In this episode, Navneet sits down with Mads Lillelund, CEO of Qvin, the company behind the world's first FDA-cleared diagnostic menstrual pad. Qvin turns menstrual blood one of medicine's most discarded and dismissed biological samples into clinical-grade diagnostic data.

The pad currently detects biomarkers for diabetes (A1C), cervical cancer (HPV), endometriosis, STIs, ovarian cancer, and fertility, all non-invasively, all from a single use at home. In Stanford and Roche validation studies, Qvin detected 10% more HPV cases than the gold-standard pap smear.

Mads brings over two decades of experience across enterprise tech, Fortune 500 companies, and high-growth startups into one of the most underfunded sectors in healthcare. His mission: to lead a Diagnostic Revolution by closing the gender data gap and making needle-free diagnostics accessible to the 1.8 billion people who menstruate worldwide including the 500 million experiencing period poverty.

In this conversation, we go deep into:

How Qvin is tackling some of the most overlooked and urgent challenges in women’s health
What it really takes to navigate FDA clearance for a category-defining, first-of-its-kind product
Why the gender data gap remains one of the most dangerous blind spots in modern healthcare
The future of needle-free diagnostics and what it means for 1.8 billion women worldwide
How breakthrough innovation can scale across underserved and resource-constrained markets
What it means to lead as a male CEO in a space historically underfunded and overlooked
The complexity of building equitable pricing models in low-resource settings
The realities of raising capital in FemTech and the systemic gender imbalance in venture funding

Tune in to explore what happens if Qvin succeeds at scale a future where diagnostics are fundamentally redefined, where menstruation is no longer stigmatized but standardized in medicine, and where access to care is not determined by geography or income.

This episode is brought to you in partnership with FemTech India a global women’s health ecosystem building and scaling startups to close the gender gap in emerging markets like India.

Disclaimer: The content shared in this episode is intended for general awareness and discussion purposes only. It should not be considered a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult a qualified healthcare provider for personal health decisions.

Newsletter - https://techthrivenewsletter.beehiiv.com/

Qvin - https://qvin.com/

Mads Lillelund - https://www.linkedin.com/in/mads-lillelund-9701278/

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