#FemaleFounderFriday: Mehek Mohan, Clean Slate
This #FemaleFounderFriday, we celebrate UC Berkeley Molecular & Cell Biology ’19 founder Mehek Mohan of Clean Slate.
Mehek has the single best opening question to introduce her company. Just ask her. 
She leads one of only three undergrad teams in the UC-wide LAUNCH accelerator and is also an NSF I-Corps alum.
Her secret to success? Do something you’re passionate about and do it with friends–her co-founders, Kanoa Cook (ChemE, ’20) & David Mai (BioE & EECS, ’19) met in a microfluidics class. They’ve leveraged their complementary skill sets while becoming good friends.
Clean Slate focuses on diagnosing chlamydia and other STDs. Why?
“Sexual health is an extremely important field that not enough people openly discuss. STDs are highly stigmatized and as college students we are a part of the most susceptible demographic. Without awareness and insight to our own physiological functions, we are not equipped to make the best decisions for ourselves and those around us. CleanSlate was conceptualized to tackle this public health concern by making access to STD information available for individuals to rapidly test themselves in privacy and at a low cost.”
Biggest challenges so far?
“We thought the hardest part would be to manufacture the device. I personally found it challenging to consider multiple other factors such as regulation, intellectual property, partnerships, and competing interests while trying to build a scalable business model and engaging with end users.”
Read more from Mehek et al. and the rest of the LAUNCH teams here.
Learn more about & apply for our next NSF I-Corps short course here.