#174 CEO & Co-Founder Ginkgo Bioworks, Jason Kelly: Life Finds a Way
Grit22 Jan 2024

#174 CEO & Co-Founder Ginkgo Bioworks, Jason Kelly: Life Finds a Way

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:

  • Being private vs. being public (00:58)
  • How bioengineering works (04:27)
  • Jurassic Park (08:51)
  • Biotech breakthroughs (12:15)
  • Why this field is not well-known yet (16:57)
  • “The ChatGPT moment for biotech” (22:05)
  • Meaningful stuff takes forever (26:23)
  • Ginkgo’s first five years (29:02)
  • Why the company went public (36:20)
  • Short sellers, Warren Buffett, and Elon Musk (42:08)
  • Applying AI to DNA engineering (47:57)
  • The long-term future (55:57)
  • Who Ginkgo is hiring (58:39)

Links:

Episoder(282)

How Snap Plans to Win the AR Race | Evan Spiegel on Spectacles

How Snap Plans to Win the AR Race | Evan Spiegel on Spectacles

Turning down a $3B offer from Facebook is a bold move for any young CEO.Evan Spiegel shares how Snap’s early dream was to stay independent and give its community an authentic voice, a bet that proved ...

15 Des 20251h 11min

The Pull to Build: Joubin Mirzadegan on Grit and Starting Roadrunner

The Pull to Build: Joubin Mirzadegan on Grit and Starting Roadrunner

What does it take to go from advising founders to becoming one?On this week’s special Reverse Grit episode, we flip the script and put our Grit podcast host Joubin Mirzadegan in the guest seat.Joubin ...

8 Des 20251h 14min

Building Cloudflare for the Next 50 Years | Co-founder Cloudfare Michelle Zatlyn

Building Cloudflare for the Next 50 Years | Co-founder Cloudfare Michelle Zatlyn

Fifteen years in, it can still feel like “we’re just getting started.”Michelle Zatlyn, co-founder of Cloudflare, returns to Grit with Joubin Mirzadegan to share how Cloudflare secures the internet for...

1 Des 202558min

She Sold Her Startup for $500 Million, Here’s Her Next Idea

She Sold Her Startup for $500 Million, Here’s Her Next Idea

Screens have pulled families apart. Brynn Putnam set out to bring them back together with Board, the world’s ‘first face-to-face game console.’On Grit, she tells Joubin Mirzadegan how every venture sh...

24 Nov 20251h 12min

Synthetic Data and the Future of AI | Cohere CEO Aidan Gomez

Synthetic Data and the Future of AI | Cohere CEO Aidan Gomez

How do companies like Salesforce and Dell scale intelligence across every cloud?Aidan Gomez, co-founder and CEO of Cohere, explains how they’re building AI that works across all enterprise systems and...

17 Nov 20251h 11min

From Yext to Roam: Howard Lerman’s Second Act

From Yext to Roam: Howard Lerman’s Second Act

The hardest company to build is the one you start after you’ve already succeeded.After scaling Yext into a platform powering millions of businesses, Howard Lerman chose to start over with Roam, the “O...

10 Nov 20251h 25min

Rebuilding Front for the AI Era | CEO Dan O’Connell

Rebuilding Front for the AI Era | CEO Dan O’Connell

The hardest part of transformation is knowing what to let go of.Dan O’Connell, now leading Front as CEO and formerly on the board at Dialpad, joins Joubin Mirzadegan to explore the delicate balance be...

3 Nov 202559min

ElevenLabs’ Vision for Voice Interfaces | CEO Mati Staniszewski

ElevenLabs’ Vision for Voice Interfaces | CEO Mati Staniszewski

Before AI became a buzzword, a few true believers were already building.Since early 2022, Mati Staniszewski and his team at ElevenLabs have been among them, working to create voices that “actually rep...

27 Okt 20251h 4min

Populært innen Business og økonomi

lydartikler-fra-aftenposten
stopp-verden
dine-penger-pengeradet
e24-podden
rss-penger-polser-og-politikk
rss-borsmorgen-okonominyhetene
pengepodden-2
pengesnakk
livet-pa-veien-med-jan-erik-larssen
finansredaksjonen
tid-er-penger-en-podcast-med-peter-warren
utbytte
stormkast-med-valebrokk-stordalen
morgenkaffen-med-finansavisen
rss-politisk-preik
liberal-halvtime
rss-markedspuls-2
rss-sunn-okonomi
lederpodden
rss-pa-konto