Here’s the story of a woman entrepreneur who was initially sceptical about seeing a male gynaecologist but has now built a women’s healthcare company alongside many male doctors.
Meet Padmini Janaki, CEO of Mind and Mom and also a member of the 1% Club. She was selected for the ‘40U40’ award by Business World in January 2024 and ‘Woman Entrepreneur of the Year’ by TiEcon in October 2022. She also represented Indian healthcare at the World Economic Forum last year and has many accolades to her name. Her company, Mind and Mom, was awarded the ‘Best Women Healthcare Company’ by the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister in December 2021.
In an interview, Padmini Janaki shared the details of her personal finance and entrepreneurial journey and the difference she experienced after joining the 1% Club. Edited Excerpts
What are the small events that got you into saving and investing?
For me, savings have been so important because of the way I was born and brought up. I took a lot of education loans during my studies and saving was the only way I could come out of debt. My loans, when I was just 21, made me a person who wanted to and needed to save more. So I started reading about savings. But at that point in time, investment was not an option because coming out of debt was the major priority.
What were the initial things you did when you started investing and the mistakes you made?
One of the major investment blunders that I have made is buying a lot of LIC plans. Of course, my friends, father and uncles suggested that by giving me a big picture. At that age, I really didn’t know where exactly to invest, probably the number decoded sounded impressive. So I ended up investing quite a lot of money in LIC insurance and a lot of other policies. But once the awareness of LIC insurance came, I had to really be at a loss, leaving that money because I couldn’t really recoup that money or continue because I became really aware of the kind of money I have been wasting. So that was one of the major, major investment mistakes that I have made.
The second investment mistake that I have made is getting personal loans. But at that point in time, there were not many other options for the needs. So it was all with heavy interest.
Are there any interesting incidents in your investment journey?
I mean at one point, when I started investing in stocks, I bought all the fancy stocks. If the brand is something that I’ve been using and they go public (IPO) then I would buy that stock as well. Interestingly, some worked out while others didn’t but it gave me a learning experience that was supercritical.
What’s your current asset allocation?
So, initially, my investments were mostly in real estate, gold and other such conservational sections. In my late 20s, I started exploring mutual funds, gold bonds, stocks, and more.
Now that I am 33 years old, my investments are still a bit conservative but also diversified.
50 to 60%: Real estate
20 to 25%: Gold
Rest in Mutual Funds and Stocks
And yes, I am also an angel investor, majorly investing in D2C brands.
Have you bought insurance policies?
Yes, I have got health and life insurance policies. This is where the 1% Club comes into the picture. One of the valuable lessons I have learned after joining the club is about systematic thinking when choosing insurance or even stocks. Earlier, when I purchased insurance, I had very limited knowledge of which plan was cheaper and would look for policies that sounded good or were popular. Now, I have learned the science and systematic thinking behind choosing Insurance and even stocks.
Despite having a successful career as a Product Manager, why did you choose to become an entrepreneur?
As a Product Manager, I realised that technology can solve a lot of problems on a large scale. So when I turned 30 I was thinking “What should I do next in my career now?”. I have always been interested in Technology so another big question was “Which problem to solve using technology”. As a woman I’ve seen many other women struggle in different phases of life due to health. So I knew that if I really want to empower women then health is the most important aspect where I can contribute as compared to finance or lifestyle. I also believe “when health is taken care of everything else is taken care of”. So combining my passion for empowering women + technology along with my understanding of what is required by women… helped me to start Mind And Mom.
What’s your business model?
I started ‘Mind and Mom’ during COVID 2021 as a Tech business that helped Women in their healthcare journey. Now we are not just tech, we are an omnipresent company. We have a chain of clinics for women’s health that are asset-light.
Also, here I would like to mention that the 1% Club’s lessons helped me to keep my business asset-light while still maintaining efficiency and output and keeping the medical bills low for the patients.
I believe that 70% of the business, location, and place in the healthcare industry is underutilised. So we are using it for our fertility centres. It takes Rs 2 crore to Rs 5 crore to start a fertility centre including advance payment and interiors. Whereas we are trying to get more patients at an economical cost to these equipped centres. We have two centres in Chennai but the model is used by more than 16 clinics across Tami Nadu so it’s been going well. We are also collaborating with one of the international hospitals in South Korea.
When it comes to funding, we raised somewhere close to Rs 7 to Rs 8 crore, and this is from health care funds. It’s mainly from Doctors who are turned into angels.
It has been a journey where we focus on revenue and the bottom line. It’s been good because money is always seen as something that can bring two things – First is the best clinical output and second is money itself. And it’s been a beautiful journey for us.
How does your company help women?
Mind And Mom helps couples conceive with a structured, tech-driven approach:
- Step 1: Women join Mimo, our virtual fertility coach, for 60 days. This step, focusing on natural pregnancy methods based on age and lifestyle, results in 10% of users getting pregnant.
- Step 2: Couples take our 90-day fertility boot camp, covering mental, physical, and nutritional health with expert guidance. In this flagship step, 20% of users get pregnant.
- Step 3: Couples are then guided to clinical interventions, including free checkups, tests, and scans, at M&M-powered fertility clinics.
- Step 4: We support the entire fertility and pregnancy journey with tech and human intervention, offering transparent health finance and managing medicines and tests until the baby is born.
As an entrepreneur and a mom, what’s the one thing you would like to say to all women?
As a woman and as a mother, I really think the potential opportunities and the problems to solve are quite a lot in India right now. Every woman brings a very different perspective than men. We should never think that – oh this industry is not mine it’s a very male-dominated industry. We should pick any industry that suits us. There are things that come to us naturally that are difficult for others. So find that advantage and that X factor in you and go for it. I am very sure the world will always find a way to give you success when you put in your 100% and when you believe in yourself.
Disclaimer: The above content is based on the information provided by Padmini Janaki. The 1% News doesn’t independently verify non-public data reported by interviewees.
