Insider Insight: Alice Mattsson, founder of Pharmista Technologies

Alice Mattsson is the founder of Pharmista Technologies, a Swedish start-up aiming to disrupt the pregnancy testing market by developing a reusable, eco-friendly pregnancy test.

What is your morning routine?

I wake up at 8am, grab a cup of coffee and then start the day at around 8.30am in my apartment.

Which technology could you not live without?

I’ve recently installed Google Chrome and I think it’s the best thing ever hehe.

How do you relax?

I prefer going to our country house in the Stockholm archipelago with my family and my boyfriend.

I’m actually pretty good at relaxing, so I don’t generally do a specific thing to relax. Maybe going for a run to clear my head if I’ve had an intense day.

Which quote resonates with you?

I’ve got a few, all extracted from the NITCH Instagram page.

“Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.” – Simone Weil

“Boy, I hurried… I hurried for a long time. I’m sorry I did. All the time you’re hurrying, you’re not really as aware as you should be. You’re trying to make things happen instead of just letting it happen. You follow me?” – Bob Dylan

“I think the job of the artist is to remind people of what they have chosen to forget” – Arthur Miller

“People usually think that progress consists in the increase of knowledge, in the improvement of life, but that isn’t so. Progress consists only in the greater clarification of answers to the basic questions of life. The truth is always accessible to a man…because a man’s soul is a divine spark, the truth itself. It’s only a matter of removing from this divine spark, everything that obscures it. Progress consists, not in the increase of truth, but in freeing it from its wrappings. The truth is obtained like gold, not by letting it grow bigger, but by washing off from it everything that isn’t gold.” – Leo Tolstoy

What is the best thing about your job?

That I’m entitled to make my own decisions, meet inspiring and generous people and create a product that should have been on the market decades ago.

What keeps you motivated?

Working with talented and kind people sharing my vision with the company. I also get really motivated seeing others become excited about my product.

What is the most important lesson you have learned on your start-up journey?

It would probably be that no matter what obstacles you are facing things are going to work out in the end in some shape or form.

I am also less scared of failing, since you fail on a regular basis running a start-up.

What advice would you give to your younger self?

Keep paying attention and stick to your gut feeling.

What is something you wish you could experience again for the first time?

This is a tricky one… maybe going to a concert?

When I was five my parents took me too see a very famous children’s band here in Sweden, called Trazan & Banarne, and apparently I lost it when my favourite song My Piraya Maja came on and then passed out half-way into the concert.

It must have been an incredible experience and I would gladly experience it again for the first time.

What is your greatest achievement since establishing your company?

Receiving a patent in Sweden and financing our proof of concept study. Those were two major milestones!