Dr. Rajiv Kumar

 / PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO
/ PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO

What are the biggest hurdles to starting a business in Rhode Island?

One of the biggest hurdles is access to capital. A lot of metropolitan areas benefit from angel investment groups and local venture-capital firms and grants from municipal and state governments. This is the lifeblood of innovation, and those resources are fairly limited in Rhode Island. Also, sometimes finding key employees with very specific skill sets can be a challenge in Rhode Island. We [at ShapeUp Inc.] were not afraid to relocate talent to come to Rhode Island.

Does Rhode Island have the resources to help companies develop innovative products and services?

Without question. We tapped into so many different resources here in the state to help us build an innovative technology company. We partnered with Brown University medical school; we partnered with local hospitals and employers; we benefited from innovation tax credits. We participated in business-plan competitions that provided us with earned media. We benefited from the ecosystem that exists around our universities. Rhode Island has the resources if you are willing to go out and seek them. People like to experiment. Rhode Island is a great Petri dish. It is a place to innovate in a small environment and to try things that can be scaled … around the world.

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What industry offers the greatest potential for growth through innovation in R.I. and why?

Obviously I am biased, but I believe the health and wellness industry offers great potential for growth. There is an interconnected ecosystem of research institutions, hospitals, nonprofit and for-profit companies that are all working together in areas of health. I think it is underutilized, under-recognized and undercapitalized. If we could increase connectivity between these institutions, if we could increase funding for innovative ideas, we could build a health and wellness sector. ShapeUp is an example of how we can build a successful health and wellness enterprise.

How do you account for ShapeUp’s success?

In some ways, we stumbled into the right business model and right product market. It originally was designed as a public weight-loss program. It took us many iterations before we found the right product and business model. •

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