Yes - we'd love to hear from interested engineers. If you have any questions, drop me a line

mikep at 23andme

Sell it to me. What do you have to offer that say, Counsyl doesn't?

Direct to consumer sales are dead/dying at the hands of the FDA. Gene patents look like they're getting legally thornier. So, what's your angle?

How do you avoid a war to the realm of being a commodity?

> Direct to consumer sales are dead/dying at the hands of the FDA.

Not true - such rumors have been greatly exaggerated.

>What do you have to offer that say, Counsyl doesn't?

At the moment: Access to your whole genotype and a curated set of the published literature, rather than a narrow carrier screening. Deep ancestry analysis & finding long-lost cousins. A commitment to advancing the science of genetics. As the database grows, the insights we generate create more value for the end-user. http://tinyurl.com/246mw46

In the future: There's lots of opportunity - come talk to us about it.

>How do you avoid a war to the realm of being a commodity?

genotyping is becoming commoditized, the interpretation of the A's, C's, G's and T's is not. We're in a sweet spot where rapidly falling costs: - let us offer our service at a lower cost to a broader market - improve the rates of discovery & create a more valuable interpretation We have an economy of scale which will allow us to: - negotiate lower costs - have a bigger database of potential relatives to meet - better interpret the meaning individual's genetics

I tried applying to them a while back with no dice. They seem like a really cool company to work for and I really like their product. It's disheartening to see their ads for engineers everywhere I go, but maybe I dont qualify as top-notch at this point.

You may have applied just as they had a round of layoffs. Don't take it personally.

http://techcrunch.com/2009/10/29/layoffs-confirmed-at-23andm...

Yeah, I think I applied a bit after that, maybe sometime in April of this year. Not taking it too personally, I'm only a few years out of school so I imagine there are some more experienced applicants.