Lots Of Ideas on the Forum: So Crowdfund

[hellouser]

How is the project going? I feel it's a great idea and would definitely take part

Got stalled thanks to the naysayers. These are the same people that are complacent with current treatment, now matter how ineffective they are.

[lfneves]

How is the project going? I feel it's a great idea and would definitely take part

[Kudu]

I don't think raising public awareness for hair loss will accomplish anything. The ALS ice bucket thing is nothing more than a fad, I bet more than 50% of people have no idea even what the disease is.

The only hope is large pharmas realizing that there are millions of people across the globe who are willing to pay for a topical DHT blocker without significant sides.

Exactly, everyone my age (17-19) thinks it's just something to get more followers on twitter, I asked everyone that brought it up of they knew what it was for, no one had a clue. Whenever someone my age asks about my hair loss they look at me quizzically and say "why don't you just get bosley?" I tell them it's not that simple. To them, baldness is already cured. At least I don't catch hell for balding though.

[inbrugge]

I don't think raising public awareness for hair loss will accomplish anything. The ALS ice bucket thing is nothing more than a fad, I bet more than 50% of people have no idea even what the disease is.

The only hope is large pharmas realizing that there are millions of people across the globe who are willing to pay for a topical DHT blocker without significant sides.

[walrus]

40 years.

40 years is nothing in the grand scheme of things.

[hellouser]

I hear you man, but I would just like to raise some awareness and possibly speed things up. Maybe it's the whole Ice Bucket ALS Awareness fad going on, but it's hard to ignore the attention and effect it's having on society. I think more people need to know what we're going through, especially the younger balding men. Depression is a serious disorder and MPB can have a very agonizing effect and your well being and overall mental health. Also, another thing we have going for us is social media and the overall unity of others going through the same thing. It doesn't matter what race, religion, social status, political association you identify yourself as, we all can agree that MPB, especially too soon, sucks.

And it's exactly THAT kind of campaign that I was talking about before that I'd like to see go viral for hair loss.

This Ice Bucket Challenge is a spin off of 'Neknominate'

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neknominate

Sample videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzdykwAEkk0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixNAyqb8qNw

Essentially, its just an online drinking game; you get dared to do something crazy drinking alcohol and then you nominate three other people.

Of course, you could apply a similar trend to hair loss (like getting someone to shave it all off or something)... but I think it will eventually become a lame hipster fad and miss the point completely.

But anyway... we need some transparency from the researchers of how far they REALLY are creating terminal hair growing follicles. At this point they need incentives to create socially acceptable follicles (none of this velus or microfollicle crap) and then an crowdfunding campaign would cover ALL of their costs for clinical trials but I would like to see the team get a nice BONUS too as a reward for actually getting something DONE for once.

[hellouser]

It is easy to call people incompetent when you have little understanding of the complexities involved.

40 years.

[walrus]

You know, researchers have known about cells in follicles for almost 40 years and they have jack shit to show for it? Don't have too much faith in these guys either... they're largely *gulp* incompetent.

It is easy to call people incompetent when you have little understanding of the complexities involved.

[moleular]

Hi All,

Sorry for the delay - I had some things to sort out.
Please see my last post in the ADSC topic for my funding initiative, as it is related to this.

[Sixers]

I hear you man, but I would just like to raise some awareness and possibly speed things up. Maybe it's the whole Ice Bucket ALS Awareness fad going on, but it's hard to ignore the attention and effect it's having on society. I think more people need to know what we're going through, especially the younger balding men. Depression is a serious disorder and MPB can have a very agonizing effect and your well being and overall mental health. Also, another thing we have going for us is social media and the overall unity of others going through the same thing. It doesn't matter what race, religion, social status, political association you identify yourself as, we all can agree that MPB, especially too soon, sucks.

[hellouser]

Thats a pretty bad comparison. To be honest with you I think this issue is bigger than people play it to be. I've been having some suicidal thoughts lately. Not solely on my hair loss, but I'd be lying if I told you that its not a major concern. Overall its making me very depressed and I'm only 24 years old. We can make a difference and raise awareness if we do it collectively. Especially with all of the social outputs now a days. The question is, are we prepared for that? Do we have enough confidence to do this? Time will tell

The bigger issue is this:

Suppose you raise 50 million dollars. What next? When's the cure going to come out? 1 year from now? 3 years? 5? 10? All of the researchers always flap their effing gums and say 'within 5 years' but we all know that everytime one of them that has said that has been horseshit (if it were true we wouldn't still be using minox and finasteride after 20 years!).

You could raise all the damn money in the world but its STILL not going to get you hair anytime soon because one major obstacle:

FDA.

Granted USA isn't the only country in existence but far too many people have no idea that there exists a world outside of its borders. However, a large number of people will want to have their treatments done in USA. I've been saying all along that trials and approvals should be done in Japan thanks to its new legislation so to hell with taking business to USA, but again.... even with an unlimited supply of funds, what guarantee do you have that you're going to get a treatment anytime soon EVEN IF your funds have helped create a terminal hair growing follicle?

You know, researchers have known about cells in follicles for almost 40 years and they have jack shit to show for it? Don't have too much faith in these guys either... they're largely *gulp* incompetent.

[Sixers]

Thats a pretty bad comparison. To be honest with you I think this issue is bigger than people play it to be. I've been having some suicidal thoughts lately. Not solely on my hair loss, but I'd be lying if I told you that its not a major concern. Overall its making me very depressed and I'm only 24 years old. We can make a difference and raise awareness if we do it collectively. Especially with all of the social outputs now a days. The question is, are we prepared for that? Do we have enough confidence to do this? Time will tell

[JZA70]

Been there, done that.

Crowd funding for hair loss will NEVER take off for many reasons, one of the most important being that it's at the bottom of the totem pole. It's not a life threatening disease, it doesn't require any immediate attention, no one will take it seriously. It's a cosmetic issue, and that's all it is.

It sounds almost as stupid as women setting up crowd funding campaigns for breast enlargement surgery.

Some of you guys need to take a deep breath and accept that no matter what you do, you will still have to wait another 10+ years for something better to come out. It's almost 2015 and no one has even created a single terminal hair follicle. The science just isn't there yet.

[stan]

I have a feeling there WILL be a backlash in response to this. What we need to CAREFULLY do is this:

Create the campaign in a serious but self deprecating manner that is humorous, similar to the comedic style of Rodney Dangerfield. That way, any insults that come our way, will be rendered MOOT as we've already covered them.

And, before the public can even begin to target us with insults and mockery, we need to CALL THEM ALL OUT for doing that before hand, basically having a rebuttal before they can even further lash out against us.

But we all know why they would mock us... I mean, they need to validate their own happiness by insulting someone elses misfortune. Like I said before, they are scum.

include female sufferers in the campaign. . . best thing to avoid backlash

[Scotopia]

Posted this in another thread: but worth mentioning here: I recently hired a development team to make a crowdfunding hub for a different subset of medical research, and things have gone well so far.

If the community wants to create a crowdfunding hub just for hairless research projects (is this what we want to do?), you could contact info [at] skyrushmarketing [dot] com. Since they just worked on my site; I'm guessing all things crowdfunding should be fresh on their minds.