Our Story

Founders Meet

Day 1

Arsalan and Charles met in the middle of their first year at the University of Portsmouth. Both attended the School of Pharmacy, but the two quickly learned they had much more in common than coursework. Both raised in the UK (Arsalan in Yorkshire, Charles in west London), they soon found a shared love for Premier League soccer. Arsalan backed London’s Tottenham Hotspur club, while Charles rooted for Manchester United. Because each had chosen a team from the other’s part of the UK, they were both well-versed in the folklore of both clubs. By the end of their first year, the new friends had co-signed a lease to become housemates.

Housemates and Exams

Day 2

As housemates, Arsalan and Charles forged the lasting friendship that we see today. They became notorious on the campus, initially for hiring a cleaner to keep their house super tidy, and then for creating an algorithm to successfully predict exam questions called the 'The System'.

Origins of Process

Day 3

As Arsalan and Charles would come to learn, this kind of task is right in their wheelhouse. Confronted with a massive corpus of information, they set out to boil the data down to the questions most likely to appear in their exams. They made quick work of the task: within a week, their question-prediction algorithm, 'The System', was complete. Not only was 'The System' a success, the process of building it together revealed something that talking about soccer could not: a natural synergy between their styles of solving big problems. Talking soccer took a back seat. At the peak of 'The System', Charles scored 100% in one exam and Arsalan reached a high of 99.75%.

A Changing Landscape

Day 4

With a fresh sense of their skillset, Arsalan and Charles began to ask bigger questions. In 2002, technology was a growing trend, and 3G data on the mobile web announced a new era of information access. How, they wondered, would this trend change pharmacy? If given the opportunity, how would they change pharmacy? To answer this, they returned to their roots: over many walks home from class, they talked about why they had chosen pharmacy, and where they hoped it would take them.

Walking Home, Why Healthcare?

Day 5

On these half-hour walks, they discovered a common love for -if not their demanding coursework- the craft of health innovation. They shared an immense respect for the way that pharmacists and doctors think on their feet and quickly distil dense information down to the parts that matter most. Throughout his Yorkshire upbringing, Arsalan saw first-hand that good healthcare practitioners could be the glue of rural communities. As a kid in west London, Charles admired how local health workers including pharmacists relate to people of all backgrounds, finding ways to share the right advice in ways that people can trust. For Arsalan and Charles, these were the essential elements of great pharmacy. But as data began to change the healthcare landscape, they feared that solid solutions and trusted advice could, like key exam questions, get lost in an ever-expanding sea of information.

The Idea is Born: Clinova

Day 6

One night, while walking home from class, Arsalan and Charles put together the pieces that seem so clear to us now. They decided that when the right time came, they would found a company called Clinova (clinical + innovation). Arsalan and Charles believe the name condensed its goal into its most essential form: Clinova brings trusted clinical products and information to the forefront of technological innovation.

The Roots of Health Innovation in the Past

Day 7

Before going forward, they wanted to know more about the roots of health discovery in the past. Thanks to their excellent research profiles, the duo was chosen to represent Portsmouth as researchers at the Royal Pharmaceutical Society. At the Society’s London headquarters, Arsalan and Charles researched the History of Pharmacy. They took close looks at the lives of the figures who founded their field. Of these, two stood out: Henri Nestle and Henry Wellcome. Today, Nestlé is the second-largest corporation in Europe, and Wellcome’s GSK is the UK’s largest pharmaceutical firm. Just as they had when building “The System”, Arsalan and Charles dived into the details. They distilled a big corpus of data down to its most vital lessons.

The Founders of Pharmacy

Day 8

They learned that Nestlé revolutionised the chocolate market by accident. Originally, he set out to make safe milk for babies. Along the way, he invented a means to condense milk, and make milk-chocolate. For Nestlé, this was a mere outgrowth of a long-term goal. They also focused on how Wellcome carved new space in an old market. He was mocked for his marketing: his contemporaries saw no sense in giving free samples to doctors. In Wellcome’s case, his tactic worked because he trusted his process. If today’s market is proof: the Wellcome technique stuck.

Old Wisdom + The Right Time

Day 9

For Arsalan and Charles, these lessons were a roadmap. They saw that from the start, pharmacy has always been about innovation. They saw how quickly novel solutions can change an entire market. The lessons of Nestlé and Wellcome made one thing clear: success is a process. With the right roots, a good process can branch out into all sorts of innovation. The common key for Nestlé and Wellcome was simple: when the right time came, they were ready to innovate. The founders decided to set to work, and prepare for the right time to launch Clinova.

Exams are Aced

Day 10

By the time they completed their studies, Arsalan and Charles had Clinova’s name, the right know-how to begin product research, and no time to prepare for their exams. They would have to think on their feet. But they had a system for that. “The System" worked: they aced their tests.

Graduation, Foundations for Clinova

Day 11

After their graduation in 2003, Arsalan and Charles continued to lay the foundations of Clinova, studying the ways in which health discovery had changed over time. Since the late 19th century, the healthcare space had seen massive change. The second half of the 20th century had set the market on a steep growth curve. This growth was due to a first wave of expanded access. In that time, global pharmacies emerged, and pharmacists invented products like ibuprofen and antacid tablets. Combined, these factors gave more people faster access to better ways of getting well. While they wanted to stay true to the roots of pharmacy, they also hoped Clinova would continue the leaps that had been made in recent decades.

Solving for the Future

Day 12

During their time at university, their pharmacology professor Ivor Ebenezer advised the founders to prepare for pandemics. For Ebenezer, the question was not if a pandemic would come, but when. He warned of the effects a viral flu could have on our interconnected world. If a virus became airborne, he said, the best we could hope for would be to slow its spread. Arsalan and Charles spent their weekends working toward a new goal: to create a product to help fend off new forms of viral flu. The goal was clear, but their new task was enormous. Even though research and development could be costly for their young company, Arsalan and Charles trusted Ebenezer's sound advice: a pandemic would come. After months of research, the founders had marked their target: safe air. This key move was simple- with an airborne virus, safe air helps us stay well. They sought to add a unique tool to pandemic defence in the UK.

In 2007, no major pharmacy in the UK carried the kind of flu respirator mask that helps fend off airborne coronaviruses. Arsalan and Charles decided to change that. The solution they created was COVAFLU, a respirator mask that filters harmful particles from your airflow. Boots took notice, and stocked the product in early 2008. COVAFLU was staple of UK pandemic defence during H1N1 and avian flu. Since its creation, COVAFLU has been a key tool for protecting our connected world.

A New Network

Day 13

Meanwhile, news of the pioneering founders in the healthcare space had spread initially in London, then with some of the world's leading consumer healthcare practitioners. Their growing network put them in touch with two innovators of the modern market: John Honey and John Molter. John Honey had been SVP of Reckitt Benkiser, where he had helped to build brands such as Gaviscon, Strepsils, and Nurofen. John Molter, on the other hand, had managed Procter and Gamble’s global sales business including accounts with global retailers such as Tesco and Walmart. Between them, they had the tools to build a brand and guide the growth of Clinova’s products.

Honey, Molter, Action

Day 14

With Honey and Molter in their corner, Clinova could punch well above its weight, and compete with the heavyweights of the modern market. Freshly retired from their careers as high-flying executives, Honey and Molter had time to help prepare a new generation of innovators for lift-off. When they met Arsalan and Charles, Honey and Molter loved the model and ideas behind Clinova, but they also knew that the leap from good ideas to great products is all about action. They agreed to mentor Arsalan and Charles, on one condition: that they set one of their ideas into action. Honey and Molter needed to say no more. Arsalan and Charles did what they had always done: refined their work process.

Water, Cricket, Action

Day 15

Then they got the chance that changed their lives. On a morning drive through Yorkshire, Arsalan heard the head coach of the County Cricket Club complain to the local sports-radio host. The coach said his team had trouble with hydration. The hydration sachets they used tasted like something similar to sea water, he said, and their powder form had made them difficult to pack and mix during their recent tour of the West Indies. Arsalan listened. Then he called Charles. They decided it was time to set their synergy to work. Action.

The Origins of O.R.S

Day 16

That morning, Arsalan and Charles set a goal: create a hydration product that would taste better, work faster, last longer, and travel more easily than other products in its space. For Arsalan and Charles, the time had come to build a new kind of system. Armed with a strong sense that good things take time, they would invest two years’ work in crafting a product that would be the perfect fit for the ethos of Clinova. In 2019, they sold more than 3 million tablets in the UK alone. Here is the story of Clinova’s most successful product to date.

An Old Problem

Day 17

Arsalan and Charles began by exploring the nature of hydration. The first thing they noticed was: this was a much older, more universal problem than acing written exams. When Nestlé and Wellcome were born, written exams were nearly nonexistent. On the other hand, peoples around the globe have spent millennia looking for better ways to hydrate well. Relative to an algorithm that could unlock a large exam system, Arsalan and Charles had set themselves a lofty goal.

Clinova: A New Solution

Day 18

They took a deep dive into the history of hydration sachets. Though the problem was different in scale, they soon learned it was right in their specialism: to solve it, they needed to distil the key elements of good hydration down to tablet form. Both working as consultants, Arsalan and Charles devoted nights and weekends to one goal: perfecting their hydration formula. They first looked to the WHO (World Health Organisation) whose guidelines listed salt, glucose (sugar), and potassium chloride as the essential elements of good hydration. With these core parts in place, they shifted their focus to taste, testing flavor profiles until they found the perfect fit. From there, they moved to storage, and chose a tube for their tablets. After years of careful development, Arsalan and Charles had a product they believed in.

Grindstone: from Good to Great

Day 19

John Honey thought the product was excellent, and John Molter had big ideas for placing O.R.S. on retail shelves around the world. With their help, Arsalan and Charles were able to secure an initial funding round. Though this number would pale in comparison to future rounds, it was more than enough to get their product off the ground. After years of late nights and long weekends, the right time had arrived. Arsalan and Charles had taken some good advice: action.

O.R.S Launch

Day 20

O.R.S Hydration Tablets® were launched at the May Day ball at Magdalen College, Oxford. Arsalan and Charles then turned to their mentors more than ever. To make the most of finite capital, Clinova relied on an outsource-heavy strategy to package, store, and distribute O.R.S. On the advice of John Molter, they sold the product directly to retail stores. Clinova was growing, but O.R.S would need a boost to become a truly global brand.

Honey Becomes Clinova C.S.O.

Day 21

John Honey responded to the call and became Clinova's Chief Strategy Officer. With a launch under their belts and John Honey onboard, it was time to build a brand. With Honey’s help, O.R.S was soon to reach new heights.

New Brand Building

Day 22

Before "big data" came to lead mainstream marketing, common sense dictated that a big spend on ad campaigns was a sure bet to build a brand. On a tight marketing budget and in search of a way to make O.R.S a household name, they could not afford to partner with a Premier League dynasty. The team needed to innovate.

Sports Analytics

Day 23

Clinova’s founders did what they had always done. They trusted their natural work process, and found a novel way to put O.R.S on the world stage: they founded Clinova’s sports analytics department. If they could predict which teams would have a breakthrough year, then they could make their marketing budget pack more punch, pound for pound, than others in their space. This solution fit well with the sports-hydration ethos of their product. As a task, predicting wins was right in the wheelhouse of their work process.

Yorkshire, Cricket, Roots

Day 24

Arsalan and Charles wanted to begin with teams that compete across the world. Knowing that cricket teams travel widely, they researched UK clubs with a global schedule. Their algorithms predicted that the still-struggling Yorkshire County Cricket Club was about to see a steep uptick in the wins column. Seeing a chance to partner with the team that first inspired O.R.S, the founders were happy to reconnect their new product with its roots.

Partners, Posters, Profits

Day 25

In April 2012, Arsalan secured a partnership: Clinova would provide O.R.S tablets in exhange for marketing at the club’s home field, Headingley Cricket Ground. Not only did the deal secure exposure during domestic matches, it also locked in Clinova’s right to advertise during England international matches. Because the Yorkshire club had barely earned its spot in the England and Wales Cricket Board’s first division, Clinova was able to reach an in-kind arrangement at a negligible cash cost to the company.

The Road to Yes

Day 26

Would Clinova’s system work? Sporting success was unlike any challenge they had solved before. Exam questions and experimenting with lab formulas are problems with fixed variables. In sports, the key factors are in constant motion. Could Clinova’s algorithm cope with this kind of change? Would Yorkshire County Cricket Club become a winning team? As Arsalan and Charles would soon find out, the answer to both was a resounding yes.

Picking Cricket Winners

Day 27

Over the next three years, the Yorkshire County Cricket Club went on a historic run. They would place second in the 2013 league championship, and won the back-to-back titles over the next two years.

Doubling Down: The Heavyweight

Day 28

On every front, the cricket partnership had created new ways for Clinova to punch above its weight. By late 2015, it was clear that in a short time, the company was doing well. But from the start, ”The System" was not built to do "well" on exams; "The System" was built to ace them. Though Arsalan and Charles were pleased with early success of their sports analytics algorithm, they were not content with their brand’s place in the global market. Not yet, at least. They kept working to improve their model. Soon, it would catapult them into the ring with the best brands in the world. In late 2015, they signed a deal to partner with up-and-coming heavyweight star Anthony Joshua. Unable to be sure about Joshua’s future, the founders built a break clause into the contract. This clause allowed both parties to break the partnership if their relationship ran into any turbulence. In April 2017, Anthony Joshua became the unified heavyweight champion of the world. In May, O.R.S® Hydration Tablets took on a new global slogan: “Made to win.” All, it seemed, was looking up for Arsalan and Charles. But the break clause in Joshua’s contract came back to bite them: just as Joshua became a household name in the UK, Lucozade came calling. With a big name brand, the call got Joshua’s attention. Lucozade had a multi-million pound sponsorship on the other end of the line. Arsalan and Charles had made a smart bet, but failed to ensure they would benefit from their belief in Joshua’s success. It was their most significant mistake to date, and one that they would not repeat. While they lost Joshua to Lucozade, they still saw massive benefits from being in his corner when he won the title.

Tottenham Hotspur

Day 29

Meanwhile, their belief in their ability to pick winners was stronger than ever…so they doubled down on it. They formed partnerships with Saracens, who would go on to win rugby titles both in the UK and for the whole of Europe, and Leicester City, who soon became Premier League Champions. They decided to leave the club in the summer of 2018.

Belief Remains in Place

Day 30

In late 2016, Clinova had big news to share: they had reached an agreement to partner with London's Tottenham Hotspur football club. This was great news for relations with Clinova's partners, and secured Clinova's place in the most-watched league in professional sports. For Arsalan and Charles, talking soccer returned to their daily routine, in a big way. Every weekend, players would have the O.R.S bottles and a large O.R.S Cooler available to be viewed by hundreds of millions of fans worldwide. Furthermore, Clinova team members worked with Spurs players and staff to develop a new formula for the product, which has since become O.R.S. Liquid. They also created a new tablet version called O.R.S Sport. With an increase in electrolyte content, O.R.S sport enabled high-level athletes to replenish electrolytes content at a much faster pace. In the wake of the Tottenham partnership, 2017 saw the company’s growth reach new heights both in their home market and on the global stage.

Molter, Markets, Sales

Day 31

John Molter was a happy man: the partnership produced a big uptick in sales. As their cricket partners collected wins, Clinova secured partnerships with the biggest names in UK retail. By 2014, O.R.S Hydration tablets were listed by Tesco, Boots, Morrisons, Lloyds, Co-oP, and Day Lewis, and Asda. Combined, brand exposure and new retail partners generated interest from distributors in over 20 countries. With a big chance to quickly scale the O.R.S brand, they turned to their expert: Molter advised against selling to all comers. Instead, he encouraged the founders to be selective.

New Horizons

Day 32

They listened, and built a system to evaluate how closely a new market aligned with Clinova’s goals. The system focused on a set of carefully crafted criteria, which included market size, recent trends in market growth, market appetite for hydration products, registration time (up to 5 years), and recommended retail price. They tested not only the countries they currently had offers from, but every relevant market in the world. After much research, the founders identified 10 key markets for their future success.

Data Innovation

Day 33

Arsalan and Charles saw that their Oxford, Stanford and Portsmouth professors were right: a new wave of healthcare access was well underway. A growing number of people not only had 3G internet, but mobile access to it. With a growing product in place, Arsalan and Charles saw a big opportunity to connect a clinically sound product to the forefront of technological innovation. In order to quickly scale their product sales in new markets, they set out to develop digital sales channels. With the right model, they could directly connect consumers with product. To that point, they had always trusted their work process to find novel solutions.

Growth in the Making

Day 34

Looking to build on Clinova’s growth, Arsalan and Charles began to study their history. What were the key factors of the company’s success? How closely did their success align with the goals that led them to found Clinova? They believed Clinova’s success stemmed from innovation in two fields: (1) clinical products, and (2) data distillation systems. O.R.S led the founders to invest in sports analytics, the success of which increased the reach of O.R.S. To Arsalan and Charles, this two-pronged approach had been their method from the day they set out to change healthcare and create one of the world's largest consumer healthcare companies.

New Information

Day 36

From there, Arsalan and Charles turned their focus to innovation in consumer information. When they founded Clinova, they hoped their company would reflect more than what they learned at university. They hoped to provide consumers of all backgrounds with the right health advice, in terms people can trust.

The Rise of Health Information

Day 37

In 2015, how could they bring these roots onto the forefront of technological innovation? Arsalan and Charles knew how to provide the right advice in terms that people could trust. As innovators in the consumer healthcare space, they knew how to place a product on the global stage. For them, the best next step was clear: bring trusted advice to a global healthcare market. How, though, would they do it? Even if they could find a good way to provide information, how would it connect users with Clinova’s product line? Would a simple information source generate a large enough initial user traffic to attract partnerships and generate substantial, sustainable business for Clinova?

The Data Frontier

Day 38

Arsalan and Charles decided to find answers. They brought in a team of medical experts and computer scientists, and asked them to explore ways to use the best of machine learning to communicate with consumers about minor ailments. For the remainder of 2015 and 2016, they laid the groundwork for their greatest innovation yet.

Round-B, Molter, Black

Day 39

As sales of O.R.S continued to rise throughout 2015 and most of 2016, investors took notice. In 2016, Clinova secured a second larger funding round. Not only had their funding total more than tripled, new investors in the company were some of the pre-eminent names in consumer healthcare, such as Ernesto Levy (former head Novartis' consumer division in the United States). John Molter invested in Clinova, and Gordon Black CBE (former Chairman of Peter Black Healthcare).

Getting Well Begins

Day 40

As 2017 came to a close, Arsalan had guided the company’s medical and machine learning research to the brink of a breakthrough: a revolutionary mobile app that leveraged machine learning to identify and offer trusted advice for minor ailments. They called it Caidr (see the AI doctor). In early 2018, Clinova released Caidr 1. The initial version of the application was a simple, user-friendly easy self-assessment tool. It asked users a series of multiple choice questions, identified the likely cause of their symptoms, and gave users detailed information on the specific ailment. Crucial to its mission was that Caidr’s advice did not set out to replace a doctor’s advice. Instead, it was within the knowledge confines of what a local pharmacist might be comfortable sharing with a customer. Because of this, it was a clear resource for the majority of symptoms patients casually search on the internet.

The Core

Day 41

The team began with the eight most common ailments for which self-treatment was warranted, which included sections on Eye, Ear, Headache, Mouth, Coughs and Colds and Sexual Health. They then layered additional insights from Clinova’s 12 medical specialists into the information sections. While Caidr 1 showed immense promise, it was limited in scope, with just over 150 assessments. Pleased- but not yet content- with Caidr’s progress, Arsalan and Charles doubled down. They began working to create Caidr 2.0. Before shifting to monetization strategies, Arsalan prioritised developing the core product – providing customers with easy to access, high-quality health information. With that core product in place, Arsalan and his team could commit to monetisation strategies. If they could scale the Caidr Now kiosk, its physical presence might stimulate greater mobile app usage, and leasing or selling kiosks to pharmacy stores might prove a more stable revenue strategy than relying on commissions from consumer sales.

The Future

Day 42

Looking to the decade ahead, multiple partners whom Arsalan and Charles had considered in the past have expressed strong interest in scaling Caidr. They believe this offering is in the right place, at the right time, with an ‘A’ class team ready to execute this colossal opportunity.

Globetrotters

Day 43

Clinova’s current team is comprised of experienced global managers at large consumer healthcare groups, and experts in the digital healthcare space, including Gary Shuckford, who was the Chief Operating Officer for the UK’s largest listed digital healthcare company. Figures like this have given the company a strong sense of legitimacy in the eyes of larger UK corporate players. One analyst at KPMG likened Clinova’s leadership team to “the Harlem Globetrotters of the Healthcare world.”

Getting Well: Right Time, Round Two

Day 44

Like Nestlé and Wellcome, and Honey and Molter, Arsalan and Charles know that in healthcare, it takes time to do things the right way. The former housemates believe the time is right for a new system. On 02/02/2020, Clinova launched Caidr 2.0.

Clinova: Roots for the Future

Day 45

With this big move, Arsalan and Charles will take a bold turn back to their roots. As they have seen time and again, creating innovative products and technology is a process, one which Clinova’s founders have consistently seen drive their company’s growth. The success of O.R.S is proof that with the right pieces in place, big growth can happen fast.By connecting users with key information, innovative products, and a trusted path towards getting well, Arsalan and Charles have a big chance to bring the best of pharmacy’s roots onto the global stage. Will it work? It remains too early to tell. But that’s alright with Arsalan and Charles. For now, they’re content to trust the process.

Clinova: Leaders Notice

Day 46

Clinova's growth has caught the attention of thought leaders around the world. In 2019, faculty of Stanford University's GSB, the world's pre-eminent business school, noticed Clinova's growth trajectory: instead of a plateau, Clinova's growth has been a steady rise of stable gains. Curious to learn how Clinova has charted its unique course, Stanford commissioned a case study on the company's growth. This research explores Clinova's approach to "developing opportunistic marketing strategies, building frameworks for complex decision-making under uncertainty, evaluating the high level risks and rewards of different business models, and handling competing board and investor expectations as a company scales.”
In 2020, the Stanford published a case study on Clinova's success. Arsalan traveled to Palo Alto to discuss Clinova's story with GSB students for the first time. As Arsalan further cements Clinova's presence in the United States, he will continue to present the case study to GSB students.

Clinova: A Clear Frontier

Day 47

With its global headquarters in London, Clinova has emerged on the forefront of modern consumer healthcare. Between its diverse product line and AI-driven mobile app, Clinova is poised to experience faster growth in 2020 than in any year in their history. In a rapidly changing healthcare space, Clinova has continued to grow. With investor confidence at an all-time high and spurred on by new investments and growing sales, they stand ready to bring dynamic consumer solutions into a new decade. As Clinova’s momentum mounts around the globe, its founders predict further, faster growth in years to come. In an ever-changing market, they plan to innovate the way they have always done: by continuing to trust the roots of their success. Clinova.

Clinova: Healthwords and Conversational Search

Day 48

Clinova has always been at the forefront of innovation in the healthcare space, and their latest product, Healthwords, formerly known as Caidr, is no exception. As a health search engine for smart self-care, Healthwords is designed to help users quickly and easily find the information they need to make informed decisions about their health and well-being. To build Healthwords, Clinova brought together a team of experts in healthcare, artificial intelligence, and user experience design. Together, they spent months researching and developing a groundbreaking, conversational search technology that makes it easy for users to find the information they need in a natural and intuitive way.

With the release of Healthwords, Clinova is set to push the boundaries of what is possible in the self-care space and helping to empower consumers to take control of their own health and well-being.