ILLUMINA
Illumina ’ s sequencing instruments .
The company was founded in April of 1998 by David Walt , PhD of Tufts University and inventor of BeadArray technology ; Larry Bock of the venture capitalist firm CW Group ; John Stuelpnagel , DVM ; Anthony Czarnik , PhD ; and Mark Chee , PhD . In 1999 , CEO Jay Flatley joined the company .
When the company completed its initial public offering on July 1 , 2000 , it generated over US $ 100 million , signaling its success to come .
The ensuing eight years after Illumina ’ s IPO marked numerous
Jay Flately , CEO
notable moments , particularly with the development of new technologies , but not without setbacks .
Illumina began as a 25-person startup that sold microarray chips — useful in examining spots on the genome for mutations — but as the genome sequencing market grew relatively fast , so did competition . The company began to lose money ( for example , in 2003 , Illumina had $ 28 million in revenue and a net loss of $ 27 million ) and the potential for microarrays was starting to dim as more comprehensive sequencing technology began to improve , and quickly .
Flatley knew that there was only one
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