{ "docId": "019dd923-622c-750b-8b9a-4b91788fc785", "docSlug": "5fadb686cc03", "documentTitle": "Twist Bioscience (TWST)", "authorId": "58_Scorpion_Capital", "authorName": "Scorpion Capital", "documentKindSlug": "activist-deck", "documentKindLabel": "Activist deck", "sourceTypeSlug": "short_seller", "sourceTypeLabel": "Short seller", "presentationDate": "2022-11-15 00:00:00", "orientation": "landscape", "aspectRatio": 1.2941177, "pageNumber": 75, "pageCount": 236, "prevPage": 74, "nextPage": 76, "slideType": "expose_contradiction", "function": "expose_contradiction", "density": "dense", "nDataPoints": 0, "notes": "The slide uses a Q&A format to highlight the discrepancy between the company's 'tech' narrative and the reality of their 'manual-labor' operations.", "elementsJson": [ "paragraph", "quote_block", "footnote" ], "metadataConfidence": 1, "imagePath": null, "slideHref": "/slides/019dd923-622c-750b-8b9a-4b91788fc785/75", "deckHref": "/decks/019dd923-622c-750b-8b9a-4b91788fc785", "deckJsonHref": "/decks/019dd923-622c-750b-8b9a-4b91788fc785.json", "deckAnchorHref": "/decks/019dd923-622c-750b-8b9a-4b91788fc785#slide-75", "components": [ { "bbox": null, "kind": "callout", "text": "The ex-employee described a manual-labor body shop where it takes “a few days” to make oligos – that is, the “chip” requires crews of lab technicians working 24/7 shifts similar to traditional DNA synthesis on well plates", "attrs": null, "subkind": null, "toolName": "Visual emphasis", "toolSlug": "visual-emphasis", "confidence": null, "componentId": "019dd953-0932-77cf-bfe9-63f8ede80f75", "frameworkName": null, "frameworkSlug": null }, { "bbox": { "h": 0.08, "w": 0.9, "x": 0.05, "y": 0.45 }, "kind": "list", "text": "Labor-intensive body shop; takes “a few days” to synthesize oligos on a chip, then labor for numerous individual steps in countless test tubes by lab technicians", "attrs": null, "subkind": "bullet", "toolName": null, "toolSlug": null, "confidence": null, "componentId": "ac83de0a-631a-48a1-9d45-4f0bd8a39a87", "frameworkName": null, "frameworkSlug": null }, { "bbox": { "h": 0.35, "w": 0.9, "x": 0.05, "y": 0.08 }, "kind": "paragraph", "text": "The ex-employee described a manual-labor body shop where it takes “a few days” to make oligos – that is, the “chip” requires crews of lab technicians working 24/7 shifts similar to traditional DNA synthesis on well plates – followed by a long series of manual steps across large numbers of test tubes: “that’s labor, and you need people to do that in each test tube.” He laid out steps no different than decades-old, legacy DNA manufacturing methods – harvesting oligos, annealing, adding enzymes, de-naturing with PCR, and so forth: “people have to do it” vs. a chip magically solving the problem.", "attrs": null, "subkind": "paragraph", "toolName": null, "toolSlug": null, "confidence": null, "componentId": "5582f0d5-f9ae-4f12-85c0-ac14de12f1d9", "frameworkName": null, "frameworkSlug": null }, { "bbox": { "h": 0.38, "w": 0.9, "x": 0.05, "y": 0.55 }, "kind": "quote", "text": "Q: “They pitch themselves as a technology company with this cool chip but are they basically like a manual-intensive body shop - a bunch of lab technicians at the end of the day?”\nA: “Yes, yes. That’s true. Twist tries to automate the process, but I can give you one example of how gene synthesis works.”\nQ: “Yes, walk me through an example of making an oligo and then an NGS sample, so that I can really understand the economics and how manually intensive it is.”\nA: “I’ll give you one example: gene synthesis. That’s their core business. They call it synthetic biology inside the gene. So, a customer orders the gene through the website. Then they synthesize the gene oligo based on the gene, they break them into pieces, different DNA fragments, then oligos. Because each chip can have up to one million different oligos, usually, they have to wait a few days to accumulate enough orders and then start to synthesize the DNA because of the chip and all of the reagents. The process is expensive. It takes them a few days, a couple of days, to synthesize the oligos on the chip. After two days of the synthesis on the chip, they call it “harvest,” so cut the oligos from the chip, and recover the DNA oligos. Once they recovered the oligos in the chip, all the DNA oligos for one gene, so they can mature and anneal and fill in the gaps. From there, they take the oligos, that’s labor, and you need people to do that in each test tube. You can probably do a 96-well format. Each well is one gene. So, each well has 100 oligos, anneal them together, and fill in the gaps, and people have to do it. Add enzymes, de-nature with different PCR.” – Former Twist employee, director-level", "attrs": null, "subkind": "testimonial", "toolName": null, "toolSlug": null, "confidence": null, "componentId": "0a357fce-a6fc-4057-896e-6318894f81d0", "frameworkName": null, "frameworkSlug": null }, { "bbox": null, "kind": "quote", "text": "“Yes, yes. That’s true. Twist tries to automate the process, but I can give you one example of how gene synthesis works.” — Former Twist employee, director-level", "attrs": null, "subkind": null, "toolName": "Authority citation", "toolSlug": "authority-citation", "confidence": null, "componentId": "019dd953-0932-77cf-bfe9-65ed66c67276", "frameworkName": null, "frameworkSlug": null }, { "bbox": { "h": 0.02, "w": 0.3, "x": 0.05, "y": 0.96 }, "kind": "source-note", "text": "Source: Scorpion Capital consultation calls with experts", "attrs": null, "subkind": null, "toolName": null, "toolSlug": null, "confidence": null, "componentId": "376fb1a4-5fdd-4491-a6c7-c047d0cfb16c", "frameworkName": null, "frameworkSlug": null } ], "metrics": [], "tools": [], "frameworks": [ { "name": "ceo-quote-contradiction", "slug": null, "matchId": "cf847bae-d27a-4db2-b4c4-851c78fa8a6e", "evidence": "Contrasts company pitch with employee testimony", "confidence": 0.9 } ], "arcBeats": [], "loops": [], "imagePathAlt": null, "thumbSrc": null, "thumbSrcAlt": null, "locked": true }