Aftermath
I have multiple drafts of posts trying to finish up my London Calling items and then a long list of ideas in various stages of gestation - and been dangled a new tech update under embargo. But today, I'm on a mission - to help my now former colleagues. My employer, Ginkgo Bioworks, has executed an approximately 25% layoff. I survived the cut, but the list of talented, wonderful people who have been cast away is long and covers a wide range of talents. You really could start multiple quality small biotechs with these new unemployed people.
I've been laid off twice before and it's miserable. I was lucky each time and had only a short period of unemployment - but biotech was doing well each of those times. The industry is in a serious slump right now, with many companies cutting back and some closing altogether. Even large companies are slashing away - Takeda is setting free over 600 employees here in Boston - perhaps some are remnants of the Millennium acquisition. Far too few companies are being created.
So if you have leads on open positions, I am listening. You can leave comments, email me (keith.e.robison on Gmail), connect on LinkedIn, DM on Twitter, etc. I've never received a message by carrier pigeon, but if that's you're style I won't object. All will be passed on to a Ginkgo alumni community.
As a meme I saw put it "this too shall pass - perhaps pass like a kidney stone, but it shall pass". The long-term societal upside from biotechnology is too great for this to be anything but a temporary dip - but temporary can be a very long time.