23andMe Files for Bankruptcy, as CEO Anne Wojcicki Resigns | Hacker News Reader

23andMe Files for Bankruptcy, as CEO Anne Wojcicki Resigns

wsj.com

100 pointsboh29 comments

Remember to delete your data and destroy any held samples before it's sold and too late.

https://oag.ca.gov/news/press-releases/attorney-general-bont...

It took me a good 30 minutes to complete the process and a few refreshes later I got the deletion email. Make sure you revoke the consent for storing your samples if you haven't already _before_ this process just in case.

Maybe it's just getting hug of death right now, but I can't seem to sign into 23andme at all

It's very slow. I managed to get partway through the process.

I've seen this advice floating around the more predictable social sites today.

What assurances do you get that pushing delete actually deletes your data?

None, but it's better than nothing. There are probably some legal consequences to ignoring these requests, especially in California, but given the current legal climate these days it's a shrug emoji.

One has to imagine there are some legal consequences to the debtor burning their only asset as they enter protection…

Did you all seriously expect this company to be evergreen?

Your data is now the primary source of their valuation in a sale.

The value of all that is like $<1 per person based on Wojcicki's last offer to buy out.

There's probably a business case to be written here about total addressable market. The world is a big place, but after all the people willing to pay $50-$100 for some novelty info buy their dossiers, where does new revenue come from to keep the lights on?

It’s true the “Give me $100 to tell you things about yourself” segment is already taken by fortune tellers.

New people turning 18. It's no different than the FL studio model, which has worked admirably well for much longer than this has been a company. The population isn't static.

The FL Studio model is one that should be celebrated and imitated often. Buy-for-life software builds an incredible community around it.

FL Studio sells sound packs too.

Also there isn't any cost to selling a new key after the software is made.

FL also wouldn't have astronomical valuations of 1bn or whatever 23 made it to.

This is one of the rare cases where TAM is not even worth discussing; it's like food, or clothing- everyone is a candidate.

Even in third world scenarios, it you secure grant of government funding, anyone could become customers.

What actually went wrong here is not a matter of growth but failure to attain what should have become a sustainable business model.

one would hope that they could find a way to be sustainable with a payment of $100 per record or whatever it was. (i don't have a good sense of what their costs per commercial sequence are.)

but the difference between food and 23andme, beyond the obvious necessity v curiosity, is that 23andme is a 1 time purchase. once someone has seen their results, they've extracted all the value and have no reason to buy anything else.

Pets? People are crazy about the genetic makeup (and possible diseases) of their pets.

I remember when they just started. Junped on the bandwagon right away. I assumed that so much data would yield some practical results almost immediately. It’s been what, 10 plus years? I’m kinda sad about this.

https://archive.ph/2025.03.24-042729/https://www.wsj.com/bus...

Discussion (451 points, 15 hours ago, 370 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43457666

23andMe stock was once worth $320 USD, now it sits at 73 cents. It's like a reverse BTC.

How much would it cost for a large community of activists to buy this thing and burn it to the ground? I'd contribute.

I wonder if Wojcicki regrets not throwing in a few extra bucks on her offer for taking it private.

Reminder that you can download your raw DNA data before deleting it

Still blows my mind people paid to give these guys their DNA lol

Yet another notable SPAC flameout?

Are there any recent SPACs (after say 2020) that have actually had a positive cashflow?

Hims is one.

Businesses of all kinds go bankrupt.

Are you drawing a distinction between SPAC and other forms of ownership? Are SPACs more likely to flameout (big money and big (fast?) collapse?)

Reply on news.ycombinator.com