"Is it possible to compete against a gigantic company on a niche product?" Yup, this is actually the only way to compete when you're small :) Your knowledge of

"Is it possible to compete against a gigantic company on a niche product?" Yup, this is actually the only way to compete when you're small :) Your knowledge of and passion for the science content is your biggest advantage. Leverage that into building an outstanding product. Your large university connection is also a great advantage. Keep expanding there, get them to endorse you and then grow to more university labs. Build the business at your own rate. Your chances of success increase with the time you put into it. This could become a nice small business, augmenting your current income, as you work on it part time. Since you're not a social app going for scale, try to get someone to pay for it ($n/student) sooner rather than later. That will be yet another level of validation.