Lee Essner

Lee is an experienced executive, start-up advisor, and entrepreneur.

Lee was most recently an Executive-in-Residence at Idealab, where he was responsible for researching, prototyping, and testing new company ideas, as well as supporting the New Venture Group in evaluating outside investments in early stage technology companies. Before that, Lee was the Founder and CEO of AccessDNA (renamed Inherited Health), an innovative online consumer health company that helps users identify their hereditary disease risk by using family health history data. The company was acquired in April 2011 by Informed Medical Decisions, Inc., which operates the largest network of genetic counselors and professionals in the U.S. Prior to building and selling AccessDNA, Lee was an early employee and senior executive at WeddingChannel.com, Inc., which was acquired by The Knot, Inc. At WeddingChannel.com, Lee ran the Gift Registry business (+125 million in sales), National Sales and Advertising, and Travel Services. Lee currently serves on the Board of Directors of Informed Medical Decisions, which he joined following their acquisition of AccessDNA. He also serves (or served) on the advisory boards of several private companies, including Capsule, PageWoo, EventSorbet, P-design Labs, Marriage.com, and MergeLocal.

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