Counsyl

Quote

Anonymous

Guest
I was contacted by a recruiter for a position with the SF-based company, Counsyl. They have a saliva-based Universal Carrier Screen. I haven't responded to the recruiter yet, but was wondering if anyone had heard of this company, or been contacted yet. Their website is minimal.
 






Anonymous said:
I was contacted by a recruiter for a position with the SF-based company, Counsyl. They have a saliva-based Universal Carrier Screen. I haven't responded to the recruiter yet, but was wondering if anyone had heard of this company, or been contacted yet. Their website is minimal.
Click to expand...

????????????????
 






Around two years ago I was in negotiations with Counsyl about a position. To me, the communicaton was a little strange and harried. It didn't work out. TAt the time, they thought their product would be imminently available. Maybe they're finally ready. Meanwhile, consumer screening has become more widely available, and the government is cracking down on internet based consumer screeners, so perhaps they don't have the niche they thought they had. Though I have no idea.
 






I heard about them on the NSGC and decided to check them out. Check out their about page:

www.counsyl.com/about/counsyl

WOW. The team is like straight Ivy. I thought this thing was too good to be true
but I am not so sure now...with names like that it just might be for real.

One thing is for sure, Genzyme has to be shaking in their shoes when they see this.
 












I was also offered a position with them a bit over a year ago, but didn't want to move to Palo Alto. It was very casual, very startup. Flats of costco muffins and Doritos and an xbox in the conference room, etc. I google to see what they're up to every now and then but can find very little.
 


















Duh, every advisory board member has a business interest in the companies they advise. That's the whole point of an advisory board.

The real question is why are so many Ivy people behind this business? Must be something exceptional. They have a loooooong paper with a list of impressive authors posted here

http://precedings.nature.com/documents/4192/version/1

also ABC News interviewed some real-life doctors who were very positive about the test

http://abcnews.go.com/WN/screening-parents-babies/story?id=9720189
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzveyifKtoQ

Watch that clip, looks pretty damn legit to me
 












They are not ready for prime time. Have a 28 year old CEO who thinks he understands the business, but has no experience with the customer base; and has zero experience in our industry or being a leader. He's straight out of grad school, they are funded by a bunch of his family. Have unexperienced managers at the top, and a test that gives results that most docs will not know what to do with.

They'll be out of business in 2 years. Quest and LabCorp have their own universal carrier screens getting ready to launch, and enormous marketing infrastructures, will cut Counsyl on pricing.

Just another case of a group trying to get rich quick in the Wild Wild West that is DX/Personalized Medicine right now.

Best to stay away.
 












Anonymous said:
You are probably right. Nothing to worry about.

There's no way a bunch of geeks from Harvard and Stanford could ever do anything in this industry.
Click to expand...

Welcome to the jungle, it doesn't matter where they've gone to school. They don't understand the business they are in, and with increasing competition in the prenatal space, they are IMO, unaware of where they are going with this.

There are dozens of other companies with similar tests, yet vastly more experience in the DX space and in dealing with OBs/MFMs

These guys are overmatched plain and simple, and it's easy to see with the mistakes they've made already.

Buyer beware
 






Dozens of companies making copies? But none have actually gotten any traction in the market place.

Back in reality land, the best reps at LC and Quest have already left.

LC and Quest can't innovate in genetics, that's why they overpaid for obsolete Genzyme and Athena. 925 million and 740 million for those two, yeah real good business sense!
 






I thought I'd chip in on this thread. My friend/colleague works at Counsyl. He's been working there for a year and a half. He's a real smart guy and says the people running the business are smart (Standford profs). Business is going well. Their main competition right now is coming from a company that Google is interested in buying out. So it would seem there's enough going on to make them viable, at least in startup land.

The success or failure of this type of business in the long term depends entirely on the impact of Government regulation and laws.
 






Anonymous said:
I thought I'd chip in on this thread. My friend/colleague works at Counsyl. He's been working there for a year and a half. He's a real smart guy and says the people running the business are smart (Standford profs). Business is going well. Their main competition right now is coming from a company that Google is interested in buying out. So it would seem there's enough going on to make them viable, at least in startup land.

The success or failure of this type of business in the long term depends entirely on the impact of Government regulation and laws.
Click to expand...

Ok so your friend and colleague works at Counsyl. Wouldn't that also mean that YOU work at Counsyl?

And yes there are a ton of smart people working for the company. The testing options look very promising and it could be a homerun, however, according to the SEC filings the entire company is funded by the same family. Virtually every leadership position is held by a person with the same last name. I don't necessarily think that it matters per say, I decided not to pursue this whole thing much further when I found out that the CEO is a 28 year old boy-genius who from what I heard started 3 masters programs at Stanford and dropped out of all of them. Best of luck to those who go forward with this, I will stay in device.
 






Maybe you should do a bit more research. I went to school with all of these guys and just because they have the same last name does not mean they are all related. In fact, they are not. Just the CEO and CTO are brothers. Srinivasan is a very common name in India. It is like being named Smith
 






Interesting to read this thread.

I am a venture capitalist. My partnership funded Amgen when it was a seed stage company with young founders straight out of MIT who were "inexperienced founders." The arguments of lack of experience and age are quite ridiculous. and show a lack of paying attention to the reality of where and how most of the most disruptive companies in the world got started.

Look around and see the amount of "inexperienced founders" who have created huge companies that have changed the world. In fact most companies that have changed the world started with youthful and "inexperienced founders"

George Zachary
Charles River Ventures
www.crv.com
 












a venture capitalist's view said:
Interesting to read this thread.

I am a venture capitalist. My partnership funded Amgen when it was a seed stage company with young founders straight out of MIT who were "inexperienced founders." The arguments of lack of experience and age are quite ridiculous. and show a lack of paying attention to the reality of where and how most of the most disruptive companies in the world got started.

Look around and see the amount of "inexperienced founders" who have created huge companies that have changed the world. In fact most companies that have changed the world started with youthful and "inexperienced founders"

George Zachary
Charles River Ventures
www.crv.com
Click to expand...

Umm.. I'm pretty sure that Amgen was founded by George Rathmann when he was in his early fifties but whatever.

this thread is too funny. It is basically people who work for the company (pumping) vs. those passed over for employment by said company. (bashing) Long live the anonymous internet message board.

best of luck to Counsyl! I hope it is a smashing success! I am a big fan of capitalism and it would be great if America lead the way to this next frontier.

Oh and I 100% agree with the person regarding Srinivasan being a common name in India. This is absolutely true...but I guess I can't fault someone for not knowing that.
 






Top Bottom
Back
Quote