The world of venture capital funded companies is a pretty bizarre one. I've never been in a company like it before, having previously worked with more established companies. With the arrival of the initial round of capital funding it's like someone fired off the starting gun and yelled "Go!!" My coworker that's been here for years, through ups and downs in the past, tells me that the company's roster tripled in the month of September! As I'm sure you can imagine, that creates quite a drain on the folks that have been here for a while as they train up all of the new people. The good news is that most of the new people are in the lab group, working on the nailing down the procedures for preparing DNA samples just right so that we can process them with the best accuracy. We had one more person start in the software group, bringing a background in genomics to bear in helping to interface between the lab group and the software group. She's going to help us design the best system interface and organizational structure that we can for presenting and storing data.
I would say the feeling in the air around here is similar to what I imagine it might have been like to be in the galley of an old maritime ship. Everyone is getting to know each other, getting used to the tempo, and getting in synch with everyone else in order to really drive the ship in the right direction and with haste. The starting gun has definitely fired and we're off!
