At War with a pathogen

In the fall of 2020, when COVID-19 cases were spiking again and fear was everywhere, I co-founded 15toKnow with my partner, Dr. Luciano Kapelusznik. We were driven by one simple idea: in the middle of a pandemic, uncertainty is the real enemy. People needed fast answers. Not in days. Not after standing in endless lines. But right away. In fifteen minutes.

October 2020: The Beginning

In October 2020, we opened our very first drive-through testing site. It wasn’t glamorous—just a repurposed parking lot—but it worked. Families could drive in, roll down their windows, and get a test without leaving the car. Within fifteen minutes, they had clarity: could they go to work, visit their parents, gather for the holidays?

I’ll never forget those early days. People came through anxious, skeptical, even scared. But when their phone pinged with the results—negative or positive—they left with certainty instead of limbo. That was our mission in action.

The Surge into Winter

By November and December 2020, demand was overwhelming. PCR results from other providers were taking up to a week, sometimes longer. We had people showing up in droves—teachers, restaurant staff, business owners, entire families.

Luciano and I scaled as fast as we could. We opened new sites across Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware, often in shopping center parking lots where space was abundant and easy to access. We engineered the flow so cars moved quickly, staff worked in coordinated pods, and patients used their phones to check in and track results. I made sure the user experience on the tech platform was dead-simple.

By Christmas, 15toKnow wasn’t a single outpost anymore—it was a network. We were testing hundreds of people every day at each site, and expanding as quickly as resources allowed. I remember Luciano and I being at my house on new year's eve day, just hitting refresh on our BI tool, watching the sales go up.

January 2021: A Turning Point

When the calendar turned to January 2021, we hit another level. In King of Prussia, we transformed a shuttered Toys “R” Us parking lot into a mega testing and vaccination hub. We built four massive drive-through structures: two for testing and two ready for vaccines. At full tilt, we could handle 3,000 cars a day.

That winter was our crucible. The lines were endless. The phones never stopped ringing. But it was also the most inspiring work of my life. Parents would thank us with tears in their eyes. Workers would roll through before a shift, desperate to know if they were safe to show up. Teenagers came with grandparents, whole families crammed into one car. We weren’t just doing medicine; we were providing peace of mind at scale.

Vaccinations: A New Phase

As spring arrived and vaccines became available, 15toKnow pivoted instantly. We had already designed our sites for this moment. By March 2021, we were an approved vaccination provider and began administering doses at our drive-through lanes. That first weekend, we delivered hundreds of shots. By April, we were vaccinating thousands per week, sometimes 3,000 doses a day at King of Prussia alone.

It was humbling to realize: for tens of thousands of people, their first steps toward normalcy—toward hugging a loved one again—began in a 15toKnow lane.

Rapid PCR: the next new phase

After the initial success with rapid antigen testing, Luciano and I realized that to further elevate trust and serve high-risk individuals—like healthcare workers, elderly patients, and employers demanding precision—we needed something more accurate yet still fast.

So, in 2021, we introduced rapid molecular testing: Abbott ID-Now NAAT and Accula RT-PCR. These platforms blended the “gold-standard” accuracy of PCR with turnaround times of 15 to 30 minutes. Suddenly, we weren’t just fast—we were precise.

From then on, communities knew that 15toKnow could offer both pace and precision—answers you could trust, in the time you needed them.

By the Numbers

Over the course of our run, 15toKnow:

• Tested more than 500,000 people.

• Vaccinated tens of thousands.

• Operated multiple sites across three states.

• Delivered results in 15 minutes when most others still required days.

The Human Side

But the numbers don’t tell the whole story. The true impact was in the moments we witnessed every day:

• Thanksgiving 2020: Hugging a mom and daughter (still masked) at our Plymouth Meeting site with their negative test that allowed the to see their dying mother/grandmother for one last thanksgiving

• October 2020: The frontline worker who sobbed with relief after a negative test meant she could keep showing up safely.

• March 2021: The father who drove his kids through for vaccines, rolling down the window with a smile that said: We made it.

• October 2021: The nervous college student able to travel because we got them an approved rapid-PCR test

For me, those are the memories that will last a lifetime.

Closing the Chapter

By 2022, the landscape shifted. Pharmacies were offering vaccines. At-home tests were widely available. The demand for mass drive-through operations declined. And so, after testing over half a million people and vaccinating tens of thousands, we decided it was time to close 15toKnow.

That decision wasn’t easy. But the mission had been fulfilled. We stepped up when the need was greatest, and when the world caught up, we stepped aside.

Our Legacy

Looking back, what we built wasn’t just a company—it was a public-health force born out of urgency and ingenuity. In a matter of weeks, Luciano and I went from an idea on paper to serving thousands of people a day. We proved that entrepreneurs, working alongside medical professionals, could fill critical gaps when traditional systems moved too slowly.

The name “15toKnow” was more than a brand. It was a promise. In fifteen minutes, we could replace fear with knowledge, doubt with certainty. That’s what we delivered—half a million times over.

I am proud of what we accomplished. Proud of the team that showed up in freezing parking lots, in sweltering tents, in long days that blurred into nights. Proud that we gave families answers when they were desperate for them. Proud that, in the darkest moments of the pandemic, we brought clarity, speed, and reassurance.

15toKnow may no longer exist as an operating company, but its spirit lives on in the proof that speed, creativity, and compassion can change the trajectory of entire communities.