Eric Kinariwala (Capsule) - How one visit to pick up his prescription led him to create a new type of pharmacy

Our guest today is Eric Kinariwala, founder and CEO of Capsule. Capsule is the pharmacy that delivers your prescriptions, the same day, for free. We discuss the pharmacy visit that led to his aha moment of founding Capsule, his approach to integrating technology with picking up your prescriptions, and how he approached expansion and scale.

Here are some of the questions I ask Eric:

1. You started your career as an investor. Was your goal always to become an entrepreneur.
2. Why did you decide to start Capsule?
3. How did you figure out this was a service other people might also like to have? Did you do any market research?Why was it so badWhat’s the role of the pharmacist?How could you go solve the problemThe first thing was to build a pharmacy?How do you deliver the highest quality experience?Why did doctors, consumers love it at the early days?
4. When you were thinking of starting this business, what were the first steps and the first questions you had to ask to see if this was viable?
5. Did you have to first establish relationships with the doctors so they can send the prescription to you all, what was the process from sending in a note to delivering the medication?
6. Winning together
7. Everybody needs some looking after sometimes
8. How were you able to sell prescriptions online? Was there any regulations you had to jump through?
9. What were some of your early challenges?
10. What were specific medications you first looked at when it came to selling? How did you think about your wedge into the market?
11. What was your process of raising capital?What was the biggest reason why an investor passed?
12. What was the process of finding drivers and building out the delivery business?
13. How do you think about the future of DTC healthcare?
14. How did you approach customer acquisition in the early days?
15. You started in New York, how do you approach market expansion?
16. What’s one book that inspired you personally and one book that inspired you professionally?On the wings of eagles - Ross PerotThe checklist manifesto
17. What’s one piece of advice you have for founders?