Re: [DIYbio] Re: YCombinator for Biotech Open now in SF (Indie Bio prev SynBioAxlr8r)

Preface: In know know of SF what I've learned from reading Cory Doctorow
and watching terrible movies. :) I'm aware it has a high price on
everything, a serious homelessness problem, and that it's annexing
Oakland, from a recently returned friend who lived there, but that's
about the size of my current knowledge!

Anyways:

> $35k is obviously not enough to start a company and and to pay a team
> of highly skilled individuals to live in SF for a period of months.

You may have the wrong scale in mind. We're not looking for people at a
stage where they're hiring staff, we're looking for teams of passionate
cofounders with a mission in mind.

Now, is 30K enough? For 3 months, maybe, but after that you're probably
in trouble without additional funding. That's the point, though. You're
expected to spend that money hammering out a proof of concept (not a
final prototype, but bonus points if you do you lucky nutcase) and
developing a plan, a pitch, and a product based on that concept. If you
succeed, then at the end of the 3 months you'll be able to attract the
funding you need to continue research at a pay-grade closer to humane
(although start-ups rarely pay founders much for years, even if they
succeed; don't do a start-up if you want comfort).

Honest truth time: I couldn't do it, at my current stage of life. I have
kids to support, and scraping by on essentially subsistence money for 3
months, working full time, would bankrupt my family. Nathan alludes to
similar conditions as a student with a debt burden. Accelerators of this
kind aren't for everyone, and I'm not referring to personality or
gumption or whatever; it's just not possible to do this for some people,
and there's not much we can do to change that.

For those who can endure a 3-month period of relative asceticism, they
get access to a fully equipped lab, excellent peers to work alongside,
top-class mentorship and coaching, and the possibility to launch
something with world-changing potential. It'll be fun, engaging, and you
won't have time to worry about your inability to afford a new phone, or
the fact that your diet isn't as lavish or varied as you'd like.

At the end of that..no promises; success is an uneven and rapidly
shifting ratio of luck to privilege to hard work. In our first, least
experienced and fairly unlucky year, 4/6 of the teams have received or
are considering accepting further funding. I'm willing to call that a
success, and if hard work was a factor in that success, then I think we
can arrange a better programme next year (privilege) and hedge on a few
of the FAILs that occurred (luck) to stack the odds further in favour of
the teams.

That's all I can offer, I guess. If cost is a factor, consider Cork over
SF, because the cost of living here, while high by EU standards, is far
and away cheaper than SF. ;)

On 17/10/14 18:18, Josiah Zayner wrote:
> I have a question and maybe you know Cathal or maybe Jacob could answer.
> $35k is obviously not enough to start a company and and to pay a team of
> highly skilled individuals to live in SF for a period of months.
>
> If I were doing an incubator trying to attract Biotech people, if they
> were any good, I would expect that they would have a job already. If you
> have 3 people on a team for 3 months that's ~$3k per person per month
> and nothing left over. For instance, I live in the SF area and my rent
> is $1500/month and my apartment is not big enough for a team to live in.
> I could not live off of the $1500 left over based on my expenses.
>
> What are the expectations? Do they expect everyone from a team to be
> working full-time on this project?
>
> Kevin, I would be interested to hear what you have to say about the
> "incubator".
>
> --
> -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google
> Groups DIYbio group. To post to this group, send email to
> diybio@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
> diybio+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group
> at https://groups.google.com/d/forum/diybio?hl=en
> Learn more at www.diybio.org
> ---
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google
> Groups "DIYbio" group.
> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send
> an email to diybio+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
> <mailto:diybio+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com>.
> To post to this group, send email to diybio@googlegroups.com
> <mailto:diybio@googlegroups.com>.
> Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/diybio.
> To view this discussion on the web visit
> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/diybio/ac038abc-3ea1-465d-9c2a-09a6a62876a1%40googlegroups.com
> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/diybio/ac038abc-3ea1-465d-9c2a-09a6a62876a1%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer>.
> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

--
-- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups DIYbio group. To post to this group, send email to diybio@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to diybio+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at https://groups.google.com/d/forum/diybio?hl=en
Learn more at www.diybio.org
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "DIYbio" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to diybio+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send email to diybio@googlegroups.com.
Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/diybio.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/diybio/54417064.8060807%40cathalgarvey.me.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.