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

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They're not stupid, and if you know me then you'll know I'm no stranger
to practical paranoia. ;)

Before addressing all specifically, let me just point out that biotech
is an ocean of potentially good ideas. Swim in it long enough, and
you'll get bitten by inspiration tens of times. There's literally not
enough time in the world to pursue them all, and odds are that by the
time you hear someone else's good idea, you're already busy with one of
your own. We're not starved for ideas, here. We're not fishing for good
ideas to steal. We're fishing for good teams to pull them off! :)

> What happens to the rejected ideas?

Nothing. Confidentiality is kept absolutely, and no ownership or
infringement of submitted ideas is even considered; they are your ideas,
and yours alone. Do them with us, or do them elsewhere, or don't do them
at all (but history shows someone will eventually have the same idea and
do it anyway, so beware of wasting time).

> Who gets to review them & Are members of the selection board allowed
> to have a spin off of the submitted ideas without reaching out to the
> idea originator?

As a closely involved mentor last year, I was also part of the review
panel. At no stage did any of us disclose the ideas to uninvolved third
parties. None of us stole any ideas to do ourselves. Why would we?

As above, I was already busy with another great idea I was more
interested in; as far as I'm concerned, there's simply no attraction to
stealing the idea for, say, artificial milk (hey, Muufri!) and dropping
all of the stuff I'm passionate about.

Besides, by having the teams who came up with the idea come on-board, I
*do* get to work on artificial milk, or colour changing plants, or
artificial cannabinoids, or hagfish silk..all without the pressure of
actually having to handle 10 amazing projects alone.

> One cannot help but wonder if this collaboration could be pooling
> ideas to polish and invest in them independently.

Er, as above. I'll take that in the best of faith and not be offended. :)

The goal of the accelerator is to help teams get to a stage where
they're better developed, as teams and as projects. Then, we help teams
to raise follow-on funding. Do we get something out of this? Yes:
initial equity, and whatever investments made afterwards during the
fundraising stage at the end at the discretion of the teams. But SOS
Ventures (who is, yes, now my employer) is a pretty nice VC.

As a prior recipient of SOSV funding with Glowbiotics, which tanked
badly, I can tell you that they don't try to rake teams for money, nor
to control the way teams run their business. Heck, I hear the guys here
fretting about how often start-ups take bad deals from third parties
that take away their control of the company; SOSV would rather the
start-up founders remain in-charge and proceed as partners. That's true
of new and established teams.

> What stops IndieBio or associated entities from claiming a few
> entries of the same idea came in?

Eh, nothing. And, indeed, many people may submit the same idea; that's
the nature of innovation. You're not a precious diamond, you're a person
with a great idea. Other people in similar situations with similar
inputs may have the same idea, and often do. If they all submit at once,
there you go.

If you mean "how do we choose whose idea to back", that's a complicated
question. We might choose to put teams with similar teams in touch and
see if collaboration emerges; there was one such case with SBX, but I
shan't say more. If the teams aren't interested in fusing, or if it
wouldn't work for some reason, we'd likely back the team with the best
overall features. That's not just "ideas and skills", it's culture,
mindset and experience.

> Where are the guidelines?

With respect to what? We do need to flesh out our FAQ, so I'm not being
cheeky; I'd love to know what other questions or concerns you have so we
can make the answers available to everyone soon.

Guidelines for submission are pretty straightforward, though I'm sure we
have a privacy/submission policy from last year and that, or a more
recent edition, would take priority over this:

* Teams can submit any ideas they like, with descriptions of the
idea, the proposed market, the team and their experience, any
work done to prove feasibility, etcetera.
* Ideas should be legal and feasible to develop in a Class 2 lab
in SF or Cork, and should have a market that it's legal and
feasible to sell to. Hyasynth proposed synthetic cannabinoids,
but were able to suggest legal markets worldwide for various
uses of those cannabinoids.
* Submissions are just that, and imply no transfer of ownership.
Nor do submissions allow us to enforce ownership, only to offer
you the accelerator package and an investment deal in a company.
At no stage do you lose control or ownership over your ideas or
output, although we'd love if you view it as a partnership that's
beneficial to you and to us.
* You do not need to patent or otherwise establish "IP" over any
of your work, but you will need to discuss how you will market
your work, whether or not you have a monopoly on ideas or life.
This is part of the mentorship that the accelerator provides,
so don't sweat it.

Like I said, if you're not ready to make a proposal but want to discuss
ideas and viability, contact me on or off-list. I will keep confidence
and not discuss your ideas or projects with anyone outside the
accelerator, whether or not you apply. Not in this to steal ideas, I
promise. :)

On 13/10/14 20:10, Yuriy Fazylov wrote:
> I got a series of somewhat stupid questions.
>
> What happens to the rejected ideas?
>
> Who gets to review them & Are members of the selection board allowed to have a spin off of the submitted ideas without reaching out to the idea originator?
>
> One cannot help but wonder if this collaboration could be pooling ideas to polish and invest in them independently.
>
> What stops IndieBio or associated entities from claiming a few entries of the same idea came in?
>
> Where are the guidelines?
>

--
Twitter: @onetruecathal, @formabiolabs
Phone: +353876363185
Blog: http://indiebiotech.com
miniLock.io: JjmYYngs7akLZUjkvFkuYdsZ3PyPHSZRBKNm6qTYKZfAM