Gajus Worthington,
Fluidigm
Challenges of Managing: Firing People
If Worthington could start the company over, he would hesitate less in firing people. Firing is one of the hardest things to do as a ...
Gajus Worthington
Fluidigm
Gajus Worthington,
Fluidigm
Forming the Founding Team and Seizing the Opportunity
Gajus Worthington, co-founder of Fluidigm, talks about how the three members of the founding team of Fluidigm met in Stanford Physics professor Doug Osheroff's lab. ...
Gajus Worthington,
Fluidigm
The Breakthrough Idea
Worthington explains that the market climate at the time of the formation of Fluidigm, around 1999, was not favorable towards anything without dotcom in the title, ...
Gajus Worthington,
Fluidigm
Breaking Convention: Technology First, Market Opportunity Second
Fluidigm started the wrong way, notes Worthington. Instead of discovering a market opportunity and then finding the technology and team to take advantage of it, ...
Gajus Worthington,
Fluidigm
Building a Team and Picking the Right VCs
Worthington talks about how the founders understood that the key to creating a successful company was picking only the very best people at every level ...
Gajus Worthington,
Fluidigm
The Challenges of Building a Company
Worthington explains that creating a company puts incredible strain on the founders and calls upon them to do things that people do not normally have ...
Gajus Worthington,
Fluidigm
Product Development
After bringing together the best team, raising money in tough environments, and establishing and living by core values, says Worthington, Fluidigm focused on launching the ...
Gajus Worthington,
Fluidigm
Keeping a Financial Focus
Worthington warns that a lot of entrepreneurs get so caught up in the technology or science behind their product that they forget to focus on ...
Gajus Worthington,
Fluidigm
Raising Money and Recognizing Interest in VCs
Though Fluidigm is essentially a tool company, which is not very glamorous, says Worthington, they were successful in raising funding because they were a real, ...
Gajus Worthington,
Fluidigm
Can You Continually Increase Value?
Worthington answers the questions: Will the stock price of a company keep going up? He discusses Fludigm's financial history and how the company was able ...
Gajus Worthington,
Fluidigm
Recruiting the Best
Worthington relates an anecdote about how renowned intellectual property lawyer Bill Smith joined Fluidigm as general counsel. Worthington gave Smith the pitch before Fluidigm was ...
Gajus Worthington,
Fluidigm
How Do You Establish a Decision-Making Process?
Though the Fluidigm executive staff was incredibly bright and talented, says Worthington, they initially were almost incapable at making decisions and constantly argued. Worthington decided ...
Gajus Worthington,
Fluidigm
How to Recruit Top Talent
Worthington talks about how Fluidigm relied on two assets to help them recruit top talent: breakthrough technology and chemistry. Obviously, the technology was a big ...
Gajus Worthington,
Fluidigm
To MBA or Not?: Technical Degree or MBA
Worthington would not trade his technical degree for an MBA. He sees entrepreneurship being about breaking many of the rules that one learns in business ...
Gajus Worthington,
Fluidigm
Envisioning the Future: Other Potential Applications of the Technology
The applications for the Fluidigm technology may be far from being realized, says Worthington. Fluidigm is currently working on high-throughout methodologies, like genome screening and ...
Gajus Worthington,
Fluidigm
Lowest Lows and Highest Highs
The financial hardships Fluidigm encountered after September 11 were the most difficult stage for the company, says Worthington. The company needed financing quickly or it would ...
Gajus Worthington,
Fluidigm
Going Global: Why Singapore?
From the beginning of the company, Worthington was aware in the back of his mind that someday Fluidigm would have to go global and setup ...
Gajus Worthington,
Fluidigm
Founding Team: Technical or Business Saavy?
Worthington tried to create a balance between technical skills and business skills within the founding team. A mix of background provides a wider set of ...
Gajus Worthington,
Fluidigm
Experimenting with New Technologies
When experimenting with new capabilities and technologies, unexpected things happen, notes Worthington. These unexpected results can often be a useful source of new knowledge.
Gajus Worthington,
Fluidigm
Finding a Market
When in search for a market, Worthington advises not to focus the company too early. Though there is tremendous pressure in the beginning to focus, ...
Gajus Worthington,
Fluidigm
Disposable vs. Reusable in Biology
There are no plans at this time to make the rubber chips reusable, says Worthington. Because the chips are so cheap to produce, Fluidigm would ...
Gajus Worthington,
Fluidigm
Establishing a Market
If Fluidigm had not decided to market the crystallization chip, says Worthington, they would have developed a platform for doing large-scale parallel PCR. However, they ...
