Lots Of Ideas on the Forum: So Crowdfund

[NeedHairASAP]

I think we should quit waiting for someone else to drop the cure in our laps for a hefty price tag and do the research/funding ourselves.

The only issue is who will regulate everything, there's too many greedy snakes floating about these days and we'll only end up in a worse position than where we started once corruption takes place, which it most definitely will if the venture is not tightly regulated.

Wait for SEC crowdfunding legislation. Then we can hold whoever is taking the money accountable-- to the extent they wrongfully advertised the investment and its risk, etc.

AND we can actually own equity in the company instead of "donating" to a kickstarter.

legislation will be out by oct or nov

At this point, there is nothing to invest in. Whoever is currently running this needs a plan...not a brainstorm session for the name of the company/fund lol.

[UK_]

I think we should quit waiting for someone else to drop the cure in our laps for a hefty price tag and do the research/funding ourselves.

The only issue is who will regulate everything, there's too many greedy snakes floating about these days and we'll only end up in a worse position than where we started once corruption takes place, which it most definitely will if the venture is not tightly regulated.

[brunobald]

I think it would have to be pushed in a non-serious way to gain any respect, which I know is quite ironic. I think a lot of people would be put off if we play the sympothy card, but if we make light of the situation and make it more of a fun social experiment people might be more encouraged to get involved. And thats the way it should be, fighting hair loss should be a hobby at best and not an obsession.

I think we should begin to share more ideas of how we are going to organise and implement the project so we can begin to put members to work doing what they do best. Ie graphics people :making logos, designing t-shirts, web design, Chemists getting stuck in about the design of drugs, vehicals.

Im a inventor/prototype builder by trade so I can help to turn mechanical ideas in reality and the post the results to the end user for testing.

Axel is working on a website, but I think we could also do with a forum tagged onto that website for disscussion. One of the main problems with this forum is the way a thread will generally go off track and turn into a debate about finasteride or Nigam bashing. A forum solely structured around community hairloss generated solutions would allow is to have a better forum stucture tree with relavant sub-forums to better organise threads and the info within them. For example we could have a whole forum section just for CB, then within that forum you would have threads setup only for results, vehicles, news from Cosmo, results from labs testing purity, etc..

We need a much smarter way of organising data!

Axels website could hold test results in a .pdf forum. This could have a paragrapth or so describing the test protocall them maybe some stats then pics of each members baseline and periodic results. Somebody could be assigned the job of collating results into a .pdf

Please feel free to rip apart my ideas.

[BaldAndHairy]

I've made up my mind on this issue: anyone who says vanity is worrying about hair loss is an insult to the hair loss sufferer. This isn't about vanity, none of us are seeking perfection or something we never had. We simply want to keep what we've always had and not just for social acceptance, but for a host of reasons, predominantly, OUR IDENTITY.

Also, to say this is about vanity, is the ultimate of hypocrisies. If thats the case, why are bald men (and some women) demonized by society and treated with less worth? Why are we mocked, insulted, put down and seen as inferior? Why do you never see balding/bald men or women as the superior individuals based on aesthetics?

My belief is that the general public does this to enrich their own lives, to take pride in their own good fortune and know the difference through someone else's suffering. How else would these people know they are better off without having someone who's disadvantaged to compare to? Its like yin and yang. However, I just view most people as scum... because like George Carlin, I have little to no faith in humanity. In fact, I wish I had what regular people had... not just HAIR and social acceptance, but the ignorance especially. To walk around on the planet and be too stupid to realize the fallacies in this world and live a life thats care free at the expense of intellect. I suppose with wisdom comes stress and ignorance really is bliss.

dude you need to find new friends/cool people

i guarantee you baldness did not cause this...it may make things harder but you can make it work

'if you have your health that's all you need'

make sure you have your health

[BaldAndHairy]

I've made up my mind on this issue: anyone who says vanity is worrying about hair loss is an insult to the hair loss sufferer. This isn't about vanity, none of us are seeking perfection or something we never had. We simply want to keep what we've always had and not just for social acceptance, but for a host of reasons, predominantly, OUR IDENTITY.

Also, to say this is about vanity, is the ultimate of hypocrisies. If thats the case, why are bald men (and some women) demonized by society and treated with less worth? Why are we mocked, insulted, put down and seen as inferior? Why do you never see balding/bald men or women as the superior individuals based on aesthetics?

My belief is that the general public does this to enrich their own lives, to take pride in their own good fortune and know the difference through someone else's suffering. How else would these people know they are better off without having someone who's disadvantaged to compare to? Its like yin and yang. However, I just view most people as scum... because like George Carlin, I have little to no faith in humanity. In fact, I wish I had what regular people had... not just HAIR and social acceptance, but the ignorance especially. To walk around on the planet and be too stupid to realize the fallacies in this world and live a life thats care free at the expense of intellect. I suppose with wisdom comes stress and ignorance really is bliss.

My concern for what people think has more to do with marketing and potential profit.

Personally, I care about what people think of me but to an extent. I want to look good. I want to look my best and will work towards that. But I'm not vain.

We are all within our rights to want to cure this thing. As long as we are men and not whining b!tches about it.

[k3nk3n]

And what I hate when I tell people I'm suffering from hair loss, the first thing that almost 90% of the people will say is tell me to shave my head. Of course it's easy for them to say because they don't have this problem and won't understand what all of us are going through.

Other than helping the companies speed up their treatment for us, I hope this crowd funding will help raise awareness of what we are struggling with every single day! Keep up the good work guys!

[Californication]

^Yeah, it sucks. I gotta say I never cared about my looks until I started losing hair. You are what you are kinda thing, but having it taken prematurely at a young age blows. We all got our demons though I suppose and we'll get through this one way or another.

We have a real chance to change something though with this, can't wait for you and Axel to get the ball rolling.

[hellouser]

bald people are just a bunch of vain people stuck on something as 'trivial' as hair.

I've made up my mind on this issue: anyone who says vanity is worrying about hair loss is an insult to the hair loss sufferer. This isn't about vanity, none of us are seeking perfection or something we never had. We simply want to keep what we've always had and not just for social acceptance, but for a host of reasons, predominantly, OUR IDENTITY.

Also, to say this is about vanity, is the ultimate of hypocrisies. If thats the case, why are bald men (and some women) demonized by society and treated with less worth? Why are we mocked, insulted, put down and seen as inferior? Why do you never see balding/bald men or women as the superior individuals based on aesthetics?

My belief is that the general public does this to enrich their own lives, to take pride in their own good fortune and know the difference through someone else's suffering. How else would these people know they are better off without having someone who's disadvantaged to compare to? Its like yin and yang. However, I just view most people as scum... because like George Carlin, I have little to no faith in humanity. In fact, I wish I had what regular people had... not just HAIR and social acceptance, but the ignorance especially. To walk around on the planet and be too stupid to realize the fallacies in this world and live a life thats care free at the expense of intellect. I suppose with wisdom comes stress and ignorance really is bliss.

[Californication]

The awareness on balding and its treatments is pretty funny in a sad sort of way, this one dude was saying the other day that 'if hair is a big deal to you, then just use Rogaine'. Like it's that simple.

People are really considered with aesthetics these days, go the bodybuilding.com forums or anywhere else on the web and there tons of people complaining about the most minor things.

The key to this is getting awareness in a smart, clever way--> drawing attention to the issue without making it seem pathetic, aka like bald people are just a bunch of vain people stuck on something as 'trivial' as hair. It'll help to emphasize that no one is AGAINST bald. Bald is great, bald is beautiful. When it's a choice. We get awareness, the potential is limitless.

Most interesting thread on here imo, I and a bunch of other people I'd bet are ready to contribute financially, so hopefully this takes off in the next couple months.

[BaldAndHairy]

Investment in research is done by private industry (not sure the percentage, I think it's high) but the NIH still does quite a bit of it.

My opinion is that basic research needs the $$. There may be a longer delay to see results but it's the only way to get a cure.

Not saying what is in the pipeline isn't as good or a cure, it is going to cost a lot (follica's procedure) or be better than current treatments but not a silver bullet. There may be more out there.

A crowdfunding campaign would also make a statement and bring press attention to what's going on. Who knows where that could lead.

Just my 2 cents. Preclinical and clinical trials for what exists in the pipeline are limited not by money but by time. Mice live fast but still many months. And people are slow too (they have higher dropout rates too...)

I don't like writing it and don't want to believe it but I think basic research is the way to go. Unless someone possesses knowledge I do not and can articulate it here.

[BaldAndHairy]

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[BaldAndHairy]

First you need awareness for the crowd fund like kickstarter. Then maybe have a system with proof that all the money that is received are going only to buy products/treatments to try out and not for profit. Then have at least a few thousand people participate (since there's millions with this problem, it shouldn't be hard as long as there's awareness) and jot down the results. There would need to be similar variables for people and everything should be written down. Errors will occur as well but at the end of the day I think it's more helpful then what these companies do with published studies.

The successful baldness kickstarter campaign that I see would have to be spread not by mass appeal but careful, concise summaries of the current treatments (very graphic-intensive and in the aesthetic style you see modern webpages) and then introductions to the research directions, accurate funding numbers, progress (major papers), etc.

Then there should be an argument as to why funding this campaign matters. Really, why it does. Meaning, it should be going to basic research in labs that have a track record of groundbreaking papers and stuff. This campaign should be able to withstand scrutiny and have major players on board.

Meaning, it should be clever enough to counter BS (but expected) arguments like "why don't people put their money towards fighting dysentary in Africa to save lives?"

[k3nk3n]

Nice work guys!! I am really excited about this! Hope everything goes well with the planning and we can start donating!

[Axel]

Sorry.. 3,500,000,000 is clearly a mistake.. Thats the yearly revenue in USA... 9Billions is worldwide.. Dunno what was I thinking about... My bad

[Axel]

hellouser/Axel - This is a FANTASTIC idea and if the enthusiasm I've seen so far continues outside the forum then we are onto a good thing in which I'd like to be involved.

It would be immensely rewarding and satisfying if a bunch of organised baldies
released a readily available treatment for this horrible disease and could then stick 2 fingers up at large companies only interested in exploiting us. Not to mention putting out of business the hoards of snake oil merchants...

Calm down guys. We are not at war with "big companies" or pharma. Yes, we feel deceived, and let down, but we are going to show them that in the Internet era, everything is possible...

There have been excellent suggestions so far but I think the first step should be to form a group or committee of 'founding fathers' who will head this initiative then move onto producing the agreed strategy and action plan.

No founding fathers or leaders. This is a community initiative, and it is "horizontal". Everyone should contribute with whatever they can... participating in the discussion is a good start

Obviously the single major factor in this will be the critical mass which can be assembled and the resulting fund pool collected. But assuming the majority of men with hair loss would prefer not to have hair loss then asking them for a $5-$20 (the cost of a good beer & burger meal) donation doesn't seem at all unreasonable.

We've already got some nice stats about that... http://www.statisticbrain.com/hair-loss-statistics/

3,500,000,000$ ($9B) HairLoss industry revenue per year (worldwide)
811,363 HairLoss sufferers seeking treatment per year (worldwide)

9,000,000,000$/811,363=11,092.44$ average that a balding bro spends yearly

Now, how many of those balding fellas lurk the forums or are reachable through online media (social or not) and would want to pledge if a solution is given at the end of the crowfunding campaign?

A quick Fermi estimate gives us 2 possibilities: 1 in 10, or 1 in 100. We'll go with the latter, meaning that we could raise around 88,000,000$

Obviously these are just estimates, Fermi never got it exact, but I think one thing is for sure: we are talking about fez dozens of millions... that's a really nice boost for ANY company...

With regards to the strategy; new start-up or funding existing research, I think perhaps a hybrid of both could be the way forward where we can conduct our own independent research and at the same time validate any existing research we may fund so that we don't end up getting screwed over with something that doesn't fulfil our goals or just doesn't work!

As I told hellouser the platform should be open for any project and the community should provide guidelines/feedback with the aim of fostering Open Innovation.