Lots Of Ideas on the Forum: So Crowdfund

[Thinning@30]

I like the spirit behind this crowdfunding idea, even if I feel a bit uncomfortable with the notion of making donations to for-profit companies. If these companies need funding why can't they allow us to participate as investors?

With respect to Aderans, I'm sure if the results of the Phase 2 trials looked promising, the investors would have been more than willing to fund the final trial and bring the product to market. I have to imagine whatever growth was obtained was not cosmetically significant. At this point, Histogen, Repicel, CB 03 01, and Bimatoprost all seem more promising.

Does anyone remember the Project Norma researchers? They were a team of amateur researchers interested in Astressin-b. They did a mouse trial and were on the verge of human trials before they had to stop due to issues with being unable to secure a license from the patent holder. I wonder if they would have benefitted from crowdfunding. Whatever you think of their project, they were remarkably open and willing to engage with the hair loss community.

[garethbale]

Histogen are currently planning on the physician sponsor trails in Korea and Taiwan, but I'm not sure which phase it is exactly. I emailed Gail last week about it and this is her reply:

Hi XXX,
We’re making steady progress on getting the proper regulatory filings together. I promise to update you in a few weeks.
Thanks for your patience,
Gail

I'd love to see Histogen succeed, as much for Gail as any of us lot.

[brunobald]

We need a name, start bluting out any old sh!t somthing might stick.

Project Hair
Stare_at_my_Hair
Diy Follicle Neogenesis.com
Hairy Lab Rats
Slick no more
Project Chewie
Follicle fighters
Follicle fight
Battle'n Baldies
myfolliclesarefamished.com
enquire or retire
the god project
the follicle projet
pimp my follicles
Kickstart my Quiff...

[k3nk3n]

Project Hair!

Simple and easy to remember!

[pocketmerlin]

Is Replicel basically trying to do the same thing that ARI was? I'm realizing I may have misunderstood what ARI was doing...

[NeedHairASAP]

I like the spirit behind this crowdfunding idea, even if I feel a bit uncomfortable with the notion of making donations to for-profit companies. If these companies need funding why can't they allow us to participate as investors?

With respect to Aderans, I'm sure if the results of the Phase 2 trials looked promising, the investors would have been more than willing to fund the final trial and bring the product to market. I have to imagine whatever growth was obtained was not cosmetically significant. At this point, Histogen, Repicel, CB 03 01, and Bimatoprost all seem more promising.

Does anyone remember the Project Norma researchers? They were a team of amateur researchers interested in Astressin-b. They did a mouse trial and were on the verge of human trials before they had to stop due to issues with being unable to secure a license from the patent holder. I wonder if they would have benefitted from crowdfunding. Whatever you think of their project, they were remarkably open and willing to engage with the hair loss community.

Its currently illegal for nonpublic companys to solicit investment from non accredited investors, which is why the JOBS act and its crowdfunding portiin are so important. Its possible the SEC will havr their rules out by September. ....then we can participate as investors. At this point they could offer free treatment, or maybe could offer rights to invest in the future upon donatiin now? I'd have to look into that.

Im a cpa and willing to help w structuring and getti g through the ins and outs of crowdfunding legiskation coming down the pipe.

What's more important than a name is

The team, is thete anyone actually scientifically qualified to dreamnup a protocol? Anyone ever worked in pharma industry? Chemists? Researchers?

What were testing

How

Where

Cost estimate of trials themselves

And lets nit forget that third parties will run trials for you, so we don't need to fund an entire trial from building to equipment etc....
Kleiner perkins, the venture capital company that started gentech, went from a biz plan sayijg to start gentech would cost 4 million (in the 70s-80s!) To like 180k, because they found a lab to outsource trials to.

[k3nk3n]

Hey guys, just want to know how is this project coming along? It has been a while since everyone replied to this thread, and I don't know where I can be helpful other than investing the money into this crowfunding.

[hellouser]

Hey guys, just want to know how is this project coming along? It has been a while since everyone replied to this thread, and I don't know where I can be helpful other than investing the money into this crowfunding.

Axel and I have been in touch about the strategy and he's come up with some great work already, But I haven't heard from him since last week.

I'm getting worried.

[RisingFist]

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.

[Axel]

Axel and I have been in touch about the strategy and he's come up with some great work already, But I haven't heard from him since last week.

I'm getting worried.

Hey bro dont worry... had an hectic week... I'll get back to you tomorrow night

[wheresMYhairDUDE]

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...

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.

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.

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!

[wheresMYhairDUDE]

Lots of ideas here. Lots of people knowledgable in experimentation.
crowdfund some trials in a foreign land.
Foreign land, building for testing, 6 employees, chems, compensation for testees... could even outsource testing to a third party tester, just design protocal and provide the materials

apologies, I omitted your alias from my post above, it should have said - "NeedHairASAP/hellouser/Axel - This is a FANTASTIC idea......"

[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.

[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

[k3nk3n]

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