Company profile
- Industry
- Personal genomics and biotechnology
- Founded
- 2006
- Headquarters
- South San Francisco, United States
- Ownership
- Acquired by the nonprofit TTAM Research Institute in 2025, after Chapter 11 bankruptcy
Profiles are auto-generated and infrequently updated.
Decisions on record
3 verified Decision Records on 23andMe, and the casebook each one belongs to.
| Fork date | Decision type | The story | Casebook |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | The Fall | Read the story → | The Fall Casebook → |
| 2023 | Crisis Response | Read the story → | Crisis Response Casebook → |
| 2023 | The Money Machine | Read the story → | The Money Machine Casebook → |
Run one of these yourself
The decisions 23andMe faced, as kits you can run.
Each pack takes one of these decisions and gives you the framework, a deck for the room, a model that resolves to one number, and the sourced cases behind it. $499, one-time.
Business ModelThe Money MachineWhere does the money actually come from, and who sets the rate it comes in at?See the pack →Crisis & ReinventionThe Crisis ResponseWhat is one more quarter of not acting worth?See the pack →Decision ForksThe ResidualHow much of your decline can the agreed explanation actually account for?See the pack →
The analyses
The Money Machine · Business Model
23andMe Sold Spit Kits to Buy a Drug Company. The Drug Company Never Arrived.
23andMe's collapse looks like a data-breach story. It isn't. In October 2023 GSK replaced its drug partnership with a $20M non-exclusive data license — a renewal on terms that repriced the entire thesis the kit business existed to fund.
8 min
The Crisis Response · Crisis & Reinvention
A Single Opt-In Feature Turned 23andMe's Breach Into a 6.9-Million-Person Exposure
Only ~14,000 23andMe accounts were directly compromised by credential stuffing. A single opt-in social feature turned that into a 6.9-million-person exposure — and a quiet $400,000 ransom and a blame-the-user defense turned a breach into a bankruptcy.
8 min
The Fall · Crisis & Reinvention
23andMe Sold You a Spit Kit Once and Called It a Platform. The Math Never Worked.
23andMe didn't die from a data breach. It went public at a $3.5B valuation, accumulated $1.79B in net losses, and collapsed 99.6% — because a one-time $200 transaction was dressed up as a recurring data business, and every escape attempt destroyed capital.
8 min