Mr. Gutshall: The corporation was founded in the summer of 1996 after Kurt Petersen and I debated whether you could really apply the new concepts in microfluidics and micro-machining in the diagnostics industry. We were aware of applicable technology that was poised to be out-licensed by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and were successful in gaining that license. We utilized that technology as the base concept upon which to build Cepheid and got underway with some private money that was available to us. Shortly after we had received our license on this technology from Livermore Labs, we were contracted by several groups within the United States Department of Defense to do work for them in the area of fast DNA detection systems. However, the commercial thesis that we were following was to bring new tools for genomic assessment into the marketplace, so that a DNA test result could be made available when and where it was needed. The company grew through the usual formative stages. We sought additional capital from private investors; and were awarded several government contracts, most notably one from United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Disease (USAMRIID) in Fort Detrick, Maryland. Those dollars moved us rapidly down the path of research and development to a point where, by the time we were entering 2000, we knew that we had a product that we could take to market. Early in 2000, we began to think about going public, which we did in June, June 21 to be specific. So the company's ramp was fairly steep, in essence about four years from concept until we were able to go public. Of course, 2000 was a good year for many of us to go public.
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