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  "documentTitle": "Twist Bioscience (TWST)",
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  "authorName": "Scorpion Capital",
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  "presentationDate": "2022-11-15 00:00:00",
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  "notes": "The slide uses a Q&A format and direct quotes from industry executives to build a case against Twist's business model.",
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      "text": "Twist tried to get share by selling at “half or a quarter” of prevailing prices; giving money away to buy market share",
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      "text": "Twist slashed industry pricing to new lows, more than 2/3 below the then-prevailing price\n“With Gen9, if we were at 15 cents a base, they might come in at like 10. Before Twist came out, it wasn’t going below 10. They’ve always been driving towards 5 cents.” -Executive previously at Gen9, a key Twist competitor with a similar model, as well at other competitors; currently employed at another synthetic biology player",
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      "text": "Twist “put a lot of pressure” on the market and started “a race to the bottom”; “commodity market”; their pricing “doesn’t add up”\nThat kind of thing. And she [Twist CEO] was asked about the 5-cent price point, and she would say that’s what we’re driving towards. But it put a lot of pressure in the market, kind of a race to the bottom. So, it is very much a commodity product. Selling things at 5 cents a base pair doesn’t add up very, very quickly.” -Executive recently at IDT, a key Twist competitor, currently employed at another synthetic biology player",
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      "text": "Twist tried to get share by selling at “half or a quarter” of prevailing prices; giving money away to buy market share\nA: “IDT started the move to 20-cent base pairs. The one thing that I have to remind people when I say that is that even though it was a similar product, it was a lower-quality product, and they marketed it that way. Twist came on and promised clonal DNA for half or a quarter of that price to try to disrupt the market and get early share.”\nQ: “When you said Twist took pricing to a quarter or half, what did that translate into in cents per base pair?”\nA: “They were doing deals at 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 cents a base pair right out of the gate.”\nQ: “So, they were just giving away money to people, just purely buying market share.”\nA: “Absolutely. Yup.” -Ex-senior executive of another key competitor and longtime expert in Twist’s space",
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      "text": "He continued that Twist “put a lot of pressure” on the market and started a “race to the bottom,” selling what is “very much a commodity product” which “at 5 cents a base pair doesn’t add up very, very quickly.” Two other longtime industry executives, both from key competitors, provided identical color: Twist crushed pricing to “half or a quarter” of prevailing rates, replying “Absolutely, yup” when we asked if they “were just giving money away to people” to buy market share.",
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      "text": "“With Gen9, if we were at 15 cents a base, they might come in at like 10. Before Twist came out, it wasn’t going below 10. They’ve always been driving towards 5 cents.” — Executive previously at Gen9, a key Twist competitor",
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      "text": "Source: Scorpion Capital consultation calls with experts",
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