Richman created uBiome with crowdfunding nearly six years ago in 2012 — the same year that a huge government research initiative focused on the microbiome ended. Called the Human Microbiome Project, the seven-year project's purpose was to study the diverse communities of microbes living in and on our bodies and learn what roles they play in health and disease.
But Richman didn't want to wait years to see those results turn into real products for people.
"I couldn't miss the opportunity to be a part of the beginning of the microbiome revolution," Richman told startup hub Y Combinator, which backed uBiome, in 2014.
This September, her company raised $83 million in a funding round that transformed it from a meek startup to a key player on the life science venture scene. Hundreds of thousands of customers have since had their microbiomes sequenced by uBiome researchers, and the company hopes that data will be used to offer the first concrete insights into how microbes impact our health.
"uBiome basically invented the category of the microbiome," Johnson said. "What if we could understand this thing that is such a big component of what makes us who we are?"