Gabe Otte

Otte earned an undergraduate degree in chemistry and computational biology at Cornell UniversityCornell UniversityCornell University is a private research university in Ithaca, New York, and a member of the Ivy League. It is New York State's federal land-grant university, a distinction unique within the Ivy League. Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White founded the university in 1865, and it opened in 1868. In addition to its Ithaca campus, Cornell operates Weill Cornell Medicine and Cornell Tech in New York City and a medical college in Qatar. It enrolled 26,793 students in fall 2024. Its president is Michael I. Kotlikoff.Open the full entry and worked as a software engineer at AppleAppleApple is a public technology company founded in 1976 and headquartered in Cupertino, California, United States. Its business includes the iPhone, Mac, iPad, wearables, and services such as digital content, payments, and cloud storage. The company builds its product system through in-house hardware, operating systems, and services.Open the full entry and at the Glyde corporation.⁠[1]

In September 2011 Otte enrolled as a PhD student in the University of PennsylvaniaUniversity of PennsylvaniaThe University of Pennsylvania, commonly called Penn, is a private research university and Ivy League member in Philadelphia. It traces its origins to a 1740 charity-school project; Benjamin Franklin proposed his academy in 1749, classes began in 1751, and a 1791 merger established the institution under its present name. Penn has 12 schools, with undergraduate education concentrated in arts and sciences, engineering, nursing and Wharton. Enrollment totaled 29,384 in fall 2025, and the fiscal 2025 endowment was $24.81 billion. As of October 2026, J. Larry Jameson was president, with his term scheduled to end on June 30, 2027.Open the full entry’s Genomics and Computational Biology graduate group, joined Shelley Berger’s lab in 2012 and co-authored five papers; he left the program without a degree in October 2014.⁠[2][3]

After leaving Penn in October 2014 and working on Acorn, Otte co-founded Freenome with Riley Ennis and became its chief executive. Based in South San Francisco, Freenome develops non-invasive blood tests for early disease detection, including a test for colon cancer, and partnered with Massachusetts General Hospital and UC San Francisco. Otte described its mission as providing “accurate, accessible and non-invasive disease screenings” to doctors.⁠[3][1][4]

On October 19, 2016, Andreessen HorowitzAndreessen HorowitzAndreessen Horowitz (a16z) is a venture capital firm founded in 2009 by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz. It invests from the seed stage through the growth stage and provides operational support to its portfolio companies.Open the full entry released “a16z Podcast: On the Genomics of Disease, From Science to Business,” in which Otte, as CEO and co-founder of Freenome, appeared with a16z bio fund partners Vijay Pande and Malinka Walaliyadde, interviewed by Sonal Chokshi. Starting from the failure of human genome sequencing to reveal the causes of all diseases, the episode examined the limits of single-target approaches and discussed a systems approach combining machine learning with rapidly falling sequencing costs (a “Moore’s Law” for genomics), building an applications layer on top of sequencing, lessons for biology from the computing industry’s evolution from chips to apps, recent Illumina news and the guests’ vision of an ideal diagnostic tool. It was uploaded to the a16z YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is Google’s video-sharing and creator platform, founded in 2005 by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim and acquired by Google in 2006. Built around video uploading, viewing, and creator earnings, the platform has developed Shorts, YouTube Music, Premium, YouTube TV, and products for children, and is headquartered in San Bruno, California, United States.Open the full entry channel on January 1, 2019.⁠[5][6]

On February 22, 2017, Andreessen Horowitz released “a16z Podcast: When Will Genomics Live Up to the Hype?,” recorded at the inaugural a16z Summit and hosted by a16z bio fund partner Malinka Walaliyadde, with Otte, Carlos Araya of Jungla and Jeff Kaditz of Q. Marking nearly 15 years since the completion of the Human Genome Project, the episode asked whether genomics had reached its “golden age,” covering how DNA changes over time at a high rate, the need for context such as mutations, somatic tissue, phenotypes and personal history, and the distinct commercialization challenges of predictive and diagnostic genomics. It was uploaded to the a16z YouTube channel on January 1, 2019, as “a16z Podcast | When Will Genomics Live Up to the Hype?”⁠[7][8]

Freenome had earlier raised a $5.5 million seed round led by Andreessen Horowitz, and in 2017 it raised $65 million in a round also led by Andreessen Horowitz, with other backers including Innovation Endeavors, Founders FundFounders FundFounders Fund is a venture capital firm founded in San Francisco in 2005 by Peter Thiel and his former PayPal colleagues Ken Howery and Luke Nosek. Run by partners who were entrepreneurs themselves, it argues that founders should keep more control and is known for betting on difficult technology projects in areas such as space, defense, and artificial intelligence. It was Palantir’s first institutional investor, has invested in SpaceX many times since 2008, and its other notable investments include Facebook, Airbnb, Stripe, and Anduril; as of March 2026 it had raised nine early-stage funds and four growth funds.Open the full entry, Polaris Partners and GV. Otte was named to the Forbes “30 Under 30” list in 2017.⁠[3][2]

Until early March 2017 Freenome’s website listed him as “Gabriel Otte, PhD,” and some conference materials and media also described him as holding a PhD; the title was then removed from the company website, which Otte attributed to a website refresh and a possible typo. In 2017 BuzzFeed News and The Daily Pennsylvanian published articles on the matter. Otte said: “I was working towards a PhD, but did not receive a PhD,” adding that he had always been clear about his academic history and did not claim to have completed a PhD; he declined to discuss the circumstances of his departure from Penn. Freenome board member Vijay Pande of a16z and Blake Byers of GV said they knew he had not finished his PhD.⁠[3][2]

On January 11, 2018, Andreessen Horowitz released “a16z Podcast: Revisiting the Gene,” based on a discussion at a16z’s annual Summit in November 2017 and moderated by Jorge CondeJorge CondeJorge Conde is a biotechnology entrepreneur and a general partner on the Bio + Health team at Andreessen Horowitz (a16z).Open the full entry, general partner on a16z’s Bio + Health team, with Otte, as co-founder and CEO of Freenome, and Carlos Araya, co-founder and CEO of Jungla. The episode discussed how, with DNA sequencing falling from about $3 billion over 13 years to about $1,000 in roughly two days, the field could move from the sequencing layer to the applications layer, how to interpret the roughly 3 million new variants in each human genome, and how to determine which findings are actionable and turn them into clinical applications. It was uploaded to the a16z YouTube channel on January 1, 2019, as “a16z Podcast | Revisiting the Gene.”⁠[9][10]

In May 2021 Freenome confirmed that Mike Nolan had replaced Otte as chief executive; the company made no public announcement of the change.⁠[4]