Growth Hub #17 - By Founders, For Founders w/ Vik Kashyap (Toi Labs)

The 17th edition of Growth Hub features Vik Kashyap, founder of Toi Labs, in a moderated conversation about building hardware for Japan's senior care market. Toi Labs makes TrueLoo, a smart toilet seat named one of TIME's Best Inventions of 2024, which applies computer vision and AI to turn an everyday routine into continuous health monitoring. The product tracks wellness indicators and hydration changes to help facilities catch problems before they become hospital admissions, with no wearables or apps for residents and staff to manage. The discussion starts from the macro picture: 29.4% of Japan's population is over 65, and the Ministry of Health projects a shortfall of 570,000 care workers by 2040. Kashyap covers what that labor deficit does to buyer incentives, why passive monitoring in the bathroom made sense as a product bet, and how Toi Labs handled distribution by bringing TOTO in as a strategic investor rather than competing with it. Also on the agenda: pilots, procurement, and the unit economics of selling hardware into Japanese care facilities. Kashyap came to the problem as a patient first, developing a treatment for his own condition that was later published in Science Translational Medicine. He previously worked at Works Applications in Tokyo and was a venture capitalist at Battery Ventures in Silicon Valley. Francisco, Special Advisor to Shibuya City, moderates.