Podcast with Mamta Patel (WG ’14) | Flatiron
The hot take: In this episode, Mamta provides an overview of the oncology data space and key insights into the day-to-day operations at Flatiron. She had an operations consulting background before Wharton and was able to leverage that at a time when Flatiron needed strong and measurable growth. Bonus from this episode: Mamta’s thoughtful career advice on choosing your next step and what matters to you.
Outlined below are the different sections of the 35 min podcast with summary bullets.
How Mamta got to Flatiron (0:00–6:00):
- Always had a focus on healthcare…healthcare consulting (largely operations) before Wharton. Felt that consulting was not as close to the technology and lacked the broad scale impact and scalable innovation.
- Spent a summer at a healthcare startup, and focused her time at Wharton on deciding what type of career, role and company would fulfill her. She followed Flatiron while she was at Wharton and the company raised it’s Series B the month she graduated.
- Has been at Flatiron for the past four years, since graduation
Industry and company overview (6:00–13:10):
- Flatiron believes “we can learn from the experience of every cancer patient” and “build the infrastructure for cancer care and research collaboration”
- For community oncology they provide an EHR and practice management software, with over 265 practices leveraging the technology. Platform can also answer complex research questions through large de-identified data sets
- Only 4% of cancer patients get into a clinical trial…Flatiron is looking to bring together disparate data sources, to the find these trials and increase that access to trials and care, regardless of geography
Mamta’s roles at Flatiron (currently leads Operational Excellence Team)(13:10–24:30):
- First role: what tech can be offered to both Provider and Life Science partners (e.g., patient education materials).
- Second role (current one): Flatiron was scaling so fast, they needed a team to redefine the way they worked. The Operation Excellence team was born: it is an internal consulting team focused on process improvement, redesign and change management.
- Example project: how should Flatiron define KPIs to meet its strategic goals? Her team helps teams determine which metrics should be used for which teams, at what level, and how those fit within overall strategic goals.
- Q: How does her teams pull the trigger on decisions? A: Flatiron culture is such that teams are very willing to change. She focuses on understanding what all stakeholders need, what they want to gain from the change, then how data can be collected to measure that change. Her team pilots the changes before they are implemented company-wide.
Roche acquisition comments (24:30–27:10):
- Flatiron has very much remained an independent subsidiary
- A few weeks post acquisition, Flatiron announced an partnership with Bristol-Myers Squibb, one of Roche’s competitors. Key validation of Flatiron’s independence.
Hiring MBAs at Flatiron (27:10–31:35):
- Very MBA-friendly place, many MBAs in a variety of roles across the business
- What she would look for: entrepreneurial-minded folks, take initiative, can identify how Flatiron can be better. Very collaborative environment, so need people who can teach and share their expertise areas.
Final thoughts/advice (31:35–35:00):
- Keep a pulse on who is getting funded, what companies are out there…follow companies while you are at school
- “Use the internship to test something new. It’s very rare to take a step back like that and not have to continue doing that thing for a longer period of time.”
- She got her offer AFTER she graduated from Wharton! Can be picky and take the extra few months to find the right opportunity.
