Genetic testing company 23andMe's stock is trading at around 75 cents as of this writing, a precipitous fall for a company that the Wall Street Journal dubs "one of the hottest startups in the world ... five years ago." Its valuation has fallen 98% from its former $6 billion height; Nasdaq told the company in November it had 180 days to get its stock above the $1 mark or risk being delisted. In a lengthy piece based on more than 50 interviews, the Journal zeroes in on 50-year-old co-founder and CEO Anne Wojcicki, retracing her path to getting the company off the ground, the celebs who helped fuel its start (the testing kit was one of Oprah's favorite things), the roadblocks 23andMe has faced, and her big ambitions to turn the company into a drug developer and provider of medical care and subscription health reports.
The idea for the home test came from Wojcicki's co-founder, genetics expert Linda Avey, whom Wojcicki met in 2005 through Google co-founder Sergey Brin (Wojcicki and Brin were dating at the time, married in 2007, and divorced in 2015). Wojcicki wanted in on Avey's idea, and Avey says, "I saw the stars aligning"—involving Wojcicki would secure Google's support. Indeed, Brin and Google put money into the company. Sources say by 2009 Wojcicki wanted the reins to herself and had the board fire Avey. Funding obtained in 2012 dropped the DNA test price to $99; FDA approval came two years later, and interest boomed. But it's a test customers only take once. Wojcicki believes the future of the company lies in developing drugs. It has identified dozens of candidates with two in early-stage trials—but money is running out. (Read the full piece.)
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