Gayatri Kalyanaraman is in conversation with Deeksha Senguttuvan, Founder and CEO of BabyMD and executive trustee for a pediatric cancer foundation . Deeksha brings her authentic self to share powerful stories of personal transformation, entrepreneurial grit, and unwavering compassion for children’s health.

Some highlights from the conversation

• Deeksha describes herself as someone who never had a fixed plan but followed what made sense in the moment.
• After a chemical engineering degree from NIT Trichy and an MBA from IIM Kozhikode, she joined the Tata Administrative Services and worked in marketing and product management.
• Despite no tech background, she led cloud product management, learning tech concepts from scratch and bridging the gap between sales and engineering teams.
• A personal life event led her to seek more meaningful work, Inspired by her pediatrician father, she co-founded a trust supporting pediatric cancer treatment in Trichy, where specialty care was lacking.
• Deeksha led digital transformation at Kaveri Hospital during COVID, building a patient-focused digital strategy that included basics like WhatsApp-based communication — revolutionary at that time.
• Motivated to align business success with patient well-being, she pursued a second MBA at Wharton to understand global healthcare and startup ecosystems.
• During her MBA, she pivoted her focus back to India after realizing her strengths and market understanding were more aligned with the Indian healthcare context
• She founded BabyMD during her time at Wharton and graduated early to work full-time on it from January 2024.
• Deeksha emphasizes the importance of credentials and networks (like Wharton) in breaking barriers and gaining investor trust.
• She met her investor through the Wharton alumni network, which led to a partnership based on mutual interest in pediatric healthcare.
• She advises entrepreneurs to articulate three things: a real problem, market size, and why they’re uniquely positioned to solve it.
• Advocates for volunteering as a personal and professional growth tool, linking social work with stronger leadership and empathy.

• Range by David Epstein – on the value of generalists in today’s world.
• Entrepreneurship doesn’t always stem from a “Eureka” moment — it can be a structured, analytical process.
• Encourages small experiments to validate ideas before going all in.
• Believes generalists (with wide-ranging experience) bring unique value to entrepreneurship, as explained in the book Range.

Deeksha can be reached at https://www.linkedin.com/in/deekshasenguttuvan/

Deeksha is Building BabyMD to be a partner in parenting and give parents easy round-the-clock access to qualified medical professionals across channels. The company’s goal is to create a future where parents don’t have to navigate through multiple avenues for their child's healthcare needs and instead find everything they require under one roof.

Executive leader with 7+ years of experience building and transforming businesses. I am passionate about utilising technology in the healthcare ecosystem to improve accessibility, affordability and quality of care.

As a part of the leadership development program of The Tata Group of companies in India I have worked across various industries and functions; utilised my diverse exposure to orchestrate the digital transformation of hospitals across patient engagement, clinical quality of care, and operational activities to make them future-ready.

Outside of work I am an avid Indian classical dancer and a public speaker passionate about motivating and mentoring!