Oklahoma City made its introduction to the co-founders of Aevus Precision Diagnostics through a magazine’s list of top U.S. cities in which to start a business.
In 2018, Yash Sagar Santani and Puneet Chadha were living and working in New York City’s financial district as recent master’s degree graduates of Johns Hopkins University’s Carey School of Business.
But they had ideas of starting their own business and formulated plans to launch a healthcare technology venture.
The natives of India just didn’t know where.
A business magazine pointed them to Oklahoma City with the type of national ranking that OKC has dominated in recent years because of its low-cost, business-friendly environment.
For instance, Wallet Hub ranked Oklahoma City No. 2 among “Best Large Cities to Start a Business,” in a 2019 listing.
“If we were to start a company in New York City, we would be making landlords rich,” Puneet said in a recent interview on the outdoor deck of OKC’s Kamp’s 1910 Café. “I started looking at places that would be great to move to.”
Puneet happened upon a business magazine list in which OKC had a solid top-5 national ranking. The ranking alone drew his interest.
“I was really intrigued, because as an immigrant all you really hear about the United States is the East Coast or the West Coast,” he said. “So, I wonder what it’s like in Oklahoma City? We decided to explore a little more and that’s when we fell upon i2E.”
i2E is a nationally recognized not-for-profit corporation that works with entrepreneurs to launch and grow new ventures, and also provides access to capital through investment funds it manages.
The Aevus founders reached out to i2E to learn about how the company supports technology startups.
“It was fantastic to see that they have venture capital there,” Puneet said. “They have investment funds they are dedicating to help Oklahoma startups and businesses be successful.”
So, Aevus Precision Diagnostics — https://aevus.ai/ — was launched in 2019 as an Oklahoma City-based business by founders who relocated here from New York City.
Read the rest of the story at the Greater OKC Chamber website
