When Anne Wojcicki was considering whether she should try to save her life’s work, genetic testing pioneer 23andMe, from bankruptcy last year, many within her inner circle offered the same advice. “There was no shortage of people who would come to me and say, ‘You can walk away: It’s fine,’” she recalled last month, seated on a sunny patio at 23andMe’s Palo Alto, Calif., headquarters, speaking at length about the drama and about her plans for 23andMe for the first time. Then she called an old friend, Bill Maris, who had founded Google Ventures and left, and told him she was thinking of trying to buy the company. “It’s going to be really expensive,” she said.