changer as well.

Paul Shapiro: Cool. So what you're talking about then, uh, just so I'm queer, is you are working simultaneously on a male contraceptive pill that could, you know, perhaps be a decade out, but also some type of lube that you could use, [00:27:00] intravaginally that would be useful with or without a condom for both.

Protecting against pregnancy and STDs, that's a lot closer to market. So on that second product,

Akash Bakshi: how close. That product we're half a decade out. Right. I think, uh, it's, uh, by biotech standard, it's a lot faster to market. Mm-hmm. . Um, and it's predominantly because the profiles that are, uh, the profile of the drug that we're using have been shown to be, you know, very well tolerated with very few negative side effects.

And, um, we hope to, to ramp that out in the near future. Nice. And or at least run clinical trials on that product in the near future. Yeah. What will

Paul Shapiro: it take, like, how much funding do you think that your choice is going to need in order to bring that type of a product from where it is today to actually being on a, you know, a drugstore shelf that somebody can go pick up when they want?

Akash Bakshi: That's a good question, and. I think it's based on what happens during [00:28:00] the clinical trials, but for the next tranche, you know, it's, it's not a significant amount of capital. It's, you know, less than 10 million. But I think the vision, um, or at least 10 million to mo to move, you know, many parts of the, the product forward, not only into the clinic, but also do more work on the pill for men.

Um, and the idea is just, doing the work, um, and making decisions along the way to help increase the likelihood of success as we develop a product that I think the world actively needs. Cool.

Paul Shapiro: How much of that do you think is gonna come from investors versus grants? I know you all have received some, some, uh, non-dilutive funding from, for example, n I h.

Have you, uh, thought about maybe, uh, other types of funding that could be non-US?

Akash Bakshi: Uh, so yeah, so of course we love non-dilutive grants and I think we keep going back to the well, uh, as, as much as possible. And, and to be very honest, I think we're very [00:29:00] grateful to the NIH because that was the first.

Actually, you know what, N NIH was the second check into your Choice Therapeutics, to be very honest. Um, but they also more, we, we received another grant from the n NIH more recently to help us with the development of, um, of our vaginal gel, which we're also super grateful for, but I think, I believe that. I think venture capital will love this idea.

I think they do love this idea, this idea of, of developing the pill for men, of developing, you know, um, a condom coding or a lube that's, uh, you know, a non-beer based way of not only preventing against pregnancy, but also STIs, I think. Who, who does not want a product like that. And I think what people, what I, I remember why Combinator always says is, you know, build something people want.

And I'm pretty sure this is what people want. .

Paul Shapiro: Yes. Uh, certainly I hope so. I, I can't imagine that people wouldn't [00:30:00] want that. It just sounds, uh, almost too good to be true. So hopefully, uh, hopefully that will be the. I'm glad that you guys have this good team. I'm glad that things are moving forward for you, that you've got some funding in the door and hopefully, uh, you'll, you'll be able to bring in some more and, and reach your goals even quicker than you're anticipating.

You never know what's gonna happen. So now that you've been at this for a couple years running this company, Akasha, let me ask you like, are there any resources that have been helpful for you in, uh, actually. The entrepreneurial life that you have adopted here. So taking this out of the lab at an academic institution and actually bringing it into a, uh, attempted commercial reality.

Akash Bakshi: This is a really good question. So, uh, I did not take the NSF I core directly. Uh, I attended the courses, but never for your choice. But I think that that Lean Launchpad methodology is just super helpful for. For biotech companies or for any science-based company. Okay. To think [00:31:00] about as they're, as they're moving the company

Paul Shapiro: forward.

Mm-hmm. . And for those who don't know, uh, N S F I CORE is the National Science Foundation's Innovation Core program that, uh, uses like, um, you know, essentially education to help researchers gain valuable insights into how to commercialize some scientific endeavor that you're doing. Right.

Akash Bakshi: That's that's exactly right.

Yeah. Cool. The other thing, the other thing that I think. Is the most important for, I don't know, or at least what, what I think, um, is the most important attribute for someone who's thinking about starting any company is just making sure that it's a problem that you're motivated to solve. Um, because I think that the.

I think the life of an entrepreneur is so, such a rollercoaster. It's so sign and so ideal where you'll go from the highs of highs to the lows of lows within minutes. And it's not the highs that actually stay with you. It's actually the lo, at least I can only speak for myself [00:32:00] that I remember the lows a lot better than I remember the highs , any part of our development.

Um, actually I started, I started.

Paul Shapiro: Yeah, it's, it's very, uh, it's very much in human nature to do that. Of course, like you can hear a million compliments, but if one person disses you, that's what you remember, that, that's right. You could have, you know, uh, reviews of your product or your company online, a hundred great reviews and one, one star review, and you're of course gonna focus on that.

Akash Bakshi: That's right. And so I actually just started, you know, I, this is something that works for me. I actually journal now every day to force myself to remember what actually could happen today rather than focusing on, uh, everything else that, that we had to fix. Um, and so I think that, yeah, making sure that it's a problem that you're willing to continue to keep standing up once you get beaten down, I think is really important because, Otherwise you're not.

I don't, yeah. Otherwise, I don't [00:33:00] think I would've been successful. Like if I didn't find, if I wasn't passionate about the pro projects I was working on, I would just be like, all right, next . Yeah. Yeah. For mean, there's a, there's an easier way to, to make a living or, or to make a positive impact in the world and, but if you believe strongly that what you're working on can have a positive impact or if that's what motivates you, and that's what motivates me, I think.

It, the likelihood of success increases significantly.

Paul Shapiro: Yeah. Well, to quote the great philosopher Rocky Balboa who said that, that, you know, in, in life, it's not about how hard you can hit, it's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. And that's how winning is done. And I feel like Amen. You know, in entrepreneurship, that, uh, certainly seems to resonate with many people, myself included, um, as to accepting that there's gonna be things that go wrong, all the.

all the time, and it makes it even more important to celebrate those rare times when things actually go right, . [00:34:00] That's

Akash Bakshi: right. That's.

Paul Shapiro: So Akash, there are lots of ways to make the world a better place. You have chosen trying to increase access to easy and pain-free contraceptive options, which of course is very noble and could do a great deal of good in the world.

But are there other ideas that obviously you're not going to pursue because you're busy running your choice therapeutics that you hope that maybe a listener on this show will pursue to make the world a better place?

Akash Bakshi: Yeah, so the, the two that come to mind for me are, are I think very. Repetitive or things that I think everyone has heard of before, which is kind of like, how do we focus on developing, how do we, how do we start pulling away carbon dioxide from the atmosphere or otherwise?

How do we think about developing better cleaning or clean drinking water for people everywhere in the world? Because that really should be something that I think should be available around the world regardless of where you live. [00:35:00] Yes.

Paul Shapiro: Uh, well those are both good topics and interestingly, so we've done episodes in the past on both of those.

So we had on a, uh, very inspirational entrepreneur named Gra Chinky, who's the CEO of Global Thermostat. And what she, she's raised tens of millions of dollars so far to innovate on ways to suck CO2 outta the atmosphere. And, you know, I think, yeah, a lot of people, you know, Well, you know, shouldn't we just focus on reducing emissions?

Which of course is very important, but I think at this point we're so far beyond where we need to be, that we need to be doing both reducing emissions and sucking CO2 outta the atmosphere. Because otherwise I think there's not much chance that we meet the climate goals that we have to meet. So that's one.

And we also had on a company called Flow Water, which is doing some really cool things to, uh, make it easy for people to filter water, uh, right on site. So, um, but hopefully there will be more companies in these spaces and maybe. You, somebody listening to you Akash on this show, and that'll push them over the edge to finally take that [00:36:00] dive and go start their own company on one of those, type one of those topics, and do something great.

And in the future we'll have them on this show and they can tip their hat to you and say that they, uh, they were motivated by that guy from your Choice Therapeutics and, uh, they, they did this. So

Akash Bakshi: that would be very cool. Yeah, do it. Because I think that you learn so much by, I think you learn so much through entrepreneurship, not just about what you're working on, but just about yourself.

Um, and I think, yeah, I think you learn by, it's, it's something that you learn just by doing rather than mm-hmm. . Uh, and, but I do think that hearing other people's stories and having just good founders outside of your own space is really great also, because it allows you, Check in on reality to see like, is this a, is am I alone in how I feel about things?

So yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. And start a company, especially if you think you're gonna do some good.

Paul Shapiro: Amen. Well, I couldn't agree with you more than the best way to learn is simply to do it. Um, a [00:37:00] past guest on the show used the analogy where she said, you know, if you want to learn how to play soccer, you can read as many books about it as you want.

But the actual way to learn is to play soccer. And I think that is the same here. So hopefully you have inspired some people to get on the field and start playing themselves Akosh, but I'm grateful for what you're doing. I appreciate everything you're doing, and I'll be cheering for you from the sidelines as you continue to develop these products and hopefully get them on market a lot sooner than you anticipate.

Akash Bakshi: Thanks. Good, sir.

Paul Shapiro: Thanks for listening. We hope you found use in this episode. If so, don't keep it to yourself. Please leave us a five star rating on iTunes or wherever you get your podcast. And as always, we hope you will be in the business of doing good.