Lots Of Ideas on the Forum: So Crowdfund

[hellouser]

We could try to get some sort of impartial, reputable academia that sympathizes with the cause to do third party evaluation for different proposals.

The proposals could be submitted on an open website and could come from all over the world. As long as they comply with certain format guidelines and financial/legal constraints (e.g. You work in this given country, follow given transparency rules, don't pay yourself $$$ to do nothing, work toward certain milestones, etc.).

A small group of trusted, smart, well known people from academia should manage the money. It shouldn't be too much of a democratic process because 99% of us don't know shit (me first). It should be the kind of thing such as "if you believe in it you donate but let the people who know what they're doing take charge".

If you can convince 100,000 people to donate $10 or more you start getting attention fast

We'll see what kind of funds we can get. Shit, I wouldnt mind even dumping some cash for Dr. Lauster and helping him speed up his solution. Its been almost three years since he created skin and hair follicles from scratch.

[Californication]

Yeah, but who knows how successful Aderans was? No one really. With the money though, obviously we would have the leverage to actually see the results though.

Is there a way to make it legitimate without making it a non-profit first?

Also, should someone reach out to the other forums as well. Just from the forums, public and private, you could probably get a decent amount of money to kick start the project.

[Thinning87]

We'll see what kind of funds we can get. Shit, I wouldnt mind even dumping some cash for Dr. Lauster and helping him speed up his solution. Its been almost three years since he created skin and hair follicles from scratch.

First we get the reputable people to back this. Which can be done only by conducting extensive research, good PR (including a website, statement of mission, goals, and a clear plan, and explanation of transparent procedures for managing the money and selecting the right projects). I'm talking about recruiting seasoned board of director members to provide with vision and management skills and leading academia with research knowledge.

Once we have this sort of reputability, we launch a fund raising campaign and we will get so much money that 10% would be enough. But reputability is the key.

[hellouser]

Yeah, but who knows how successful Aderans was? No one really. With the money though, obviously we would have the leverage to actually see the results though.

Is there a way to make it legitimate without making it a non-profit first?

Also, should someone reach out to the other forums as well. Just from the forums, public and private, you could probably get a decent amount of money to kick start the project.

We'll be reaching out everywhere, forums will be a good start because that audience at least took the time to sign up and take initiative on their hair loss. I'm sure a project like this would spark at least some interest.

I was thinking of compiling a list of celebs who've gone under the knife. I'm sure at least ONE could be found that could make a substantial impact on our initiative, whether as a spokesperson or donator. I've mentioned Elon Musk in another thread who's got the money and is a visionary himself... as well as someone who's had a hair transplant.

The problem is, which of these celebs is willing to be vocal about their condition seeing how society views it as an embarrassing problem and often mocks those who suffer from AGA?

AJ from the backstreet boys went for a hair transplant and even took photos. As did Wayne Rooney.

[Thinning87]

Yeah, but who knows how successful Aderans was? No one really. With the money though, obviously we would have the leverage to actually see the results though.

Is there a way to make it legitimate without making it a non-profit first?

Also, should someone reach out to the other forums as well. Just from the forums, public and private, you could probably get a decent amount of money to kick start the project.

No one should do a thing until there is a clear vision of what the goals are, and how we can realistically get there.

If you go around and ask for money without having a plan to spend it wisely you will only undermine future, more concrete attempts at this

[Californication]

First we get the reputable people to back this. Which can be done only by conducting extensive research, good PR (including a website, statement of mission, goals, and a clear plan, and explanation of transparent procedures for managing the money and selecting the right projects). I'm talking about recruiting seasoned board of director members to provide with vision and management skills and leading academia with research knowledge.

Once we have this sort of reputability, we launch a fund raising campaign and we will get so much money that 10% would be enough. But reputability is the key.

This seems like the way to go imo. If the marketing guys can focus on selling this to a board of directors, then the existence of the board will help to sell it to everyone else. What's in it for the board though? What academia are you talking about though? People in science who would be willing to help out with a good cause?

[PayDay]

I don't mean to burst your bubble boys, but the level of naiveté represented in this thread is mind blowing. Successfully launching and running a initiative like this takes a level of sophistication, knowledge of the field, and basic wherewithal that seems to be missing from most of us on this forum.

Thinning 87 brings up a great point and I think that any serious players will have many more concerns before taking this effort seriously. This is just how the real world works.

[hellouser]

First we get the reputable people to back this. Which can be done only by conducting extensive research, good PR (including a website, statement of mission, goals, and a clear plan, and explanation of transparent procedures for managing the money and selecting the right projects). I'm talking about recruiting seasoned board of director members to provide with vision and management skills and leading academia with research knowledge.

Once we have this sort of reputability, we launch a fund raising campaign and we will get so much money that 10% would be enough. But reputability is the key.

Yes definitely, Axel is doing some work on preparing a complete strategy, I've laid out some strategies before but they went unnoticed. Once me and Axel talk some things over we'll have more to go over.

Also, it'd be nice to have some people contributing to this cause, someone like the new member Adam K who's in chemistry and can provide feedback on some science that guys like me, who are in marketing/advertising, aren't too educated about.

[Californication]

I don't mean to burst your bubble boys, but the level of naiveté represented in this thread is mind blowing. Successfully launching and running a initiative like this takes a level of sophistication, knowledge of the field, and basic wherewithal that seems to be missing from most of us on this forum.

Thinning 87 brings up a great point and I think that any serious players will have many more concerns before taking this effort seriously. This is just how the real world works.

Alright, well what do you suggest then?

We have two options, either sit around and do nothing, or try to get something started. I think we can all agree that the second option is the better one, so what's a smart, credible way to go about starting all this? Ideas? And this isn't meant to be a challenge or anything, the more concrete vision we have, the better we will be served.

Perhaps having a hair loss charity or multiple ones backing a cause would help give us the credibility.

[hellouser]

I don't mean to burst your bubble boys, but the level of naiveté represented in this thread is mind blowing. Successfully launching and running a initiative like this takes a level of sophistication, knowledge of the field, and basic wherewithal that seems to be missing from most of us on this forum.

Thinning 87 brings up a great point and I think that any serious players will have many more concerns before taking this effort seriously. This is just how the real world works.

Complacency should be banned on this forum.

[Thinning87]

This seems like the way to go imo. If the marketing guys can focus on selling this to a board of directors, then the existence of the board will help to sell it to everyone else. What's in it for the board though? What academia are you talking about though? People in science who would be willing to help out with a good cause?

So, I have some friends who are researchers in some of the leading universities/institutes in San Diego, which still ismambiotech hub...

I'm in a different field so if anyone knows more please correct me, but as I understand it these institutes get money from grants and companies to do specific research projects in exchange for funding... They put in the facilities and people, investors put in most of the money, and things are researched... Obviously I'm sure not every idiot can submit a project proposal, but is something is serious enough it might get considered. (I will ask my friends to educate me when I get home this weekend if time allows though I work all the time).

So, rather than focusing too much on some formerly famous guy in a boyband, we could do a long list of leading institutes and people from VC's, universities, companies, etc. then reach out to all of them in whichever way we can. We will not get a hold of more than .1% but still. We convince them to provide their guidance and expertise in managing money coming from a non profit fund of donors via the Internet. We tell them a clear mission, and ask for their help. They allocate the funds amd provide expertise and connections of academia who wouldmbe willing to give it a try (its their life to do this research, they are very into the science and as long as salaries are paid they work hard) We gain credibility by getting 100,000 to sign up and sign some kind of statement of the sort "if x and y and z are done I would be happy to donate $10 to the cause".

In the meantime we get the formerly famous who are willing to join to put their word out to sign up more people for the cause although idk how easy this can be.

This is a very simple overview and a first stab at it. I am having a hard time typing on this ipad

[Californication]

So, I have some friends who are researchers in some of the leading universities/institutes in San Diego, which still ismambiotech hub...

I'm in a different field so if anyone knows more please correct me, but as I understand it these institutes get money from grants and companies to do specific research projects in exchange for funding... They put in the facilities and people, investors put in most of the money, and things are researched... Obviously I'm sure not every idiot can submit a project proposal, but is something is serious enough it might get considered. (I will ask my friends to educate me when I get home this weekend if time allows though I work all the time).

So, rather than focusing too much on some formerly famous guy in a boyband, we could do a long list of leading institutes and people from VC's, universities, companies, etc. then reach out to all of them in whichever way we can. We will not get a hold of more than .1% but still. We convince them to provide their guidance and expertise in managing money coming from a non profit fund of donors via the Internet. We tell them a clear mission, and ask for their help. They allocate the funds amd provide expertise and connections of academia who wouldmbe willing to give it a try (its their life to do this research, they are very into the science and as long as salaries are paid they work hard) We gain credibility by getting 100,000 to sign up and sign some kind of statement of the sort "if x and y and z are done I would be happy to donate $10 to the cause".

In the meantime we get the formerly famous who are willing to join to put their word out to sign up more people for the cause although idk how easy this can be.

This is a very simple overview and a first stab at it. I am having a hard time typing on this ipad

All right, so in summation:
1) come up with clear mission, goal
how to achieve:
a)does this involve filing/partnering with a non profit to get legitimacy?
b) if not, how do you propose to garner this legitimacy? Will a well designed, slick website suffice? Backing from Spencer Kobren/baldtruth could help us avoid part a) and other steps here imo because it makes us instantly trustworthy.

2) reach out to institutions to get people with experience who can allocate/move the funds around.
Pretty self explanatory, but again backing from baldtruth/Kobren helps tremendously in this facet. If you're going the route of talking to well established professionals in academia/companies, then part 1) needs to be done with legitimacy.

3) Funds allocated to company most likely as we're not looking to fund research from scratch obviously.

So that's one method, the other one, again in very simplistic terms, as I understand it by hellouser and axel, is to come up with a marketing scheme, website perhaps, raise money directly, and then go straight to the hair loss companies, thus avoiding step numbers 1/2. Of course I'm sure nothing is set in stone as they are still discussing things.

The first method will take longer, but may lead to more lasting funds, although even the second method, if done by professionals (and both of them do have some sort of background in marketing/web site development from what I could tell), does have the chance to 'catch' and really lead to some sort of change.

Plus baldtruth, AHA are existing organizations that haven't really tried to directly fund companies as far as I can tell.

I think one of the strongest selling points for baldness though is there already a lot of things out there being developed that CAN help tremendously. Histogen, CB, whatever the hell Aderans has been working on all these years, all of these are viable solutions, even if they're not a full out cure, and with more funding, would come to market more quickly (at least for Histogen, Aderans)

[PayDay]

If you really want to do this, you need to take the path of least resistance. Why don't you guys just approach the existing companies like Aderans and Histogen and let them publicly compete for the funding via your crowd funding effort? They already have the infrastructure in place to provide the grant proposals etc., that it will take to get this thing off the ground. If they're not interested you're just wasting your time anyway. This should be the first step.

Do any of you know if they're currently looking for VC money? If so it might not even be possible for them to accept any outside funding.

How do we know how long Anderans will hold on to their technology? Can the ARI team even accept any funding? Will the technology just sit in a file cabinet somewhere for years until Aderans decides to sell it to a company willing to finish the trials? These are all important questions that if not answered will make your efforts fruitless. This is how the real world works. It takes a real understanding of how this type of stuff works to make something like this happen.

[Hicks]

I was thinking kickstarter holds funds into escrew and you have to reach your goal (i.e money) by a date. If funds are not met by your goal date then the money goes back to the people and the startup gets zero.

Maybe make achievement Goals (i.e., donor recharge/double or what ever they call it, or meds like Fin without sides but that would take YEARS to address) and not give the money directly to companies to waste. In a nutshell we set bench marks and the company that can acheive the bench marks in the timeframe we give them gets the funds raised.

You'll have to do some heavy talking to get me to donate funds to a company for R&D.

[pocketmerlin]

Do any of you know if they're currently looking for VC money? If so it might not even be possible for them to accept any outside funding.

How do we know how long Anderans will hold on to their technology? Can the ARI team even accept any funding? Will the technology just sit in a file cabinet somewhere for years until Aderans decides to sell it to a company willing to finish the trials? These are all important questions that if not answered will make your efforts fruitless. This is how the real world works. It takes a real understanding of how this type of stuff works to make something like this happen.

I already raised a similar question earlier. I suggested that we first try asking Spencer if he'll mediate between Aderans Research/Dr. Washenik and any sort of group we can get together...if we could do that, then we could work out those sort of details. If we collectively generally agree that Aderans Research is the most worthy/one of the most worthy groups to try to fund (which I do, and I think that's kind of how this idea got started, right...it was because they were the ones who lost their funding?), then we should try to create this contact and figure out these details early on.