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Ginkgo Bioworks is one of the canonical synthetic biology companies of this era. Led by five incredible founders working together going on two decades, Ginkgo is bringing new technologies to life sciences and just as importantly, going to the edge to explore new business models. The key purpose of this case study is to understand how the history of Ginkgo and synthetic biology in general is driving the boldness of the company and many of its key decisions. Synthetic biology is littered with countless blowups, but the potential for the field to transform human health, the environment, and beyond is so high diving head first and being bold is needed.
I remember hearing about a small company out in Boston Harbor in 2011. Some of my friends who I was doing summer lab research with were always telling me how Ginkgo built out an awesome automation system for bench work. Spending my summers doing PCRs and picking worms made me really envious of the capabilities Ginkgo had. Ever since then I began tracking the company.
Ginkgo has been 20 years in the making. The founders met in 2002 at MIT with two of the co-founders (Shetty and Che) in the Knight Lab and two (Kelly and Canton) in…
