In this episode of the Startup Tri-Valley Podcast, hosts Yolanda Fintschenko, executive director of Daybreak Labs and i-GATE Innovation Hub, home of the Startup Tri-Valley (STV) Initiative, and Lisa Adamos, Economic Development Manager for the City of Pleasanton, sit down with Reem Mahrat, a serial entrepreneur and founder of EazeBio. Reem shares her personal journey of battling autoimmune disease and how it inspired her to write the book “Feed Your Good Genes: Avoid Autoimmune Disease.” She emphasizes the importance of empowering individuals to take control of their health through better choices and understanding gene expression.
Reem discusses the innovative work at EazeBio, including the development of a novel biomarker that provides real-time insights into metabolic health. This biomarker helps patients see immediate results from their diet, exercise, and stress management, offering a personalized metabolic dashboard.
Reem also highlights the significance of having a strong “why” in entrepreneurship and the importance of teamwork in achieving success.
Tune in to hear Reem’s inspiring story, her vision for transforming healthcare, and practical advice for founders balancing multiple roles and responsibilities.
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Read the Episode Transcript
Startup Tri-Valley Podcast – Reem Mahrat
Yolanda: This is the startup Tri-Valley Podcast featuring in-depth conversations with the leaders who are making the Tri-Valley the go-to ecosystem for science-based startups. I’m Yolanda Fintschenko from Startup Tri-Valley. I’m Lisa Adamos with the City of Pleasanton. I’d like to welcome Reem Mahrat to the pod. Reem is an entrepreneur in residence at Daybreak Lab, founder of Eaze Bio, a Daybreak Lab’s member company, serial entrepreneur, and most importantly, co-author of Feed Your Good Genes, avoid Autoimmune Disease. Reem, welcome!
Reem: Thank you so much for having me! I’m truly so excited to be here today. Thank you, ladies!
Yolanda: So, I’ll start with a question. What inspired you to write a book?
Reem: This book actually is very personal. It’s born from my own struggle with autoimmune disease, years of unanswered questions and treatment that really never got to the root cause. So, I wanted to share with the audience how your genes are not your fate. The way you live, manage the stress, can turn the gene on and off and give you the power to control your life.
So, it’s all about empowerment. Educate leaders about the tools they have to take control of their life and write their own health journey.
Yolanda: That’s amazing.
Lisa: Yeah. So, what do you hope your audience will do differently as a result of reading your book?
Reem: Make better choices. Yes.
Genetics set the stage right, but you hold the pen. So, I’m hoping the reader will make better choices that would influence their gene expression in a good way. And feeding your good genes.
Yolanda: Yeah. That’s amazing. So, you’re hoping the audience will make better choices and I’m curious, how do you think your book will inspire them? It seems like making better choices is a component. Some component is knowledge, but there’s a component that’s inspiration and discipline. And I’m curious how you feel like your book addresses that.
Reem: I love the question. Same philosophy that drives writing this book is the reason why we built Eazebio.
So even if you change your diet and you exercise, the current biomarkers don’t give you real time analysis or insight into your metabolic health. So, the patient wouldn’t see, like even if you eat healthy for a day or two or a week or three months, your HBA1C is still the same, and sometimes you feel like you don’t see a result, right? Because that biomarker shifts very slowly. So, to empower the patient, we start Eazebio by having a novel biomarker that gives you real-time insight into metabolic health. So basically, it would tell you your adaptation score, how your food intake, your exercise, your medication influences your metabolic score. So if you are a patient, if you do it every day and you’re on top of your health, you can see results. You know our biomarker, GDF 15, it would tell you your metabolic stress level is low or high, and our vision for patients will be able to have a metabolic dashboard personalized that you can actually write whatever you want by just adjusting your diet, your exercise, how you manage your stress. Because it’s really important for me personally to see the result.
If you don’t see the result, it’s hard for you to adjust. Most of the healthcare currently, sadly, makes you wait for the disease to happen and then you scramble for treatment, which is too late. And the other thing is that it is not real time. So, it’s all about, you know trial and errors, right?
It takes multiple times. You put in multiple medications, and they wait three months to figure out if you are responding or not. To answer that. You need to run a biomarker test that tells you real-time insight into what’s happening in your body. So, we are empowering the reader with the right tools to take control of their health, not just education.
Also, the biomarker piece test.
Yolanda: That’s amazing. So yes,
Lisa: The immediate result, like you said, you don’t have to wait long, three months to see. That’s inspiration enough, I feel for some people.
Yolanda: Agree. And so that actually brings me to, I think, a really important question. And I think founders will be wondering that if founding a company is, is so much work and you actually founded Eaze Bio immediately after your exit from your diagnostic company, Ramen ID. How did you do it and how would you advise a founder if they feel like they have a book inside them? Yes. And they’re balancing the book and the product, and it sounds to me like you may have cracked the code.
So why don’t you talk about it,
Reem: I believe your story matters as much as your science you’re creating. So, on your story, make it, drive your future and don’t hold it, you know, back. just it’s an inspiration. Always find your why for me, Eazebio. It’s because as a woman, I’ve been struggling like we all have healthcare concerns have been like delayed, right? Sometimes misdiagnosed and women suffer in silence. So, we want to change that system, and we don’t want to wait for the system. To catch up. We’re building that solution for everyone. And I got lucky because I got connected with the really smart, brilliant women. They share the same mission and we’re just so excited about what we can do together.
And this is how East Bio was born based on really on personal mission and a great team that got together and want to change the word. Make it better for everybody
Yolanda: That’s amazing.
Lisa: That is great.
Lisa: You had mentioned, and previously about the, your father being an inspiration. So obviously family is very important to you.
How do you as a founder, get everything done? You’re a mother, you’re a wife, you’re an author. How do you manage, we just talked about it’s not about managing time but managing your attention. But how do you do all that to be successful?
Reem: I focus on what truly matters. And now I have like so many things on to-do-list, right? To be honest with you, the simple thing for me to choose what I want to work on “is it a hell yes” or “is it mm” really what matters? You focus on the things that no one else can do. Like, I start to delegate, when it’s possible, but sometimes you can’t, right?
Because we’re a startup. That’s the word of the startup. You do everything, but you get to trust your team. You train them well, select and surround yourself with the right people. Teamwork will lift everybody. So, we’re doing great as a team. And again, it’s all about being focused and controlling your attention.
Yolanda: There you go. And know what your hell yes is. Yeah. I like that. Yes, I love this. Is there anything else about the book that you wanted to share that we didn’t ask?
Reem: I think ladies, you covered everything. Thank you.
Yolanda: So, I love ending with “the hell yes”. Yes. Know “your hell yes”.
Yes, and certainly, we can put the details of how to find this book in the show notes. Yes, Reem, thank you so much for joining us on the podcast. We really appreciate you.