Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin 23andMe Co-founder Paul Cusenza Paul Cusenza Once heralded as one of the world's hottest startups for its meteoric rise and star-studded celebrity “spit parties” at Davos and New York Fashion Week, personal genetics testing company 23andMe (Nasdaq: ME) has recently garnered media attention due to its notable decline in valuation. Valued at $6 billion at its peak, the company has been consistently trading under one dollar since September and is fighting off a potential Nasdaq delisting in addition to multiple class action lawsuits related to a data breach last year. Long at the center of 23andMe’s success – and now struggles – has been CEO Anne Wojcicki.
A Silicon Valley star, Wojcicki (along with her sisters , then-YouTube CEO Susan and epidemiologist/anthropologist Janet) was honored last March as a Barbie Role Model in celebration of International Women’s Day and is frequently described as 23andMe’s co-founder and occasionally, founder. Less frequently mentioned is Wojcicki’s co-founder, biologist and entrepreneur Linda Avey , who left 23andMe in 2009. Even less mentioned is co-founder Paul Cusenza , who was even omitted from a recent Wall Street Journal feature on the company, and left 23andMe in 2007 and joined Nodal Exchange the next year.
With a degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Michigan and a Harvard MBA, Cusenza's journey to co-founding one of the leading consumer genetics compa.
