Guest: Jason Kelly, CEO and co-founder of Ginkgo Bioworks
Almost everyone in the second generation of biotechnology entrepreneurs, says Ginkgo Bioworks CEO Jason Kelly, works in that field because of one thing: Jurassic Park. The Michael Crichton novel-turned-Steven Spielberg movie captured both the wonder and beauty of bioengineering, and the challenges of bending DNA to your own ends. “You didn’t invent biology,” Jason says. “You need to have humility in the face of it ... because life will find a way. It will do things you don’t expect. It’s not a computer.”
In this episode, Jason and Joubin discuss the Wall Street rollercoaster, designer cells, the history of biotech, Herbert Boyer and Genentech, ChatGPT, extinct flowers, Sam Altman and YCombinator, first principles thinking, compounding risk, Patrick Collison, super-voting shares, capital intensive businesses, Pets.com, and why biology is like “freakishly powerful alien technology.”
In this episode, we cover:
Links:
#170 Chairman of Kleiner Perkins, John Doerr: Getting Into Trouble with Disruptors (Encore)
#169 CEO and Founder Cato Networks, Shlomo Kramer: The Burden of Persona
#168 CEO and Founder Glean, Arvind Jain w/ Mamoon Hamid: New Playbook
#167 CEO StockX, Scott Cutler: Detroit’s First Unicorn
#166 Executive Chairman and Former CEO Attentive, Brian Long: Problem Hunting
#165 Former CEO and Co-Founder of Zillow, Spencer Rascoff: Real Estate Voyeurism
#164 CEO and Co-Founder Duolingo, Luis von Ahn: "The Pitch Was Never Pittsburgh"
#163 CEO Bill, René Lacerte: Hourglass Leadership
#162 CEO and Co-Founder Rippling, Parker Conrad w/ Mamoon Hamid: Compounding
#161 Founder and EVP of Oracle NetSuite, Evan Goldberg: Endless Possibilities
#160 CEO Grammarly, Rahul Roy-Chowdhury: Better, Not More
#159 CEO 1Password, Jeff Shiner: Chief Eliminator of Obstacles
#158 CRO Anduril Industries, Matt Steckman: On Defense
#157 CEO Udemy, Greg Brown: The Plunge
#156 CRO Snowflake, Chris Degnan: Part 2
#155 CEO Yahoo, Jim Lanzone: Brand Rejuvenation
#154 Remix: Tornadoes, Unicorn Meat, and Hypergrowth Sales
#153 COO and CRO Weights & Biases, Yan-David Erlich: ML’s Moment
#152 CEO Gainsight, Nick Mehta: Human-First
#151 CEO Outreach, Manny Medina: 10M or Die
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
The Commercial Edge: Unleash the Power of People
The emPOWERed Half Hour
Aligned Money Show
Gorse Culture PODcast : The H.R. Detective Agency!
HCI Leadership Revolution
The Ramsey Show
Planet Money