Start-Up Found in Wife Search Google Invests $4 Million in Web Site Run By Founder’s Spouse

By Katie Hafner

Miguel Helft contributed reporting. *

Sometimes good fortune arrives in fairytale-like flurries.

Consider Anne Wojcicki, the former health care investment analyst who earlier this month married a handsome young computer scientist, who just happened to be one of America’s richest men.

As if the swirl of excitement around the high-profile Silicon Valley pairing of Wojcicki and Sergey Brin, a co-founder of Google, were not enough, Wojcicki has captured still more attention with a biotechnology company she recently co-founded, with the intriguing name of 23andMe. And her husband’s company is an investor.

Google disclosed last week in a regulatory filing that it had invested $3.9 million in 23andMe, a start-up that, according to its Web site, was developing new ways “to help you make sense of your own genetic information.”

Eric Schmidt, the Google chief executive, declined during an interview to comment about 23andMe’s business or its future products, but said that in the course of evaluating the potential investment, the company instituted an array of checks and balances to ensure objectivity, including the recusal of Brin from any discussions.

“That was all done by the book beyond belief,” Schmidt said.

Google has invested in a handful of other start-ups, including FON and Meraki, both Wi-Fi companies, and Current, a company that delivers high-speed Internet access using existing power outlets.

Schmidt said the Google investment in 23andMe would eventually benefit Google and its users.

Wojcicki, pronounced Wo-JITS-kee, and her 23andMe co-founder, Linda Avey, declined to be interviewed at such an early stage in the company’s development.

23andMe, with headquarters in Mountain View, California, is based on the concept of individualized genetic mapping. “What used to cost billions now costs only $1,000,” Martin Varsavsky, an entrepreneur who has invested in the company, wrote recently in his blog. “So for the price of a laptop you can now learn the most intimate details of your genetic self.”

Varsavsky wrote that as medicine advanced, those who have had their genes mapped could be notified of developments concerning their own genes, including news of drug discoveries.

Then there is the networking aspect.

“And what about relatives?” Varsavsky wrote. “If people are joining so many social sites to find out what they have in common, why not find out who the person who is closest to you in the genetic sense is?”

Even without a bit of mapping, Wojcicki’s own genetic heritage is evident. She comes from a family of high achievers. Her father, Stanley, is the chairman of the physics department at Stanford University; her mother, Esther, is a journalism teacher at Palo Alto High School. Wojcicki, the youngest of three daughters, attended Yale University, graduating in 1996 with a degree in biology.

The couple met after Wojcicki’s older sister, Susan, now a Google vice president, sublet the garage of her house in Menlo Park to Brin and his partner, Larry Page, for their search-engine start-up.

Google has declined to disclose any details of the wedding, but according to various news reports, the location was such a closely guarded secret that wedding guests boarded the jet owned by Brin and Page unaware of their exact destination until they arrived on a private island in the Bahamas.

Guests who attended said the bride wore a white swimsuit, the groom a black one. Some guests took a boat while others – including the bride and groom – swam to a nearby sandbar, where the couple exchanged vows.

Wojcicki is known for her high level of energy and approachable, easygoing personal style. People who knew her in high school in Palo Alto said she was studious but far from nerdy. While at Yale, her mother said, Wojcicki was a competitive ice skater and played on the varsity ice hockey team. Spurning some of the usual trappings of great wealth, Brin, whose worth is estimated at about $14 billion, and Wojcicki live in a quiet, residential neighborhood in Palo Alto, California.

In addition to Google, a handful of venture firms have invested in 23andMe as well. The total investment is estimated at around $10 million, part of which is being used to repay a $2.6 million personal loan from Brin.

“This is a completely new thing and that’s exactly why we invested,” said Patrick Chung, a partner with New Enterprise Associates, a venture capital firm in Menlo Park, California. Chung said he was particularly impressed by Wojcicki, especially her ability to discuss the scientific aspects of her new company without losing her audience. “She’s really, really smart and still completely accessible,” he said.

(c) 2007 International Herald Tribune. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.