Balaji Srinivasan, the co-founder and the chief technology officer of the genetics-testing startup Counsyl, has joined Andreessen Horowitz as a general partner.
Andreessen Horowitz, a venture capital firm that is four years old, usually hires general partners who have built or operated large companies before. Srinivasan will join the company as the eighth general partner.
Srinivasan started Counsyl, a San Francisco-based company, while teaching at Stanford. Counsyl helps prospective parents test the risks of passing their genetic conditions to their future children.
He also believes that tech savvy people will create the next Silicon Valley in a new location.
"This is why location is becoming so much less important: technology is enabling us to access everything we need from our mobile phone, to find our true communities in the cloud, and to easily travel to assemble these communities in person. Taken together, we are rapidly approaching a future characterized by a totally new phenomenon, the reverse diaspora: one that starts out internationally distributed, finds each other online, and ends up physically concentrated," said Srinivasan.
Counsyl tests around 3 percent to 4 percent of all births in the U.S. The country accounts for about 4 million births per year, which means that Counsyl is conducting around 120,000 to 160,000 tests per year. Each test can cost $500 to $600, which comes to an annual revenue of about $60 million to $80 million.
Srinivasan is expected to bring his expertise that will enable Andreessen Horowitz get health-related deals. However, Srinivasan says that he has a lot more to offer than just medical-related deals.
"I'm interested in businesses that take digital bits and turn them into interfaces for physical atoms," said Srinivasan. "I'm also interested in drones, Bitcoin and 3D printing."
Marc Andreessen, the co-founder of Andreessen Horowitz's, says that he met Srinivasan in spring. Andreessen says that Srinivasan has spent a lot of time with Counsyl and may benefit the company.
Andreessen Horowitz took around six months to hire Srinivasan who is 33 years old. He will join the company as the youngest general partner.
