Ashley Van Zeeland - San Diego Entrepreneur

Welcome to the Tacos and Tech Podcast, where we discover cutting edge technology and the builders making it happen. I'm your host, Neal Bloom, San Diego's tech ambassador, and together we're going to uncover what technology San Diegans are creating with our own blend of local lifestyle. This podcast episode proudly brought to you by our friends at Cox Business. Cox Business provides broadband, Internet and cloud services to the modern tech company. Cox Business, a longtime sponsor of San Diego Startup Week and the San Diego startup community, also puts on the Top Tech Awards, which have recently expanded the startup category to recognize your favorite CTO. Join us at the Top Tech Exec Awards on May 10th by visiting TopTechExecs.com to see this year's winners. Thanks again to Cox Business for their support of our tech community.

I'm your host, Neil Bloom, and I'm excited to have in studio Ashley Van Zielen, most recently of Human Longevity and Serial Entrepreneur here in San Diego. Thanks for being here.

Thank you so much for having me, Neil. This is great.

I'm really excited to have you here. So we're going to get back to what you're working on now, but why don't you take us back? How did you get to San Diego? How did you get into the technology business?

So it's been a little bit of a winding road and not one that I necessarily set out to fall upon, but it's been great. So I came to San Diego about 10 years ago as a postdoctoral scientist at Scripps.

Oh, wow. Okay.

So I had finished up my PhD in neuroscience from UCLA.

Okay.

And it was right at the time where we were going from individual SNPs looking at single mutations to the whole arrays on gene chips.

Oh, wow.

Interesting. And was San Diego top choice or why Scripps at that time?

So San Diego was top choice because Nick Schork is a professor of biostatistics and he was working at the Scripps Translational Science Institute, and he was really taking a statistical genetics bioinformatics approach to working with this data. And so I thought that was really powerful. Instead of just looking at one mutation, you can use models to look at patterns across the full genome to understand human health and disease.

Okay.

So you finish up postdoctorate there. Is that when you went in to get your MBA at Rady?

Okay.

So part way through my postdoc, it was even before it wrapped up, but working with people like Nick and Eric Topol, I saw a completely different view of how industry and academia could work together. So where I was previously industry was kind of a four letter word and it wasn't really accessible. If you were to be a very good academician in San Diego, it was completely different. Scripps and Eric Topol were very porous to industry and there were many collaborations that I got to be a part of and I knew that I didn't understand all the inner workings of those as a scientist. And that's why I went to go get my mba.

Gotcha. Okay, so what was that experience like at Rady?

It was great. It was really the reason I picked that program was in looking at, you know, San Diego's got a number of top business school programs. But what was unique about UCSD and the Rady program was they actually knew what a postdoc was and then they had fellowships to support a postdoc going for a business degree. Most other institutions, when I said, hey, I'm a completely broke scientist, they would look at me like, huh, why do you want to study business? But it made sense to Dean Sullivan and the group at Radiance. So it's a perfect fit to try to blend some of the scientist life with a little bit of business understanding.

That's great. So is that where you found your inner entrepreneur?

It was, and it kind of snuck up on me actually. So being more industry friendly from the scientist group, we had an opportunity to commercialize a technology that was developed within the lab. And so I was tapped to be part of that. And I was really fortunate and excited about the opportunity. And it was only through the process of working on that idea over a number of months within the rating program and the opportunity to raise capital where, you know, somebody asked, you know, one of you founders has to go with the company at this point, and I said yes, thinking it would be an interim thing. And it lasted for the last seven or eight years.

Wow. So when was Cypher founded?

We were founded in 2010.

Okay. Wow.

And you were the only one from the research lab to, to step out with it.

So I founded it with three others. Okay. So Eric Topol, Nick Schork and Ali Torkamani.

Okay.

They're tremendous co founders. They contributed a lot and they all maintain their academic posts.

Oh, cool.

And so I left with some IP and an engineer and a little bit of money in the bank.

Wow.

Really cool. So were you like, you were founding it while you're at radi?

That's right.

Okay, that's pretty cool to have that back support there.

It was hugely, it was hugely beneficial to have that support. And then As I was thinking about reflecting on what got me to this point and I was able to work at a world class institution like Scripps with amazing people who were entrepreneurial themselves, work on the idea within a business school that understood science, innovation.

Yeah.

And then move into the EVO Nexus incubator to support completely nascent early stage companies and first time entrepreneurs like myself.

Yeah.

And then, you know, launch it from there after that and then sell to a local company.

Yeah.

So we literally didn't have to move, you know, off of the Mesa here.

Yeah.

To run the whole gamut, which is incredible.

That's pretty cool.

Yeah.

So genomics obviously is San Diego's sweet spot, but was it as prevalent at RADI and an evo? I mean, were you kind of the genomics person or was it all around you as a startup, like first time startup entrepreneur?

First time startup entrepreneur. I believe I was the first, I know I was the first female company into EVO Nexus.

Really.

And I think the first genomics company.

Oh, wow.

Into Evonexis. Yeah. And so it was great. And they were really supportive and you know, believed in the vision too and helped me grow. And it was, you know, a lot of this was kind of charting new territory and I'm so thrilled that, you know, eight years later, looking back, there's starting to be some of these pathways that have developed and some of the language is changing and some of the community support and meetup groups have matured. So what was, you know, it seemed kind of solo effort that long ago has really turned into a community.

Yeah, that's great. I mean, we see your name all over town giving back on panels, coaching, mentoring. So yeah, I mean, you're obviously speaking it too. You create a pathway and then you're going back and mentoring people through that too.

I think that's really important because I felt so lucky to have incredible mentors and you know, here in San Diego. But then even the first college professor who saw an interest in research in me and kind of supported that. I think without that feedback loop, we won't be able to have the pipeline. Really smart people who want to take those risks, you need some kind of support structure to do that. So it's an honor for me to try to be in a position now to give back to startups and advise.

That's great.

We're going to touch on what you're doing in advising, but I want to learn a little bit more about the acquisition piece. What's that like? I mean, this is your first company. When did you know that that was something that was going to happen?

It was interesting. We, it wasn't the path that we were planning on at the time, but ultimately it ended up being the right decision for the team, for the shareholders, for the technology, for the space. We had just qualified for a program called Genomics England, which was to supply genome interpretation solutions for an overseas program where they're looking at 100,000 individuals genomically within their healthcare system in rare disease and cancer. So we had gone through a government procurement process where went from 35 companies down to five. And so in that final stage, we needed additional capital to go and partner out to be able to deliver on that and get to market. We had some good partners along the way, but we were looking at that next round. And then as part of those conversations, you talked to a lot of people and HLI had just gotten up and going off the ground and it just seemed like the right time and the right conversation and the right group of people to bring together here in San Diego where we had this, you know, amazingly fast genome crunching technology and they had an amazingly high quality genome producing factory. So it was a great, great partnership opportunity for us.

That's great.

So how long ago that was, the acquisition?

It was the end of 2015.

Okay. Oh, really cool.

And you had a great career with HLI too as well.

I did. So I went in there and was fortunate to serve as their chief technology officer for about two years until I recently stepped away to go do the next thing. And it was a great run and really enjoy the opportunity to work with Craig Venter, one of the pioneers of the field and bringing to bear, you know, a lot of. One of the interesting things from a technology perspective that human longevity is doing is they were a cloud first genomics platform. And so the challenge of pushing through that much data securely, privately, at scale in the cloud starting back 2014 is non trivial. Right. I mean it continues to be non trivial. AWS was a great partner and they've developed a lot of solutions now to enable that kind of work. But at the time it was really, you know, and continues to be a challenge. Yeah, so that was intellectually very stimulating.

That's pretty cool.

And genomics, I mean, seems to really have embraced tech now. Right? I mean it's software engineers, it's data scientists, user acquisition or UX ui, people who know how to manipulate data and show it to people to use in a usable way. That's pretty cool. That's something very special about San Diego that we actually can bridge that big data and biotech piece.

I think it's critically important, I really do. Because if we stay locked in our ivory tower, just building clunky tools, you know, for ourselves to use, we'll never really get out and realize the promise that unlocking the genome has for everybody on the planet. Everybody has a genome. It is your software of life. And so why not have a way to access it, read it, have a dialogue with it in a real way? And to do that, you do have to bring in all of those different groups you talked about. Right. If you can't visualize that much data, it's really hard to comprehend.

Yeah, that's pretty neat. I'm pretty excited for the talent that should come to want to bring that to the next level. I mean, it's the next frontier, right? Is really making that the genome accessible as you're saying it is.

It's a wonderful mission and I think that's what's great. You know, we're talking about San Diego and I think that is one of the most compelling reasons for why I've seen people either start at human longevity or join Cypher when we're really Nason or any of the other companies that are here is that mission to enable precision medicine, personalized medicine, you know, cure cancer. Everyone has something in their family tree that's genetic. And wouldn't you like to know?

Yeah, yeah.

Pretty cool. Yeah, pretty awesome. And so now you are helping a bunch of companies, spreading the seeds all over. Tell us about what are some of the companies that you're helping out.

You know, there's just an incredible number of, you know, brilliantly smart entrepreneurs, really creative serial entrepreneurs who are coming together in this space. So one company that I'm advising is a maternal fetal health microbiome company. Really fascinating applications, really interesting ip. The idea that we're learning more about the bugs that live in and on our body and how they influence our own health and wellness is really important. So they outnumber us these bugs 10 to 1, cell to cell. And so it's great to pay attention to them and figure out how you can work on them therapeutically. Another company is Luna DNA. So it's a number of really stellar folks who were ex illumina so early in the space. They understand the power of genomics and they're leveraging blockchain to help break data out of silos and enable people to put their data and contribute their data for research and go from kind of being owned to being the owner of that data, which I think is a wonderful mission because we know that big consumer genomics companies like 23andMe or Ancestry.com have done a great kind of good for market development for genomics, but of course, they're selling your data for research purposes to pharma. Luna wants to try to enable broader data sharing by putting the individual in control of those contracts with pharma. So I think that is a wonderful mission. I'm super excited about supporting them. And then that's just a couple of the examples. There's some really great stealth company diagnostics companies that could really be game changing. That'll come out soon. And some really cool therapeutics that are up and coming with the genomics angle for gene and cell therapy applications. So, yeah, the future is bright.

Yeah, for sure.

Really cool. I mean, what's just so cool to see the areas of San Diego's excellence starting to blur? Right? Like, like you said, ivory tower for genomics, but really, telecom, blockchain, big data genomics, all starting to have a reason to be one company. It's pretty cool. All of our talent ends up being way more relevant to each other.

Oh, absolutely.

Which is also really cool.

And I think it would be silly to think that life science will just stay trapped in Excel spreadsheets as the technologies that we use in life science have enabled us to scale up. It's becoming data science, it's becoming computer science, it's becoming applications where you need to see all this data in a meaningful way. And so we have to come together. You know, I've always kind of the analogy I use within my teens is we have four chambers of a beating heart. You know, we need bioinformaticians, we need software engineers, we need UX, we need DevOps. Like, we all have to work together to really make this thing fly.

I like that.

It's pretty cool. Well, a lot of unique things about San Diego, but some of the other things unique here is our lifestyle. I mean, obviously you've been here since what, 2010, you said?

I moved down 2007.

2007. Okay.

So you've gotten to know San Diego. You're probably here longer than most San Diegans at this point. Tell us a little bit about life in San Diego. Do you have a favorite taco spot?

Of course I do. So I've lived in Pacific beach my whole tenure in San Diego. So far, we are a stone's throw from the beach. And I wouldn't change it. I love it being in pb. You've got to go to Oscars Right.

Oh, there's ceviche.

Yeah. Delicious, delicious fish tacos. Ceviche. Also enjoy a mean avocado taco at Galaxy Taco on the Shores.

Yep.

So Galaxy Taco.

I'm a taco fan. Taco surf fan over in pv.

Taco serve is great. They've got amazing little rolled potato taquitos.

That's.

I didn't know if taquitos qualified as tacos. It works for sure for me.

It's nostalgic of just surfing in undergrad and going and getting your first California burrito.

That's right. No, there's nothing better than being all salty and you know, kind of still dripping and starving.

Yeah. What about your favorite coffee spot in San Diego?

So of late I've been using Brick and Bell in PB as my go to work spa. They've got beautiful outdoor area. My daily commute though usually stop at Bird Rock Coffee. Good staple.

Yep, yep.

Got a good one to go.

And what about favorite brewery?

That's a really hard question. Yeah, that's a really hard question because my taste in beer kind of go seasonally.

I'm gonna go with favorite beer.

Well, right now, right now, right now I'm. It's maybe springtime, I don't know, but I'm really enjoying the modern times. Fortunate Islands.

Love modern times.

Little tropical, kind of anticipation of summer.

Uh huh.

Really cool. So look, it's awesome to talk to you, see what you're up to and really excited to see what you're up to next. How can others find you? Where's the best place to find you socially?

Maybe best spot probably Twitter. Shevanz.

I see.

I try to stay engaged in Twitter as much as I can and find that's a great place for breaking news.

Yep. For sure.

There's a great San Diego conversation going on. It seems like all the time there.

Always.

Yeah.

Well actually thanks so much for being on. Really appreciate it and best of luck in your next endeavor.

Thank you Neil. And thank you so much for having me. It's been a lot of fun.

Thanks for joining us on the Tacos and Tech podcast with Neil Blum. Thanks again to Cox Business for helping make this possible by expanding the reach of the San Diego tech ecosystem. This has been a partnership with the San Diego Venture Group and the San Diego Regional Economic Development Council's SD Life Changing campaign. You can find Neil bloom on Twitter eelbloom and on LinkedIn.

Sam.