Flatley is pleasant, but he’s boring. He sits in a cubicle, because he doesn’t believe in offices, wearing a blue dress shirt open at the collar. He’s not prone to excited soliloquies about changing the world. Even his genome seemed boring when he first had it sequenced. The most interesting tidbit was that he had a gene for a disorder called familial cold autoinflammatory syndrome, which, for him, had one symptom: He got a rash in the cold as a child. But because of his focus on execution, he may be one of the most effective CEOs in the life sciences industry–or any industry.
Illumina was founded in 1998 without a product or even a prototype. Flatley was recruited by the founders in 1999 because he’d successfully sold his last outfit, Molecular Dynamics, for $300 million.
At the time Illumina’s goal wasn’t to sequence every letter of a person’s DNA–back then it cost $360 million per person–but to take snapshots of individual genes quickly. Another company, Affymetrix, had that market locked up with its DNA microarrays, tiny glass slides with specific genetic patterns on them. The tech took advantage of the fact that DNA’s four-letter code–A, G, T, C–matches up in a specific way, A to T, G to C, in two opposing strands. If an opposing sequence were present, say, in blood, it would stick to the gene chip like Velcro. But Illumina had a better way: By putting the DNA on beads instead of flat slides, there was more surface area, a better signal-to-noise ratio and, it hoped, more accurate results.
Flatley was able to raise $100 million while genetics stocks were hot. He made sure Illumina had backup plans when its partner, the then-dominant DNA sequencer maker, Applied Biosystems, flaked out. And he kept the personal touch, writing birthday cards to every employee until Illumina hired employee 500 in 2006.
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Illumina was founded in 1998 without a product or even a prototype. Flatley was recruited by the founders in 1999 because he’d successfully sold his last outfit, Molecular Dynamics, for $300 million.
At the time Illumina’s goal wasn’t to sequence every letter of a person’s DNA–back then it cost $360 million per person–but to take snapshots of individual genes quickly. Another company, Affymetrix, had that market locked up with its DNA microarrays, tiny glass slides with specific genetic patterns on them. The tech took advantage of the fact that DNA’s four-letter code–A, G, T, C–matches up in a specific way, A to T, G to C, in two opposing strands. If an opposing sequence were present, say, in blood, it would stick to the gene chip like Velcro. But Illumina had a better way: By putting the DNA on beads instead of flat slides, there was more surface area, a better signal-to-noise ratio and, it hoped, more accurate results.
Flatley was able to raise $100 million while genetics stocks were hot. He made sure Illumina had backup plans when its partner, the then-dominant DNA sequencer maker, Applied Biosystems, flaked out. And he kept the personal touch, writing birthday cards to every employee until Illumina hired employee 500 in 2006.
- More Here
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