Dr. Sourabh Kharait on Pivots, Science, and Building HuMOLYTE
Most startup stories sound much cleaner after the fact.
Find a problem. Build a solution. Raise money. Scale. Exit.
Dr. Sourabh Kharait, physician, clinical researcher, and founder of IGH Naturals, opened his recent MedStart talk with a very different view: entrepreneurship is often accidental, and the entrepreneurs who stick around are either courageous, a little crazy, or probably some combination of both.
His own journey is a good example.
What eventually became HuMOLYTE, a medical food developed for the dietary management of dehydration associated with chemotherapy, did not begin with chemotherapy. It started with a difficult hike, a friend with severe muscle cramps, and a question about magnesium.
From there came retail stores, COVID shutdowns, an endurance athlete doing 100 Ironmans in 100 days, influencer partnerships, multiple pivots, cancer patients, animal studies, intellectual property, and eventually a human clinical trial.
The story Dr. Kharait shared at MedStart was less about having one brilliant idea and more about something founders experience every day: learning what problem you are actually supposed to be solving.
It Started With a Hike
Years ago, Dr. Kharait was hiking Cloud’s Rest in Yosemite with friends when one of them began experiencing severe muscle cramps.
They had been drinking sports drinks throughout the day, so his friend asked the obvious question: Why was he still cramping?
Kharait pointed to magnesium.
Most conventional sports drinks did not contain significant magnesium, in part because magnesium can be difficult to formulate into something that tastes good.
His friend responded with what was essentially the first customer request: Why not make one?
That question led to experiments, formulations, filters, small production runs, and eventually a commercial electrolyte beverage.
There was no grand startup strategy at the beginning. There was a problem standing on a mountain.
That is a useful lesson for medical entrepreneurs. Some of the best opportunities do not begin in a strategic planning meeting. They begin when somebody says, “Why doesn’t this work better?”
Early Success Can Be Dangerous
The first product gained traction quickly.
According to Kharait, it eventually reached hundreds of retail stores in Florida and other markets. Sales were strong enough that the company increased inventory and began thinking about expansion.
Then COVID hit.
Stores shut down. Inventory became trapped in the distribution system. Product aged. Contracts stopped. Some inventory eventually had to be destroyed.
The company learned another startup lesson the hard way: success can encourage you to scale before you fully understand your risks.
A startup that looks healthy when everything is going according to plan can suddenly look very different when one piece of the system breaks.
Kharait described the choice at the time pretty simply: pivot or die.
They pivoted.
The Iron Cowboy Creates the Next Version
Around the same time, Kharait met endurance athlete James Lawrence, known as the “Iron Cowboy.”
Lawrence had already completed 50 Iron-distance triathlons in 50 states in 50 consecutive days and was preparing for an even more extreme challenge: 100 Iron-distance triathlons in 100 days.
Kharait helped develop an electrolyte formulation Lawrence could use during training.
It worked well enough that Lawrence wanted a version that was easier to carry while cycling. Shipping and carrying liquid suddenly seemed unnecessary.
So the company made another change.
They removed the water and developed a powdered formulation.
The partnership also taught the team about the power and limitations of influencer marketing. A highly visible athlete could introduce thousands of people to a product very quickly. But an influencer relationship can change just as quickly.
When Lawrence later faced a conflict with another sponsorship agreement, the company again had to rethink its direction.
The formulation remained.
The branding changed.
And the startup kept moving.
Science Became the Differentiator
Rather than relying entirely on testimonials or endorsements, Kharait wanted evidence.
The company conducted a blinded study involving athletes who received either water or the company's electrolyte product and evaluated cramping after the event. Kharait said the research was subsequently published in a peer-reviewed journal.
That decision reflected something he emphasized repeatedly during his MedStart talk:
For life science companies, science is not decoration for the marketing department. It is part of the product.
Publications, clinical studies, independent evaluation, and peer review build credibility in a way an influencer never can.
An influencer may open the door.
The science has to keep the door open.
Cancer Patients Pointed to a Bigger Problem
The most important pivot came from an unexpected group of customers.
Cancer patients began using the company's magnesium-based hydration product.
Kharait started receiving messages from patients asking when it would be back in stock. Nurses were recommending it. Patients receiving chemotherapy were struggling with hydration and electrolyte loss and were looking for alternatives to repeated trips for intravenous fluids.
That got his attention.
Why were cancer patients seeking out a sports hydration product?
The team started talking to them.
Those conversations revealed a much larger problem.
Hydration was only part of what many chemotherapy patients were experiencing. Gastrointestinal injury, diarrhea, mouth sores, electrolyte loss, and inflammation could all contribute to a cycle in which patients became increasingly difficult to keep hydrated.
The company began asking a different question.
What if, instead of simply replacing what patients were losing, they could also support the gastrointestinal tract?
The HuMOLYTE Pivot
The team began experimenting with human milk oligosaccharides, or HMOs.
HMOs are complex carbohydrates naturally found in human milk. Commercial versions can now be produced without being derived directly from human milk.
Based on existing research around HMOs and gastrointestinal biology, Kharait and his team believed they might have an application beyond infant nutrition.
They combined HMOs with the company's electrolyte formulation.
That became the foundation for HuMOLYTE.
Initially, the idea was still largely about hydration. But once again, patients began reporting something unexpected.
Some said they were experiencing fewer mouth sores during chemotherapy.
Rather than treating those observations as proof, the company treated them as a question worth investigating.
That distinction matters.
Customer stories can tell you where to look.
Science needs to tell you whether what you think you are seeing is actually happening.
Going Back to the Lab
IGH Naturals began evaluating the formulation through cell models, animal studies, and ultimately human research.
Kharait told the MedStart audience that the company recently completed a clinical trial involving chemotherapy patients with solid tumors. He described the study as examining outcomes including oral mucositis, gastrointestinal symptoms, and fecal calprotectin, a marker associated with intestinal inflammation.
He also described encouraging results from that study.
Those clinical-trial results, however, should be understood as results presented by Kharait during the MedStart discussion. The transcript indicates that the company was still working through the publication and commercialization process.
Just as important as the results was how the company designed the research.
Because Kharait helped develop the product, he could not simply serve as the principal investigator and evaluate his own work. The company engaged a clinical research organization to help identify research sites, recruit patients, conduct the study, and provide the resulting data.
The process took far longer than simply running the trial.
Kharait estimated roughly six months to find the CRO, another period for planning, and approximately six months to conduct the trial itself.
That brings up another useful startup lesson:
The experiment may take six months. Getting ready to run the experiment may take a year.
Life science startups have to budget accordingly.
Five Lessons for Medical Entrepreneurs
Looking back on the journey, Kharait highlighted several lessons that apply well beyond HuMOLYTE.
1. Fall in love with the problem
Founders naturally become attached to their solution.
Kharait's advice was to spend more time understanding and communicating the problem.
Investors, customers, clinicians, and partners first need to believe that the problem matters. If they do not understand the problem, they will not care how clever the solution is.
2. Talk to the people experiencing it
Several of the company's biggest pivots came directly from customers and patients.
A hiking partner asked about magnesium.
An endurance athlete wanted powder instead of liquid.
Cancer patients started using the hydration product.
Patients reported changes the team had not originally been targeting.
None of those insights came from a pitch deck.
They came from conversations.
3. Expect to pivot
Pivoting is sometimes treated like an admission that the original idea failed.
Kharait sees it differently.
The original electrolyte beverage did not become HuMOLYTE because somebody sat down on day one and perfectly predicted the market.
It evolved through repeated experiments, setbacks, customer feedback, scientific investigation, and new opportunities.
That is not a flaw in the startup process.
That is the startup process.
4. Budget twice what you think you need
One of Kharait's more practical recommendations was also one of the least glamorous.
Whatever time and money you think something will take, prepare for significantly more.
Clinical trials take longer.
Manufacturing costs change.
Inventory gets stuck.
Marketing costs money.
Regulatory work takes time.
And startups have an irritating habit of running out of cash immediately before something important happens.
His rule of thumb: don't just add 30 percent to the budget.
Think closer to 100 percent.
5. Build the team early
Science alone does not build a company.
Kharait emphasized the need for people who believe in the mission and bring skills the founder does not have.
For IGH Naturals, the next challenge is increasingly commercial rather than scientific. Kharait said the company is looking for experienced sales and marketing leadership with knowledge of nutrition, healthcare systems, and medical-food commercialization.
The right investor matters for the same reason.
Money is useful.
Money attached to somebody who can make the right phone call, introduce the right distributor, or steer you away from an expensive mistake is considerably more useful.
Where HuMOLYTE Goes Next
IGH Naturals is now working to move HuMOLYTE from a science-driven startup toward broader commercialization.
Kharait told the audience that the company has developed intellectual property around its work, completed preclinical research, conducted human clinical research, soft-launched the product, and is pursuing additional investment for expansion.
That may sound a long way from a cramped hiker on Cloud’s Rest.
It is.
But that was really the point of the talk.
The path from an idea to a life science company rarely resembles the neat diagram founders put into their first pitch deck.
You try something.
The market teaches you something.
You run out of money.
You change the product.
A customer uses it in a way you never expected.
You go back to the lab.
You collect evidence.
You change direction again.
And, occasionally, after enough of those turns, you discover the company you were supposed to build.
For medical entrepreneurs, that may be the most useful lesson of all.
Listen carefully to the problem, follow the evidence, and don't be afraid when the company you eventually build looks very different from the one you originally imagined.
About Dr. Sourabh Kharait
Dr. Sourabh Kharait, MD, PhD, is an academic nephrologist, transplant physician, and nutrition scientist who serves as Associate Professor of Medicine and Medical Director of the Living Donor Transplant Program at Banner – University Medical Center Tucson.
He is also the Founder and CEO of IGH Naturals, a medical nutrition company developing science-based products for hydration, gut health, and supportive care. Dr. Kharait is the inventor of the patented MAGNAK electrolyte formulation and HuMOLYTE, a medical food combining electrolytes with 2′-fucosyllactose, a human milk oligosaccharide. With more than two decades of experience treating kidney disease and electrolyte disorders, he has led numerous clinical trials in renal and cardiovascular medicine. His research includes a 2026 peer-reviewed study published in Frontiers in Nutrition evaluating HuMOLYTE in a preclinical model of chemotherapy-induced mucositis. He has authored peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, and expert commentary and has advised professional athletes on hydration and nutrition.
For more information on how HuMOLYTE can support your gut health during chemotherapy, visit our product page or consult your health care provider.
This blog was reviewed by Dr. Sourabh Kharait.
This blog is for educational purposes only and is not intended as medical advice. Always consult with your healthcare provider before making any changes to your treatment plan, hydration strategies, or diet. The information provided here is based on general insights and may not apply to individual circumstances.
