23andme Party

After a very short while, hearing about the nth social-media, video-sharing, or user-generated-content startup gets boring. After all, you can only listen to so many “unique” ideas if you know what I mean. Luckily, once a year or so, I hear about a company that is truly different, and tonight I attended the friends and family “spit party” of one such company: 23andme.

Never attended a spit party? Neither had I. Here are a few photos from the event.

Clever t-shirt slogan although it probably scares the Dickens out of some people to provide their DNA.

Like any good Silicon Valley party, computers were a focal point. The 23andme process starts with placing an order on a computer. It costs about $999, but party attendees got a discount.

Then you went into the “spit room.” Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell were there providing their spit, but their handlers wouldn’t let me take a picture. I found this ironical: Giving DNA was okay but not a picture. I’m pretty sure Herb Brooks wouldn’t have minded.

This is the “spit kit.” The company should call it iSpit and hope that Apple doesn’t sue them.

Then a kind man who didn’t have a handler allowed me to take a picture of him spitting. It would be just my luck that he’s a Nobel Prize winner. I do wonder how the company will do in Singapore where spitting in public is illegal.

You know what they say: “There’s nothing like a good spit at the end of the day.”

These are the co-founders of the company: Linda Avey (left) and Anne Wojcicki (right). Esther Dyson is also a director plus there are a boatload of PhDs and MDs who are collaborators and advisors. And my buddy Mia.

Here’s what the company does: You sign up for the exam via the 23andme’s website. When you receive your “spit kit,” you do your thing and send it back to 23andme. Then 23andme extracts your DNA, chops it up, copies it, and washes it over the Illumina HumanHap550+ BeadChip (Illumina could use some help naming its products). This chip reads 550,000 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) plus another 30,000 SNPs in a custom-designed set.

The end result is a determination of your genotype. Then you can begin your “personal journey of genetic discovery” which means you learn about your origin and explore the implications of your genotype. You can also “connect genetically with friends, family, and others across the globe.” (I think this marketing-speak for “swap spit,” and I hope this is as close to “social networking” as the company gets.)

I suppose the $1,000 question is whether I took the test. The answer is that I didn’t, and here’s why: If the test reveals that I’m Canadian and not Japanese, then I cannot blame my genetic makeup for my lack of hockey ability. :-)

I hope the company does well. Conservatively speaking, if it gets just 1% of the spit in the world, it will be huge.

Comments

[Hjortur Smarason]

Hi Guy

I guess great ideas come in batches. Last Friday a new website opened called www.decodeme.com that does exactly the same. You order a sample kit, take and send your sample and you get back information about your origin and genetic risk for 17 common diseases. And the price is just under $1.000. Sounds familiar?

One question: Why is it called 23andme?

[Marc Duchesne]

ROTFL ;-)

post-scriptum to Guy : I didn't notice the 'Share on Facebook' button before. Any feedback so far on the hits ?
_Marc

[E Dewhirst]

Ooops blindsided by the rule usage sorry about that - I guess you did not take the test.

And yes having the love of back bacon, poutine and the auto response to jump up in the air and have the hairs on the back of your neck stand up when you hear the words "Breakaway" being yelled, (Gene Y401H), would put mean that you are Canadian.

Cheers - Eric - ;-)

[E Dewhirst]

Hi Guy,

Did you just break the rule number 11? (http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2006/01/the_top_ten_lie_1.html)

Or was that a tongue and cheek reference?

It's funny because the rules become part of your psyche and if you ever catch yourself saying any of the rules or using any of the rules then you know you have to be very careful!

Also did you do the test?

Cheers,

Eric

***********

Eric,

If you have to ask if I was purposely/sarcastically breaking my own rule, you haven't read my stuff long enough. :-)

Guy