A Complete Oral Care Innovative Solution Paving Way For A Confident Smile Of Millions

What are the first thing people notice when you introduce yourself to them? How warmly your Smile is greeting them. There are millions of poems, songs and praises on the first thing that people notice about a person, their smile. There is a saying that says that if you can wear your confidence in your smile then no one can stop you from taking over the world.
In order to have a confident smile one needs to have glistening white teeth that to support the confidence you carry. But if you are devoid of it then carrying a confident smile becomes challenging. In a country like India that is consumed by lack of Oral hygiene and tobacco, alcohol consumption due to which the health and shine of the supposedly glistening white teeth disappears. If there is a concern and hesitation towards smiling widely and fearlessly, but you have looked for solutions to get rid of that issue but all the options are either too expensive or they do not produce long term impact, then fret not there is a solution for that. In today’s interview with Novateor Research Laboratories Ltd who are with a very innovative and with a noble product designed to improve the oral hygiene of the entire country have introduced their teeth whitening strips.
They found a major gap in this area in the Indian market and have launched their teeth whitening strips in India to bring the poor ranks of the Indian oral hygiene to a good rank.Ans also to help bring a shiny white smile on your face. Let us join them and see how their journey has been and how they plan of implementing their dreams in our discussion with the founder Mr.Navdeep Mehta who has brought this one of a kind product to India and ensured that is absolutely safe for the customers. Let’s find out more.
1. What is the name of the venture and the intent Behind it?
The founders of the company stated- The venture’s name is “Novateor Research Laboratories Ltd”. “Novateor” in French means innovative and the company is into Research and Development of all innovative products in the sector of cosmetics and pharmaceuticals. And the company has already diversified into an oral care product under the brand name “SmiloShine”. An innovative teeth whitening strip has been launched by the company under this brand name.
2. Who do you believe are your Target customers?
The founders positively respond to this by asking a counter question in return- Nothing beats a sparkling smile, Does it? Our mission and ambition is to put a shiny white teeth and confident smile on faces of the people of our country. We also have the noble intention of removing our country’s name from the top 5th position for bad oral health. Narrowing it down we are focusing on the below demographics on customers.
• Group of people consuming alcohol and tobacco.
• Millennials, GenX, corporates, youngsters
• Females who are beauty conscious
Although Our target audience consists of all who are conscious about their smile. All who need a boost of confidence to smile freely in public. Our product makes sure they can reveal their teeth without hesitation while smiling.
3. Where is the team situated?
Our venture is based in Ahmedabad and we have a state-of-the-art manufacturing and Research facility at Sanand.
Geographical areas that we have covered so far are Gujarat, Karnataka and Maharashtra. We would like to expand further eventually to all major metropolitan cities.
4. What problems does your venture resolve? What are your products or services?
We are into oral health products. Our product line consists of teeth whitening strips and teeth whitening toothbrushes. We have the below mentioned versions of whitening strips.
• Professional Teeth Whitening Strips.
• Charcoal and Menthol flavored Teeth Whitening Strips.
• Pro-Whitening Toothbrush.
Professional whitening Strips are to be used under supervision of a Dentist or Dental Professional. It has helped doctors to give their clients teeth whitening without causing gum irritation and teeth sensitivity vis-à-vis the traditional teeth whitening procedures which caused too much of sensitivity because of hydrogen peroxide used as a bleaching agent. Our product is hydrogen peroxide free and give comparably better results without any teeth sensitivity issue.
Charcoal Teeth Whitening Strips are natural home-based teeth whitening strips kit with activated charcoal and menthol flavor.
Whitening toothbrushes have German spiral bristles that are specially designed to give polishing/whitening effect on the teeth.
5. Share the idea or story behind the venture. How did it come to existence? What motivated you to start your own venture?
My story rewinds back to about 10 years ago. I lived in the USA and worked for a pharmaceutical company and as a part of my job there I was supposed to research and develop several products and validate those products for FDA approval.
During a short visit to India. I observed people of India are careless about their own oral hygiene compared to those in the USA. I even found in one research that India ranked 2nd position for poor oral health care in the whole world. This gave me the motivation to work in the area of oral hygiene and care and bring awareness to the people of India.
I found a huge potential in this business and was ambitious to work towards the gap to be filled in this industry.
I came down to India for good during the Golden and Vibrant era of Gujarat in 2009 with a vision to contribute to my country and hence all this set up is just one humble attempt towards it.
6. Who are your biggest competitors and how do you differentiate yourself from them?
Right now teeth whitening industry is not much tapped into except for a few big toothpaste Brands. Our product doesn’t see any competition as of now. It is first of its kind product in India and is well appreciated and accepted by dentists who have used it so far.
7. How did you identify your co-founder? Tell us something about your co-founder

My co-founder is none other than my Spouse. She was the one to trust me on this idea and we share equal enthusiasm about the product and the business. I strongly believe that her support and experience will help in growing the business faster.
 
8. How did you hire your first team members? What skills do you look for in your employees?
What I looked for in my team members was their faith in my company, my product and me. They should be able to gauge the potential this product has in the market just like I am able to see. Their passion, their drive to grow as a company and an individual too. Their hunger to improve, open mindedness to learn new things every day and always ready to take up new challenges are important characteristics of a hard-working team member is what I believe.
9. What expansion plans are you looking at for the next 2 years, next 5 years?
We have plans of expansion. We want to see ourselves placed all over India in next 2 years. We are hoping to show our presence internationally in next 5 years.
10. Where do you want to see yourself in next 10 years?
Obviously I would like to be seen as an emerging and successful venture but having said that I would like to see myself to be in the position to give back to society in whatever way possible with utter humility, compassion and empathy.
11. What are your immediate goals over the next 1, 3, 6 and 12 months?
Immediate goals as a company would be to expand geographically and grow exponentially in terms of revenues and turnover.
12. Have you raised any funding? Or have any plans for the funding?
We haven’t raised any funding yet. We’re shelling out from our own savings so far but we do plan on going public to raise funds in the future.
13. What were the problems you faced during the initiation and how did you overcome them?
Starting a venture from the scratch is always followed by a lot of challenges. The most challenging part was getting adapted to Indian working culture and getting various government approvals and licensing for the product. To overcome all these I needed to study and understand the processes and follow it up personally. The hard work finally paid off and I’m happy to announce that we are the first company to receive license from FDCA (Food and Drug Control Administration) for any teeth whitening product.
14. What was the most challenging part of your journey till now? How did you overcome those challenges?
The most challenging part of my journey was to create awareness among people about oral hygiene. 1/3rd of Indian population hardly brushes their teeth and remaining population covers a majority of people consuming alcohol and tobacco. India ranks 2nd on the list of poor oral hygiene amongst the nations all over the world.
We overcame it by running dental camps and campaigns in past and will keep doing it to create awareness.
15. What are your hobbies? What do you do during your leisure?
Hobbies include reading, watching shows like shark tank, playing golf, and spending some quality time with my kids.
16. Whom do you consider your idol or biggest motivator?
My all-time favourite idol has been Steve Jobs. His life inspires me to never give up and keep doing the good work no matter what.
17. What do you think is the major difference between entrepreneurs and those with a steady corporate job?
The only difference between an entrepreneur and an employee is the passion, the drive, the vision towards their own company. It’s like you parenting your own baby versus being a caretaker of another baby.
18. If you had the chance to start your career over again, what would you do differently?
I would rather not change anything in my career journey as all the good or bad events, experiences, incidents have shaped me and are an integral part of who I am today. Every hiccup has taught me something new and led me closer to my goal.
19. How has being an entrepreneur affected your family & Social life?
I am very lucky to have friends and family who has always been supportive. They are the pillars of my life. They have helped me stabilize my life professionally and personally.
20. Anything you would like to tell our readers or upcoming entrepreneurs?
Entrepreneurship is like farming. You sow an idea, water it, take good care of your crop and then harvest fruits later. Believe in yourself, your idea and never give up. Pursue your goals and dream with dedication and sincerity.
21. Tell us something about your education & family background.
I have done chemical engineering from a very reputed institute (L D College of Engineering). Followed by an MS in Chemical Engineering in the USA.
I come from a business-oriented family and we live with our extended family. Living in a joint family.
22. What is your USP which makes it unique & different from other start-ups in similar domain
Our product is first of its kind in India and FDCA approval acts as an icing on the cake. Unlike similar other products our product is Hydrogen Peroxide free and hence no sensitivity after use.
23. What do you think is the biggest threat to the success of small businesses & Start-ups today?
Biggest threat in most startup are if:
Finances don’t to move towards expansion
No focused marketing
Non-Compliance to the govt. rules.
Maintain the enthusiasm on the path of struggle for which start up was created. Nothing is easy.
24. Do you consider yourself successful and by what means do you measure success?
I still have long way to go to taste the fruits of success. I would just consider my current stage to be an initial stepping stone towards success
I will measure my success in terms of number of people smiling confidently more because of my product.
25.Please share complete name, address, phone number, email id & website of Your Business & Contact Person
A. Founder:
Navdeep Mehta (MD): [email protected]
Tejal Mehta (Executive Director): [email protected]
Subhash Mehta (Director): [email protected]
Contact Number: 9979961759 (about product and any inquiry)
With that we wish the company a lot of success and prosperity