Dharti Pancholi 00:00
Of course there are once you put the feedback No, this is not right person because of this
reason, then it also trains itself. And that's why I like if the client gives the feedback not every
time we get the feedback, but

Harsh Thakkar 00:10
so it can find people from anywhere or just like public

Dharti Pancholi 00:14
any publicly, right like if

Harsh Thakkar 00:18
what's up everybody, this is harsh from cultivate.com. And you're listening to the life sciences
360 Podcast. On this show, I chat with industry experts and thought leaders to learn about their
stories, ideas and insights, and how their role helps bring new therapies to patients. Thanks for
joining us. Let's dive in. All right, we're live on another episode of Life Sciences 360. And our
guest today is dirty Pancho Lee. She is the founder and CEO of Omni Consulting Services. Welcome to the show dirty.

Dharti Pancholi 00:48
Hi, thanks for inviting Herson. Nice to meet you.

Harsh Thakkar 00:51
Yeah, I want to ask you first is what was going on to your mind? Because I know you've had
many other roles in the past. And then you started your own venture with only consulting. So
what was going on through your mind? And how what led to the birth of only consulting? Yeah,
well, I

Dharti Pancholi 01:09
thought like couple times to, throughout my career to start my own consulting firm. Every time
I kind of stayed excited about what I was doing for those companies, right, and then decided I'll
do it later, a little later. And then I knew that at some point, this is what my ultimate goal was
going to start that. And you're right, like, you know, some people also told me like my last three
consulting companies, right, especially the last seven, eight years of that I was working more
as a SEC reporting to CEO growing the company doing the similar aspects, managing similar
things and sort of doing the same thing that I'm doing now, except Except it's much, much
smaller scale. So many people have also told me similar like, you know, you were already a
Chief Operations Officer and Executive Vice President and global Managing Director, what
made you think about this, right? It's really more about, it's like, I wanted to do this. And this is
kind of my ultimate thing, right? So it's more like answering what if right, like, so if I'm in, in my
bed after 3040 years and thinking about like, my own story telling that to myself, right, then it's
part of that that what if I started my own? And that's the one piece I did not have in my career.
And I think for all of us, it's sort of VR, our own storyteller, right. We're author of our own life
story. And, and this was important to me. So I did not have that. And in a way, I'm kind of doing
the same thing, since I've worked in the biopharma consulting companies doing pretty much
the same, same thing, except that starting from the scratch, right, so yeah,

Harsh Thakkar 02:47
it sounds it sounds more like personal fulfillment, because some people are, they spend a lot of
their career trying to get into a position or they're motivated by a role or a title that they want.
And that fulfills them, some are fulfilled by financial gain, or whatever it is, but it seems like in
your case, you had you had all of that. And

Dharti Pancholi 03:13
that's true, ya know, in a way, like, you know, I mean, you know, like how it is, when you start
your own company, you don't make that much, right. And I was, like, you know, all these
economic I mean, overall, throughout, right, like, it wasn't like, you know, money. Yes, yes. It
wasn't a title or anything, because I think many people would count that as success. It's right.
But it's really wanted to do and then it's, it's kind of like, I feel like our actions today that that's
sort of what defines our tomorrow, right? This is my passion. Of course, there are some healthy
challenges, I will say, starting your own company. But But that's, that's, that's, that was my
passion. I wanted to stay in biopharma only and a consulting.

Harsh Thakkar 03:55
So when, when I was researching about what you do at Omni consulting, one thing that I saw

So when, when I was researching about what you do at Omni consulting, one thing that I saw
that was slightly different from many other companies in this space is that you're your team,
and you are involved in managing a lot of consulting projects, but then you're also helping with
recruiting talent. So I've seen companies either pick one and like go in that track. So what are
you? Are you like just testing both out? Or is that your strategy to?

Dharti Pancholi 04:26
Very, very good question? Yeah, no, it is the strategy, it will start like that, to be honest. So my
main our main focus is to consulting. It is my background for like last Hoodin Some years has
been consulting and that's sort of what I would say is, is I consider myself a technical process
engineer by education and career and, of course, you know, I work on security design projects,
project management, but that's sort of still my passion, right? So consulting will never go away.
But even our staff is mostly Mostly that like, technical, but I, throughout my journey I kind of
faced like, there are some people that really want to work on user side. And there are some
people that want to work in consulting. And there are some which kind of is open to both
worlds, right. And there are some plans also, which has like an FTE and these are strict FTE
roles and some roles that don't are flexible. I didn't want to, and most of the consulting
companies I work, it's like, if you hired that employee, it's like, you made some mistake, right? I
mean, it's like, you know, they're not our even though they wouldn't say that, but it's kind of
you know, that they employ that sort of philosophy. And that's what I wanted. I'm like you if
people are happy, and client is happy. That's, that's okay. Right. What I want to do ultimately,
is connect the right opportunity with the right people. Yes, that's what is in recruiting. Totally
good, right, of course, our more focus and more business history and consulting. And that's
kind of where my background is more. But we added recruiting, and then we are flexible with,
with some terms, to change the temporary people over consultants to even permanent
depending on if it's the right thing for them. They don't need to be with consultants don't want
to feel like I'm joining the company. Now, how will my company act with me? It's like it's
freedom of work. Of course, we would like to have them continue. But at the end, it's it's more
what what is better for their own carrier and what is better for the company? And overall,

Harsh Thakkar 06:32
yeah, I, I see that some people are, they, like consulting is, is really different, in a lot of ways
from full time employment. It's not just the nature of the work, but even the mentality that you
need to have or the mindset person needs to bring for the same task is different. So some
people are just not there, they're really good at being in a leadership role or a full time role. But
consulting brings a lot of uncertainty, and they don't like that. And then there are consultants
who just love that they don't care. They don't want the full time job or a salary. So I know you
are I have few other friends in my network who've done consulting and corporate full time
roles, you have a lot of experience on both both sides of the table. What are what is your take?
Like? Do you like one over the other? Do you, ya know, what are your pros and cons?

Dharti Pancholi 07:30
That's a good question. If I will say, of course, first of all that recruiting and consulting not very
common and biopharma. I have seen that and I thought about like starting two separate
companies, too, but in IT industry, it's quite common, to be honest. So then, you know, kind of work. And that's the best way to switch. One thing that I would think is in, in its, you're totally
right, some people are really meant for that. They like that stability. Consulting has its own pros
and cons, and so is user side, right? It's more stable, you know, where you're going tomorrow. If
you're after, of course, despite the layoffs and everything going on, but in consulting, you don't
know where your other project will be? Or are there you are sometimes working on multiple
projects, like, you know, switching your mind from here to there, right? Like, very, almost
certainly, there are, there are also some people they really like it from, in my case, ever since I
moved. I mean, I've worked in after my master's, I would take 10 Some years and in user side
companies and 30 in some years and, and move to consulting, but ever since I moved to
consulting, that was for me, I mean, because everyone is different again, right? And I totally
respect that. But for me, it's like, you know, what, whatever is your capacity you you can do
that if you want to work, more hours more projects, you like to meet more people? Or do you
want to just I mean, of course, it's not always going to be one project, but meeting multiple
people, multiple companies, multiple projects, that's kind of what I really liked, not everybody
likes it, and I totally get it. And then the negative side is you may have to travel or commute
longer, which again, for me for the right project, I don't have didn't have any project any
problem with traveling and so several of our team members, but yeah, of course, you know, I
mean, in user side companies, it's, you know, where you're going, right, that's the biggest
thing. And I did feel like there was a little bit of political aspects after certain time, right? After
you get to like associate a certain level. And again, it depends on the company. I've worked in
two small companies, one public company, and one of the company became public to start up
out of the to start off on one didn't go anywhere, right, um, things happen. So it kind of like
seeing those things. So yeah, I feel like you know, it really depends on the each person right
and it's not like hard and fast people can change around right like in this world, but

Harsh Thakkar 09:57
yeah, so one thing that I've NOTICE since I started Qualtivate, and trying to build a team and
grow the company is in consulting, especially when you get a new project. If you're bringing
there's these terms like a team and B team, you know, junior and senior like that there's a lot
of pressure, right? as a, as a business owner, or entrepreneur, if I sign a contract with a client,
and client says, Hey, harsh, I need five people to do XY and Z and validation quality, like Phil, make sure you bring the team. It's for me, that's being so hard to find the person because I'm
so nervous that if I bring the wrong person, I'll lose the client and literally, like, put my company
down the drain. Yeah. Yeah. Because it's so it's such a big responsibility, right? as a, as an
employee, nobody, when you're working in a company, you don't have, like, you're not the one
signing. But when I'm signing the contract for five people, X dollars per hour for six months,
that number really like triggers you to say, Whoa, like, I don't want to make a mistake, because
it could, I've seen many companies where consultants come in, and maybe their attitude or
their style is

Dharti Pancholi 11:23
wrong, right? It's yeah, position your company's reputation, correct? Yeah.

Harsh Thakkar 11:26
Because they come in and, and maybe their interpretation of some, you know, the job, or the Because they come in and, and maybe their interpretation of some, you know, the job, or the
regulation, or whatever it is, doesn't really match and you can't really interview someone for 30
minutes and find, I mean, you can see if that person has a good culture, or do you like working
with them and stuff like that. But I've also seen in many cases where consultant comes in, and
two months later, like, everybody in that company doesn't like that consultant. And my biggest
fear is, I don't want anybody on my team or myself to be in that spot. So how do you is this
some, how do you go about finding people? Because I'm sure you face the same challenge?

Dharti Pancholi 12:09
Yeah. So from consulting side, I think I have been a bit lucky, I would say, because ever since
then, it was announced that I am starting my own and this and that, so many people reached
out to me, I haven't been able to hire all of the good ones yet. So there is still depends on the
you know how it is you don't want to hire everyone and just run all the cash flow down to right.
Yeah. Recruiting side, I mean, even though I because I already knew many of them, and, and or
somehow worked with them. But then on the recruiting side, we because we also do that we
have a internet database, we have few few more like a sorcerer that reaches out and send us
the resumes when we have the right opportunity. Not everybody we know some people we
reach out, we know them from be find out like references and so on. And we also use, we have
an intern like aI assess based tool that's really kind of that pulse. Because some roles that we
do in recruiting are not necessarily same as just security and engineering design project or
project management quality that right, we focus more only on technical roles, we only do
technical roles, but that does include some roles like uncertain, some quality control, which is
not part of the consulting that we typically provide. So on that we have a database is able to
find many some of the networks we can reach out, but we also use this AI SSPs recruiting
platform that sort of like post we put the job description and skills and everything and it kind of
matches and shows the people who are not even not even in our database, kind of like you
know, from LinkedIn and other other sources, right the public sources, it's really cool you like it
because I know you have some AI says things through so it's it's more like let's say hers, right?
You are in, in in a company and then I'm in the same company you have not updated your
profile in LinkedIn let you know how some people update right Right, right. Yes. And I have
updated that, then it will even say that horse is the right person for this position. Because dirty
works in the same rooms roll same title in this same company. So it's kind of like smart tool
right. It will also do like you know how many years you have been in the company. So because
you know if you just started working in the company, you might not be open to change right.

Harsh Thakkar 14:47
Some people are

Dharti Pancholi 14:49
Yeah, some people are in this market or not just this market is inspired by a competitive
market in general but, but it can be you know, it will it will really that The people accordingly.
And and I really liked it because you know, it's kind of that smart things we don't like. Of course
there are you know, like, once you put the feedback, no, this is not right person because of this
reason, then it also trains itself. And that's why I like if they will give some feedback, not data
and we get the feedback, but

Harsh Thakkar 15:21
so it can find people from anywhere or just like

Dharti Pancholi 15:24
public any publicly right, like if you have posted your resume, indeed or somewhere, or if it's in
LinkedIn. Right. So kind of public. I mean, it's not like you're you have not posted anywhere
you're not public any Right. Right, right. That's separate, you know, if your profile is very
private, that's separate. But yeah,

Harsh Thakkar 15:44
but if you let's say, if you had a client in San Francisco, for consulting cqe role, and you put all
the job description in the skills into this AI tool, and if that job was on site, then the tool would
only try to find people 30 miles, yeah.

Dharti Pancholi 16:05
To put zip code and miles and everything. And it's it's pretty unique. I mean, you live in Atlanta,
you are doing something in AI too, right? Like, you're

Harsh Thakkar 16:17
right, we don't I mean, I don't use, we don't have our own internal AI platform, what we're doing
is, we're basically just testing out a bunch of different AI tools for data analytics, and for
automations. So anytime we come across a client, a project or a use case, where we see that
these tools could potentially help the client in doing some simple automations. Or if let's say
they have a Excel spreadsheet, or something with a date with a data set that needs to be
analyzed, of course, you can go put formulas in Excel, or you can write Python script, or
whatever to do it. But there are a lot of plug and play tools available where you can just hook
up your data in either CSV or Excel file. And it starts noticing patterns in that data. Right. So if
you uploaded, let's say, everyone's training records from their electronic QMs, if I got every, if
there's 100 people in a company, and I got every person's training record, from the E QMs, into
this AI tool, then the tool will start, I can start answering asking questions in natural language
to say, show me how many percentage of the employees are finishing their training a week
before it's due. So it will just analyze all the dates and everything. And it will say 73% are
finishing one week before it's due and 27 are wages last week. So yeah, so that's one example.
That's a very simple example. But it can do those kinds of things.

Dharti Pancholi 17:55
It's pretty, pretty good. Yeah. I mean, see, like, I feel like you're not the new era, it's going to
sort of merge the biotechnology with the idea and AI technology, it's going to be completely sort of merge the biotechnology with the idea and AI technology, it's going to be completely
revolutionary.

Harsh Thakkar 18:07
Yeah, it's, there's so much happening there. You know, it's like, every week, there's some new
article, or some new development that comes out, or somebody's testing out something. And if
they find a new way of solving an old problem with AI, so it's just a lot going on right now. But
there are a lot of risks. But there's also just amazing opportunity.

Dharti Pancholi 18:29
Yeah. And it is not just like I would say like even we when we find, right, let's say we find
people, but not everybody is interested to move right on. All right, you have to still reach out to
them and kind of see what their references are, who they know. And, you know, it's a small
industry, but still right, like, because not everything is just by paper doesn't mean that many of
the people you know, are not always looking right, right. Right. Yeah. I mean, we do post some
job description, not every time but some some of those. And to be honest, not many people,
you know, biopharma field comes to application, but it's good if they do apply, but yeah,

Harsh Thakkar 19:06
yeah. So this year, I've had the same discussion with many other people on the show, and a lot
of industry professionals have reached out to me on LinkedIn and by email, there's a lot of tons
of layoffs happening every, every week or every other month. It's happening in biotech. It's also
happening in tech companies due to whatever reasons. So have you. Have you seen from your
side in terms of all the layoffs that are happening? What any interesting observations that you
you can share, like one I've seen is people, I won't say anyone's name, but I had a VP and VP of
quality, reach out to me on LinkedIn and said, Hey, I got laid off. I'm looking for or a roll and I'm
willing to take a pay cut, I'll take like, Whatever, I'll take a director job. And that's, that's a big
pay cut to go from VP to Director depending on you know where you are. But this person was
like, you know, I'm ready to do it. I just want, I just want to roll an opportunity. So I've seen
more and more like people are willing to take a two step down just to get a different
opportunity. What have you seen from your side? In terms of layoffs?

Dharti Pancholi 20:27
Yeah, no, that's, that's a very, like, you know, sad. Yeah, true thing, right. Like I heard like, in in
March or February, I think March, there are like, more than 100 companies had layoffs. It just
tripled. And this is not just in biopharma, but store, right. Like, and it's it's huge. You know, how
like, one companies started thinking we need to do something, and then Tesla, right. And then
every, every every company is thinking, like, are we doing it? Or do we really need this many
people and sometimes even if they need, they just need to do something, make some changes
to from to show, like, from management level or wherever, right, that we are doing something
that acting some and trying to look into how we can utilize the workforce better. And sadly, it
just, maybe, maybe in some cases, it was right, but some cases it was really not needed. And
it's it's so partially, some of those are also, you know, like one one part, I feel like, you know, how few years few, they just second after pandemic during that time, right? There was a great
recession, right? I mean, there was a great resignation, right? Everybody's financial freedom,
financial freedom, everybody has to, like, invest in stock market and crypto and whatsoever I
didn't realize

Harsh Thakkar 21:52
I was I was in that phase. And that's how I quit and quit and started.

Dharti Pancholi 21:59
Really? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So I mean, you know, and you still wanted to work, but said, there is
a lot of people that I know, they're like, you know, it's okay. I don't. I mean, you, you are
passionate about the work you do. And I'm like, leaving and I'm not going to work, right. And
it's the same with me, I am working more than what I was before. And I'm happy to do that.
Right. And this is kind of what I want to but some people they were like I'm making enough
made enough just retiring, right? So that was like, more like a great resignation period.
Because people just didn't want didn't bother about work. And there's, I mean, those talented
people, we need them, right, like music talent, too, as a as a, as a world, right, like economy
and for ecosystem. And then there was this quiet quitting, right? Like people are working, then
they are like, they're not really working there. It's even worse than it rather just resume design.
But they were like, Oh, I don't know if I'm not able to find some better job or I'm just staying
here making money. Why not just do that? That's even worse. Right? So now now it's it's more
like, the period that I feel that when with the layoffs and everything yeah, there are many
people that are considering that. When this it was very hard to find people they got quite hard
to do. Some of them are deserving. I'm not saying that, right. And then now now, seven, with
the layoffs and everything. And I think it's the right thing to do that, you know, better work than
not work, right. Like, right, I get that in user side roads, we were talking about user side and
consulting title is very important in those roles. In our case, like me, and you, I mean, I don't
care about title, it's an aesthetic system, right? I mean, you could be my manager in what some
project some project I might be right fit, right. But I and I respect that right, because everybody
has in user Syros that's how they, they have different authorities too. Right. So but, but yeah, I
mean, there are people who are willing to take either the big pay cut or a salary cut or relocate
and I feel like we're gonna go back to that standard that people will start valuing the work
valuing that they have a job either the one who has a job or when they get the job and they
want to be working for what they are getting paid which is how it should be right but is that I
mean in the in the right way that valuing and working in that it will come back. So I'm hoping it
will come back from both sides. Of course, I don't want to lay off either and I don't think it's
right to not work for me. Right,

Harsh Thakkar 24:36
right. Right. Okay. Okay. Somehow nature. I see what you're saying. I think somehow nature's
gonna even it out and, you know, maintain the balance because, yeah, layoffs are hard. But
then at the same time, if somebody has a job and they're slacking and not doing what they
need to do, but just you know, coasting along, especially if you Remote I saw like some some
jobs in tech or bio I don't know. But people who had a full time job we're doing other gigs on the side. So like they're they're doing the job overs? Yeah, yeah, they're doing two jobs. And
they're not I don't know, I don't want to say any names, but I just heard from a few people like,
oh, yeah, this so and so person has a manager job in a pharma company. But then they're also
doing like audits, consulting audits and stuff on the side. So they're doing both FTM concern,
I'm not sure if it's allowed, or if they,

Dharti Pancholi 25:32
they took that time off, like everybody has their, whatever, 20 days or whatever, right, like,
time off or 15 days, whatever. And if they did it in that time off or, or even unpaid leave
something that's separate. But I mean, that's what I've been meaning, I think, like, it's really
wrong, right? Like it is, yeah, it typically also, it's not right, like, you know, even as a consultant,
right, we get paid for every minute, in a way, right, like, so we want to be productive for every
minute that we are providing great service, right?

Harsh Thakkar 26:02
I would say there's, I would say there's one maybe exception to this is, if you really did not like
your job, like your full time job. And you maybe had sort of a mutual like agreement or a
conversation with your manager to say, hey, you know what, I don't like this job. I want to be a
consultant or I want to do something else. And instead of a two week notice, you give a really
long notice, right? Like I say, I'm giving a six week notice. But just so you know, in those six
weeks, I'm going to be you know, like entertaining a lot of other opportunities and not fully like,
like I'm, but still I feel like in that case, maybe because your current organization already knows
that you're not you're not part of the long term future. But still, I mean, I don't know how how
people have done it. Have have

Dharti Pancholi 26:56
Yeah, no, I think there are some companies which will allow people to work, not during their
regular hours, putting their things as, as put put their work as a priority. Right. Right. Right. But
able to work. It's more like, you know, having like some people have real estate and scientific
or investment, right, this Yeah, that way doesn't shouldn't matter, as long as not a conflicting
conflict of interest, kind of same technology or something. And some companies may be
allowing, or several companies might be. So I don't know if they already are, but at least they
should talk and get the permission without just starting something. Yes, yes. If it's permitted,
then you know, it's not, it's not like, you know, wrong. If you can handle like, everyone is
different, right? Some people can only work for years, some people don't mind working 60
hours as long as it's not interfering with with the 40 hours as a full time employee, at least
minimum or or even if require more than, you know, doing. But yeah, but yeah, I rather believe
that if you're not happy, better to leave the company than quite quitting. Really, like it's not
going to help you. I mean, it's also like how you're using your mind right right. It's not just
about I mean, I get money is one thing and everything but if you're not able to use your mind
and what's the point because you're deteriorating your carrier in one way or the yes so

Harsh Thakkar 28:22
So I saw on your LinkedIn that you're also your your bio or titled said that you're also investing
or your investor so what what sort of can you share a little bit about what type type of things
are you when you say investor what type what is what type of things are you investing?

Dharti Pancholi 28:41
You got to cuz generally, I don't talk about this that much, but I am. I mean, I think if I would
say my hobby that's really the investing is also my hobby. I mean, watch this, you know, some
other girls I would say really more like financial aspects is yeah, my hobby as well. I mean, I'm
invested in pretty much everything like you know, stock crypto real estate, and then have done
a little bit of angel investing as well. I have been interested and I have tried to do some m&a
opportunities for some other companies as well when I was part of those are life or boarding
licenses. Yeah, yeah. Angel investing and m&a on doing licenses that's what I'm I'm interested
in I mean, my my passion is really just like biopharma biotech Pharma. That's what it continues
so far.

Harsh Thakkar 29:34
Yeah, that's, it's that's an area that I am interested in putting more time like right now, I
wouldn't say that. I'm like, I wouldn't put on my LinkedIn that I'm an investor by any means.
Like, yes, I've invested in stock and crypto, but I'm not going to label what I

Dharti Pancholi 29:51
learned. So I took some courses also right and some some things as well in between. So what I
learned is one aspect of some One good like, investor, coach or consultant had told me as not
just me that in the course, if you are serious about investing that you're you, I mean, it's always
great. First of all, you should probably do a disclaimer, I'm not saying anyone's right.

Harsh Thakkar 30:15
Yes, yeah.

Dharti Pancholi 30:18
You might not make any portion,

Harsh Thakkar 30:19
right, this portion of the show is not investment advice. So if you're gonna make any
investments or start investing in life sciences, do your own research before you take the risk.

Dharti Pancholi 30:31
Yeah, no, totally, totally. But yeah, so I mean, what he had suggested is, if you're serious about
it, then put the investor in that if as soon as you start investing in that, or you want it, so I think
that will, if you're really into investing, right, I mean, if you'd said it's certain, I mean, I wouldn't
say just go crazy on it. But you know, you set certain percentage of your salary that you can
keep, you can be okay to lose, right, or salary or compensation, or I'm not just telling you, for
you, it's for everyone, right like that you could be okay to lose. And that's what you can look
into in Angel investing, if you're interested in that. I have in my case, too. It's a bit about I
mean, I have a little bit soft corner on the license, especially biotech pharma, right. I do feel like
there are so many companies nowadays, especially right, that has great technologies in life
science, but they cannot find an investor. And that's why the companies are closing. So it's
even more risky than before. But at the same time, I kind of have a little bit that soft corner.
And now that I started my own company, I'm a bit slow to be honest, because I rather invest
first in mind and then rest in later, right. But, but yeah, in general, there are, there are many
good technologies out there. Once you do that, and I can, I can probably give you some, like,
you know, if better for initial people to really start small scale, right, like, maybe like, I don't
know, whatever, he does get fined 500, or 25,000, or something like that. There are certain
venture capital that requires like 5000 as a limit to start with. And there are some micro
venture and some angel, very small sites, not even angel investing, that kind of micro
micromanager sort of thing that that can do up to 2500, something you still need to be a
credential investor, they check all these things. But yeah, I mean, that could be another session
on that. But I could totally give you a few information in your

Harsh Thakkar 32:41
Yeah, that'd be great. Because I found one, have you heard of rolling fund? Okay, so I was
looking at, you know, getting into investing and more so like Angel investing, or startup
investing, and I found this website called Angel List. Again, this is a disclaimer, I don't, this is
not a sponsored section by angel list. And if you go and invest on anything there, do so by
doing your own homework and research.

Dharti Pancholi 33:11
But don't come back to us. Right.

Harsh Thakkar 33:14
But, but the rolling fund concept from what I understood is, Angel List has a lot of big tech
investors, like navall, rava Khan, SHAN Puri, you know, the CEO, and founders of climate tech,
and, you know, all these like AI tech, all these tech companies, and they have a portfolio of the
type of companies they like to invest. So what they do is, you, you, they basically say we're
looking for 20 people to join this, it's like a pod, like you join them, and you pull in your money.
So whatever they say, like, we need minimum 2500 or 5000. So it starts, you know, some start
at a lower number, some start at, you know, 10 20,000, and you pull in all the money, and then
every three months or six months, whatever timeframe, they do the payout, so, you know, as
long as it keeps growing, and then every three or six months, it's like a cycle. So you have to
make a commitment that for the next 24 or 36 months, you are committing to, you know, 20

505,000 each month, and it's not like you're not directly investing in the startup but you are
you are getting a cut of that investment. And then risk is diverse, right? Risk is diverse, exactly.
And, and you don't have to do the research because the person that owns the fund, like the
entrepreneur or the tech person, they have their own slide deck does show how many exits
they have made in the past. They show all the portfolio of each company they're investing and
how they found them. So it's if you trust that person and you stress their track record. Again,
it's still money, you can lose it, obviously, you know, every investment can go sideways. But
that's one that I saw. And it was kind of interesting, maybe as an entry point to start and learn
from others, maybe you lose some, and then you'll really learn how to do it.

Dharti Pancholi 35:23
Better than not knowing in writing, and I mean, what I generally feel like when we were talking
about the layoff, and these things, right, especially the younger generations and young people,
I would say, like, stop is the first step, right? That I'm done. Real. I mean, of course, for some
people realistic might be the first step will be separate, but in general, right, like, invest in
something because I mean, even it's like, you know, if I'm telling this to like, the young kids,
right, like, look into I mean, what you can, like, you know, start with like basic index funds,
basic things, then slowly go forward, right? Like from from that, like s&p 500, you can not be
the richest, but you can still be very well, right. Like, I mean, an overtime and everything and,
and there are many different strategies. So once you learn more, and then slowly getting into
the angel investing, that's not wrong, but at the risk is higher risk gets higher as you get in that
side. But but then you can diversify, but multiple such I mean, there are certain venture
capitals, so like that, it they have little higher 25,000 or something right. But I mean, but it's
still like they they decided they determine and there are different sectors like IT sector by
sector of the combiner as well. So there are multiple different different ways, but the risk is still
there, especially in this market.

Harsh Thakkar 37:00
Yeah. So I know. I have a few more questions for you. Before we wrap this up, I always like to
ask towards the end of the show to the guests about the future and what they see happening in
their space. So you are in, you know, consulting and recruitment, specializing in life sciences.
How do you see that space evolving in the next five or 10 years? I'm sure you've done a lot of
research your entrepreneur or business owner in the space?

Dharti Pancholi 37:32
Yeah, let's say in general biopharma is relatively I mean, of course, the whole industry has I
mean, every industry has been impacted with the current things. But in general biopharma has
been more solid, right? It's like next to the healthcare, right. So like sciences, we are, we are
pretty strong, I think that there is always going to be need with within even us to, to have the
US FDA approved products, as well, as you know, like Europe and other areas. And there are
several good technologies, Cell Therapy mRNA technology. is I mean, even though we think it's
new, it's not new. I mean, in a way cell therapy was there 10 years ago, but you know, of
course, now now it's being more and more evil, right? So I feel like it's going to continue, what I
do think is, in terms of what happens generally between recruiting and consulting, and this when there is the market is good. companies tend to have more FTAs that's just my my
philosophy, I could be wrong. And then the one market is bad, then they are more
conservative, of course, and some projects they can put on hold, they will, but then sometimes
they cannot. And then that's when they are hiring more consultants or temporary people.
That's just, you know, so it kind of balances out at some point. I think it will change it can't be
just like this, but it will balance out in the future.

Harsh Thakkar 39:05
What what do you what do you like doing outside of work when you're not talking to clients or
hiring people want to come on your team to work for you?

Dharti Pancholi 39:15
Now that's, yeah, I mean, in general, of course, I like as a hobby, also investing in things. One
thing I do every day, is I do meditation. So not not like a prayers and yeah, but it's like a six
minute quiet time. And it's really six minute on. Like to do more, but six minutes, like my heart
hurts stop things. And I literally put in that alarm, that whether I'm in the flight, traveling and
Hottel at home, wherever it is, right like, and it could be it doesn't have to be like associated
with a particular time. Also, it could be in the morning could be in the during, like vampire in
the bed like 12 o'clock or wherever I reach, you know. So it's really, really that It has stayed
with me for like years. Other than that, yeah, I mean, you know, I mean, as hobby I really like
looking into reading and even, like, all the like, you know how they say you are what you
Google, right? Like you see my google it will be a lot of like, you know, investing financial.

Harsh Thakkar 40:19
Yeah. My Google is filled with AI and automation. And because I last six months, I've just been
spending a lot of time doing that. Do you use any app for for meditation? Are you just, like, no
quiet time?

Dharti Pancholi 40:36
Just quiet time? It's nothing not related to just it's quiet time and like, you know, even if
thoughts come let them pass and come and at some point, the mind shouldn't have any
thoughts. That's the goal. Yes, it's hard, but to not have to get set.

Harsh Thakkar 40:51
Right? I have done it like, occasionally, like here and there. I don't do it as a as a practice every
day. But maybe I should, because I've heard a lot of people who are doing it. And they've said
great things, like it really helps them, especially at the start of the day, or just to clear your
mind or process. There's so many things going on, you know, emails and like, you know, messages or negotiating a contract or trying to get

Dharti Pancholi 41:22
Yeah, no, that's true for me start off the day would be ideal, but it's difficult to be honest. So I
have been doing at the end of the day, Ricky? Right. Right. Just like, you know, start off the
day. My mind is still like, let me check this. But it really recharges you know, I mean, you should
try it. Like, you know, just use and initially it's like even six minute we think it's like six minutes,
like can we spend, but it's still wrong? Yeah, sir. Yeah. Yeah. Just came in mind. But yeah,

Harsh Thakkar 41:57
right. Yeah. Listen, it's been great having you on, I just loved everything that you've shared
your take on the whole investing side of things. That's great. I wanted to know what because
you don't have much on your profile other than the word investor. And it's like, I need to know
what you're investing because that's an area I'm learning from everybody. Who is, you know,
already there two years, three years ahead of me. So thank you for sharing all those. All those
tips. And where can people find you or connect with you after this episode, if they want to work
with you or collaborate with you,

Dharti Pancholi 42:30
in general, I'm very active on LinkedIn. I, of course, my email address is my first name dot last
name at only that slight science.com. There is a hyphen in between only the slight sense. But
LinkedIn is just if if I can send over you can also post

Harsh Thakkar 42:49
Yes, we'll add that we'll add that.

Dharti Pancholi 42:51
So I'm pretty active on that on investing, right? Like there are many people that reaches out in
different industry and I'm really focused more on biotech and pharma only so far. And it's really
more for passion, right? So other than Yeah, of course, stock and crypto, you will invest in
anything but for Angel Investing, and of course, in real estate, it's completely different. But
yeah, oh, yeah.

Harsh Thakkar 43:12
Yeah, real estate is fun, too. Again, it's something I've read about not done anything yet. But

Dharti Pancholi 43:19
actually, now we are building smart triplex.

Harsh Thakkar 43:23
Oh, nice. Nice. Yeah. Great. Yeah. Any, any final thoughts you want to add? But I've really
enjoyed this conversation, I'm sure that the listeners are gonna like, because a lot of the topics
that we talked about I haven't discussed in the past with other guests. So any final thoughts
you want to add?

Dharti Pancholi 43:43
No, I think this is, I mean, you know, to life science. 360. That means, like, all angles and
aspects of life sciences and

Harsh Thakkar 43:51
people, you know, from different parts of life sciences, as well.

Dharti Pancholi 43:56
Yeah. So I mean, if someone is from like startup company, you're not necessarily consulting, or
most likely be connecting you. How did you think about it? Like, you know, what made you
think and

Harsh Thakkar 44:08
like, for me, for me, it was more like, either I could have picked one part of the industry and
said, you know, this Podcast is about quality assurance, or, you know, technology or whatever.
But maybe that's one philosophy to do it. I just didn't want to do that, because it would have
been too structured and focused on one topic, so I just kept it generic. This way you don't have
the flexibility to interview anybody I can. I actually, so I'll give you an example. I actually tried
to reach out to a real estate developer there. They're pretty popular. I won't say their name,
but they solely, not just lifesciences. But majority of their portfolio is Life Sciences, the real
estate for life science companies. So there are properties in Boston, Houston, San Francisco,
Texas, or Austin, Texas. So I'm like, Hey, this is an area I have nothing, no clue about, why
would you like to come on the show and talk about but they're not the person I reached out to
wasn't interested. But that's, that's my idea, you know, maybe the I would have asked them,
like, how do you decide which land to buy, and you know that that's where the next biotech
hub will come, you know, like North Carolina or so. That was like one angle, I could have gone,
but that person didn't really accept to come on the show. But yeah, that's what I was going,
you know, just keep it generic. So I can talk to more people from different because there's so
many players who are touching Life Sciences in like, different ways that we don't get to learn
because we are in, you know, QA or engineering, that we don't get to see that side of the world,
you

Dharti Pancholi 45:54
know, I mean, I say we're like, you know, I really like to, like read a lot about like, license to
companies and that right, and, and didn't thought that there is I don't think of any Podcast that
is focused on all aspects of license. So this is really,

Harsh Thakkar 46:09
really cool. That's a that could be a good thing or a bad thing. Find out Yeah,

Dharti Pancholi 46:15
it's good to be in order to you, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Harsh Thakkar 46:20
Thank you so much. I wish you all the best with all your personal goals and everything at Omni.
And if there's any opportunity where we can work together, obviously, I will reach out to you or
you can do the same on LinkedIn. And thank you so much for coming. Coming to the show. I
really appreciate it. Good to meet you as well. Thank you. Yep. Next. Thank you so much for
listening. I hope you enjoyed today's episode. Check out the show notes in the description for a
full episode summary with all the important links. Share this with a friend on social media and
leave us a review on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to your favorite Podcast.