Transcript from Dentology Podcast recording with Tanay Kulkarni
Episode release date – Monday 19 June 2023
Andy & Chris:
So a very, very special episode today. It is our youngest podcast guest. Look at that. I’m excited. It’s really good fun. So today
Tanay Kulkarni:
Thanks for having me on
Andy & Chris:
we’ve
Tanay Kulkarni:
guys.
Andy & Chris:
had all the old Duffers. We’ve now got the future. Exactly,
Tanay Kulkarni:
Ha ha ha
Andy & Chris:
exactly.
Tanay Kulkarni:
ha. Got
Andy & Chris:
So
Tanay Kulkarni:
a
Andy & Chris:
today
Tanay Kulkarni:
young duffer now.
Andy & Chris:
we’ve got the self confess young Duffer. He is a final year dental student at KCL. He’s the past president of KCL Dental Society and a partner at Bryant Dental. and he’s only just turned 23. I say flip, that’s Kulkarni. Well serial non-achiever at 23 according to that. So welcome to Tanay Kulkarni. How are you Tanay?
Tanay Kulkarni:
very well. Thank you Andy and Chris for having me on. I was pretty surprised when I got the invitation. I’m not sure I’ve done anything to warrant a spot on the pod, but we’ll see how it goes. Thanks for
Andy & Chris:
Yeah,
Tanay Kulkarni:
the
Andy & Chris:
I know.
Tanay Kulkarni:
invitation.
Andy & Chris:
Thank you for saying yes. But the way this works is that we feel that one of the things that we want to bring is kind of that breadth. of all that dentistry has to offer. And it’s the business of dentistry podcast, but the things you’ve already done, and we’ll come on to kind of the business side of what you’ve been doing with Bryant Dentists a bit later, you already pre-qualified, but a lot of people that listen to this either are interested in dentistry as a career, they may be fairly new into dentistry, or they might be people who have been in for a long while. And I think even for the people that have been in for a long while, you sometimes forget what it was like at the beginning. So I think you’re gonna kind of… Kind of bookend where we are because we’ve had lots of people that are towards the end of their career and They may have been in the profession for 30 or 40 years and your fresh eyes at the beginning I think it’s going to be a fascinating insight on where you see The profession what your very recent university experience is like but also through your work with Bryant dental on the ai side of things your your thoughts in terms of where that that the profession Young mind looking at the future. Yeah, it’s going to be It’s going to be brilliant Disappointments. Yeah, there
Tanay Kulkarni:
No pressure.
Andy & Chris:
we go. But I find it fascinating because we’ve not known one other that long, but you strike with somebody who’s kind of embedded in the dental community and you’ve managed to already achieve that and you’ve still got one foot in kings in that you’ve got literally a couple of weeks to do and you’re out in the big wide world. Did somebody say to you when you were young the importance of community and building relationships or was that something that was just instinctive for you?
Tanay Kulkarni:
I think very early on I was actually quite introverted. I was quite a shy kid. I was always involved in a lot of things, playing a lot of sport, doing quite a variety of different things. However, I was quite shy and my social skills were possibly lacking quite a bit. But what I did have was a lot of exposure to people around me, such as my parents, parents of some of my friends, my grandfather as well, who were great networkers. They were very, very good with people, very chatty, always a life of the party. Found it very easy to get on with a lot of people. And I think just being surrounded by that and absorbing a lot of that naturally filtered into my personality as I grew, grew a bit older, grew in confidence. And now I find it quite interesting to me, a lot of different people feel quite comfortable talking to all the different people. It wasn’t necessarily an active decision
Andy & Chris:
Hmm.
Tanay Kulkarni:
or an active kind of strategy to network on. and gain insights from a lot of people, but it was a natural progression. And I think you and I, Andy, we’ve got to know each other a little bit over the last year or so. And yourself as well, I think, you know, you’re someone who a lot of people know within the profession. And I think a lot of that is to do with the fact that you’re so giving and you’re so forthcoming. You give a lot of people a time a day. And I think that’s something which is truly quite important.
Andy & Chris:
He’s very good at that.
Tanay Kulkarni:
Yeah.
Andy & Chris:
I think you’re right and what I kind of heard is there’s a curiosity. That’s it. I think isn’t it? I think if there’s a curiosity to talk to people, to find out new stuff, your network falls out of that and that’s how you build your relationships because you start with someone who’s genuinely interested in people and learning new stuff. What did your parents do?
Tanay Kulkarni:
Both my parents are doctors. It’s quite
Andy & Chris:
Ah,
Tanay Kulkarni:
funny
Andy & Chris:
okay, right,
Tanay Kulkarni:
actually,
Andy & Chris:
right.
Tanay Kulkarni:
my family tree, the last three or four generations, everyone’s been surgeons. So dentistry, I guess, is in the surgical field, but I’m probably breaking the mold ever so slightly.
Andy & Chris:
So what happened there? Did you make a conscious decision that said I didn’t want to do that, I want to be a dentist? Or did you want to do something else like I don’t have a plumber or something? And everyone went, oh no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
Tanay Kulkarni:
So
Andy & Chris:
Nothing
Tanay Kulkarni:
I saw…
Andy & Chris:
against plumbers if anyone, plumbers happen to be listening. It’s just the fact of…
Tanay Kulkarni:
I saw the lifestyle that my parents were living. It was quite intense as doctors. My dad was on call for a while when he was working in hospital, coming back in very early hours in the morning, etc. It seemed like a lot of hard work for very little output in comparison.
Andy & Chris:
Mm.
Tanay Kulkarni:
I did toy with the idea of medicine. I was always good at the sciences. I enjoyed that side of things. I was also quite fascinated with finance as well. So I did a bit of work experience at a fund or in a couple of banks when I was 15 or 16. And at that time, that experience didn’t really appeal to me. Spent a lot of time sitting stationary at a desk, watching a line go up and down on a graph, a lot of numbers ticking
Andy & Chris:
Yeah.
Tanay Kulkarni:
over and thinking, I’m not sure I can do this for the rest of my life.
Andy & Chris:
Uh…
Tanay Kulkarni:
I actually did work experience in a hospital with a doctor and after a week or so he sat me down and said, are you sure you want to do medicine? And I said, you know what, honestly, I’m not sure. not really. I’m only here because I
Andy & Chris:
Well good
Tanay Kulkarni:
can’t
Andy & Chris:
for
Tanay Kulkarni:
see
Andy & Chris:
you.
Tanay Kulkarni:
a clear direction.
Andy & Chris:
Good for you.
Tanay Kulkarni:
So eventually what happened was he pulled me to the side and I looked, a lot of my mates are dentists, they’ve been able to do what I’ve done but a lot quicker and they’ve got a lot more freedom at a young age. And I thought, you know, amalgamation between healthcare and finance, if you decide to go down the business side of things in dentistry is, you know, dentistry fits both of those quite well. And I It wasn’t, you know, at 18 years old, you don’t really know who you are, you don’t really know what you want to be doing, but it seemed like a logical choice at that time in terms of input versus output. It’s quite disproportionately weighted compared to medicine.
Andy & Chris:
That’s very grown up thinking. I have this thing that I think it’s incredibly hard to put teenagers into a position where you’ve got, you know, that kind of. The future just just just growing up just growing up isn’t easy as a teenager And then we say to teenagers when they’re sort of 14 13 14 15 But you now need to choose subjects that’s going to put you on a career path for the future That so to have that that kind of presence of mind and that thought process when you did. Um, But also that pressure that I mean, I don’t know whether there was I don’t know what your mom and dad were like Were they sort of? In your ear about medicine or were they like pretty cool
Tanay Kulkarni:
pretty easy
Andy & Chris:
about
Tanay Kulkarni:
going.
Andy & Chris:
it? All right, that’s
Tanay Kulkarni:
They were pretty
Andy & Chris:
that’s
Tanay Kulkarni:
chilled out actually. My mum actually told me do anything but medicine and you’ll be alright.
Andy & Chris:
Hahaha
Tanay Kulkarni:
But I thought dentistry was quite good because it’s a profession where from a young age you can carve it into whatever you want to carve it into.
Andy & Chris:
Mm-hmm
Tanay Kulkarni:
Day one out of dentistry if you wanted to you could buy a practice, not sure that’s
Andy & Chris:
Yeah.
Tanay Kulkarni:
necessarily the most smart thing to do but you can
Andy & Chris:
Yeah.
Tanay Kulkarni:
and you can be off and running and you can make mistakes early and grow quickly. Whereas in medicine… It’s a long, long route before you end up
Andy & Chris:
Hmm
Tanay Kulkarni:
with that privilege.
Andy & Chris:
Who who was the guest that we had I can’t remember there was a guest we had which is a similar They they went and did work experience and max fax Do you remember? And they said, sort that, because it was like ridiculous hours and no quality of life. And then they then did work in, they did work experience in the general dental practice. Can you remember? And they sort of said, yeah, yeah, no, I can do this because I’ve got almost like a, I’ve got a finite working time. I can control the environment I’m in. And it’s a similar sort of way that you took that decision, similar. bugger that I’m gonna turn a bit like I remember it was
Tanay Kulkarni:
Was
Andy & Chris:
anyway
Tanay Kulkarni:
it Richard
Andy & Chris:
boots
Tanay Kulkarni:
Marx, possibly?
Andy & Chris:
I can’t honest you remember it was someone I could just remember them saying they think it was further back yeah they did they did max fax and then just thought whilst it was fascinating they didn’t really fancy the idea of people’s faces being ripped open
Tanay Kulkarni:
Hahaha.
Andy & Chris:
and and they didn’t like the hours and then they someone said well why don’t you try a general dentist and that was it yeah which it was interesting I mean I think it’s a great conscious decision to make. Yeah. Very grown up, and you know, 18 or whatever. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. So you grew up in Birmingham. I used to work at 18. Decided to come to KCL in London. Was that for the dental school, or was it the Lou of London, or was it that you just wanted a bit of separation between your parents and giving you some space to grow up? And you can be honest, I know. It’s
Tanay Kulkarni:
all
Andy & Chris:
a
Tanay Kulkarni:
of
Andy & Chris:
safe
Tanay Kulkarni:
the above.
Andy & Chris:
space.
Tanay Kulkarni:
London’s a great place, isn’t it? Big,
Andy & Chris:
Yeah.
Tanay Kulkarni:
bright lights, lots of energy, lots of diversity. It’s great. And King’s, the way I saw, I didn’t really read into it too much, but King’s at the time seemed to be the most prestigious dental school. So that was essentially my decision-making process. London
Andy & Chris:
Yeah.
Tanay Kulkarni:
for the fun times in King’s because it’s got the big, glossy name.
Andy & Chris:
Right, yeah. Those of you who didn’t go to Kings, please don’t turn off.
Tanay Kulkarni:
Hahaha
Andy & Chris:
And obviously you’ve literally just qualified. So congratulations on that.
Tanay Kulkarni:
Not just
Andy & Chris:
You
Tanay Kulkarni:
yet, almost, almost, almost.
Andy & Chris:
almost, almost, but as time goes out, but as time goes out, the congratulations will be due.
Tanay Kulkarni:
Thank
Andy & Chris:
So
Tanay Kulkarni:
you.
Andy & Chris:
for somebody that literally is just coming to the end of it, what have been your highs and lows? What were the things that exceeded your expectations and the bits that you found incredibly tough?
Tanay Kulkarni:
I think the positives of being in London as a dental student is that you get to be exposed to a lot of the profession from a very early age. So right from the first year I was involved in a couple of societies, BACD, different organisations etc. and met loads and loads of really, really cool people at the top of their game within the profession. And for me that was super eye opening because I’ve got no family in dentistry, I didn’t really know many dentists growing up. And seeing the community around the profession. which is very different to a lot of other professions out there. It seemed pretty unique and that was awesome. That was really, really cool to get
Andy & Chris:
Mm.
Tanay Kulkarni:
involved with right from day one. Also, the trials and tribulations of dental school have been quite exciting to be involved with, both socially and also the course itself. You meet a lot of cool people. And that’s been the main thing. I think if you boil it down, just the breadth of exposure I’ve had to different types of people at different stages in their life has been… the main takeaway,
Andy & Chris:
Hmm.
Tanay Kulkarni:
whether that’s within dentistry or also with teams and sports and other bits and bobs that are going on at uni, it’s been a lot of fun.
Andy & Chris:
Hmm
Tanay Kulkarni:
And also dental school these days I think is maybe not as rigorous as it was in the past, so I’ve had a really, really good time.
Andy & Chris:
Did you stay in, did the kings have halls or did
Tanay Kulkarni:
They
Andy & Chris:
you?
Tanay Kulkarni:
do, yeah. So year one I was at the infamous GDS for any other King’s grads,
Andy & Chris:
Right.
Tanay Kulkarni:
which is great because it’s a five minute walk away from campus. So you can, you can live the pretty chilled out life. And yeah, I think getting involved in the sports teams pretty early
Andy & Chris:
Hmm.
Tanay Kulkarni:
was awesome. Played a lot of cricket and hockey at uni.
Andy & Chris:
Maybe did you end up moving out too, after first year?
Tanay Kulkarni:
about five yards away. I live in the block of flats right next door to GDS with a couple of mates. So it’s,
Andy & Chris:
Oh really?
Tanay Kulkarni:
yeah.
Andy & Chris:
Kept it local.
Tanay Kulkarni:
That’s it.
Andy & Chris:
Kept
Tanay Kulkarni:
Once a
Andy & Chris:
it
Tanay Kulkarni:
GDS
Andy & Chris:
local.
Tanay Kulkarni:
man, always a GDS man.
Andy & Chris:
Good planning. Did you, there’s lots of talk generally amongst sort of dental students and younger dentists that whether you get enough hands-on experience in dental school and there seems to be a kind of a leaning towards kind of defensive dentistry, form-filling, note-taking, but that might be at the cost of the clinical experience. How did you find that?
Tanay Kulkarni:
Yeah, I mean, quite possibly. We hear a lot from people who graduated a while ago that their dental school experience is very different. They were
Andy & Chris:
Mm.
Tanay Kulkarni:
far more stuck in than we were. However, I’ve never experienced that, so there was no comparable at all.
Andy & Chris:
Yeah.
Tanay Kulkarni:
For me, we actually were affected by COVID pretty early on,
Andy & Chris:
Hmm
Tanay Kulkarni:
so we were meant to start seeing patients in second year. We went into lockdown on a Friday. That Monday, the following Monday morning was when we went to see our first patient. So then it was another 18 months before we actually got involved with anything.
Andy & Chris:
Wow.
Tanay Kulkarni:
That being said, it was okay because we came out in third year on the back end of Covid and we had two and a half years or so of clinical exposure. Look, I think meeting a lot of dentists who have graduated through Loopsdale and other bits and bobs since second year, what I’ve learned from them is that you do all of your hands on your learning in your FD anyway, in your foundation
Andy & Chris:
Mmm.
Tanay Kulkarni:
year afterwards.
Andy & Chris:
Yeah.
Tanay Kulkarni:
So I wasn’t really too bothered. You know, as long as you understand the basic principles and whatever limited exposure you have, as long as you try and maximize that, it sets you in pretty good stead for when you see a lot more patients in that foundation.
Andy & Chris:
Can I ask you a question on note taking? It was only we went to this thing called the Global Dental Collective. The only one I can
Tanay Kulkarni:
Mm-hmm.
Andy & Chris:
remember is GDC. And
Tanay Kulkarni:
Yeah.
Andy & Chris:
one of the things that was coming out with GDC and note taking and stuff like that, but they had some, there was some software that effectively you could dictate your clinical notes. And all I was wondering is that something they teach you in dental school? That… you know, use this software or do they just say, you know, write the notes? Do they give you sort of ways of helping you with the note taking?
Tanay Kulkarni:
Not really, not really. I think note taking, there’s no real education on that at all at King’s anyway, I’m not sure about other universities.
Andy & Chris:
Really?
Tanay Kulkarni:
Our exposure really is when we’re on clinics, when we’re presenting to our tutors, they’ll have a read through our notes and give us pointers on where to change it, add some meat to the bone etc. But that varies from tutor to tutor. There’s no formal centralized teaching on that actually, you know.
Andy & Chris:
Wow, I just think it’s an interesting one, isn’t it? That everyone’s on about having notes and then, you know, the dentists that we talk to, they sort of moan about the fact of the young guys, their defensive dentistry,
Tanay Kulkarni:
Man.
Andy & Chris:
but they’re really good at taking notes. It’s going to come, isn’t it? You’d have thought it’s a fundamental of saying, look, if we want to empower you to be… better dentist to have more times with your patients. We should sort of give you the tools to be able to do that. It just seems a bit awkward. I think it’s gonna, we will come on to the work you’re doing with kind of Brian Denton on the tech side, but it’s going to come, isn’t it? In the future, that will probably form part of how students are taught.
Tanay Kulkarni:
Yeah,
Andy & Chris:
It just seems
Tanay Kulkarni:
I agree.
Andy & Chris:
weird right now. Yeah.
Tanay Kulkarni:
I agree. I think dentistry as a whole, because it is a profession where our hands are kind of in many, many, fingers in many pies at the same time, we’re essentially forcing polymaths.
Andy & Chris:
Mm.
Tanay Kulkarni:
But as a result, I think we’re a little bit behind the curve compared to a lot of other professions in adopting new technologies and new
Andy & Chris:
Hmm
Tanay Kulkarni:
systems, etc. So we’ll see how it changes, how it shapes up over the next few years,
Andy & Chris:
Yeah,
Tanay Kulkarni:
but I’m pretty excited.
Andy & Chris:
you seem a very clear thinker and you kind of have a plan of kind of where you’re going and what you’re doing. But think about your your university experience. If you could go back and change anything, would you would you would you go back and change anything that you’ve done?
Tanay Kulkarni:
Um, yes and no. I think in second year, I spent a lot of time running around the country, um, selling loops and spending maybe only two weeks a night in my flat in London. The rest
Andy & Chris:
No.
Tanay Kulkarni:
was in hotels all over the place, which was great because it’s put me in the position I’m in now. However, it would have been, if I could go back, maybe experience a bit more of the, of the uni life
Andy & Chris:
Mmm.
Tanay Kulkarni:
at that time would have been, would have been fun, but I’ve made up for it in space. Don’t worry.
Andy & Chris:
Yeah, yeah, that’s interesting. Squeeze into a short period of time. You must have to be
Tanay Kulkarni:
Yeah.
Andy & Chris:
super disciplined, I’d imagine, if you’re doing that. And the temptation of being in a hotel room and just like turning on TV and getting room service, as opposed to maybe doing studying and notes, it must have been quite a challenge, I’d imagine.
Tanay Kulkarni:
I think it was okay. We had very little contact time at the time, so we had online lectures, everything recorded, watching at our own pace. So
Andy & Chris:
Alright, okay,
Tanay Kulkarni:
it was
Andy & Chris:
so…
Tanay Kulkarni:
pretty relaxed until two weeks before exams but it’s okay.
Andy & Chris:
And then you are like ahhhhhh I
Tanay Kulkarni:
That’s it, plenty of coffee and red bulls.
Andy & Chris:
was going to say like everybody all over the world
Tanay Kulkarni:
That’s it, exactly.
Andy & Chris:
We’ll come on to the the loop scene because that’s interesting in terms of where it’s led you and what you expose you to. But before we get to that, you said that you played quite a lot of sports at uni, so that was primarily cricket and hockey. Obviously in dentistry, there’s a high degree of camaraderie when you’re in a clinical environment or within a team. Those people need to work together. Have you seen how you’re able to use those skills and sport in dentistry already? Thank you.
Tanay Kulkarni:
No, for sure. I think the first line of my personal statement coming into dental school is dentistry and sports share many common themes
Andy & Chris:
Mm.
Tanay Kulkarni:
or something along those lines. I think a grounding in sport for me personally has been massive. It allows you to learn how to make decisions under pressure. You are forced to be in a team environment from day one.
Andy & Chris:
Hmm.
Tanay Kulkarni:
You go through the thick and thin and thicker things with your peers. And that’s very similar to a dental environment practice. You’re constantly faced by high pressurized situations. Oftentimes things go wrong and you need to be able to have a clear head and be able to make decisive action or take decisive action on a pretty regular basis. And I think sport is a great training ground to do that.
Andy & Chris:
Mm-hmm. No, yeah, and I agree. I think that there’s lots of studies of what sport can learn from business and business can learn from sport And I find it fascinating that’s
Tanay Kulkarni:
Yeah,
Andy & Chris:
my nor bowler
Tanay Kulkarni:
a bit of both. Yeah,
Andy & Chris:
But
Tanay Kulkarni:
that’s the answer to someone who doesn’t really do either.
Andy & Chris:
But you played to a pretty decent standard, don’t you?
Tanay Kulkarni:
Yeah, I played a little bit back in the past, like the county age group stuff, and hockey was probably my main sport. Played some regional stuff, et cetera. My younger brother’s a much better sportsman and actually academic than I am, but we’ll get on to that at some point.
Andy & Chris:
Look at that sibling pressure. Yeah,
Tanay Kulkarni:
There we
Andy & Chris:
similar
Tanay Kulkarni:
are.
Andy & Chris:
to what we already… But it’s interesting, we were talking to someone else about that hand to eye coordination thing, weren’t we? Yeah, yeah, sure, I was saying about that. You know, him driving racing cars to the hand to eye coordination of what he does on dentistry. I’m just fascinated in the fact the hockey is hand to eye sort of stuff, isn’t it? Absolutely, yeah,
Tanay Kulkarni:
Yeah,
Andy & Chris:
yeah.
Tanay Kulkarni:
I think Samir Patel also, I know you probably had him on the pod as
Andy & Chris:
Yeah,
Tanay Kulkarni:
well, and
Andy & Chris:
yeah.
Tanay Kulkarni:
you know him quite well, had a lot of conversations with him and he was a massive sportsman playing a lot of cricket,
Andy & Chris:
Yes.
Tanay Kulkarni:
you know, in his early days and he mentioned that, you know, the leadership skills that he gained from from captaining sides translated to his practice and now to his leadership academy very very well.
Andy & Chris:
Yeah.
Tanay Kulkarni:
And I think, you know, a lot of other sportsmen will probably agree that the skills that you learn playing sports right throughout your childhood can be massively useful.
Andy & Chris:
Yeah, now it’s leading, isn’t it? It’s leading people, as simple as that, right? You mentioned a couple of times about selling loops while you were
Tanay Kulkarni:
Mm-hmm.
Andy & Chris:
at dental school, and then that was for Bryant Dental,
Tanay Kulkarni:
Yeah.
Andy & Chris:
Connor’s business.
Tanay Kulkarni:
Yes.
Andy & Chris:
I’d love to find out more about that business and its culture and the work you’re doing, but before we get to that, how did that come about? How did you end up with that involvement with Bryant Dental?
Tanay Kulkarni:
So I was in my first year at uni and first year you’re not really hands on at all. It’s a lot
Andy & Chris:
Mm.
Tanay Kulkarni:
of time in lecture theatres, not much dentistry. And I was getting quite bored. So I decided to just shoot them an email. I shot them a cold email, Priam and Connor, and had an interview after my first year exams. And then when it helped out at, I think, the Birmingham Dental Show. And then they brought me on board. And then I just ended up selling loops throughout second and third year.
Andy & Chris:
Right. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, for people that don’t know, Bryant Dental, they’re, I always described as like the apple of dentistry. You know, when you look at the, their products, the aesthetics, how it’s presented and the design of it is, is, it’s incredibly sleek. And it’s, and it’s very smart. Um, you’ve also been with that team for quite a while, because it’s sort of relatively young business.
Tanay Kulkarni:
Yes.
Andy & Chris:
Um, you, you’ve seen it grow up. What’s, what’s the culture like in, in an organization like Bryant Dental?
Tanay Kulkarni:
Like with any startup, it’s very free flowing, there’s not many barriers, there’s not much corporate structure or anything like that. A lot of times it’s just fast moving. It’s a conducive environment for a lot of innovation. It’s very informal. At any point you can have direct access to Kono, Priam, to any of the other guys. And therefore, as a result, we’re very, very fast moving. So
Andy & Chris:
Mm.
Tanay Kulkarni:
you might have a conversation with a dentist that you’re going to see in practice. they might give you a really cool idea. Next day you bring it up or your phone call or that evening. And then suddenly, we’ve got a prototype ready to go with testing it out, trialing it, and then something is out there. And I think it’s gonna be really interesting to see if we can maintain that environment as we get bigger and bigger and bigger. So now we’re at 60 plus employees and that’s where a lot of these bigger companies tend to struggle. So hopefully we can find a way of circumventing those issues and keeping this. high-paced environment, very innovative.
Andy & Chris:
That environment probably doesn’t suit everybody, does it? You’ve got to be of a certain mindset to cope with that fluidity and that speed of change.
Tanay Kulkarni:
For sure, for sure. We always joke that there’s something wrong with everyone that’s at the company. You need to have a little bit of versatility, resilience. A lot of us in the early days, myself still, you’re juggling a few things.
Andy & Chris:
Hmm.
Tanay Kulkarni:
You’ve got dental school going on the side, you’re doing this alongside that. There’s a lot of other moving parts. And so we really enjoy getting people on board who are hungry and who are a little bit different and who like to be in these environments. thrive off of the alternative way of approaching things.
Andy & Chris:
Yeah, yeah, and you’ve also moved on from loops now in that you’re looking after the AI venture aura
Tanay Kulkarni:
Mm-hmm.
Andy & Chris:
Um,
Tanay Kulkarni:
Yep.
Andy & Chris:
tell tell us a bit about that. What’s what’s that going to do for? For brian dental but also we can move on from that and get your take in terms of where ai is heading because for old duffers like us
Tanay Kulkarni:
Hahaha.
Andy & Chris:
Uh ai just sounds just like way out. I decided it sounds like something from yorkshire. Hey
Tanay Kulkarni:
Very good. Essentially, we as a company want to position ourselves as problem solvers of much bigger issues than just posture with loops. We’ve met a lot of dentists face to face, many thousand now actually, and we realized there are many pressing issues within the profession. The most pressing issue we felt at the time was fear of litigation, time spent on admin taking notes, all of that taking away from the experience that you can provide for your patients and your focus on the clinical side of things. So we thought, you know, let’s use a bit of tech to try and knock that on the head so dentists can enjoy being dentists and get rid of a lot of the unnecessary stresses which are in place due to inefficiencies. So that’s how TapNote was born. TapNote is part one of five softwares which will all come together to form Aura. But essentially TapNote, we spoke about notes a little bit earlier on,
Andy & Chris:
Yeah.
Tanay Kulkarni:
but essentially with TapNote, what we’re looking to do is build smart records and an AI neural network, which you can click through your appointments, click through buttons and diagrams, which will automatically generate all of your notes for you at the end of the appointment, it will generate consent forms for you.
Andy & Chris:
Hmm
Tanay Kulkarni:
It will give you insights as a practice owner so you can have automatic CQC audits for your note qualities, etc. So the idea is just eliminate a lot of the admin that dentists
Andy & Chris:
Hmm.
Tanay Kulkarni:
have to do so you can get home on time number one and then not stress about the quality of your notes as well when you are at home.
Andy & Chris:
Hmm. That note taking thing I’d say from, we’ve heard it for years now. It’s such an important thing. I think if you can crack it, yeah, it’ll be great. Yeah. Cause you concentrate being a dentist instead of asking around doing
Tanay Kulkarni:
Exactly,
Andy & Chris:
all the other bits.
Tanay Kulkarni:
exactly.
Andy & Chris:
Yeah.
Tanay Kulkarni:
Keep it
Andy & Chris:
Yeah.
Tanay Kulkarni:
fun.
Andy & Chris:
Yeah. And, and that’s the thing, isn’t it? That’s the bit that, um, people choose dentistry for. They, they want to, they want to work with patients. They want to, you know, keep people healthy. They want to bring about. good smiles. Yeah, that’s the bit that you get drawn to. You don’t go, Oh, I’d love to go into an admin based
Tanay Kulkarni:
Hehehehe
Andy & Chris:
paper intensive. No, no, that’s not what you get drawn to, is it? So, so where, where did you see AI going? You know, perhaps more generally, but also within dentistry, you know, it seems to be kind of the flavor of the month at the moment, but
Tanay Kulkarni:
Mm-hmm.
Andy & Chris:
I think it’s, it’s way more than that, isn’t it?
Tanay Kulkarni:
I think AI more generally is a massive, massive tool. I think the shift that it’s gonna bring about in all of our day-to-day lives is gonna be absolutely tremendous. I think there are a lot of, it’s gonna cut a lot of the fat in many industries, I think. Essentially three or four or five X’s, everyone’s potential output and the productivity growth as a result is gonna be crazy. We’re already seeing it with, the most classic example is Elon Musk. at Twitter, he came in and got it, was it 70% of the workforce, 80% of the workforce and the company still functioning. And AI is only going to add to that. In terms of dentistry, the most obvious application seems to be diagnosis. It’s the data that we can draw. That’s what we’re trying to do essentially with TapNet. We’re approaching it from slightly different unconventional route, rather than just having online clickable templates. We’ve built this neural network. You know, we’ve programmed with a lot of dental knowledge initially. And then the idea is as more and more dentists use it, it’s going to continue to learn from all of the inputs that it’s getting, and then it’s going to start. We’re going to start seeing a lot of patterns, um, in diagnosis and interconnections between certain symptoms that we maybe didn’t know beforehand.
Andy & Chris:
Mmm.
Tanay Kulkarni:
Uh, and the applications of that going forward is essentially we can use tech to level the playing field. So no matter where you are in the world, you could have. access the same quality of diagnoses within dentistry. And that’s gonna level the playing field for so many people.
Andy & Chris:
But in more rural areas or perhaps where the qualification standards aren’t so high, suddenly the quality of patient care just goes through the roof. You know, in well-developed Western countries where we’ve got access to tech and great learning environments and top quality universities, you know, the gains are still going to be there. But in more rural parts of Africa or the Middle East or the Far East, you could see, you know, it being revolutionary.
Tanay Kulkarni:
For sure, for sure. I mean, there’s that common saying, isn’t it? If you give a patient to 10 dentists, you should get the same 10 diagnoses. The treatment plans might differ, but you should get the
Andy & Chris:
Hmm.
Tanay Kulkarni:
same 10 diagnoses. But unfortunately, that’s not the case. And I think in the world that we live in now, that should not at all
Andy & Chris:
Hmm.
Tanay Kulkarni:
be the situation that we’re in. So using tech to the best of our abilities to do that should really be
Andy & Chris:
Mmm.
Tanay Kulkarni:
at the forefront of our mission.
Andy & Chris:
Very exciting. Because you’ll have the, hopefully have the clients who will be then able to feed that data, which creates those patterns, isn’t it? That’s what you need is, you need the input to be able to make the output and, yeah, it’s good. What’s… What’s ahead of you? You know, you’re like, you’re, geez, you’re like, you’re 23, and I’m sitting there thinking, blimey, like, you’ve done more than me, and I’m 51, this is nuts. But
Tanay Kulkarni:
Hahaha
Andy & Chris:
honestly, what’s the future holding for you? You know, I know you sort of looked at, you know, there’s overseas opportunities, there’s continuous,
Tanay Kulkarni:
Mm-hmm.
Andy & Chris:
you’ve got Brian, you’ve got your clinical career, there’s the business side of dentistry, you know, you do bi-practices. How do you see it sort of mapping out over the next 10 years?
Tanay Kulkarni:
It’s a really difficult question to answer. And that’s something
Andy & Chris:
Mm.
Tanay Kulkarni:
I’ve been contending with for a little while. I think when you’re a bit younger and you’re a bit more naive, it’s quite clear. But then as you see more and more and more, and you get exposure to a lot more, suddenly your eyes light up and your mind’s off to the races and it’s difficult
Andy & Chris:
Yeah.
Tanay Kulkarni:
to pin yourself down. So I think right now what I’ve tried to do is just break it down into 12 months or 18 months and just execute on what I have to in that time period. Life changes quite quickly.
Andy & Chris:
Hmm.
Tanay Kulkarni:
Um, we’ve seen with AI, I mean, every week, something new is coming out. Something new is, is, you know, the next revolutionary thing. It’s very difficult to keep or predict what, what the world is going to look like, uh, in the, in the coming years. So I think my job is just set a blueprint for the next 12 to 18 months and execute. So at the moment, what that looks like is, um, number one, finish dental school. Secondly, um, make the most of my foundation year, um, clinically improve as much as I can take as many photos as I can, et cetera. Um, On top of that, I’ve been looking at America. And so I’ve been considering going across the States and building a career in dentistry out there. So that entails in the next 12 months, getting the board exams done, building an application and firing those off. And then also continuing to grow at Bryant. So that will be continuing to grow the software company and then get involved with a couple of other bits involves fundraising, et cetera. Just build my skillset as much as I can
Andy & Chris:
Hmm.
Tanay Kulkarni:
and then reassess once all of those
Andy & Chris:
Hmm.
Tanay Kulkarni:
have been executed on.
Andy & Chris:
What’s the attraction of the states?
Tanay Kulkarni:
In dentistry, it just seems like the floor is a lot higher and there is no ceiling. And I think whether you’re trying to reach the pinnacle of the profession in this country or the states or Australia or wherever it is, the level of input that you need to put in is going to be pretty equitable. But then the returns, I think, are outsized in the states, not just financially, but in terms of what you’re able to build, the speed at which things can be built. It’s a lot more, I think, exciting than where we are currently, but that may change.
Andy & Chris:
Hmm. Do you see your career in the future being a mixture of clinical and business? Do you see yourself kind of moving away from clinical more to business or getting deeper into clinical and business being on the side? How do you see that sort of split coming down the line?
Tanay Kulkarni:
It’s really too early to say, but I do know for sure that it will be a combination of both of them.
Andy & Chris:
Hmm.
Tanay Kulkarni:
I think a really good thing about dentistry is that it allows you to be at multiple levels of impact. So multiple stages of impact, you might say. So I know I want to have breadth of impact for sure. And that will come from something more upstream. So maybe owning multiple practices or having business, et cetera. But
Andy & Chris:
Mm.
Tanay Kulkarni:
then the unique thing about dentistry is that you can be much closer to the actual deliverance of that impact clinically. So you can be sitting there and changing a patient’s life from nine till one in the afternoon. And then in the evening, you’re doing something on a much bigger scale. And that diversity of impact that you can have is something which is super unique to dentistry. And I think it will be great to have a combination of both.
Andy & Chris:
And I agree with you. I think as a profession, I think the opportunities are enormous. You know, you could just go- It’s indoors. Well, yeah, you get some people just go deep into their clinical work and they just live their lives as an associate and they’re amazing. They’re
Tanay Kulkarni:
Mm-hmm.
Andy & Chris:
amazing clinicians. incredible relationships with their team and their patients and they’re content and that’s great and you get other people who within a couple of years want this portfolio of practices, they spend a lot of time wearing a suit and a tie in front of finance guys building for the next one, they’re both right, there’s not a wrong or a right. There’s a phrase which you should learn from your mistakes which I think is a crap phrase, I think you should always learn from somebody else’s. So for somebody who’s fairly new in, if you did this again, what
Tanay Kulkarni:
Mm-hmm.
Andy & Chris:
would you do differently?
Tanay Kulkarni:
I would maybe take on a little bit less and then really dial in on those two or three things as opposed to taking on five and maybe only achieving 70% or so in each. I think having a breadth of exposures and a breadth of different things that you’re getting involved with is great, but then you also need to build a spike in one or two areas.
Andy & Chris:
Mm.
Tanay Kulkarni:
And I don’t think I’ve necessarily done that just yet, but luckily I think I’ve got a bit of time on my hands
Andy & Chris:
Hmm.
Tanay Kulkarni:
to fix that.
Andy & Chris:
I had, I had a great conversation with Simon Chart and Simon had a phrase and he said he spent, um, he’s 20 saying yes to things. So he could say no to things in his 30s. And it’s similar to what you’re saying. And I think there’s a, there’s an element of you need to say yes to enough things to work out what you like and what you don’t like. So the good things are allowed to happen. And it sounds like you might’ve just got there quicker than, than some.
Tanay Kulkarni:
Maybe, or maybe I don’t know what I don’t know yet.
Andy & Chris:
Yeah, but then naivety is a superpower.
Tanay Kulkarni:
It
Andy & Chris:
Yes.
Tanay Kulkarni:
is, it is indeed.
Andy & Chris:
Honestly, I think there’s a risk that if we genuinely knew, particularly when you’re working in an area like AI, you know, you want to go in with such a fluid state and such an open mind that nothing’s off limits. I think the danger is if you don’t have that freshness, there’s a risk that you’ll miss something. You get locked in, don’t you? Yeah.
Tanay Kulkarni:
Yeah, and you can get into analysis paralysis, can’t you? You can overthink a lot of things in it. You lose your ability to be dynamic.
Andy & Chris:
Yes, yes, definitely. Yeah. Well, it sounds like you’re on an amazing path, Tanay. It really does. I think you’ve got so much energy, the connections you’ve built and just your clarity of thought of where you are and where you see the profession going. You’ve really benefited from the connections you’ve got and I think it’s given you a great foundation to push forward.
Tanay Kulkarni:
I think that’s just a testament to how many great people there are in the profession and
Andy & Chris:
Mm.
Tanay Kulkarni:
how forthcoming they are with information and their time. I think these days we’re in a very privileged position, well very this early on in our career, because we have access to everyone through social media, etc. I think that’s how we first got in touch, Andy,
Andy & Chris:
Yeah, yeah.
Tanay Kulkarni:
over Instagram. Back in the day, that’s not something that people had the privilege
Andy & Chris:
Mm.
Tanay Kulkarni:
of having, so it’s been awesome. And it works both ways, but it’s been awesome. That’s
Andy & Chris:
I was
Tanay Kulkarni:
me.
Andy & Chris:
going to say, I take credit yourself because just because people are available, you know, you still need to reach out to them. You still need to initiate that contact and you still need to be interested and curious to, to, to kind of take it forward. And I agree. I think it is a very welcoming profession. I think in our experience, you know, people are very kind, they’re very helpful, but the flip to that is you do need to put yourself out there for it. You know, if you just kind of sit there and get, yeah, if you don’t initiate contact, everybody’s busy, so they’re doing their own thing and they don’t mean to ignore you. aren’t asking but when you do ask people tend to be very very very kind and helpful.
Tanay Kulkarni:
Yeah, I mean, don’t be afraid to look stupid once. You don’t look stupid ever again. It’s quite a nice way of looking at it, I think.
Andy & Chris:
Yeah. Yeah. Tane, we always ask our guests, same two questions at the end. And we’re very interested to see what your answers would be. So if you were given the opportunity to be the fly on a wall in a situation, so you’re just sitting up on the wall watching a scenario play out, where would that be and who would be in the room?
Tanay Kulkarni:
I think one that’s quite on topic at the moment is the Elizabeth Holmes Theranos situation.
Andy & Chris:
Ah, okay.
Tanay Kulkarni:
It would have been pretty cool to be a fly on the wall at a lot of those board meetings right from day
Andy & Chris:
Is this before
Tanay Kulkarni:
one.
Andy & Chris:
it all went wonky?
Tanay Kulkarni:
Well at all stages of it would be awesome.
Andy & Chris:
She was trying to frog it to a Walgreens or whatever it was.
Tanay Kulkarni:
Yeah, exactly. It would have been really cool to see number one at the beginning. I personally believe that she probably thought it was possible. And then as things went on, that’s slightly diminished. And then at what point did she realize actually this
Andy & Chris:
Yeah, the
Tanay Kulkarni:
is
Andy & Chris:
light got
Tanay Kulkarni:
not
Andy & Chris:
too big.
Tanay Kulkarni:
exactly. And she wasn’t dealing with people who weren’t educated on the topics. I mean, she was dealing with seriously sophisticated investors, people like Rupert Murdoch
Andy & Chris:
Mmm,
Tanay Kulkarni:
and
Andy & Chris:
mmm.
Tanay Kulkarni:
Larry Ellison, etc. how these people didn’t manage to realise what was going on. There’s a lot more going on than
Andy & Chris:
It’s a bit
Tanay Kulkarni:
what
Andy & Chris:
Emperor’s
Tanay Kulkarni:
we see.
Andy & Chris:
new clothes, isn’t it? You know, this is the same thing everyone else is great So it must be great and the problem is that the names you you gave you know If you approach with an idea and you heard that Rupert Murdoch was involved you would assume
Tanay Kulkarni:
Exactly.
Andy & Chris:
I mean There’s you would assume as due diligence been done. I mean, he’s a he’s an amazing entrepreneur He wouldn’t be back in a project that was so ludicrous as pony
Tanay Kulkarni:
Exactly.
Andy & Chris:
So you can see how these things kind of snowball? Yeah
Tanay Kulkarni:
Yeah, for sure.
Andy & Chris:
Yeah, I think
Tanay Kulkarni:
For
Andy & Chris:
it’s
Tanay Kulkarni:
sure.
Andy & Chris:
a great answer, great answer. And our follow-up is if you could meet somebody, so you can sit down and have a beer or a glass of wine or a coffee with somebody, who would you like to sit across the table from?
Tanay Kulkarni:
tricky one to answer. There’s a lot of people out there I’d love to have a chat with. I’m going to cheat and give you two. Number one,
Andy & Chris:
That’s
Tanay Kulkarni:
I think
Andy & Chris:
okay.
Tanay Kulkarni:
for everyone who’s a cricket fan, there’s one guy you’d like to meet, Virat Kohli, quality player, on and off the pitch. What I really respect about him is that on the pitch he’s an incredible competitor, fierce competitor, lots of energy, leads a team with a lot of ferocity. But then… off the pitch, he’s super humble down to earth. And I think having that balance, you know,
Andy & Chris:
Mmm.
Tanay Kulkarni:
when you are in the zone, whether that’s life, business, whatever it is, it’s game on, but then
Andy & Chris:
Mm.
Tanay Kulkarni:
equally you can turn it off and know how to relax and live a rounded life. I think there’s a lot to learn from someone like him. And then the other person would be Joe Rogan. Joe Rogan’s a, yeah, seems like a pretty fun dude and he knows a little bit about everything. And I think something with someone like that. It’s difficult to get a lot from a single meeting or single conversation with anyone. But I think someone like Joe, he knows so much about so many things. You could probably, whatever rabbit hole you end up on, end up down, it would be quite fun.
Andy & Chris:
Yeah, he’d know something about it for sure. Yeah, interesting. Ha ha ha. Tanay, it’s been a joy, honestly. I think you’re- Yeah, fascinating. I just love the energy and the approach you have. I think, you know, regardless of where people are in their career, I think they can look to you and be inspired by what you’ve done already, but also the outlook you have for the future. I think we can all take something from that. So thank you very much indeed for joining us. Yeah, thank you. It’s been really, really enjoyable.
Tanay Kulkarni:
It really means a lot and thanks once again for having me on.
Andy & Chris:
Now-
Tanay Kulkarni:
It’s a privilege.
Andy & Chris:
Not at all. And Lennon’s out, I’m very confident about it. This episode will go out in a few weeks time and by then you will have finished dental school.
Tanay Kulkarni:
Unless they find something to hold me back on, eh? We’ll see.
Andy & Chris:
Yeah. Not at all. Let’s not go there. Look after yourself, Tana, keep well. Thanks very
Tanay Kulkarni:
Take
Andy & Chris:
much.
Tanay Kulkarni:
care guys.
Andy & Chris:
Cheers.
Tanay Kulkarni:
Thank you very much.
Andy & Chris:
See you later.
