Big Think Interview with Anne Wojcicki | Big Think

Big Think Interview with Anne Wojcicki

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A conversation with the Co-founder and President of 23andMe.

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Anne Wojcicki:

Anne's background is in healthcare investing, focused primarily on biotechnology companies. Anne left the investing world with the hope that she could have a positive impact on research and medicine through 23andMe. From her vantage point, Anne saw a need for creating a way to generate more information - especially more personalized information - so that commercial and academic researchers could better understand and develop new drugs and diagnostics. By encouraging individuals to access and learn about their own genetic information, 23andMe will create a common, standardized resource that has the potential to accelerate drug discovery and bring personalized medicine to the public. Anne graduated from Yale University with a B.S. in biology.

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TRANSCRIPT:

Topic: Partnerships in business

Anne Wojcicki: I would always recommend a partnership because for me it seemed like – when Linda and I first met, we came together and said we have no ego, we really just wanted to make this happen. And we worked at an amazing schedule where I tend to go to bed late, Linda wakes up really early. So we actually worked almost 24/7 for years. And we got an amazing amount of stuff done. And the contacts, I had a tremendously different number of contacts than Linda had and we were really able to, I think, get the kind of marketing reach and the kind of publicity because we came from different worlds, but had such similar ideas. So, it’s perfect. It’s really – to do a start up when you only have five people and you need to make such an impact and especially with genetics, personal genetics, there are so many people to talk to. So, I have to say, I’m really proud of what we did. And it was a lot of fun. We had a really great time. And I’m actually very excited about the idea of working with Linda in the Alzheimer’s initiative that she is taking on because I think it’s the culmination of exactly what we’ve done. We both have personal interests about what we want to do and now, 23andMe has built this platform to do consumer-directed research initiatives and Linda’s executing on that. And Alzheimer’s is going to be her first initiative, she has other diseases that she wants to go after and I think, to me, it’s a great moment the fact that you actually feel comfortable enough to leave and say I’m going to take on my own personal health issues that I really want to work on.

In terms of being two women, I think neither of us really thought about it that much, we both worked in industries where it has been either male-dominated, or a mix. The questions come up and we never really thought about it that much. It’s more that people ask us about it a lot and that there are conferences like the Fortune Most Powerful Woman’s Conference. It’s really fun. But I find that people then end up talking a lot about, what’s it like to be a woman? For me, the biggest change was that there was a line in the bathroom. So, but other than that, it was great when we had more people who were all pregnant at the same time and everyone can commiserate about breast feeding, which I guess is unique, but we never really thought about it that much.

Topic: Embracing a radical idea

Anne Wojcicki: I’d say 23andMe, as much as we have the reputation for being the consumer-oriented company and we are consumer-oriented, we are so heavy on the science that, to us, it was sort of obvious. Of course you’re going to want your genetic information. We all want our genetic information. Why would you not want genetic information? And I think that’s probably something that we underestimated in terms of the effect that people don’t really necessarily know exactly what do they want to do with the genetic information. Why would they want it?

I think about other industries where it’s been a big technology shift. TIVO was a big shift in how people watched TV, but everyone understood the concept of TV. No one really understands the concept of, well why would I want my genetic information? And I think one of the other big challenges that we have is that healthcare is not a true free market because you are used to going through a doctor and saying you want X, Y, and Z, and not paying for it.

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