Bio business champions use biomedical products to change the world

ENTREPRENEURSHIP is not for everyone.

It takes mental toughness, resilience and unshakeable faith. It comes with long hours, sleepless nights, hungry days and years of hard work for recognition of your brand, let alone to make it a success.

YBMS BIOTECplus CEO and Trinidad and Tobago Chamber of Business Champions of Business 2023 awardee Yasser Baksh along with his sister Mishaal Baksh know this all too well.

“I don't think anyone wakes up one morning and just says, ‘I'm gonna be an entrepreneur,” he said. “It has to be something from within. It has to do with where you come from mentally. You have to be driven and ambitious. When most people get tired, that's when an entrepreneur works the hardest.”

He said people don't realise that entrepreneurship is an investment of time, of the mind, finance and more.

But most of all, it requires vision – a core belief that your product, your business and yourself as an entrepreneur can change the world.

From visions to reality

Baksh and his sister built YBMS BIOTECplus from the ground up, turning their backs on comfortable jobs – Yasser as a medical rep at Smith and Robinson and Mishaal as a teacher – to make their vision a reality.

Yasser, an analytical chemist with a background in zoology, environmental studies and microbiology, always saw himself as a challenger.

He told Business Day his entrepreneurial spirit came largely from his desire to make the world a better place.

“I have always viewed myself as a person who would make a difference,“ he said. “I have never accepted basic, I cannot stand average. I have always challenged the status quo, because for you to change the status quo, you have to challenge it.”

Yasser started his business 14 years ago, and eight years ago began selling his product, BIOTECplus.

He said an entrepreneur is a challenger – someone who breaks the status quo and shows people what is possible.

“There have been moments where building this business was really tough. But I am a man of fate and faith, and in those toughest moments, I give everything to the almighty.”

Mishaal, an environmental scientist and biologist specialising in pollutant management, left her job behind as a teacher to support Yasser and YBMS’ vision.

“We wanted to revolutionise health care on a global scale.”

It is a company vision, she said. YBMS will achieve that vision by replacing toxic and ineffective legacy brands with sustainable, environmentally safe and effective all-in-one biomedical sterilants, disinfectants and sanitisers. Mishaal believes that for a company to truly be successful, it must take its vision and make it tangible and relevant.

“I think too many people go into businesses that don't fill gaps and solve problems. There are too many redundancies. You can make a quick dollar off them, but what are you really achieving? You didn't have a goal or a problem to solve.”

Revolutionising health care with BIOTEC

YBMS makes its vision of revolutionising health care a reality through its flagship product, BIOTECplus, a food-safe disinfectant.

The dynamic disinfectant duo said the product was 100 per cent biodegradable, non-toxic, non-abrasive or corrosive, with no carcinogens and effective against all micro-organisms, including algae, bacteria, mould and viruses.

“From the very beginning, we decided that it would be something that is completely safe, something that could be of value and something that could achieve social welfare.”

She said some products, while very effective, could also be harmful and others that are safe to use may not kill serious bacteria such as Pavo, MRSA, covid19 and other extreme pathogens. It can even assist with water treatment.

“We wanted to find that balance between safety and being more effective than any brand globally.

“When we say revolutionise health care, we mean globally. A hospital all the way in Sweden should be switching to BIOTECplus to be safer. We also wanted to put Trinidad and Tobago on the map for more than just culture. We have some of the best scientists in the world, and it is the ability to export that as well, something that could change the world.”

They said the company started with a focus on agriculture. They made the formula safe for animals and plants, yet more effective and safe than any other chemical.

“We really focused on agriculture because it is necessary for a sustainable society,” Yasser said.

He added that the formula is so powerful that it is capable of easily breaking down blood cells.

“In every segment, including medical, food processing, agriculture, biosecurity in animal farms or hospitality, any form of pathogen that you come in contact with or happens to be in that environment, BIOTECplus is able to remove it and sanitise the area by simply spraying the area."

He said medical institutions can also use the product to sanitise and flush equipment.

“When we talk to customers and tell them our product replaces 18 different cleaning chemicals, we have one line we always get: ‘Yuh selling me dreams,'” Mishaal said.

Yasser said to get the message of BIOTECplus out, he identified business segments which included health care, hospitality and agriculture, and showed them how the product worked compared to competitors.

“I would go in, meet with the managers and have a conversation with them. I would explain what it does,” he said.

“What we have also achieved is using leave aides – which is documentation in graphical form along with pictures, which describe all the surface areas that you would find in your area, and we show you how the dosages of the product works and the application of the product.”

He said this helps customers identify the number of products they actually use to sanitise their areas. He then tells them they can eliminate all those products for one single, effective, safe and economical solution.

Taking BIOTECplus to the world

Yasser and Mishaal said their hope for BIOTECplus, which had already been exported to countries such as Suriname and Aruba, was to see the product and the vision behind the product all over the world.

Mishaal said they were less interested in the US as a market, but their ambition was to go even bigger – to Africa.

“Ghana is on our list for 2024,” she said. “The US is not really one of our target markets. The goal for us is regional, then EU, then we actually want as part of the bigger push for global health, the African continent is a priority for us. We just want to have the capacity to serve that market when we get to that point.”

She said they tested the export market first in Caricom and regional markets, but after several restructuring exercises, YBMS was able to qualify for exporTT’s accelerator programme last year.

“That programme gave us tools, coaching and the ability to position the company in a better way, which we are still working with,” she said. “We are about to enter the Guyanese market, we are expanding in Suriname, we are hoping to go into Jamaica, Barbados and Panama.”

She added that the company will also get access to European markets through the Fit For Europe initiative, another programme from exporTT.

“With that programme, we have access to the UK, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands which are basically our European markets.”