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FORBES.COM JUNE 30, 20 19ANNEWOJCICKIAnne Wojcicki is 45 minutes
late, something so encoded in
her habits as 23andMe’s CEO
that employees have stopped
complaining about it. They
know it’s hardwired. On a
Thursday morning in April,
her team is waiting patiently as
she swirls into the company’s
headquarters wearing running
shorts, a T-shirt that says
“Yay DNA” and worn tennis
shoes, having just pedaled the
5 miles to work while eight
months pregnant.
Reflecting Wojcicki’s passions, 23andMe’s
headquarters, in Mountain View, California,
looks like a cross between a Silicon Valley start-
up and a fitness club. There are treadmill desks
throughout the open-plan office, elliptical ma-
chines in conference rooms and Peloton bikes in
the cafeteria, which connects directly to a gym.
Wojcicki is still practically bouncing after climb-
ing the four flights to her small glass-walled of-
fice, pausing only to fill up her metal water bottle.
She makes sure her employees know that their
well-being is their own daily choice. “I’m like, ‘I
take the stairs and I’m pregnant! You can take
the stairs!’ ” Wojcicki says.
Such a workout would be a lot for most expect-
ing moms, but Wojcicki, who’s 45 and has two
children with her ex-husband, Google cofounder
Sergey Brin, isn’t even breathing hard. And sheis still energized about what she refers to as her
“first child”: her 13-year-old business, 23andMe.
Since its launch, around 10 million people have
spit a half-teaspoon of saliva into a 23andMe
plastic tube and mailed it in to get their ancestry
or health-risk results. Nearly 5 million customers
did so last year alone, generating an estimated
$475 million in revenue for the company, which
has yet to turn a profit. It’s also made Wojcicki
(No. 33 on this year’s list of Richest Self-Made
Women) worth an estimated $690 million, almost
entirely from her roughly 30% stake in 23andMe,
which is valued at $2.5 billion by investors.
To get this far, Wojcicki weathered an annus
horribilis that threatened to end it all—her sepa-
ration from Brin in 2013 came at the same time
the Food & Drug Administration forced 23andMe
to immediately cease health-test sales—and has→