[thesausageking]

Calling this a "Fellowship" is misleading. The funding is an investment. See their FAQ:

  Q: How much equity does Sci-Founder take in my company?
  A: There are two funding options we offer:
  $250,000 for 10% equity
  $400,000 for 15% equity

[tyingq]

I'm not sure "misleading" is a strong enough word in this case. Fellowship has a very specific meaning in academia, and it's not this.

Edit: Perhaps it wasn't intentional, but it will have a bait-and-switch feel for scientists in academia.

[throwawaygh]

Fellowships usually require an institutional affiliation and many institutions are borderline predatory when it comes to IP/equity stake in spinoffs.

If you take a fellowship to start a company and then spin that company off from a university, you've gotta be careful to choose the right uni and structure the work appropriately. Some universities will take pretty big stakes when they can.

Calling this a fellowship is a bit confusing, but I'm not sure it's anything more nefarious than perhaps simply misleading/confusing. At least they're up front with the fact that they'll take a 10% stake. Many universities that will try to take a pretty similar stake aren't so up-front.

[mattkrisiloff]

I'm sorry you feel that way -- we did discuss this when deciding what to call it, but ultimately decided that what the community we aim to create is much closer to a fellowship and peer group of scientists than a VC fund.

We're optimizing how we run things to build a community of scientists over maximizing our financial returns. We care most about about inspiring scientists to pursue translational research with greater resources and team coordination than they may find in a more traditional pathway.

[sidlls]

Then don't misappropriate words or apply them in a contextually incorrect way, thinking you know better or have some keen insight into utilization.

Learn about how scientists actually work and meet them--don't twist the jargon around to suit your marketing needs.

[nickff]

Fellowship also has a specific meaning in Middle Earth, but that doesn't mean that it must match coincide with every other application of the word.

Words can have multiple meanings; sometimes troublesome ones (i.e. 'tabling' an item on the agenda).

[throwawaygh]

Scientists, not hobbits, are the target of this fellowship. Most scientists spend at least half a decade of their early career in academia and will therefore use "Fellowship" the way it's used in academia.

[tyingq]

I don't think this offering intersects with Middle Earth.

[nickff]

One definition of "fellowship" is actually "a group of people meeting to pursue a shared interest or aim", which describes both the Sci-Founder Fellowship and the Fellowship of the Ring.

[suyash]

It is almost 'insulting' to the scientist community, greedy investors pitching their business as fellowship should be ashamed.

[Alupis]

Also, for Life Science startups, this seems like a very small amount of money.

Aren't these businesses generally extremely capitol intensive - expensive equipment, PhD's, etc.

[mattkrisiloff]

In the long run, for sure -- but often a lot more than people think can be done to start building momentum with a small amount of money for these types of companies. For example, the company I'm currently CEO of started with $250,000 initially, and that allowed us to figure things out to make a lot more progress and raise a lot more funding.

That said if you need more money than what we are offering at the start, our first thing to do will be to help you figure out a greater fundraising process.

[macksd]

Is it just me, or does it seem like an odd assumption that this hard-codes the value of the company to $2.5M-$2.7M? I would think they would have a percentage cut they target or a dollar amount they target, and the other variable is filled in based on their assessment of the startup's value at the time?

[fuzzfactor]

I think this is very realistic when technology risk is involved in a field that is always going to be capital-intensive, it's so different than software you've got to start with more.

But $400,000 is a lot of money so the confidence has to be there for all, that they will actually make enough progress before the money runs out so that it's comparable to what a more mature operation would have who is worth over $2 Million at least.

Even if the new venture is still ramping up and not yet expected to have marketable products, services, or IP yet, that kind of progress needs to be there or how could further investment be justified.

Basically it can be just one or two top performers actually capable of accomplishing a couple million worth of work, or building something that would otherwise cost almost $3 Million if given this type of opportunity.

OTOH you could get 10 to 20 contributors who each work with lesser resources but could still build equal momentum over a respectable runway.

If either of these or anything in between is built for $400,000 that's a good start for all.

In my field I could dispatch a calibration crew from a single reference instrument, or arrange with a preferred client to maintain theirs as a reference instrument and go labless.

Too bad Theranos ended up taking massive funding instead of you less-well-connected biotech entrepreneurs, so much real progresss could have been deployed instead.

[mattkrisiloff]

We want teams to feel like peers and not like we're treating some teams more favorably than others -- from my experience having worked at Y Combinator, I think creating a sense where everyone is equal is one of the many things YC has done really well.

[fuzzfactor]

I think there's also some opportunity for a community of synergistic biotech entrepreneurs to thrive overall under each different company's business plans where the workers from the ventures that do not have financial success will still have their talents be known quantities to the ventures that do take off, so without failure they could jump right in and become entrepreneurial contributors at a time when good people who can hit the ground running are needed most and hard to find.

[aripickar]

Early stage startup valuations are more or less worth the paper that they're printed on. Probably more cost effective to hard-code the valuation to the same number than to try and determine the value for each startup applying.

[tylerhou]

It's not uncommon for seed funding. YC offers $125k for 7%, which implies a ~$1.8 million post-money valuation.

[mattkrisiloff]

We're trying to be very upfront that this is a for-profit thing for the creation of for-profit companies. We're calling it a fellowship because we care more about creating a community of scientists starting companies than potential financial returns.

There are other for-profit fellowship programs that have popped up too recently -- for example, the South Park Commons Founder Fellowship.

[KingFelix]

What constitutes a scientist? I read that you don't need to be in a PhD program, I am working on a quantum problem in a garage at the moment. We've built a Thor Labs optics lab. This would be amazing for us, Thor labs equipment is expensive and currently need a new laser. This would be amazing

[mattkrisiloff]

We think we can be most helpful for life science companies, but if you think we could be really helpful still please feel free to apply.

No need for a PhD.

[KingFelix]

Brilliant, our end goal is an artificial brain. Simulate disease / Alzheimer's / Epilepsy . One of the experiments we would like to run involves mini brains. Filling out the submission form now.

[phillc73]

I know it's pedantic, but the company is Thorlabs, not Thor Labs. Sure you've built a lab using their equipment?

[KingFelix]

Yes, I have been opening many boxes, bags, and munching on lab snacks. I just call them Thor anyway when referencing them. I will take note of your pedantic remark and asses my use of company names.

[thesausageking]

> We're trying to be very upfront that this is a for-profit thing for the creation of for-profit companies.

If you want to be upfront, don't call it a fellowship. That word has a specific meaning, especially for scientists. It comes with a stipend and is attached to a research institution, neither of which is the case here.

[LetThereBeLight]

Indeed, if you look at startup fellowships for scientists that currently exist, fellows don't have to give up IP or equity. Calling this program a fellowship in this context is highly misleading.