Hi all!
This topic is to discuss the bigger vision around scale-up and execution of projects, and help people to succeed!
I’m interested in asking critical questions like:
- “What are the barriers of access here?”
- “How can we fund things?”
- “How long would it take to get to market?”
- “Should we start a company to do this?”
- “How can we scale this?”
My dream is to use this forum to help others get started and supported in building their visions of the future of enzymes/biotech/manufacturing, especially in areas outside of the developed world where biotech resources are not accessible.
Share your project here! What is your vision? Is it feasible? Can we make a fund-able project from it? What are your challenges?
I’m new to this forum and joined the symposium this week. I wanted to follow-up on the breakout session that I hosted on this topic. (Thank you for coming to that if you did!)
Here are the notes: https://pad.riseup.net/p/reclone-symposium-finance
We didn’t have too much time to get in depth in the breakout, but we got some interesting stories and questions. I really wanted to continue the discussion, and tell you a bit more about why I wanted to host the session.
Why?
A few years ago, I took a chance at starting my own company. We were fortunate to have raised some investment early on, and had a really interesting problem to focus on. But, this was my first company, and I didn’t know whether it would work, or what the path would be to success. Luckily, I also had lot of help from friends and mentors to get me started and now we’re well on our way to having a global impact.
Having spent a bunch of time around the community bio scene, there are lots of interesting ideas for open-source projects and new labs that work differently than institutions or that have distributed support networks.
Lots of these ideas are super interesting, and could have huge impacts on the world. However, I’ve noticed the people who dream work hard on their ideas and burn out, or maybe the ideas are a spare-time project and people run out of spare time… ideas come and go, and I feel like many of them haven’t thought far enough to make their project really scalable or invest-able.
Many of you work super hard on your projects, and deserve to be funded or supported in a way that you can commit fully to your visions.
But, it is challenging to figure out how to make that work. How will you pay for the equipment or materials you need? How will you pay for your own living expenses? How do you know everything will scale how you want it? What is the path to scale up? Who do you need around you to support your projects?
Have you ever wondered about these kinds of things? Let’s share our experiences here, and bring ourselves closer to making the impact that we want.