TLDR; I spent the last two weeks diving deeper into biosecurity. I’m gaining conviction in the space – both around my fit and the market. There’s a clear need, it’s an important problem, and it’s the right timing. As with any startup, there are existential risks, but I feel comfortable leaning into and managing them. The market is consolidated and small, regulations are in flight with unclear direction, and new technologies can change market dynamics (e.g., changing vulnerability surface and/or making current solutions obsolete). The biggest hurdle is finding an early customer when there are so few companies and lots of ambiguity in the future.
Progress
Two clients interested in outsourcing their biosecurity protocols
Bench-top DNA and protein synthesizer that’s 1 - 1.5 years from launch
Foundry that’s currently already using another biosecurity software provider, but interested in a more full-service solution. Potential pilot end of this year / early next
Learning from and building rapport with biosecurity advocates in policy, academic research, and industry (e.g., see NTI, IGSC, GP-write, Secure DNA Project)
Learnings
Gene synthesis providers are protective of their customers and order data. They sign contracts / agreements to not share or use order data, which can make outsourcing an uphill battle
Bench-top devices offer privacy as a major value to their customers (e.g., nobody can tell what kind of genes you’re synthesizing on the device). This creates challenges with screening genes
Liability is a major concern for companies, especially the larger ones that know they’ll be in the spotlight when things go wrong. This can create some friction for outsourcing
How you can help
If you know anyone selling into the biotech industry, I’d love an intro to learn how they garnered feedback early on and got their first customers
If you know PhD students, postdocs, or researchers in bioinformatics / computational biology that are interested in starting something or joining early on, I’d love an intro