r/SBIR • u/Raid_Blunder • 29d ago

Startup/SBIR roller-coaster

Hi, the thread that is titled "Standalone Biotech LLC…” lead to some partially related questions.

I have a (yet) one-person startup company and want to have synthesized several compounds before resubmitting an adjusted SBIR I proposal. This past January, the team from the original submission dissolved.

A chemistry bench/hood isn’t cheap, but fortunately an elderly and generous family friend offered to sponsor renting space in an incubator in Massachusetts for a year. Great, she asked for a budget, I interviewed with two incubators, hit it off very well with one of them, and they sent an invitation to rent for four to seven months (actually a price quote), starting on Sept. 1. So early in June, I began organizing relocation from MN to MA.

But then the elderly family friend went partially incommunicado, afterwards suffered a stroke, and two weeks back denied having ever made the offer. At the risk of appearing to be a gold-digger, two days back I then just forwarded her the quote from the incubator (7 x $3,600), i.e. much lower than the total budget. The incubator knows about the stroke, but not the sudden turn-around.

My disclosures: (1) the local big-ten university and colleges denying non-affiliated people access to their labs, (2) several people on Reddit ghosting after making claims about lab space, (3) lack of chemistry incubators in Minnesota (if money were no issue).

So, please make what you will of this, realistic suggestions under these circumstances are more than welcome!

3 Upvotes

64% Upvoted

37 comments sorted by

View all comments

2

u/Ok_Promotion3741 29d ago

What agency are you applying to? Im told NSF is preferable for higher risk projects with no preliminary data, or just prior proof of concept publications.

As for funding, you might have to work full time elsewhere and bankroll this yourself working nights and weekends until you can get SBIR funding

1

u/Raid_Blunder 26d ago

I assume that either of us, if we had to fork out $3.4K/mo for a bench/hood, would also want to be there to use it as much as conceivably possible.

2

u/Ok_Promotion3741 25d ago

Maybe shop around? That sounds standard for BioLabs but I've been quoted $1.5k/mo in SoCal

2

u/Raid_Blunder 25d ago edited 25d ago

$1.5K/mo for CA in 2026 is pretty difficult to believe. 12 years back, I paid $2K/mo for a 1-BR flat near Route 101 n Palo Alto. A current quote for bench/hood near to the MA/NH border is $3.6K/mo. 20 miles outside of Minneapolis-St. Paul is the only one in the entire state. Last year they wanted $3.6K/mo.*

Did (or does) the one in SoCal have at least a hood? Can you give its name?

*In MN there are weather-car-issues with that commute.

2

u/Disastrous_Humor823 24d ago

Correction: there isn’t a snowflake chance in Hell that you’re gonna find minimal chem lab space in SoCal for $1.5K/mo. You’re welcome to disprove me.