Crowdfunding for Dr. Xu

[hellouser]

Yeah we'd have to come up with some decent backer incentives. Perhaps a small amount of the funds could go towards hiring someone to make short films documenting the research efforts, which could be available to backers once every 3-6 months for example.

Having a system for allowing say $1000+ backers to be first in line to receive the treatment when it's ready would be great, because maybe some rich guys who are just starting to thin will invest in this rather than get a $10,000+ hair transplant. But I don't know if that's feasible.

I've said before that this project would be a huge media-darling. I can see it being internationally viral news - "Kickstarter for baldness cure launched".

Careful, I've said the same thing about such an initiative a long time ago and already have some groundwork finished with a collaboration with Axel... however there was a LOT of debbie downers here that shit all over the idea saying it wouldnt work.

[UK_]

LOLOL@this pointless thread which will get nowhere.

[hellouser]

LOLOL@this pointless thread which will get nowhere.

Debbie downer spotted!

[NeedHairASAP]

Ok guys, after talking with one of the top docs in hair research at Penn Medicine, we came to the conclusion that us hair loss sufferers and his team can work together to get funding for them to make a new follicle from stem cells. They need about 4 million dollars that they dont currently have in order to move forward. I am willing to get the kickstarter going and design it and write it, as well as liason with the team at Penn medicine. If anyone has abilities (business/design/spare time) to help with this, it will be needed. the most important thing, which i can't do by myself is spread this to all social networks and market it and promote it in order for it to reach the amount of people it needs to be successful. If anyone is in touch with spencer kobren or other people who have access to advertising etc, please let me know and help out. While the cure for hairloss is slowly being developed, researchers in this country are sadly short on money, but want to get there faster. If things move at the current pace, they have told me that it will at least be more than a decade to ever get a functioning follicle going. I'd love to see lots of responses to this thread, as I think it's pretty special that one of the top researchers is willing to use our help and help us in return. thanks



Here are two emails I received from George Xu. His team was able to make epithelial cells from stem cells this year. I basically asked him what the holdup has been vis a vis making new hair from DP cells.

"Maintaining the folliculogenicity of DP cells may not be as easy as it appears despite several papers in the literature. We are gearing up to make hair follicles composed entirely of human cells from a same person. We all hope the solution to baldness can be sooner. Research funding has been cut in recent years, it would be great if we can get more funding to do some of the research that we would like to do. Thanks"

In response to me saying that he should crowdfund:


"I would love to work with you on this. Could you please let me know your background? You CV would be fine. I will contact our medical school to see whether there is any restriction on these types of effort to raise fund for research and will let you know. I think 4-5 million will make a huge difference in the research. Thanks"


George


Xiaowei Xu, MD, PhD

Associate Professor of Pathology and Dermatology

University of Pennsylvania

Your biggest hurdle will be the preparation.

this link will help you :

http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2012/12/18/hacking-kickstarter-how-to-raise-100000-in-10-days-includes-successful-templates-e-mails-etc/

this wont be easy....

[Sogeking]

If this gets kickstarted you can count on my money.
Also wasn't there a science website recently made that is basically crowdsourcing for inventions, treatments?

EDIT: Here it is. mate. There might be benefits for kickstarting it on this website:

https://experiment.com/

Although most projects have really low goals compared to 4 million.

If you manage to start he project and prove it is for Penn Medicine Uni and Dr. Xu then it would be nice to promote it on social media, other forums and even ask Spencer for help. But yeah, this won't be easy...

[hellouser]

Your biggest hurdle will be the preparation.

this link will help you :

http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2012/12/18/hacking-kickstarter-how-to-raise-100000-in-10-days-includes-successful-templates-e-mails-etc/

this wont be easy....

It's actually stupidly easy if we have a small team (5-10 people) and becomes really easy with more individuals helping out.

For one person to do it all, yeah, its a monumental task, but not when its a group of us... and we've got that potential seeing how many hair loss forums there are and how many members on each forum there is.

[sdsurfin]

thanks

It's actually stupidly easy if we have a small team (5-10 people) and becomes really easy with more individuals helping out.

For one person to do it all, yeah, its a monumental task, but not when its a group of us... and we've got that potential seeing how many hair loss forums there are and how many members on each forum there is.

This won't be as difficult as it seems. Kickstarter isn't going to work because they don't allow medical research, but both idiegogo.com and medstartr.com will work just fine. Indiegogo has th epotential to reach a larger audience.

Thanks for the replies that were useful, the one about twitter is great, I will hit you up for help for sure. I got another email from Dr. Xu today, he's asking the Penn Medicine people what their restrictions are. They are a nonprofit, so none of this should be a problem.

If anyone lives in philly and has video skills, would be great to have someone go and make a short video for the project. otherwise I'll see if Dr. Xu can put something short together.

[Thinning87]

It's actually stupidly easy if we have a small team (5-10 people) and becomes really easy with more individuals helping out.

For one person to do it all, yeah, its a monumental task, but not when its a group of us... and we've got that potential seeing how many hair loss forums there are and how many members on each forum there is.

I have a lot of free time these days and am available, but am clueless about how things are done. I am studying kickstarter now

[PaddyBateman]

I have a lot of free time these days and am available, but am clueless about how things are done. I am studying kickstarter now

In the news today , the UK winner of the £108mio jackpot was an average joe, who doesn't know what to do with the money....and he's also bald !

Perhaps he could help out with a few million here or there

[Thinning87]

In the news today , the UK winner of the £108mio jackpot was an average joe, who doesn't know what to do with the money....and he's also bald !

Perhaps he could help out with a few million here or there

let's track him down...

[Thinning87]

I just submitted this to kickstarter:

"Dr. Xu from the University of Pennsylvania and his team are researching the final critical steps to "make hair follicles composed entirely of human cells from a same person" which, building upon recent major critical breakthroughs in research, is expected to lead to a cure for baldness and other medical applications.

Dr. Xu has explained funds for his research have decreased recently, and he needs $4 million to carry on with research. He has been in contact with a forum member in the most prominent baldness forum, baldtruthtalk.com, and has welcomed efforts by the online community to raise funds to support his research.

My question is, is it possible to open a kickstarter for someone else (Dr. Xu and the University of Pennsylvania - School of Medicine - Dermatology) upon receiving formal acceptance of the kickstarter being launched in their name? Or is it necessary for the recipient of the funds to open the kickstarter project themselves?

Thank you for your time"

[Thinning87]

Ok guys, after talking with one of the top docs in hair research at Penn Medicine, we came to the conclusion that us hair loss sufferers and his team can work together to get funding for them to make a new follicle from stem cells. They need about 4 million dollars that they dont currently have in order to move forward. I am willing to get the kickstarter going and design it and write it, as well as liason with the team at Penn medicine. If anyone has abilities (business/design/spare time) to help with this, it will be needed. the most important thing, which i can't do by myself is spread this to all social networks and market it and promote it in order for it to reach the amount of people it needs to be successful. If anyone is in touch with spencer kobren or other people who have access to advertising etc, please let me know and help out. While the cure for hairloss is slowly being developed, researchers in this country are sadly short on money, but want to get there faster. If things move at the current pace, they have told me that it will at least be more than a decade to ever get a functioning follicle going. I'd love to see lots of responses to this thread, as I think it's pretty special that one of the top researchers is willing to use our help and help us in return. thanks

SDsurfin:

1) Are you in San Diego? Me too...

2) I am a technology consultant for a company but I am currently on the bench, which means I have a lot of free time. I would be glad to help... However I am not a social media guy, although opening a twitter account doesn't seem to be rocket science.

3) What is your level of experience opening a kickstarter project? Can you launch one on your own?

4) I suspect there will have to be some action items to be fulfilled on the part of Dr. Xu to launch the kickstarter. In other words, there are requirements, so I doubt someone can just open a kickstarter for someone else without the beneficiary of the funds make some commitments or fulfill requirements.

[sdsurfin]

SDsurfin:

1) Are you in San Diego? Me too...

2) I am a technology consultant for a company but I am currently on the bench, which means I have a lot of free time. I would be glad to help... However I am not a social media guy, although opening a twitter account doesn't seem to be rocket science.

3) What is your level of experience opening a kickstarter project? Can you launch one on your own?

4) I suspect there will have to be some action items to be fulfilled on the part of Dr. Xu to launch the kickstarter. In other words, there are requirements, so I doubt someone can just open a kickstarter for someone else without the beneficiary of the funds make some commitments or fulfill requirements.

No, I used to live there

Also, I think kickstarter might not be the right website. indiegogo and medstartr are probably more along the lines of what we want. kickstarter is good, but usually only for design products etc, and pretty sure they have a no medical clause. If you can open a twitter account that would be great, and maybe even run the indiegogo account. I don't really have tons of time at all- really no time. I'm happy to work with Dr. Xu to get this initiated though, I sent him an email with the info that we need from him.

If anyone is in philly that would help too, cause we're going to need a short video. I'll keep you posted, feel free to private message me, and once I'm on the same page as Xu, we can get that twitter account running.

would really love to have some social media people or marketing people on board though. Also, if anyone speaks chinese or korean or japanese and can spread this in asia, I think that is crucial. There is more concern about hair loss over there, and a lot of people that might be willing to give money. Thanks!

[huawei]

While I can't really be of any help I do believe this can work!

I think the main thing would be achieving publicity...once you have that it'll take off like wildfire achieving the goal or at least achieving enough for it to be of use.

[deuce]

This will still have to go through FDA right?