With CuraGen, Jonathan Rothberg was on the leading edge of genome science making drugs for cancer. In 1999, the company went public, and stock went to $256 a share. By the next year, CuraGen had a market cap of $5 billion.
Most yacht owners buy a boat to escape the trappings of work. Jonathan Rothberg did the opposite. The geneticist spent so much time conducting research aboard his family yacht that he wound up buying a shadow vessel and converted it into a floating laboratory.
It might seem odd, then, to describe the entrepreneur as a devoted family man, but that’s the truth.
“Every one of my companies was started because of somebody I love,” Rothberg says, sweeping a thick mop of brown hair back from his face. “They’re not random start-ups.”
With 100 patents to his name and $2.3 and the 182-foot (56-meter) Damen support vessel .
