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Independent directors of 23andMe resign from board

investors.23andme.com

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Re: Independent directors of 23andMe resign from board

#51

Post by LarsDu88 »

AlbertCory wrote: post #47
zzleeper wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So sad that Blackstone bought ancestry.. newspapers.com is a really nice tool for researchers (and most things that get touched by PE end up enshittified)

I suppose I should know this: who owns newspapers.com? What's the connection?

Ancestry owns newspapers.com

A lot of Ancestry.com and AncestryDNA was founded to support the Mormon belief that the LDS church can posthumously baptize ancestors of living individuals into the church under the belief that many deceased individuals were not alive to hear the gospel of Joseph Smith.

Thus the massive data collection effort for historical information like newpaper articles from this century and the last.

Re: Independent directors of 23andMe resign from board

#52

Post by breck »

LarsDu88 wrote: post #37
breck wrote: post #15

For the record, 23andme is one of the few companies where the CEO never once responded to one of my emails (2017, 2019, 2022, 2024). You can make a lot of money just by betting on companies where the CEO (or the CEO's office) takes listening to customers'(who are rooting for them!) emails seriously, and shorting those that do not.

You cold e-mail CEOs and get a >70% hitrate? I gotta try this more often.

I do put try to make them a mix of feedback + entertainment.

Example

To: jeff@amazon.com

subject: The Day the Music Died

I was looking forward to playing my Yamaha Digital Piano that I ordered from Amazon today when I got home from work at "the country club". Instead I'm stuck tapping this UPS "Delivery Attempted" notice and the melodies just aren't coming through.

?

In the last 6 months I ordered 37 packages from Amazon. I needed to be home for zero.

Why didn't Amazon send me an email, phone call, text, message through Echo, notification through one of my four Amazon iPhone apps, or airdrop from a drone alerting me that I needed to be there for this package?

I also have an Amazon Echo at home so Alexa should have an idea of my schedule and know that the odds of a successful delivery at 4:42pm on a weekday are 1%. Now I'm listening to Alexa play sad songs instead of belting out great new tunes on my Yamaha.

Also, why didn't the UPS driver call or text me when he or she was at my building to ask if it was okay to leave the package? This would have saved them a minimum of 1 trip and I wouldn't have to bet the delivery of my $700 package to a half a cent sticky note stuck to my door being pelted by the Seattle rain.

OK love ya bye

-Breck

Re: Independent directors of 23andMe resign from board

#53

Post by myth_drannon »

SoftTalker wrote: post #10

Zero chance I ever give my DNA to one of these companies.

Why? It's just a record of a group of letters, not your soul. I upload my dna records everywhere I can. Sure I had some surprises but in general I benefit from those services.

Re: Independent directors of 23andMe resign from board

#54

Post by wslh »

LarsDu88 wrote: post #37
breck wrote: post #15

For the record, 23andme is one of the few companies where the CEO never once responded to one of my emails (2017, 2019, 2022, 2024). You can make a lot of money just by betting on companies where the CEO (or the CEO's office) takes listening to customers'(who are rooting for them!) emails seriously, and shorting those that do not.

You cold e-mail CEOs and get a >70% hitrate? I gotta try this more often.

I have a similar success rate with a few emails to top CEOs in companies such as AMEX, and Toshiba Japan. It is probably that someone else is shadowing them but they acted very quickly with specific issues, and less hierarchical people follow the issues until they were success. Better than support.

Re: Independent directors of 23andMe resign from board

#55

Post by xyst »

dr_dshiv wrote: post #32
breck wrote: post #15

For the record, 23andme is one of the few companies where the CEO never once responded to one of my emails (2017, 2019, 2022, 2024). You can make a lot of money just by betting on companies where the CEO (or the CEO's office) takes listening to customers'(who are rooting for them!) emails seriously, and shorting those that do not.

Ok, please share more! Who responded and who didn’t?

I’m not parent comment but have received e-mail from Apple (Tim Cook and Steve Jobs), and T-Mobile (John Legere era).

It wasn’t personal emails but rather their assistants. Still a nice touch and issues were always resolved where L1-2 support failed.

Re: Independent directors of 23andMe resign from board

#56

Post by fallingsquirrel »

breck wrote: post #45
dr_dshiv wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ok, please share more! Who responded and who didn’t?

Responds: Airbnb, Stripe, Amazon, Apple, USAA, Microsoft, OpenAI, AngelList, Mercury, Coinbase, YCombinator (up to 2022) and more. Didn't: 23andme, VLTA, Reddit, YCombinator (post 2022)

I'm curious to know the topic of these emails. I never once thought to cold email the CEO of a company. (Then again maybe that's why I'm a programmer, not a CEO myself.)

Re: Independent directors of 23andMe resign from board

#57

Post by javierluraschi »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #41
javierluraschi wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

She (the CEO) has a fiduciary duty to act in the best interests of the company and its shareholders. Intentionally driving a company into bankruptcy for personal gain is a massive breach of that duty and opens her up to all kinds of legal trouble. So I would think that's a very bad idea.

They're going bankrupt because they're almost out of cash [1]. The CEO is holding public investors hostage with the low ball take private offer LarsDu88 mentioned. The stock, NASDAQ: ME, currently trades at 29 cents/share [2] and will be delisted shortly [3]. Their failure to secure their customer DNA data with MFA cost them a $30M fine they must pay [4]. My comment you replied to was attempting to communicate that,…

I'm just arguing that she can't let the company go bankrupt when she placed a bid for $0.40. Even if she could, she could loose control of the company when all shareholders get wiped out, not sure the court will let her keep 70% through bankruptcy.

Re: Independent directors of 23andMe resign from board

#59

Post by toomuchtodo »

javierluraschi wrote: post #57
toomuchtodo wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're going bankrupt because they're almost out of cash [1]. The CEO is holding public investors hostage with the low ball take private offer LarsDu88 mentioned. The stock, NASDAQ: ME, currently trades at 29 cents/share [2] and will be delisted shortly [3]. Their failure to secure their customer DNA data with MFA cost them a $30M fine they must pay [4]. My comment you replied to was attempting to communicate that,…

I'm just arguing that she can't let the company go bankrupt when she placed a bid for $0.40. Even if she could, she could loose control of the company when all shareholders get wiped out, not sure the court will let her keep 70% through bankruptcy.

Acting as a fiduciary would entail seeking a buyer at the best price possible, not a low "take private" offer. Can the CEO demonstrate they're working to find someone to buy them?

Edit: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/23andme-ceo-wojcicki-open-thi...

> A special committee formed by the company rejected Wojcicki's previous proposal, deeming it insufficient and not in the best interest of the non-affiliated shareholders.

Re: Independent directors of 23andMe resign from board

#60

Post by 23B1 »

myth_drannon wrote: post #53
SoftTalker wrote: post #10

Zero chance I ever give my DNA to one of these companies.

Why? It's just a record of a group of letters, not your soul. I upload my dna records everywhere I can. Sure I had some surprises but in general I benefit from those services.

high time preference thinking
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