Hi Gary,
Very interesting! Reading your pitch through the lense of a platform business model you are proposing, i observe the following:
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There are two sides to this platform. On one side are the everday “scientists” in search of discoveries. On the other, clinical researchers looking for alternative datasets to anonomyzed randomized trials.
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We know platforms sustain and grow themselves through network effects. Here you are suggesting the network effect is based on “each person making it easier for the next”. In terms of network effects, i take this as the more discoveries are made, the more people join the platform in search of their own discoveries and with more discoveries, the more clinical researchers looking for datasets and round and round it grows.
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“10 million discoveries in 20 years” - I asked myself how many everday “scientist” need to be active on the platform to achieve this goal. If by “discovery” you mean as @ejain suggests in his point #3, “actual discoveries something new (maybe once in a lifetime)”, then you’ll need 10 million users over 20 years! I agree with Eric that discovery covers any one of those three points. In my case of casual experimentation, it is about five discoveries in three years. Of course you’ll have a range of discoveries per user, but safe to say we are on the order of 300K - 1M+ active everyday scientist over the 20 years to meet the goal.
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You are suggesting the platform’s value proposition is based on innovative tools/education/community to enable entirely new experiences in the everyday scientist’s journey to self-discovery. In this regard, I would highlight examples when this journey goes awry,and how the platform will enable users to overcome the challenges and reach the final phase of discovery. You may also want to highlight innoative experiences for the clinical researcher. For example, the clinical researcher who doesn’t find the empirical discoveries she is looking for, but can use the platform’s levers to incentize new discoveries in this area.
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In terms of the platform’s economics, I think you should mention the marginal costs in acquiring the platform’s participants i.e. everyday scientists as well as clinical researchers, and how this tends towards zero-marginal costs - which would be the platform’s sustainability element along with the network effects.
Sergio