From their profiles (https://www.microryza.com/about https://www.microryza.com/about), few of the founders present experience in real research, I doubt a team w

From their profiles (https://www.microryza.com/about https://www.microryza.com/about), few of the founders present experience in real research, I doubt a team with little domain expertise aiming to change the game. They did not see the real problem with scientific funding system: to figure out how to spend the money effectively. It seems they were science undergraduate with experience in iGEM (science competition but not real research). Founders with real research experience should be like Quartzy’s (http://www.quartzy.com/about-us/team/ http://www.quartzy.com/about-us/team/). I really admire watsi.org, which is non-profit and makes it transparent to transfer all the money raised to the lives in need. It is unnecessary to have a layer between donor and researchers. For social good, it is better to have a non-profit “Microryza” rather than the current for-profit one, because: if Microryza perfroms really well in financing high quality research and generating breakthrough of social good as watsi, which in turn makes them a perfect non-profit to be supported by various foundations (it is likely for research facilities with great contribution for scientific advancement to be funded by billionaires), they grow; if not, they die. And being for-profit decreases research budget and “sometimes caused messy disputes in the unsuccessful ones” (http://ycombinator.com/ycvc.html http://ycombinator.com/ycvc.html). Also as they explained, “As long as you are building something that people love, then a corporation status doesn’t change how likely you are to succeed” (http://blog.microryza.com/why-is-microryza-for-profit/ http://blog.microryza.com/why-is-microryza-for-profit/). So, why not stop thinking about making money but funding good science? In conclusion, I am afraid using microfinance to feed non-filtered research proposals may not necessarily make Kickstarter for research.