23andMe’s entire board resigned on the same day. Founder Anne Wojcicki still thinks the startup is savable

2 years ago by MicroWave to c/news

What really happened at the once hot DNA testing company.
ThunderWhiskers 227 points 2 years ago

The company was founded almost 20 years ago. At what point is it no longer a startup?

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EtherWhack 47 points 2 years ago

I think they are confused on thinking that any private company is a startup.

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stoly 45 points 2 years ago

I worked for a company that was roughly 15 years old at the time and still very much in startup mode. In the end, it was a mechanism to shovel lots of money into the pocket of the CEO and some of the investors. It's why they never grew, aside from incompetence.

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driving_crooner 29 points 2 years ago

There's a company in Brazil that advertise itself as a "100 years old startup", completely ridiculous.

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Tyfud 12 points 2 years ago
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driving_crooner 11 points 2 years ago

I guess the point is talking about how they're still disruptive and innovative, buzz words associated with startups.

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Grandwolf319 12 points 2 years ago

When they are profitable I’m guessing. Usually startups are suppose to grow as fast as they can even if it means running a deficit. Pretty ridiculous imo.

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Marthirial 7 points 2 years ago

It's like when you have a shitty kid that never grows up and is still pissing the bed 20 years later.

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Flocklesscrow 14 points 2 years ago

The bedwetting is probably a symptom of trauma inflicted by shitty parenting. Usually is.

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trashgirlfriend 1 point 2 years ago

Are we psychoanalysing Anne Wojcicki

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Noodle07 5 points 2 years ago

Wow don't call me out like that dude

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monkeyslikebananas2 126 points 2 years ago

Don’t worry, the data will get bought up by the healthcare industry and start using it to deny coverage or to increase premiums.

“You’ve been randomly selected for a rate increase! For no reason at all! Definitely random!” - Your insurance in 2 years, probably

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billiam0202 61 points 2 years ago

Health insurance industry.

Most people in healthcare hate them too.

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nehal3m 10 points 2 years ago

I’ve never thought about it like that, but you raise an interesting point. From the point of view of patients insurance is an inextricable part of health care. I’m not so sure you can separate them that easily. Even in Western Europe the trend is towards privatization so when something happens to me health wise my first concern is insurance, never mind the actual problem. It’s a tragedy. Let’s just go back to setting up a mandatory fund and paying out from that without the profit seeking middlemen. We don’t need them.

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billiam0202 43 points 2 years ago

You know what's really stupid?

Every American who has private insurance right now, could pay that exact same amount instead to the federal government and let it pay our medical bills, and it would result in more people getting care and less cost for the healthcare industry.

Of course, for some reason, some people are strongly opposed to the destruction of a multi-billion-dollar rent-seeking middleman industry and also opposed to healthcare going to certain, shall we say, melaninistically-blessed Americans.

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rc__buggy 11 points 2 years ago

Mine costs my employer and myself $15,000 yearly. Colorado marketplace insurance for a "silver" plan (probably very expensive to actually use) is over $8k.

If we all just pooled that money it'd make Medicare for All a reality.

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kent_eh 10 points 2 years ago

Every American who has private insurance right now, could pay that exact same amount instead to the federal government and let it pay our medical bills

Probably pay less and get more access to a wider range of medical services.

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dan 3 points 2 years ago

Every American who has private insurance right now, could pay that exact same amount instead to the federal government and let it pay our medical bills

That's called a single-payer healthcare system, and it's a good idea. The government can negotiate pricing for the entire country, rather than having a lot of smaller insurance companies that are all in it to make a profit.

Australia has a hybrid public/private system where everyone has public health care (so you can see a doctor and get treated even if you don't have any money), but you can choose to get private insurance if you want to. It's a decent idea.

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overload 27 points 2 years ago

I'd be really interested to know my heritage but this scenario actively is stopping me from doing so.

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Shiggles 28 points 2 years ago

It’s okay, you can just be like me and have both your parents do it! They may not know my exact data, but they’ve got enough to guess.

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intelisense 10 points 2 years ago

I really don't get this. I know where my parents and grandparents came from. Should I care if I have Irish or African blood? It baffles me that anyone does. How would that information would change my life? We should be judged by our actions, not by the origin of our distant ancestors.

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overload 21 points 2 years ago

I think you get disease risk data, which does give you some useful info.

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FaceDeer 12 points 2 years ago

Knowing whether I have First Nations blood on my mother's side would have real legal benefits for me (my mom is estranged from her family and so has never told me much about them, but there's some possibility there given their historical context). I know a friend who had to prove he was 1/8 Metis in order to get a job as a web designer with a particular company.

I think it's ridiculous and flat out racist, frankly, but there are indeed benefits in this day and age from having particular ancestry.

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naeap 3 points 2 years ago

Holy fuck, how is this legal?

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QuarterSwede 8 points 2 years ago

I’m of the same mind. Luckily my entire family is fairly skeptical of things like this. While we want to know more about our ancestry (we know the culture we’re from as it’s pretty well documented, we would like to hone down where exactly we’re most likely from. Our last name hints at it in the region but it’s still unclear.) I would rather travel across the ocean and do manual research than give my DNA to any of the ancestry companies.

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can_you_change_your_username 8 points 2 years ago

The people who most benefit from DNA ancestry are people who want to know where they came from but documentation is scarce or non-existent. In the US that group is primarily composed of the descendents of slaves. It can also help people descendent of native groups who only know that they are from some native people of North America identity a particular tribe.

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QuarterSwede 2 points 2 years ago

Great point. I can see that being a big draw.

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curiousaur -15 points 2 years ago

Devils advocate.

If you're significantly more likely to get cancer, why shouldn't you pay a higher rate? It's not fair to me who doesn't have same likelihood.

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idiomaddict 10 points 2 years ago

It’s also not fair to the people who are more likely to get cancer. People don’t choose their genes and the point of society is to reduce the negative effects of things people don’t choose.

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supersquirrel 7 points 2 years ago

Angels advocate.

All you are really saying is "sucks to suck" which isn't so much a position on policy as it is a statement that under a failed social safety net you believe you would be fine.

Let me tell you something about your future, your body will (hopefully) fall apart slowly. It will be an awful, painful ordeal. Do you want the society you are in to target you as it is happening because your body is breaking down or semi-permanently injured?

Let me answer that one for you, you don't.

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curiousaur -1 points 2 years ago

It's all about stats though, rates. If you have two separate groups that are under insurance umbrellas. Say two separate companies all insured together. One tests with high likelihood for cancer, so across the large group of 5000 people you can be pretty sure about 500 will get cancer and or heart disease. The other only 100 out of 5000.

Those diseases don't account for all insurance expenses, so we'll say 5 times the cancer rate means 3 times the total expense. If it's costing three times as much to insure one group as the other, where should that money come from then? They either need to start paying more overall or folks will start being denied care since the funds aren't there. Why shouldn't the group pay more. But then, if it's more expensive at group a, why wouldn't those who are not predisposed jump over to group b?

If the US nationalizes healthcare, it also seems unfair that California has to pay for the greatly increased heart disease and obesity rates of Oklahoma and Mississippi.

I acknowledge this is a criticism of insurance as a whole, but we're seeing these effects across healthcare but also home insurance from climate change.

If I own a house in a forest that's dried out and dying from bark beetles, sudden oak death, and drought, my insurance is going to cost like 5 times the average. And rightfully so.

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supersquirrel 2 points 2 years ago

You have used many words and referenced many concepts and yet you haven't changed your argument at all, you are still just saying your position is "it sucks to suck".

If you don't care about ethics and empathy and rather subscribe to a rugged individualism where all problems are framed as failures of individuals and our responsibility to care for others only extends so far as the suffering person "deserves", what is there to discuss?

Your position is you don't care, one day when your turn comes to be one of those people who needs more help than others your tune will change mighty fast... but if we listen to voices like yours it will be far too late for you then.

I would prefer to point out how foolish your position is and build a world that will care for you when the day comes that you suddenly need more help than you ever thought you would.

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scoobford 2 points 2 years ago

Literally the entire point of insurance is that everyone pays into a pool which is used to subsidize the people with bad luck who will have to claim more than their peers.

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curiousaur 0 points 2 years ago

But what if you can choose your pool?

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scoobford 1 point 2 years ago

You don't. You don't pick your genetics, your family, the accidents that happen in your life, or even (to a certain extent) your environment.

If you want to save money on health insurance, stop letting insurance and healthcare companies fuck all of us for their own profit.

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thedeadwalking4242 74 points 2 years ago

Is it still considered a start up? Haven’t they been around for like 10 years no

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Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In 7 points 2 years ago

If it doesn't have positive cash flow then it's still considered a startup.

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Oachkatzlschwoaf 18 points 2 years ago

I case anyone ins wondering why that name sounds familiar.

She's the sister of former YouTube CEO Susan wojicki (who apparently died since stepping down from YouTube)

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FlyingSquid 12 points 2 years ago

Cool. Will it be savable before or after the Nazis use that list of Ashkenazi Jews hackers got from your company as a kill list?

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Silentiea 4 points 2 years ago

Honestly probably only before, you know?

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ambitious_bones 12 points 2 years ago

Is there a non-paywalled link for this?

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lulztard 12 points 2 years ago path: 0 12952134 12952405, hotness: undefined, score: 12, children: 0
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whatsgoingdom 2 points 2 years ago
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