The Renaissance of Creativity in Biotech — Some thoughts about IndieBio

The colloquial phrase “cheap, fast, or good?—?pick two” has become conventional wisdom. But conventional wisdom is not based on the present reality. It closely relates to herd mentality and can blind people from seeing all viable options (https://waitbutwhy.com/2015/11/the-cook-and-the-chef-musks-secret-sauce.html).

World-changing innovations defy conventional wisdom. SOSventures’IndieBio, the world’s first life science accelerator, is a company that defies conventional wisdom. It shows that biotechnology startups that have great positive impact potential can also be cheap and move fast.

IndieBio and first principles

Reasoning from first principles allows people to ask questions about how things can be or should be, instead of starting with how things have always been. While the concept is relatively new, SOSventures’ founder Sean O’Sullivan’s life story is a testimony of the impact of first-principle thinking. It is only natural that IndieBio, his first life science company, is designed and operated with first principle reasoning. Most traditionally trained scientists did not get any opportunity to learn entrepreneurial skills. In fact, they were often discouraged from developing such skills. IndieBio has developed a powerful mentoring network to help scientists acquire entrepreneurial skills quickly.

Building bridges

There are two chasms in science: one dividing basic research from applied science, and another dividing academia from everything else. The unintended consequences are both a vast pool of underemployed talent, and a sea of underutilized technologies. Matt Ridley recently argued we should “ride rather than drive the innovation wave.” Why limit ourselves? We ought to both ride and drive the innovation wave! How shall we drive the innovation wave according to reasoning from first principles? One of the many possibilities is to build a supportive structure to allow people to repurpose and/or recombine underutilized technologies to address important human needs. IndieBio is one such structure. This is also part of a tectonic paradigm shift, as more and more powerful players are unleashing their social imagination and creativity, joining forces to do what truly matters. “Science warming” is happening in front of our eyes.

Originally published at https://medium.com/impact-tech/the-renaissance-of-creativity-in-biotech-89ea02b297a5#.bbwxpjvxa on July 14, 2016