Obviously, there are huge Biotech companies that do crazy research but I am betting >90% of huge biotech companies started from somewhere within academia, someone with a Ph.D. or using a technology that required huge start-up funds. In fact most biotech companies that make any kind of money will only hire Ph.D.s to run research groups. 

That is silly to say that an investor would not care about a degree. Obviously, a great idea, business plan and revenue model will be more convincing but I would venture that if two people with the same/similar idea, one with a Ph.D. and one without, an investor would choose to invest in the one with the Ph.D.

How many investments would you venture to say were given to kids almost solely just because they came from say MIT? These things exist. They suck sometimes if you are on the other side but they do exist. 

You all keep posting about how there are so many untapped ideas in "molecular biology" but no one is giving any examples. 

Sure, on a rare occasion someone without a Ph.D. will find funding for some BioTech research and then after they do that find a sustainable revenue model, sell their product and actually succeed. But BioTech is not that same as Tech and I think it will still be a long while before we have BioTech giants started by people who dropped out of University ala Gates & Zuckerberg.

But as I type this everyone has the opportunity to prove me wrong. It would be great to see kids with the same level of skill and knowledge with a wet lab that they do with programming and computers. However, 99% of people don't have access to that kind of equipment and skilled teachers until University.

Maybe both "king" jacob and Anthony have had and will have success but for each success there are so many more failures.

"Take your Bachelors in Biology degree and try and go start a company." I don't think this is the best advice for new grads but again that could be just me.

On Thu, Jun 20, 2013 at 5:13 PM, kingjacob <kingjacob@gmail.com> wrote:

Please tell me you aren't serious about saying there aren't alot of real world and/or money making applications for molecular biology? The top 10 biotech companies (even if you exclude traditional pharma) are all worth billions, and have margins better than most IT companies. 

Also, as a "nonPhd" who has raised funding for their biotech company, I can assure you that any investor worth their salt wont care about your degree.  All they care about is if your idea is sound,if it has real potential as a technology (ie not just incrementally better) and if they think you are capable of making it happen. 

If you have something truly innovative that can't get funding send me an email off list and I'll help put you on the right track. Same goes to anyone else on this list. Funding bio endeavors is not easy but nowhere near impossible. 

On Thu, Jun 20, 2013 at 2:08 PM, Antony Evans <antonyevans@gmail.com> wrote:

I disagree. Every year there are iGem teams working on ideas which they could commercialize. Last year they even started up a 'business track' to explore the questions around this. 

The costs to prototype are falling (DNA cost, access to equipment etc) are falling dramatically there are viable paths to doing this emerging.  Someone will start a Y-Combinator for Syn Bio soon, there have already been experiments with that.

I'd be willing to bet a really shiny nickel that someone is going to announce an accelerator for Synthetic Biology by the first week in July ;)

 

The 'big' guys want to push the boundaries of the science, there are tons of 'lesser' ideas for people to develop.

Antony

On Thursday, June 20, 2013 2:40:59 PM UTC-4, Josiah Zayner wrote:

Of course there are alot of potential applications of molecular biology but not alot of real world and/or money making applications. If there were, the people who are way smarter than us and with more money then us would be doing them. And some of them are both in and outside of academia, George Church, Karl Deisseroth, David Baker, J. Craig and David Shaw.

Anyone can take someone else's patented idea and run a Kickstarter on it with grandiose claims and stolen pictures and make money but being truly innovative and finding people to invest or even pay attention is very difficult for someone with a Ph.D. in Biochemistry much less a Bachelors in Biology.

If someone is truly interested in Science I always recommend graduate school because in the end when you graduate you have a Ph.D. which lasts longer than even a couple hundred thousand dollars.


On Thursday, June 20, 2013 11:42:54 AM UTC-5, Antony Evans wrote:

The potential applications of molecular biology are incredible. If you are in this boat make your own job: do a startup, or raise money on kickstarter to work on something you are passionate about.

Antony

On Tuesday, June 18, 2013 12:35:41 PM UTC-4, Jonathan Cline wrote:

The 10 Worst Majors for Finding a Good Job

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/the-10-worst-majors-for-finding-a-good-job-211340394.html?page=all

"""

8. Biology. A lot of bio majors think they might go to medical school someday but end up deterred by the cost, difficulty and length of study. Then they discover that a lot of others made the same decision and are competing for a limited number of lower-level research or technician jobs. A better choice of major might be biochemistry, which is more quantitative and better-aligned with jobs in the biotech or pharmaceutical industries.

"""



## Jonathan Cline
## jcl...@ieee.org
## Mobile: +1-805-617-0223
########################

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