Startup Savvy: Young Entrepreneur Kavya Gangasani Of Bay Area Medical Explorers Shares Their Secrets For Rapid Growth and Success
Clear Expectations- When I first started Bay Area Medical Explorers, I made sure that I set clear expectations of what goals I was going to accomplish. Every month, my team and I would meet up, set up a plan for what certain programs or initiatives we were going to do for that month and create an organized timeline of what needed to be done for that month. This was crucial to the success of our nonprofit because it allowed us to stay on track and reach our goals.
The entrepreneurial landscape is more vibrant and challenging than ever, with young entrepreneurs at the forefront, driving innovation and redefining the boundaries of success in the business world. These dynamic individuals are not only creating new products and services but also building sustainable business models that thrive in today’s fast-paced, technology-driven environment. Their journeys are filled with lessons of resilience, strategic innovation, and the relentless pursuit of growth. As part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Kavya Gangasani.
Kavya Gangasani is the Founder and Executive Director of Bay Area Medical Explorers. After experiencing how difficult it was to find medical opportunities as a teenager in the Bay Area, Kavya wanted to create a more inclusive space for other youth to find opportunities related to healthcare. Through her platform, she has reached over 100,000 people on social media, gained 2,500 and growing followers on Instagram and led over 200 members. As a young entrepreneur, Kavya aims to change the world of the healthcare industry and, one day, ultimately open a hospital.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series. Before we dive into our discussion about entrepreneurship, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you share with us the backstory about what brought you to your specific career path?
Of course! Thank you so much for having me! When I was around 16, I tried to apply for an internship in the medical field, and I remember it being so expensive — it was around $2000. That was when the idea of Bay Area Medical Explorers came to me. I wanted to create an organization that helped others get opportunities related to the medical field for two simple reasons:
- I wanted youth to have access to better opportunities in STEM without having to worry about the cost.
- I wanted to inspire and empower others in seeing the value I see in medicine through workshops and events held by my organization.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career?
The most interesting story that happened to me since I started my career happened when I was leading an educational program at a local school. After the presentation was over, a girl came up to me. She explained how my program was so inspirational to her that she was considering being a nurse someday. This was very important to me because it showed that my work was having a real impact on others.
You are a successful individual. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?
Initiative, Empathy and Resilience are instrumental to my success.
Initiative — Initiative is very important to me because if I had not taken that first step in reaching out to others and explaining my ideas and purpose for why I started this organization — my organization would have never gotten as far as it did today. When you make that first move without anyone telling you, that is the beginning of your organization.
Empathy — Empathy played a big role in understanding everyone’s unique and diverse experiences. When connecting with our members and audience, I tried to get the best understanding of where they were coming from and make unique programs that were easily accessible for everyone and fit everyone’s needs.
Resilience — Throughout the course of my journey with Bay Area Medical Explorers, there is no doubt that I have encountered ups and downs, but the most important thing that I learned is that it is okay when things sometimes don’t go your way. The reasoning for this is because some things are out of your control, and what you can control, you can learn from your mistakes and use them as experiences to grow and make your organization better.
Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview about young entrepreneurs secrets to rapid growth and success. To start, how would you define success?
Success is subjective and can vary from person-to-person based on their personal goals and ideas. For me, success is about making a significant impact on others and inspiring people around a certain purpose that I am passionate about.
What unconventional strategy did you employ that significantly contributed to your startup’s growth, and why do you think it was so effective?
One unconventional strategy that we employed that contributed to my organization’s growth was starting our outreach with elementary and middle school students. Typically, most organizations related to medicine try to target high school or college students, but by targeting a younger audience at first and then further providing more opportunities for high school and college students, we were able to reach a wider net of different age groups.
Can you share a critical pivot point in your startup’s journey and how you navigated the decision-making process?
A critical pivot point in my organization’s journey was deciding how to make events more accessible for everyone as our impact grew. To fix this problem, we decided to start offering more virtual events and programs so that people globally could be involved in our organization as well.
How do you balance the need for rapid growth with maintaining a sustainable and healthy company culture?
In my organization, we prioritize making sure that everything we do is done with purpose. With that being said, we don’t focus more on growth, but instead we make sure that every initiative and program we launch aligns with our mission and with that comes rapid impact and growth. Additionally, we also do check-ins and communicate openly with all our team leaders.
In what ways has your personal definition of success evolved since the inception of your startup?
At first, I thought success was the amount of people we reached or the amount of events we did, but ever since I started Bay Area Medical Explorers, I realized that success is the impact you make on a person. Our organization prioritizes doing everything with purpose so that every person that is interested in joining in being a part of Bay Area Medical Explorers feels like our organization has changed something for them — such as perspective, future plans, etc.
Based on your experience and research, can you please share “5 Things You Need to Succeed as a Young Person in Business?”
1. Clear Expectations- When I first started Bay Area Medical Explorers, I made sure that I set clear expectations of what goals I was going to accomplish. Every month, my team and I would meet up, set up a plan for what certain programs or initiatives we were going to do for that month and create an organized timeline of what needed to be done for that month. This was crucial to the success of our nonprofit because it allowed us to stay on track and reach our goals.
2. Patience- Being patient is key to starting a successful organization. Bay Area Medical Explorers did not reach as many people as it does today overnight — it took a significant amount of time before we saw actual reach. It is important that you are patient throughout your journey because this will allow you to be realistic while your organization is growing and figure out the purpose of your organization.
3. Purpose- Finding a purpose for your organization is important to understanding why you are starting it in the first place and what mission you are trying to accomplish. Once you figure out your purpose, it will give you a guideline in every decision you make. Additionally, purpose will also help you stay motivated when things start to get hard.
4. Staying Consistent- If you want to start a successful organization, you must be consistent every day. Bay Area Medical Explorers did not succeed by putting in effort one day and then giving up the next. Every week, my team and I set a list of tasks that we had to complete over the week and we put in effort daily, followed up when we were unsure about something and learned from any mistakes that we had made.
5. Building Relationships- Listening to others and forming meaningful connections–whether it is with your members, audience, or team leaders, is essential to the success of your organization because it allows you to build a supportive community. Whenever we started a new initiative, our team looked at which initiative was most effective and which ones members and audiences liked the most, and developed similar initiatives later on based on feedback from our team leaders, members, etc.
What is one piece of advice you would give to an aspiring entrepreneur that you wish someone had given you at the start of your journey?
One piece of advice I would give would be to follow what you truly want to do. When I saw a problem in my community, I wanted to take the initiative to try and change it. If you want to change something in your community or start something new that you are passionate about — I would say to go for it because you have so much power to change the world and show them how truly amazing you are.
You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
If I could start a movement that would bring the most good to people, it would be to give youth from underrepresented backgrounds better access to higher education and mentorship in medicine. The reason why I would do this is that it would be an investment in future healthcare workers, which would help change the global healthcare workforce shortage and promote greater diversity in medicine.
How can our readers further follow you online?
Readers can connect with me on LinkedIn or if you are interested in being a part of Bay Area Medical Explorers, you can follow us on instagram at @baymedexplorers or go to our website at bayareamedicalexplorers.com.
Thank you for the time you spent sharing these fantastic insights. We wish you only continued success in your great work!
Startup Savvy: Young Entrepreneur Kavya Gangasani Of Bay Area Medical Explorers Shares Their… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.