Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Nathalya Mamane. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Hi Nathalya, appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?
It was hard to select one question because my inspiration to be strong, resilient and generous all come from the same place. My grandmother is the main source of my inspiration to give and not only expect nothing in return, but also keep fighting for what is right and to always do it with kindness.
I am the last person in my family to be born in Morrocco. I come from many generations born and bred i Morocco. My paternal grandmother lived in a small community in the city of Rabat, where the Jews lived behind thick walls and doors that would close every night. The Mellah as it was called back then, housed thousands of Jews and among them was my entire paternal family.
My grandmother started off her young adult life as a nurse who was also the local phlebotomist. So she got to know the people in the Mellah well and knew those who were poor, sick or those who needed support. She would offer free services to those who could not afford it and gave support to those who needed it. Her love for giving of herself grew until she started her organization to help the poor and the sick. She hired schoolgirls to attend to those in need while she went out and fundraised for supplies and funded more expensive services for them. After the war, the Mellah no longer became a safe place for jews and they all scattered in the city. That may have been the end of her mission work, but as an adult, I still hear stories from people about how my grandmother stopped at nothing to help those in need.
My grandmother moved in with us in Canada when I was a little girl and she became my roommate in our small 3 bedroom apt. She taught me many lessons about fighting for what was right and that you always get more with kindness than anger. She has received medals of honor for all her work, and I always dreamt of becoming just like her.
My grandmother was known to have a very strong personality that got her to get what she wanted and when she wanted it. I took that from her! In all of my careers, whenever someone has told me something is impossible, I can hear her telling me that hard work and persistence makes EVERYTHING possible.
I have been called many names in my life, many not very nice ones because of my strong personality, but there is one thing no one can take away from me: my willingness to fight for what is right and do it all in fairness and with kindness.
I have plastered all over my wall – I can do hard, I just need possible! What I am doing now is the hardest thing I have ever worked on, but I am willing to fight and put my mark on health equity!
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
I am currently the CEO and founder of RT MicroDx, which aims to reshape the healthcare landscape by offering accurate, affordable, at-home molecular testing solutions that empower individuals, alleviate financial distress, and contribute to healthier communities worldwide. While I spent the earlier part of my career in the event management space, I was motivated by my experiences as a mother of four to make an impact. After completing my MBA at Babson, I started RT MicroDx in 2021 with the vision of making at-home diagnostics more affordable, especially for families in need of reliable healthcare.
If we’re going to address healthcare access, we must remove cost as a barrier to quality care. This allows me to combine my expertise in strategic business planning and passion for health equity to tackle a range of infections and health challenges, backed by a team of leading scientists. I was recently named a finalist by Mass Challenge, Winner of the Babson Entrepreneurial Thought & Action Pitch Competition, and spoke earlier this year at the BIO International Convention and the Next Generation Dx Summit.
For families and individuals on a global stage, RT MicroDx is a catalyst for more accessible healthcare. Unlike other at-home tests of its kind, the RT MicroDx test will not require a reader or advanced equipment and uses saliva samples, empowering individuals and families to take control of their health journey from the comfort of their homes. With accuracy levels reaching 97% specificity and 99% sensitivity, our solutions transcend traditional at-home testing barriers, offering timely and reliable results. By bringing together leading scientific researchers and infectious disease experts, we pledge our relentless dedication to lightening the burdens carried by millions in need of diagnostic testing, and to leaving a mark of positive change on the world.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
The three skills or character traits that were most impactful in my journey – and continue to push my drive forward with RT MicroDx – are collaboration, humility, and tenacity. While not an area of knowledge, collaboration has been vital to expanding my knowledge. By pulling together the right experts in areas where their expertise outweighs my own, I’ve addressed some of the biggest early hurdles of entrepreneurship.
Humility has allowed me to recognize what these areas are and put the ultimate goal and mission of my organization above all else to achieve these goals. It also has empowered me to step out of my privilege to recognize the pain points of others. For example, while I live in an area of the country with fantastic health resources and worked in a job that let me easily accommodate sick children’s schedules to get them the testing needed to ID their illness, many people do not. It is for those people that I started RT MicroDx and continue to work on a low-cost, accessible testing solution.
Finally, I believe everyone benefits from tenacity and the ability to push through early “no’s” to accomplish a bigger goal. Especially early on in your career, it can feel almost insurmountable when leaders or others aren’t offering support, but putting your head down and working through these moments without getting discouraged is instrumental to the growth and, ultimately, success. My biggest advice is for folks early in their journey to know their worth – but also have the humility to recognize the areas where they can improve and have the collaborative spirit to seek out others they can learn from. And if you don’t feel like your worth is currently being recognized, it might just be that you’re in the wrong opportunity.
Is there a particular challenge you are currently facing?
The problem I face is one that many women face everyday. Navigating the ups and downs of building a startup and having presence as a mother, wfe, daughter, sister and friend. With half of my kids now out of the house, so the time for me to have my kids together under one roof is not often and I am not always in shape to appreciate a full house because of the pressures I feel as a founder. I have to make a concerted effort to plug out of my role as a founder and plug in deeply as a mom of children who love to be together. I take the time to step out of the room and take in their laughter, and joy in being together at home. It fills me up and gives me the strength I need to deal with all other challenges.
The other large obstacle I face is being a first time founder for a biotech company in the diagnostic space. Being a first time founder at my age is one obstacle any one would face but when you add the fact that it is in a very challenging space makes it even harder to overcome. Having to fight my way to be credible while I am learning about all the stakeholders such as investors, health systems, regulators, often feels like I am climbing an insurmountable mountain. The only way to overcome that challenge is to find the strength to fight today and to keep fighting for as long as I believe that this is possible. All I need to keep fighting is a smallest glimmer of possibility of success. I can handle hard all I need is possible. So I do not take every rejection personally because I know deep in my heart and I will get to my goal in due time. If I have not crossed the finish line is because I need to do more, grow more, meet more speak more .. Fight More! So I do!
Contact Info:
- Website: rtmicrodx.com
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathalya-mamane-27355b10/
