How to Start a Biotech Company on a Budget
blog.ycombinator.com
How to Start a Biotech Company on a Budget
1–10 of 47 posts
Re: How to Start a Biotech Company on a Budget
#2How can I take this seriously when it doesn't mention ebay anywhere?
Re: How to Start a Biotech Company on a Budget
#3>>> Finding an initial product that’s reimbursable and then taking the shortest path to get there
This is really inspiring. Contrast with the typical story like Sana Bio which burns tons of R&D cash. My question is: how do you systematically search the potential solution space which may not be your initial area of expertise? How did the solution to focus on easily billable pre-natal diagnostics present itself to a team with oncology expertise?
Re: How to Start a Biotech Company on a Budget
#4> Intensely focused on demonstrating technical feasibility, he and his co-founders found $75K in grant money and hired a postdoc at Cornell to do the first proof-of-principle study.
That's still quite a budget. Not the sort of thing accessible to many people. What if you're a grad student that just finished their phd (coming off of making 40k a year for half a decade), and not, say, a professor that has connections? Where do you get this initial seed?
Re: How to Start a Biotech Company on a Budget
#5Without connections in the industry it would be hard.
These things cost time and money. It’s not something you can do in one year. You need five to seven years... if you’re on the right track.
Also you cannot know in advance if a clinical product can be repurposed because that’s not evident till you begin studying your first target (where the data might show other unpredicted positive outcomes elsewhere.)
Re: How to Start a Biotech Company on a Budget
#6> Arpeggio used their own technology to do drug discovery, and sold it as “consulting” to build credibility with investors and trust with a few initial clients.
This sounds like a great example of them focusing on one thing and doing it well. It must have been a tightrope walk not to give too much information away about their IP and get crushed by competitors.
Re: How to Start a Biotech Company on a Budget
#7> Intensely focused on demonstrating technical feasibility, he and his co-founders found $75K in grant money and hired a postdoc at Cornell to do the first proof-of-principle study. That's still quite a budget. Not the sort of thing accessible to many people. What if you're a grad student that just finished their phd (coming off of making 40k a year for half a decade), and not, say, a professor that has connections?…
Grant money is definitely accessible at least here in the USA. I have seen grant funding available for various industries in my state alone, and it doesn't require any specialized expertise to apply for. Typically anything <$100k seems easier to come by.
Re: How to Start a Biotech Company on a Budget
#8I've just started a bootstrapped biotech company in the last ~4 months, and it's definitely possible, but does depend on your niche. I'm lucky because I can live with my parents and convert my room into a lab, but normally you have to rent a lab to even get things shipped to you. I also previously had intentionally developed the skills to do work on an actual "DIY" capex budget, which most folks coming out of academia don't have.
Intense domain knowledge + knowledge of programming + affordable automation is really a fantastic combination to have with biotech. When the software isn't advanced enough, you can do tricks with hardware. When the hardware isn't advanced enough, you can do tricks with biology. When the biology isn't advanced enough, you can do tricks with software.
It really does depend on connections, though. All of my early customers are folks I've known in the community for years, so I can get paid while working out all the kinks in the system.
Re: How to Start a Biotech Company on a Budget
#9How can I take this seriously when it doesn't mention ebay anywhere?
Maybe they were all govdeals type of people
Re: How to Start a Biotech Company on a Budget
#10Are there any guides on filing Patents as an individual for biotech inventions? Seems like that is the most obvious way to raise capital and protect IP.
Patent fees for an individual/small entity are only a couple thousand dollars in the US.