After a loved one diagnosed with cancer was told to wear a tube sock over their PICC line, Care+Wear Founder and CEO, Chaitenya Razdan, set out on a mission to create a better PICC Line Cover. What started as a desire to help a friend going through chemotherapy evolved into a brand reimagining how the world looks at and feels about healthcare.
Before launching Care+Wear, makers of highly functional healthwear for patients undergoing treatment from chronic illnesses and the frontline workers who treat them, Chat worked as an investment banker at Goldman Sachs and strategy consultant at Kearney where he combined his analytical and communication skills to advise an impressive roster of clients.
After seeing friends and loved ones battling cancer, he decided to shift gears and focus on finding a way to support them and others, while parlaying his previous experience to become a savvy entrepreneur at the helm of Care+Wear. Realizing that there was a void in the market for something to keep PICC Lines secure and intact led him to create Care+Wear’s first product: the PICC Line Cover.
From there, he’s successfully grown the business – as well as his team – to expand the company’s offerings with products that serve both patients and providers. The company’s ultimate goal is to touch every patient and provider both in and out of the hospital with its lines of healthwear and accessories.
In what could have been a devastating blow for a company still in its infancy, the COVID-19 pandemic presented both challenges and opportunities for Chat and his team.
As the need for PPE grew, Care+Wear partnered with 90+ healthcare systems across the globe to create and supply masks, patient gowns, isolation gowns and scrubs. During this time, the company also earned a reputation among those systems as being efficient and timely, despite the product and factory shortages happening worldwide.
While unexpected, the pivot to PPE during the pandemic served an important purpose and aligned perfectly with Care+Wear’s philosophy of giving back and helping to propel healthcare forward with innovative products and partnerships.
Chat approaches every new idea and product by utilizing a three-pronged approach that incorporates the designers they partner with, such as Oscar de la Renta and Natori, the patients they’re focused on helping, and the clinicians who service those patients to ensure the company is taking into consideration not only how the garment or item looks, but how it is meeting a need for those who are fighting bigger life battles.
Beyond employing a tailored three-pronged approach to business, Chat has three additional takeaways for up-and-coming entrepreneurs:
- Attention to detail is of the utmost importance
- Build a team of people with skills that you do not possess
- Even when things aren’t going well, maintain a positive can-do attitude as there is a solution for every problem
In Chat’s eyes, there is no such thing as a final product and entrepreneurs should always be on a mission to improve their products and services. An openness to receive feedback allows him the opportunity to push himself and his team to build better products and be better.
If Chat has his way, his pool for potential feedback will be quite large…the 8 billion individuals in our healthcare system to be exact.
“No detail is too small when it comes to making a fellow human’s day easier, more comfortable, and more dignified. Our team won’t rest until we’ve connected with every person both in and out of hospitals around the world.”
Visit www.careandwear.com to learn more about the company and its products!
If you would like to get in touch with Chaitenya Razdan or his company, you can do it through his – Linkedin Page
