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Editor’s note: This is the third of five profiles of the finalists for Startup CEO of the Year ahead of the 2023 GeekWire Awards. Previously: Humanly CEO Prem Kumar, Rebellyous Foods CEO Christie Lagally.
Ivan Liachko didn’t plan on becoming a founder. But when the berry company called, the Ukrainian-born scientist knew it was time to launch a biotech startup.
Liachko was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Washington when he and his colleagues invented something promising.
They discovered new uses for a technique that shows how DNA is organized inside a cell. It could be used to readily assemble the DNA sequence of essentially any life form.
Driscoll’s, one of the top berry sellers in the U.S., wanted DNA data on its berries. There were many other requests to collaborate on sequencing projects, and Liachko couldn’t keep up.
“I was just focused on creating as much impact and good science as I could,” said Liachko. “I didn’t think I was going to start a company.”
Liachko launched Phase Genomics in 2015 with his longtime friend and Dungeons & Dragons teammate Shawn Sullivan, a former Microsoft engineer. Other co-founders include Liachko’s UW advisors Maitreya Dunham and Jay Shendure, and then-graduate student Josh Burton.
Phase Genomics is now a 26-employee company known for its culture of scientific discovery, giving back to the community, and sequencing the genome of some wacky creatures. At the helm is Liachko, a finalist for Startup CEO of the Year at the 2023 GeekWire Awards.
From creatures to cancer
Since its launch, Phase Genomics has supported hundreds of sequencing projects. A few examples: platypus, cannabis, psychedelic mushrooms, fireflies, goats, hummingbirds, mosquitos, condors, vanilla, quinoa, watermelon, beer yeast, clams, cassava, elephants, ticks, pigs, shrimp, and honeybees and the mites that kill them.
Phase also expanded its tech into other areas, starting a service to detect chromosomal abnormalities in tumors, now used in several clinical trials. And last year, the company launched a major project backed by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to create a worldwide catalog of a peculiar class of viruses — the kind that infect bacteria.
“We built Phase around this central core of solving problems that can’t be solved by other means,” said Liachko.
People close to Liachko say his infectious love of scientific discovery propels the company forward. He’s been spotted analyzing the microbes in soil from his garden and bringing in dirt from boy scout trips with his children. Employees also test samples from their travels.
“If you’re going hiking, bring back a crazy mushroom,” said Kayla Young, chief operating officer at Phase.
Liachko and his team have racked up a pile of co-authored scientific publications with scientists from all over the world. “The samples are different, the inputs are different, the outputs are different, and he’s able to hone in on the question they are asking and show how Phase can help answer it,” said Young.
In her six years with the company, Young has often sat in with Liachko when he interviews job candidates. “And he always will say, ‘Our goal at Phase is that after people join, they leave better than they came.’” But very few have left.
Said Young: “He does a good job of building a company where curious scientists thrive.”
Bootstrapping a biotech startup
Liachko approached learning about running a company with a scientific mind, said Ken Myer, an unpaid Phase advisor and a leadership coach associated with CoMotion, the UW’s innovation office.
“Some researchers make really good entrepreneurs, because they have an experimentation mentality. They don’t take it personally,” said Myer. Liachko is in that class, he said.
Liachko also largely bootstrapped the company, which is unusual among biotech startups. “He showed an acumen about financing that was quite mature for somebody who had never done a startup before,” said Myer.
During the startup’s early years, Liachko flew to scientific meetings to market Phase’s offerings and applied to small business grants from U.S. science agencies. Phase’s sales of services and kits helped the startup retain financial independence, said Liachko.
“We could stand in front of scientists and show them what we had, and they would give us money because they could see the inherent value of it,” said Liachko. The company has pulled in $24 million in non-dilutive funding from revenue and grants to date.
Liachko is a “pragmatic pessimist,” said Myer. “He’s always wondering ‘when will the money run out? What do I need to do next?’ He’s got that kind of healthy anxiousness that you need to have as a startup CEO.”
Giving back and supporting Ukraine
When his family moved to the U.S. when Liachko was 11, he was already hooked on science. He had picked up an old Soviet-era textbook on genetics in elementary school, and was fascinated. His grandmother, a professor in a STEM field, also encouraged him.
Liachko has kept his connections with the country. His father and brother now live there, along with other family members.
When Russia’s war against Ukraine broke out, Liachko encouraged other biotechnology companies to get involved and matched employee donations to groups like Razom for Ukraine, Voices of Children, and the UN Humanitarian Crisis Fund.
“It’s true that we’re a biotech company, but we’re also part of the human race, and this is one of the biggest things facing all of us,” said Liachko,
Liachko was awed by a delegation of young Ukrainians that recently visited Seattle to learn how to build a startup ecosystem.
“These people are amazing, they are doing things that we can’t even fathom,” said Liachko of his Ukrainian compatriots. “There are sirens that go off every night and you have to run with your kids to a bomb shelter. And they’re building startups.”
Phase Genomics sponsors an event for entrepreneurs about three times per year, “Genome Startup Day,” and in May is planning to feature Ukrainian startups.
Startup Day often features researchers from the Seattle area. And that is just one way Liachko also is involved in regional efforts. He serves as a judge for startup competitions such as the UW’s Holloman Health Innovation Challenge, speaks at science-related events, and mentors early-stage entrepreneurs at the UW.
“I still feel myself very much as part of the scientific community — part of the biotech community, part of the Seattle and Pacific Northwest community,” said Liachko. “I want to do these things.”
A team of curious scientists
The creative approach to science at Phase Genomics results in a lot of new ideas, said Young.
The company now has its sights on discovering new therapeutics and therapeutic targets, including “druggable” mutations in cancer genomes and therapeutic viruses gleaned from Phase’s project with the Gates Foundation. Some of those viruses might just destroy or augment bacteria involved in disease.
“We are essentially building an engine that is going to spin out things that are more suitable for venture capital,” said Liachko. He’s also excited about advances in artificial intelligence, for instance to link viruses with their bacterial hosts.
Liachko also maintains his focus on hiring people who are inherently passionate about science. He said every employee has to be “a specialist in something.”
“People just really love working here. I think that’s because we’ve focused on the right things, and that is high quality people doing high quality work in a supportive environment,” said Liachko.
If you see Driscoll’s berries in the supermarket, there’s a good chance Phase Genomics sequenced the strains during the startup’s early days.
“What surprised me is I could do it: build a team that runs and creates this amazing stuff, and sometimes I’m barely involved,” Liachko said. “It surprised me that it actually worked.”
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