Almost definitely - they're using MGI sequencers, which can't be sold in the US or Europe due to patent infringement (until August 29th in the US). Some have been sold outside of China in Asia.
I emailed Sequencing.com asking what the difference was between them and Nebula Genomics and this is what they wrote back:
(1) Nebula is our laboratory partner, and they sequence with high-throughput MGI DNBSEQ-T7 DNA sequencing machines.
(2) They are our laboratory provider, but the product is not the same! The whole genome sequencing product sold by Nebula on their site is different from the Ultimate Genome Sequencing service we offer in some key ways. One big one is that our service includes more than $200 in DNA analysis apps and reports (such as the Healthcare Pro report designed for healthcare providers and the Rare Disease Screen that analyzes thousands of rare diseases).
The biggest difference, however, is in the processing of the raw genetic data into data files that you can then use to get health insights. We have enhanced processing for these kits that is able to create insights not available from Nebula directly, including enhanced raw data processing through two special bioinformatics pipelines that provide comprehensive data and analysis of structural variations, copy number variations, and mitochondrial heteroplasmy. Both Telomere Length and HLA Typing are coming soon and will be retroactively added to all past purchases of our Ultimate Genome Sequencing service.
This is all fed into our One Genome technology, which allows you to do analysis in ways that you can't do anywhere else. This technology takes all of your genetic data and turns it into an enhanced virtual genome. This advantage of this is that you can run analysis on everything all at once, where in some other cases you might have separate files that can't be analyzed simultaneously.
The long and short of it is that it takes a lot of processing to turn raw genetic data into usable data, and then to analyze that data. That piece is where we come in, and are at the forefront of the field.
I used Lofta. They were much more interested in selling me their CPAP machines than explaining the results to me. (I was so borderline, CPAP would not be the first treatment anyone would recommend.)
I had the same experience - it almost seemed like they didn't actually care what my results were. It seemed like a big front for a sales pitch. My other problem with lofta and OPs product is its a disposable one night thing. The night I did my lofta I slept like shit - tossing and turning, got so little sleep my lofta wouldn't let me end the session so I had to sit awake with it on. These tests shouldnt be one night things! They should accumulate the data over a week or so.
A 3rd party called Sherwood was brought on to wind down the company. This is common thing for a company to do when there are lots of assets to sell and loose ends to tie up. Everything from office furniture to domains to etc. They made all the decisions to sell what to who.
If anyone wants a startup idea, it's to make the inverse of Stripe Atlas. Closing down a company properly is a very long and complicated process.
This account doesn’t explain why your brother proceeded to misappropriated the startups database, and then terminated the rebranded startup once the wrongdoing was uncovered.
I'm skeptical a neutral 3rd-party would advocate selling credit card data to a person planning an illegal scheme. Especially when that person is your own brother.
This actually highlights a big problem we had - aligning expectations of what "clean" meant between a customer and cleaner. Everyone has a different definition!
It's true if you have a capital-intensive business, I will ask some of the toughest questions. I do this to figure out where you are in your journey of learning, not to find reasons to not accept you. In fact, we all take super-extra precaution to not over-learn from our own failures.
And to be clear, I've invested in plenty of startups with similar models. But I understand your perception of how things went.
I don't like the phrase too much but short answer is intellectual honesty. For example, understanding what went wrong that was probably because of your decisions versus the market, customers, external forces, etc.
There are far too many examples of founders succeeding with an idea after many people before them failed with same idea. I think any good investor is cognizant of this.
