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Y Combinator ups the ante with bio startups for 2015

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Re: Y Combinator ups the ante with bio startups for 2015

#31

Post by paul »

untilHellbanned wrote: post #26
bkolko wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a YC founder (current batch; Shift Labs) and also a tenured full professor at an R1 university. I've got a pretty good view from both sides of this fence. I've spent over 20 years as a faculty member at research universities, produced PhD students, raised millions in grant money, written dozens of articles, yadda yadda yadda. Universities are really great for many things. They are even really great at commerciali…

This is great and all, but I'm not talking about academia vs. industry/YC. I'm talking about the actual products. They just aren't very good.

And which of these products do you have actual experience with? My guess is "none of them".

Re: Y Combinator ups the ante with bio startups for 2015

#32

Post by koji »

untilHellbanned wrote: post #26
bkolko wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a YC founder (current batch; Shift Labs) and also a tenured full professor at an R1 university. I've got a pretty good view from both sides of this fence. I've spent over 20 years as a faculty member at research universities, produced PhD students, raised millions in grant money, written dozens of articles, yadda yadda yadda. Universities are really great for many things. They are even really great at commerciali…

This is great and all, but I'm not talking about academia vs. industry/YC. I'm talking about the actual products. They just aren't very good.

This may just be a result of their maturity. The YC companies may seem "not very good" because they're closer to market and practical application.

When it comes to research, particularly in academia, it's much farther from market. This makes it much easier to expound on the broad possibilities. News headlines have a bad habit of doing this (think fusion and carbon nano-tubes).

Re: Y Combinator ups the ante with bio startups for 2015

#33

Post by Gatsky »

comrade1 wrote: post #9

There's a big difference between the 5 - 15 years and billions of dollars to product in biotech/pharma, and the few at most years and relatively cheap amount of money for the payoff in software. And if you think there are shortcuts like uber and airbnb, there are not. Even 23 and me, a pretty innocuous idea, is essentially a failure.

23 and me is an example of the least ambitious thing you could do with genomics. Honestly, I think you are being needlessly negative. There is a lack of life sciences research funding and an oversupply of life science researchers. What's the disadvantage of more biotech startups? Public-private collaborations with small nimble startups sounds like a dream come true, compared to years waiting for the wheels to turn in collaborations with big pharma.

Re: Y Combinator ups the ante with bio startups for 2015

#34

Post by lifeisstillgood »

What strikes me as a Non-US citizen (UK) is the surprising number of solutions to problems that look like US healthcare specific issues. Drug-peer to peer swapping because of prescription costs seems like it would have no demand in most other rich countries, and no supply elsewhere.

Not saying it's a bad idea, just interesting to see biases - and wonder how we overcome them.

Re: Y Combinator ups the ante with bio startups for 2015

#35

Post by spellboots »

comrade1 wrote: post #15
dluan wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a pretty large and unfair statement, and I'd like to know how you are measuring failure. 23andme has created an affordable market for personal genomics, single-handedly forced modernization in regulation and policy, built a mineable database of live genome data that is helping researchers find cures, and amassed nearly 1M paying customers. I'd love for you to say that just because they aren't yet profitable me…

They are not profitable and they are not able to fulfill their original mission due to FDA regulations.

They are in other countries. I just did my kit in the UK.

https://www.23andme.com/en-gb/

Re: Y Combinator ups the ante with bio startups for 2015

#36

Post by sama »

paul wrote: post #28
comrade1 wrote: post #9

There's a big difference between the 5 - 15 years and billions of dollars to product in biotech/pharma, and the few at most years and relatively cheap amount of money for the payoff in software. And if you think there are shortcuts like uber and airbnb, there are not. Even 23 and me, a pretty innocuous idea, is essentially a failure.

I was also told by the HN crowd that Facebook is a fad that would never make any money :) The best investments always take a long time. Fortunately we are very patient investors, happy to fund "crazy" things like nuclear fusion and cancer treatments.

As I often said--it's a good thing we don't let HN make our investment decisions.

Re: Y Combinator ups the ante with bio startups for 2015

#37

Post by dluan »

chmille4 wrote: post #25
coherentpony wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 23andme has created an affordable market for personal genomics Fair. > single-handedly forced modernization in regulation and policy Personal DNA kits were not pioneered by 23andme. The NHS in the UK sends out personal kits to test for colon cancer. One rather smart child, Jack Andraka [1], devised a personal kit to test for pancreatic cancer. And regulation in FDA policy is constantly shifting and changing. A nota…

I figured I could add a little clarification to this comment. * The human genome project created a "single" genome (thats not quite right, but close enough for this discussion). This was and is incredibly useful, but a single genome can only do so much. To answer population genomics questions (e.g. is this mutation common and therefore probably not disease causative) you need lots of people and the more the better. *…

Good clarification, amended my comment too. Although, the 23andme dataset is with live participants with genealogy data. That's a dimension HGP doesn't offer.

1000 Genomes looks great, but how is it funded? Also, how is the sequencing done? Presents a few more open variables, and 23andme is orders of magnitude larger.

Re: Y Combinator ups the ante with bio startups for 2015

#38

Post by IndianAstronaut »

refurb wrote: post #8
untilHellbanned wrote: post #2

As a biologist with over a decade of experience in areas relevant to these startups, I appreciate the movement into biotech, but I'm unimpressed with the actual products. While everyone might poo-poo academia, it would take little effort to find 100s of projects at universities across the world that are better versions of these projects. As much as YC dominates software applications, they are woefully inferior in bio…

I guess it depends on what YC is trying to do. You have to remember a lot of investors shy away from biotech due to the huge capital investments that need to be made for new drugs or devices. What I've noticed with the latest YC biotech start-ups is they tend to be much more focused on ideas that don't require a huge amount of capital (diagnostic platforms, biofuels, etc).

There is actually investment into the area of minimizing capital requirements.

Re: Y Combinator ups the ante with bio startups for 2015

#39

Post by chmille4 »

dluan wrote: post #37
chmille4 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I figured I could add a little clarification to this comment. * The human genome project created a "single" genome (thats not quite right, but close enough for this discussion). This was and is incredibly useful, but a single genome can only do so much. To answer population genomics questions (e.g. is this mutation common and therefore probably not disease causative) you need lots of people and the more the better. *…

Good clarification, amended my comment too. Although, the 23andme dataset is with live participants with genealogy data. That's a dimension HGP doesn't offer. 1000 Genomes looks great, but how is it funded? Also, how is the sequencing done? Presents a few more open variables, and 23andme is orders of magnitude larger.

Absolutely, I meant to add above that the 23andme dataset has huge value due to its size. Also you bring up a good point about potential easy access to participants. If 23andme allows researchers to contact people who were of interest to their particular study and ask for more information, which could be as easy a questionnaire, that could be incredibly valuable. I don't agree with the above commenter that 23andme was a failure. Genomics is still incredibly young and we are just getting to the point where we can have an impact on the average persons life.

As for the 1000 genomes project, it was funded with government money (I think mostly the NIH, although the UK may have been involved too) therefore the data is free and open. The data was generated using illumina sequencers.

Re: Y Combinator ups the ante with bio startups for 2015

#40

Post by car »

comrade1 wrote: post #9

There's a big difference between the 5 - 15 years and billions of dollars to product in biotech/pharma, and the few at most years and relatively cheap amount of money for the payoff in software. And if you think there are shortcuts like uber and airbnb, there are not. Even 23 and me, a pretty innocuous idea, is essentially a failure.

Regarding 23andMe, I'd reconsider that view.

They are sitting on a treasure trove of medical and genetic data. And they have begun to monetize this data, which I believe was their endgame all along.

More here: http://www.forbes.com/sites/matthewherper/2015/01/06/surpris...

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