23andMe's Fatal Flaw | Great Expectorations | 1

Business Wars

Wondery

History, Business, David Brown, Management

4.6 • 13.2K Ratings

🗓️ 11 June 2025

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

When Silicon Valley power-player Anne Wojcicki sees gold in genetics, she forms 23andMe. She wants to bring genetic testing to the masses. But behind the hype and celebrity endorsements, can she build a company that’s selling more than just an expensive novelty product?

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of business wars, 23 and Me's fatal flaw,
0:05.6	early and ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.
0:15.6	September 2008.
0:21.9	It's New York Fashion Week and inside the twisted towers of the IAC building in Chelsea, a party's underway.
0:28.2	Rock music blasts from the speakers.
0:30.7	Waiters flit through the crowd with plates of tiny delicate canopets.
0:34.8	The guest list is star-studded.
0:37.1	Ivanka Trump is here. So is Wendy Murdoch,
0:40.5	and, sheesh, Harvey Weinstein. Places heaving with the great, the good, and the not-so-good.
0:47.8	All dolled up in tuxitos and high-fashioned evening gowns, and they're all spitting. Not in an old West Saloon way, but in a
0:56.5	dribble into a test tube sort of way. And that's because 23 and me organized this party.
1:04.0	23 and Me is a hip new startup. It sells DNA tests by mail. Its customers are people who are
1:10.7	curious about their genetic makeup.
1:13.3	Generally, these customers are rich.
1:16.1	23 and Me's tests cost $999.
1:20.0	Or they did until tonight.
1:22.7	Tonight's party is to celebrate 23 and Me's slashing its prices by $600.
1:28.3	Now its DNA tests cost $39.
1:32.3	That's still some way off from an impulse buy, but it's moving in the right direction.
1:39.3	What do you get for your money?
1:41.3	The chance to spit into a test tube and send your saliva sample into a lab so your
1:45.2	DNA can be examined. No, it's not graceful, but 23 and Me is leaning into it, hence tonight's
	...

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