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.