Dr. Fathima Benazir & Alex D PaulFounding team members of Azooka life sciences Published On: Wednesday, October 05, 2016 Views 4184

"Sometimes friends begin as enemies and enemies begin as friends"

Fathima Benazir is a highly acclaimed doctor and has authored several publications. She has an expertise in microbiology, cell biology and biochemistry. She started her career as a lecturer and has gained much credence in the medical industry. Alex is an incredibly creative marketing person who simply gets things done. He is a very creative and passionate marketer with a racy mind that churns out ideas continuously. Both of them started out a venture called Azooka Life Sciences. They are a specialty fluorescent dye company with focus on bringing safe fluorescent stains for application in Biological sciences and Genomics.

Please provide a brief overview of your product/ service.

Tintorang is the only food grade DNA and RNA stain in the world among biohazardous stains. Tintorang has wide applications in Life Sciences Research and Molecular Disease Diagnosis.

What inspired you to build the above product/ service?

My Cofounder enlightened me on building a world class product from India, when I was living in a research world and where I counted my success in publishing papers. Around 2013, we started on carving the product out of my Ph.D. research. On March 2, 2016, we reported the discovery of world’s first food grade Nucleic Acid stain (DNA & RNA) in a market dominated by biohazardous stains.

What is your life mantra?

There is no life mantra. Life is an experience; joy and sorrow are printed on two sides of same coin. Live the moments

What was the most challenging part of your journey till now?

Explaining biotechnology products in a service oriented industry

How did you overcome those challenges?

For a long time when we told that we are working on a new class of DNA and RNA stains, nobody believed that it is possible by us or from India. Most minds wanted to hear a story where you are a “Me too” product of a successful US company, where you leverage Indian talent and offer a cheaper price. Even friends and colleagues suggested doing something and making your initial money and keeping new experiments for later. We had to ignore the chatter of mediocre mindsets and tune our minds to making a difference.

Share some details about the investments that you have been able to fetch for the business till now.

We are seed funded and incubated by SID, IISc

According to you, what are the three qualities an individual must have to achieve success?

Dreaming big to make impact in an area Believe in what you build/ work Perseverance in failures

Which online tools/ services/ apps do you use the most and would like to recommend as well?

Google Apps for work [ docs, sheets, slides, drive ]

Share any one habit which you think makes you more productive.

Ignoring the noise of naysayers

Share any one habit which you wish to change in yourself.

Shed Impulsive spending habits and develop some financial discipline

Answer in less than 50 words

One tip to success: