I've just started a bootstrapped biotech company in the last ~4 months, and it's definitely possible, but does depend on your niche. I'm lucky because I can live with my parents and convert my room into a lab, but normally you have to rent a lab to even get things shipped to you. I also previously had intentionally developed the skills to do work on an actual "DIY" capex budget, which most folks coming out of academia don't have.<p>Intense domain knowledge + knowledge of programming + affordable automation is really a fantastic combination to have with biotech. When the software isn't advanced enough, you can do tricks with hardware. When the hardware isn't advanced enough, you can do tricks with biology. When the biology isn't advanced enough, you can do tricks with software.<p>It really does depend on connections, though. All of my early customers are folks I've known in the community for years, so I can get paid while working out all the kinks in the system.
I'm the Co-founder and CTO of BillionToOne, one of the biotech companies profiled in the post.<p>We're recently opened up a position for a Staff Software Engineer (<a href="https://apply.workable.com/billiontoone/j/2F0405817C/" rel="nofollow">https://apply.workable.com/billiontoone/j/2F0405817C/</a>).<p>If you're interested, please reach out to me directly at david+hn@billiontoone.com
>>> Finding an initial product that’s reimbursable and then taking the shortest path to get there<p>This is really inspiring. Contrast with the typical story like Sana Bio which burns tons of R&D cash. My question is: how do you systematically search the potential solution space which may not be your initial area of expertise? How did the solution to focus on easily billable pre-natal diagnostics present itself to a team with oncology expertise?
Without connections in the industry it would be hard.<p>These things cost time and money. It’s not something you can do in one year. You need five to seven years... if you’re on the right track.<p>Also you cannot know in advance if a clinical product can be repurposed because that’s not evident till you begin studying your first target (where the data might show other unpredicted positive outcomes elsewhere.)
> Arpeggio used their own technology to do drug discovery, and sold it as “consulting” to build credibility with investors and trust with a few initial clients.<p>This sounds like a great example of them focusing on one thing and doing it well. It must have been a tightrope walk not to give too much information away about their IP and get crushed by competitors.
If you can get into an incubator lab space that isn't in a major market like SF or Boston, where the rents are insane, one can expect to set up a reasonable wet lab for most uses given $200k in equipment and reagent costs and a couple of months of time. Then expect $5-10k/month in operating costs outside of salaries.
Are there any guides on filing Patents as an individual for biotech inventions? Seems like that is the most obvious way to raise capital and protect IP.<p>Patent fees for an individual/small entity are only a couple thousand dollars in the US.
> Intensely focused on demonstrating technical feasibility, he and his co-founders found $75K in grant money and hired a postdoc at Cornell to do the first proof-of-principle study.<p>That's <i>still</i> quite a budget. Not the sort of thing accessible to many people. What if you're a grad student that just finished their phd (coming off of making 40k a year for half a decade), and not, say, a professor that has connections? Where do you get this initial seed?