Bananas & Gratitude

Dear Trevor

Since you are the Number #1 contributor, and my readers are only a few Russian bots, I thought my thank you note would be appropriately disseminated here.

I am officially beginning classes tomorrow, and just like that this transition is underway.  Along with it, I’ve always meant to include a thorough thank you for the role you’ve played.  The thing was, I wasn’t sure where to start; you have been a key figure in my life the past couple of years and it is hard to put my gratitude into words. I feel lucky for all that has unfolded. 

When I first heard you present the idea of an NGS-based diagnostic test for bladder cancer in Gray lab meeting 2.5 years ago, I didn’t realize that that was my introduction to the company of which I would become a co-founder.  Against odds and looming deadlines, you have taken that assay from a lab presentation, to the Illumina Accelerator, to an SBIR-funded, investor-backed genomics start-up.  Though I was fortunate to join your team early on, you have been at the helm all along the way.

You have lead us with an immeasurable amount of intellectual curiosity, focus and compassion. You interact with our mentor-geniuses, dedicated lab workers and critical thinking advisors and still manage to find time to join mine and Kevin’s Skype conversations to guide us out of the dark forest our analyses often take us to. You’ve built this company from the ground up, amidst a lot of major life events, yet still engaged with me in deeper conversations about my personal and professional aspirations. Thank you for that.

Our relationship has been all of these things, most occurring simultaneously: colleagues, roommates, CEO/employee, co-founders, friends.  I have learned so much because of this opportunity you presented me: from what a VC is, how to design hybrid capture probes, how to identify a PCR family of molecules, to Medicare reimbursement approval pathways, and how to clean out Taylor’s goopy eyes [may he rest in peace].  I’m grateful for all the learning that has gone on in the past couple years; without it I am certain this opportunity at Stanford would not have opened its doors to me. Thank you to Jessica and Ellie, for the learning, joy and support they’ve given me too. 

I look forward to keeping in touch in Convergent’s [!] road ahead. Though I am training for a different career, we still have the same goal in common: help people take care of themselves better, I think is one way to sum it up. 

In utmost gratitude,

Carly

P.S. I'll come in soon, once I figure out this class schedule :).