The archive · Consumer Apps · Product decision · 2012–2013
Microryza (YC W13) bets the crowd will fund the science grants skip
Crowdfunding site for vetted researchers (all-or-nothing, 5% fee), launched 2012 after cofounder Cindy Wu found grants closed to undergrads.
Microryza
What the business is
Microryza was a crowdfunding platform for scientific research, described as a "Kickstarter" for science: researchers at universities such as Washington, USC and UC Santa Cruz post proposals, donors give what they want, funds release only if the full ask is met, and Microryza keeps a 5 percent transaction fee.
Starting capital：Funding from Y Combinator, the Start Fund and 500 Startups (amounts not disclosed in the source).
How it started
Cindy Wu, then an undergraduate at the University of Washington, had worked in the lab behind the Foldit protein-folding game; one summer, players produced 87 enzyme mutants, and one appeared able to treat anthrax infections after the lab won an MIT-based synthetic biology competition. Her professor doubted an undergrad could win NIH or NSF funding but let her pitch at a lab meeting and funneled money from an existing grant into the work. "I was so lucky. But I realized there are so many other undergraduates, graduate students and faculty members that would never be able to get funding," she said. After talking to 100 scientists and finding that all had high-risk ideas they never wrote up because they did not think proposals would go through, she and co-founder Denny Luan launched Microryza in 2012.
What happened
Microryza worked with five or six universities and vetted every researcher on three tests: identity, whether the proposal was fundamentally new research, and whether the researcher could carry it out. Because results can take years, the pair built an information platform where researchers share images, videos and data in real time; Luan described it as researchers "creating a custom-made journal article for their project backers," with open-access results. Projects ranged from cannibalism in giant tyrannosaurs and viral causes of lung cancer to a Triceratops dig that rewarded backers with Dino Day. Like Kickstarter, researchers received funds only if the entire ask was met, and Microryza took a 5 percent fee, with profiles of donors published unless they chose anonymity.
No ending yet — it is still running.
Background
Microryza began with an undergraduate's funding wall: Cindy Wu had worked in the University of Washington lab behind the Foldit protein-folding game, where players produced 87 enzyme mutants and one appeared able to treat anthrax — yet her professor said an undergraduate could not win NIH or NSF grants, and funded the work only from another lab grant. Talking to 100 scientists showed her the pattern: everyone had high-risk ideas, and none wrote proposals because they did not think they would go through.
With co-founder Denny Luan, she launched Microryza in 2012 as a crowdfunding platform for scientific research. The site worked with five or six universities — Washington, USC and UC Santa Cruz among them — and vetted every researcher on identity, novelty of the research, and ability to carry it out. Because science does not deliver a poster or DVD like a Kickstarter reward, the pair built an update platform where researchers post images, videos and data in real time, which Luan described as researchers creating a custom-made journal article for their backers, with open-access results.
Projects ranged from T. rex cannibalism to viral causes of lung cancer and a Triceratops dig whose backers got Dino Day; researchers received funds only if the full ask was met, and Microryza took 5 percent. As of the 2013-02-25 TechCrunch profile, the platform had about a dozen completed projects, donations up to $5,000–6,000, and funding from Y Combinator, the Start Fund and 500 Startups — with three people working full time.
What has to be true
- Grant funding excluded exactly the people with the most speculative ideas: Wu found that scientists did not even write proposals for high-risk work because they assumed rejection.
- A university base answered the trust problem: working with five or six institutions and vetting each researcher gave donors a reason to believe the person and the project were real.
- The platform replaced tangible rewards with process: real-time images, videos and data made funding a lab feel like following a specific scientist, not buying a product.
What can be applied
A market born of a funding gap needs trust built in: vet the researchers and show backers real-time progress, because science has no poster or DVD to deliver.
Aftermath
As of 2013-02-25 Microryza was live with roughly a dozen completed projects, individual donations reaching $5,000–6,000, and three full-time employees. It was funded by Y Combinator, the Start Fund and 500 Startups and worked with five or six universities including Washington, USC and UC Santa Cruz; the record stops at this early stage, with no later milestones covered by the source.
Sources
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