4 ms·

>There are plenty of hard working, talented tech people out there with grit and integrity and even actual products, held back by their lack of deep-pocketed Ivy

>There are plenty of hard working, talented tech people out there with grit and integrity and even actual products, held back by their lack of deep-pocketed Ivy-league connections. As someone who launched a side project in the pharmacy space and closed a 6 month pilot with the World's largest company and still can't get a YC interview or VC response...I can tell you there is no justice in what happened to Theranos because it doesn't make it any easier for those people with actual products, it's just business as usual.

EpicEng 10y ago
Releasing a diagnostic or prognostic test shouldn't be easy. I've worked in biotech my entire career and it's just too easy to screw up. There are already far too many shortcuts taken in CLIA labs and the LDT space.
- apathy 10y ago
  > too many shortcuts taken in CLIA labs and the LDT space. jesus fuck, this is NOT what I need to hear as we push our salvage therapy companion biomarker into a 160 patient trial. then again I work in pediatrics these days and nobody ever made any money in peds. So I guess there's that. People expect their 99-year-old grandpa to die of prostate cancer (or apnea, or constipation, or...). It's rather a more unpleasant shock when your 3-year-old does the dying. Won't make anyone rich but maybe it'll relieve a little suffering in the world. I guess I'd best be OK with that.
  - EpicEng 10y ago
    Well... hopefully it doesn't apply to your company!
matk2 10y ago
Hey, that sounds really awesome. Curious - what did you make? I worked on a similar side project and was thinking about doing more with it, but the first VC I talked to was like "you're too young and don't have a PhD", but as a youngster people look at you differently -- "holy smokes, hes 5 and built a self-driving vacuum cleaner" and will want to meet with you more often and give you advice.

EpicEng 10y ago

Releasing a diagnostic or prognostic test shouldn't be easy. I've worked in biotech my entire career and it's just too easy to screw up. There are already far too many shortcuts taken in CLIA labs and the LDT space.

apathy 10y ago
> too many shortcuts taken in CLIA labs and the LDT space. jesus fuck, this is NOT what I need to hear as we push our salvage therapy companion biomarker into a 160 patient trial. then again I work in pediatrics these days and nobody ever made any money in peds. So I guess there's that. People expect their 99-year-old grandpa to die of prostate cancer (or apnea, or constipation, or...). It's rather a more unpleasant shock when your 3-year-old does the dying. Won't make anyone rich but maybe it'll relieve a little suffering in the world. I guess I'd best be OK with that.
- EpicEng 10y ago
  Well... hopefully it doesn't apply to your company!

matk2 10y ago

Hey, that sounds really awesome. Curious - what did you make? I worked on a similar side project and was thinking about doing more with it, but the first VC I talked to was like "you're too young and don't have a PhD", but as a youngster people look at you differently -- "holy smokes, hes 5 and built a self-driving vacuum cleaner" and will want to meet with you more often and give you advice.