11 Feb 2019 Spotlight on Molecular You
Describe your company and its product.
Molecular You is a digital health company providing health assessments that give a full picture of your current and future health and a personalized action plan to help you stay healthy.
What year did your company start?
We were founded in 2014 and launched our product in 2017.
Which city (or cities) are you located?
Our headquarters are in Vancouver, BC. Our test is available in BC, Alberta and Ontario.
Describe your company culture in three words.
- Innovative
- Transparent
- Compassionate
How do you celebrate company or employee wins?
We usually celebrate over a healthy team lunch!
What is the problem that you are trying to solve?
Shifting from reactive to preventive health care. Helping people take control of their health by knowing their health risks ahead of time, and what they can change.
What is your biggest milestone to date?
The relaunch of our platform in the spring of 2018. It has been well-received and has opened up numerous market opportunities.
What is your biggest challenge?
Helping people to realize that a DNA test like 23andMe just shows your inherited risks. You need to look at blood biomarkers to really understand what is happening in your body right now.
What is your motto?
Take control of your health. We want to empower individuals with information about their health and take action to achieve their health goals.
How are you making an impact?
We give people early warning flags and concrete action plans to lower their health risks and stay healthy.
What is your hope for the future of tech in BC?
To really innovate in BC, we need to have more collaborative projects drawing from multiple diverse specialists. The Supercluster is a great example of this.
Lightning Round with Robert Fraser, President and CEO, Founder of Molecular You
What excites you about your job?
Revolutionizing healthcare – turning sick care into health care, being disruptive.
What was the biggest obstacle you had to overcome?
The loss of my mother when I was 18. It is one of those losses you never fully overcome, but you learn to manage it.
Wildest thing you ever have done?
I have two – Playing the bagpipes for the Queen of England and storm sailing in Alberta
What are your pet peeves?
Unfinished business – I hate seeing things incomplete.
Words of wisdom to other tech CEOs or founders?
Build a great team and the rest will follow. Everyone recognizes and respects a great team. Even the team!
Favourite city you visited?
Trogir, Croatia- I lived in Paris for years and have a natural love for it but Trogir is magnificent and surrounded by blue water, fascinating history and they are great water polo players!
What is your formula for success?
Having fun at what you do! Also, the for success health was delivered in my Molecular You action plan which I follow to the benefit of my long-term health.
Name one book that everyone should read.
The Personalized Medicine Revolution by Pieter Cullis. My favourite novel, though, is James Joyce’s Ulysses.
How do you decompress?
Playing water polo. Love the water and nothing helps me decompress like playing in the water.
Favourite movie?
Anything by Stanley Kubrick or Quentin Tarantino, Clockwork Orange/Pulp Fiction.