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  "documentTitle": "Berkeley Lights (BLI)",
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      "text": "We took note of the company’s turbulent past, and that it was founded – and is still run by – semiconductor engineers with no discernible background or experience in biology or drug development.",
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      "text": "We took note of the company’s turbulent past, and that it was founded – and is still run by – semiconductor engineers with no discernible background or experience in biology or drug development. The founder and CEO appears to have been fired by the Board in 2017. A recurring theme of our interviews with ex-executives and employees was of a wayward company founded by a clique of semiconductor specialists who thought they knew better than biologists; who didn’t add biology talent to the management team; who “didn’t value or listen to their biologists” internally; and who then face-planted by coming up with an ill-conceived product that reflected no understanding of their user or target market.",
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      "text": "BLI was built by “semiconductor guys” who “didn’t value or listen” to biologists, creating an internal “rift”",
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      "text": "Lack of biology expertise or input has taken “a toll” and inflicted “a long-lasting impact”",
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      "text": "Product was not designed by biologists and doesn’t reflect an understanding of the end user or market",
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      "kind": "quote",
      "text": "\"The founder of the company and all the people that he brought over were all semiconductor guys. The company is really built around semiconductor engineers who were getting into biology. So, there's definitely this rift in the company between engineers and biologists. They're making equipment for biology and were kind like we're in charge. They didn't value or listen to their biologists so much.\" —Former BLI executive; \"It was engineered by people who are not biologists, and it had some conceptions of biology that didn't match biologists' views...The problem is that they built this thing without a biologist's point-of-view, and so, in the beginning, they were battling biology. But these are the people that you're supposed to be selling equipment to...There was a conflict, engineers thinking they knew better how to do something than the biologists. It was this general-purpose concept-driven thing then had to try to find a home in terms of commercial or research value.\" —Former BLI executive; \"For the longest time, we were missing a really good biologist at the executive level. I think that took a toll. Some of the mismatch was the semiconductor guys trying to understand biology, how biologists think, how research happens. That has a long-lasting impact. It was hard to get the biologists a voice there. There were a lot of engineering-driven decisions.\" —Former BLI senior scientist",
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      "text": "Source: Scorpion Capital consultation calls with experts",
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      "kind": "title",
      "text": "1) Introduction to the real Berkeley Lights; warning signs of a looming collapse and other red flags",
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