

Ask HN: Kickstarter, Experiment.com or custom platform for a cure for EBOLA? - chicofarm

Hi HN, I am a hacker and a long time follower of HN. I thought I would run this by the crowd here to get some feedback.<p>I am working with a group of scientists and practitioners who are pretty confident that they have found a non-toxic and orally administrable cure for EBOLA virus.  The most successful current treatment for the virus is a mixture of 3 mono-clonal antibodies and RNAi.  The delivery method is expensive and the treatment will NOT work once the virus mutate beyond the scope of those antibodies.  Ours will!<p>The group already have an agreement from an independent and qualified laboratory to carry out a crucial in vivo (animal) experiment. This kind of experiment involving a pandemic virus is not cheap!  The experimental facilities and labor costs along are quoted somewhere in the six figures (not including the cost of synthesizing the treatment agent).<p>We are NOT currently involved with any academic institutions or pharmaceutical companies. As some of you may know that is a blessing and curse when it comes intellectual properties and grant application in bio-chemistry.  None of us have that kind of money, we are all working on this our our own money and time.  A brief read on HN one can get the impression that EBLOA is a controversial virus and it is may NOT be immediately financially rewarding (unlike many other kickstarter projects that offer an immediate reward like a pre-order type of products)<p>We have looked into experiment.com, and it seems that they just use our already existing crowd funding network to raise the money. I&#x27;ve already done another project using stripe.com to accept credit card. Just wonder it would be better to roll out our own fund raising page using stripe.com?<p>Do you think using another platform or methods can attract other potential funders for projects in our situation.  Any tips from anyone who has some experience and knowledge crowd funding that you can share will greatly appreciated.
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cindywu123
We've seen success for Ebola related projects in the past:
[https://experiment.com/projects/can-we-defeat-ebola-with-
an-...](https://experiment.com/projects/can-we-defeat-ebola-with-an-
experimental-cancer-drug/updates)

Immunity Project had a huge amount of success rolling their own custom
platform: [https://www.immunityproject.org/](https://www.immunityproject.org/)

You're probably going to want to go with the platform with the community most
likely to be interested in your project. In this case, my guess is that the
backers are going to want to see progress in the research and not at all
interested in any sort of tangible item in return. Transparency will make your
community one of the strongest Ebola communities out there.

Experiment's stats are all transparent and updated in real time here:
[https://experiment.com/stats](https://experiment.com/stats)

Experiment can be very powerful if you convince the founding team to get
behind your idea... Experiment is not for everyone, but if you want to build a
passionate community and transform how we treat Ebola patients on the planet
that's a pretty good pitch to the Experiment team to put in the extra effort.
Our community is your community, so you keep your backers' info and we hope
that you continue to foster that relationship for years to come online or
offline.

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thejteam
About a year ago I was told Kickstarter didn't allow medical projects. It
wasn't my project, but somebody I know was consulting for a medical startup.
Unless they've changed since then you can't use them. I've heard some medical
projects have had success on indiegogo, however I do not have first hand
knowledge of this.

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chicofarm
Also is there criteria difference between Indiegogo and Kickstarter? Other
than the fact that Indigogo allow you to have the money even if you don't
reach the target.

Do we have to be a non-profit?

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MalcolmDiggs
Any fundraising platform will be useful primarily for it's built-in audience.
I think a sripe powered homepage could be a nice compliment to that...but you
wouldn't necessarily want to give up the chance to get in front of all those
eyeballs

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chicofarm
Do you know if it is compatible to run 2 platform simultaneously? Has there
being cases that has happened?

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yetanotheracc
Yes.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Citizen#Funding](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Citizen#Funding)

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chicofarm
wow thanks yetanotherracc! That is very good to know. I talked to the group. I
need to talk to the group and will keep you guys updated.

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dluan
Hey - feel free to reach out directly to denny@experiment.com, happy to learn
more about your project and see how we can help!

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chicofarm
Also does any one know if these crowd-funding platform allow us to gain access
to the funders' contact info even if we don't reach our goal?

