“Be passionate and have 100% belief in your mission. Be persistent, explore the unknown, be optimistic at all times, surround yourself with smarter people and don’t forget your ultimate goal regardless of any distractions along the way, ” says Ali Safavi – Founder & CEO – Grenova. The young entrepreneur is a natural risk-taker who gets uncomfortable with the comfort zone. He is a person who can’t hold back when he finds an opportunity to improve. “I cannot live with “What If,” I have to execute and find out myself, ” says Safavi.

The journey 

Safavi’s 8 years of experience in healthcare helped him discover a major hole in the market – unsustainable use of plastic consumables. He left his secure and well-paid job to pursue developing a technology to make labs more sustainable by reusing plastic consumables. He focused on pipette tips and after 14 months of hard work, he had a full working prototype and placed it in a clinical lab for testing. The prototype passed every single test throughout the validation protocols and proved that the pipette tip consumables could be safely reused multiple times without any carryover or impact on its performance. “At the end of the validation study, the lab manager asked if she can have a 2nd system to put into her production lab and that’s when I knew there is a market for it so I founded Grenova on May of 2014,” says Safavi.

During the interview, he wanted to express his profound gratitude to the early adopters who took a chance on his technology and kept it open-minded. “This accomplishment today would have not been possible without you. Thank you Grenova early adopters, you are always part of the team, “expresses Safavi.

Wanderlust in the making

Safavi’s interests out of work area profoundly inspiring. Money doesn’t attract him but making a difference and exploring the unexplored does. He loves to travel without definite plans. “When you don’t plan your travels, then you have no expectations, therefore anything comes along your way it is exciting”. He also admitted his fascination with the automobile industry for its progress both in terms of performance and design.

Regulation and Innovation Should Work Together.

According to Safavi, the healthcare industry moves slowly and is not always open to disruptive improvements when it comes to recycling and reuse technologies.  To him, healthcare innovation is not “living longer” but instead enabling a better quality of life for humans on a healthier planet. If he could change one thing about this industry, he would reduce the regulatory restrictions related to reuse in order to make it less difficult for groups working on groundbreaking technologies for the industry. “Regulations doesn’t always evolve as fast as technological advancements. The goal is for regulations and innovation to work in tandem. Our mission is to push the industry forward and we encourage everyone in healthcare to find new ways to reduce waste, save money, and impact the planet.”