
Y Combinator ups the ante with bio startups for 2015 - loopj
http://www.techiatric.com/latest/2015/3/22/ycombinator-ups-the-ante-with-bumper-biotech-batch
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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.

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mcmancini
How does the requirement to relocate to SF work for companies with a wet lab
or specialized capital equipment requirement? And outside of
mentoring/networking (can YC provide in the biotech space?), how is YC a
better deal than an SBIR/STTR?

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uptown
Is there a full list of the companies participating in demo day?

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cathalgarvey
"Industrial Microbes" has a concept that really excites me, I'd have loved to
help them develop that idea for IndieBio Ireland.

It's non-obvious ideas like "Why not use natural gas instead of refined
sugar?" that are going to make Biotech explode in coming years..while
simultaneously putting fossil fuels to more productive or even sequestering
use than burning them!

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comrade1
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.

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dluan
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 means
that they are a failure.

[http://www.wsj.com/articles/23andme-to-use-genetic-
database-...](http://www.wsj.com/articles/23andme-to-use-genetic-database-for-
drug-discovery-1426161601)

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comrade1
They are not profitable and they are not able to fulfill their original
mission due to FDA regulations.

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dluan
I think a reasonable observer would expect FDA regulations to change.

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untilHellbanned
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
biotech/biomedical applications.

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sama
The difference between companies and projects is huge. We look for companies.

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srunni
Those projects are turned into companies if they have translational value:
[https://www.bio.org/media/press-release/report-shows-
academi...](https://www.bio.org/media/press-release/report-shows-academia-
industry-technology-transfer-contributed-118-trillion-us-e)

