Hey Guys! For today’s post, I would like to share the short story on how our company was founded. Hopefully it will inspire some of you aspiring scientists wishing to start up your own company.

Two boys

Fast Genomics Solutions was essentially the brain-child of our two founders, Mohammad Zarul Hanifah (a computer geek) and Muhammad Azamuddeen Nasir (the environmental hermit, or as Zarul calls him- an alien in human skin). For a long time, Zarul was looking into starting a company that revolves around his passion for microbiology and bioinformatics. While academia is extremely tempting from a research point of view, let’s face it..the pay is a downer and a postdoc was an absolute no-no for Zarul. As tempting as it sounds to start a new company, Zarul knew it comes with a lot of trials and tribulations. Having a business partner would mean decreasing the load of having to startup alone but it was important to find a partner who shares the same ideologies and passion while also being trustworthy.

Azam and Zarul collecting soil samples.

In 2021, after many sleepless nights thinking of this possible business idea, Zarul met Azam. See, Azam was never supposed to cross paths with Zarul but as fate would have it, they crossed paths. Zarul had a gut feeling (get it? Microbio..gut feeling? :D) that this could lead to a possible partnership. Zarul eventually shared his burning desire to start Fast Genomics and as it would turn out, Azam was very interested in joining Zarul on this venture and together they founded this company. This was the start of many many..MANY meetings to discuss the structure of the company and how they were going to do this.

I jumped in!

Fast forward to 2023, the company had already been running (or maybe walking) for 1.5 years. It was at this time that Zarul and Azam realised it was missing something.. a woman! I am kidding of course. They had discussed the possibility of adding another partner to the company- me (Harpreet Kaur). The two of them approached me with this very tempting offer of being a partner. I LOVEEE anything to do with microbes and almost instantly agreed to join them. Thus, the company is where it is now, with three partners who share a combined love for microbiology, environmental science and bioinformatics.