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.

©️TechThrive Ventures. All rights reserved.

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

Qvin - https://qvin.com/

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

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Linkedin : ⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/navneet-kaur-80109b227/⁠⁠

Instagram : ⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/nav_neeetkaur/⁠

In this episode Navneet Kaur, Founding Partner at TechThrive Ventures and Founder of FemTech India sits down with Leki Choden, Founder and CEO of Dragon Coders, a Bhutan-based software and digital solutions company working at the intersection of emerging technologies, skills development, and local innovation ecosystems.

Leki is one of the most compelling voices in South Asian tech building a private technology company in a market where trust in private innovation is still being established, mentoring the next generation of Bhutanese technologists, and bringing a distinctly Bhutanese perspective to global conversations on AI ethics, including the India AI Impact Summit 2026.

In this conversation, we cover:

- Founding Dragon Coders: the problem Leki set out to solve.

- Building trust in private tech in Bhutan's evolving ecosystem.

- What Bhutan's startup ecosystem looks like today.

- Bhutan's perspective at the India AI Impact Summit 2026.

- Women in tech: who applies and who holds back.

- Where real change begins for women in technology.

- Funding Dragon Coders: how financial systems fail tech businesses.

- Why locally grounded AI matters more than global generic models.

- Government-led AI in Bhutan: moving from policy to impact.

- What meaningful progress for women in Bhutan's tech ecosystem looks like in 10 years.

- Rapid fire round.

This episode is brought to you in partnership with UNESCO Women for Ethical AI South Asian Chapter.

If you are building in emerging markets, working at the intersection of AI and culture, or simply want to hear what ethical innovation sounds like when it is rooted in lived reality this conversation is for you.

©️TechThrive Ventures. All rights reserved.

Newsletter - https://techthrivenewsletter.beehiiv.com/
UNESCO ethical AI recommendations - ⁠https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000381137⁠

Leki Choden - https://www.linkedin.com/in/leki-choden-605ab829/

Connect with us

Instagram: ⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/ctrl.alt.thrive.podcast/⁠⁠

Youtube :⁠⁠⁠ ⁠https://www.youtube.com/@Ctrlaltthrive/videos

Connect with Navneet

Linkedin : ⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/navneet-kaur-80109b227/⁠⁠

Instagram : ⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/nav_neeetkaur/⁠