Brij Rakholia
Marketing · Business Development
Marketing & Business Development

I market the way I cook, with curiosity, with precision, and a little fire.

Scientist by training, salesman by fire, marketer by choice. I have grown businesses on two continents, and I believe the best marketing, like the best meal, is made for a specific person, not a segment.

Anaheim, CA · happily portable MBA · UC Riverside
Brij Rakholia
BRBrij Rakholia
est. two
continents
strategystorytellingpartnershipsfive languagesgo-to-marketgood tastedata that earns its keepnew cuisinescold outreach, warm conversations
iChapter One · The Story

From biochemistry labs to boardrooms, the long way.

Most marketers start with an ad. I started with a microscope. Biochemistry in Mumbai, then medical biotechnology. Years spent learning how to ask precise questions and distrust easy answers. It turns out that is marketing school in disguise.

Then India taught me the loud part. Three years on the road for a life sciences company. Trade show floors, cold calls in four languages, pricing negotiations over chai. I moved to Hyderabad alone to open a region from zero and grew it thirty percent. When your name is on the revenue number, you learn what actually moves people. Hint: it is never the brochure.

"Science taught me rigor. Sales taught me people. Marketing is where both get to eat at the same table."

California came next. An MBA at UC Riverside by night. By day, an independent pharmacy that needed a fighting chance against the big chains. We gave it one: new partnerships, a new service line, a statewide expansion, 36% growth. The playbook came from everything before it.

Now I am looking for the next kitchen. A team with real problems, real customers, and an appetite for growth.

Laboratory glassware
the lab years
Marine Drive, Mumbai
Marine Drive, Mumbai
Bell Tower, UC Riverside
UC Riverside
iiChapter Two · The Journey

Ten years, two continents, one direction.

Mumbai Vadodara Hyderabad Riverside your city, possibly
2016
B.Sc. Biochemistry
University of Mumbai · Mumbai

Where the rigor started. Precise questions, honest answers, no shortcuts.

2019
M.Sc. Medical Biotechnology
MSU Baroda · Vadodara

Deeper into the science that would later make technical products feel simple to sell.

2021
Junior Executive, Deccan Transcon
Logistics · India

First taste of commercial life. CRM, high value accounts, presentations that closed contracts.

2022
Business Development Manager, Sorbchem India
Vadodara & Hyderabad

Eight product lines. Moved alone to Hyderabad to open South India. Thirty percent growth, quota beaten every quarter.

2024
MBA, Anderson School of Management
UC Riverside · California

Crossed an ocean for the next degree and started applying it before the ink dried.

2025
Marketing & BD Manager, Don's Drugs + Teaching Assistant, UCR
San Bernardino & Riverside

Grew an independent pharmacy 36 percent while leading discussion sections for 75 students. Slept occasionally.

2026 · now
Open for the next chapter
Marketing · Business Development · Full time

The next stop on this map is your team. Let's talk.

results
iiiChapter Three · The Work

Stories with receipts.

Anyone can say results driven. Here is what actually happened when I was given a market and a problem.

Inside a community pharmacy
medication packaging, the pharmacy story
Case i

The pharmacy that fought back

An independent pharmacy versus the national chains. We built physician referral partnerships from cold outreach, launched a vaccination service line from nothing, licenses and all, and ran community campaigns that made the neighborhood care. Growth followed.

+36%revenue growth, roughly $270K in new annual revenue
Los Angeles skyline with palm trees
the statewide story
Case ii

Local shop, statewide stage

Growth was capped at the delivery radius, so we found the market nobody was serving. I sourced and closed a specialty pharmacy partnership covering workers compensation patients, opening a reimbursement channel that stretched the business across California.

CAwidefrom one city to the entire state
Industry trade show floor
the territory story
Case iii

A region opened from zero

New city, no accounts, eight technical product lines. Market research to find the segments, positioning to win them, campaigns and trade shows to fill the pipeline. Sixteen new accounts, twenty dormant ones revived, quota beaten every quarter.

+30%territory growth over two years, at 110 to 120% of quota
Data dashboards
the data story
Case iv

Marketing that answers to data

Every business I have grown got the same backbone: Salesforce built properly, Power BI dashboards unifying revenue, campaigns, and operations. Gut feel is a fine appetizer. The main course is measured. One data modeled redesign lifted delivery efficiency 40%.

+40%operational efficiency from one data led redesign
ivChapter Four · The Proof

Projects that left the classroom.

Three deep projects, from a neuroscience lab bench to a live pharmacy floor. Each one asked the same question: what does the data actually say, and what should we do about it?

Research laboratory
MSc research
MSc Dissertation · Neurobiology

Deciphering PCOS in a cafeteria-diet rat model

My Master's dissertation in Medical Biotechnology investigated the neurobiological and metabolic mechanisms underlying Polycystic Ovary Syndrome using a cafeteria-diet-induced rat model, connecting diet, brain signaling, and metabolic dysfunction. It taught me to design controlled experiments, sit with messy biological data, and defend a conclusion. That is the same instinct I bring to a marketing dashboard today.

2 yrs
of primary lab research
diet brain metabolism
the mechanism I mapped
Analytics charts and laptop
the data story
MBA Project · Presented to the cohort

Data-driven decision-making at Don's Drugs

Presented to my full MBA cohort and singled out by my professor. The pharmacy ran on five disconnected systems, where the same patient appeared as "María del Carmen López," "Maria C Lopez," and "Maria Lopez" - so refills slipped and stock ran hot and cold. My "foundation first" fix: unify a single patient view in Power BI, lock data standards, and automate a daily Refills Due Today feed, so the team acts on one screen instead of five spreadsheets.

5 1
systems collapsed into one patient view
daily
automated refill & delivery alerts
Hand-drawn delivery quadrant map for Don's Drugs
the quadrant map
MBA Capstone · Strategy consulting

A growth platform for Don's Drugs

A full consulting engagement: owner and staff interviews, on-site observation, workflow and delivery analysis, and real implementation. We diagnosed the core issue, not a demand problem, but a value-capture and operational-capacity problem - and recommended transforming a reactive dispensing pharmacy into a Medication Management & Specialty Care Platform. Several recommendations went live during the quarter, including the hand-drawn delivery quadrant system pictured here.

120 35
undelivered scripts per week
$15–23K
monthly revenue leakage identified to recover
vChapter Five · The Life

Off the clock, still exploring.

I think wanderlust and marketing are the same muscle. Both are about getting genuinely curious about how other people live, eat, and decide.

Traveler overlooking mountains
the traveler

The traveler

Two continents lived on, many more sampled. Travel is my market research with better lighting. Every city teaches you something about what people value and why.

Spices laid out for cooking
the cook

The cook

My other lab. Cooking is positioning you can taste: know your audience, respect your ingredients, plate it beautifully. Sound familiar?

A table of dishes to explore
the eater

The eater

New cuisines are non negotiable. The menu I cannot read yet is the one I am ordering from. Current mission: eating my way through California's food scenes.

Ordering dinner in EnglishHindiGujaratiMarathiSpanish, aprendiendo
viChapter Six · The Craft

What I bring to the table.

The strategy

  • Go-to-market strategy positioning · launch
  • Market research sizing · segmentation
  • Competitive intelligence benchmarking · war gaming
  • Pricing & forecasting scenario · Monte Carlo
  • Partnerships & BD sourcing · closing
  • Market access payers · reimbursement

The execution

  • Integrated campaigns email · digital · social
  • Content & SEO technical storytelling
  • Events & trade shows booth to pipeline
  • Referral programs the 9-partner playbook
  • Negotiation & closing value based, not discount based
  • Community marketing seminars · outreach

The toolkit

  • Salesforce admin level: reports · flows
  • Power BI modeling · multi-source
  • HubSpot & Dynamics certified · CRM ops
  • Google Ads & Analytics spend that reports for duty
  • Advanced Excel pivots · XLOOKUP · models
  • Canva & Adobe CS decks · brochures · brand
MBA · UC Riverside, Anderson M.Sc. · Medical Biotechnology B.Sc. · Biochemistry HubSpot Certified 5 languages Team lead · hired & trained staff
B
References who watched the 36% happen are a phone call away, starting with pharmacy leadership at Don's Drugs.
Raj Lunagaria · Supervisor, Don's Drugs Pharmacy · available on request
The next chapter

Let's make something people remember.

I am actively looking for my next full time role in marketing and business development. If your team needs someone who can find the market, tell the story, and prove it in the dashboard, I would love to hear from you.