Looking for help to start a hair loss fund

benjt2

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@waynakyo Sorry, I'm not in, at least not as a guy you can count on because I have some other duties that have priority. I'm happy to drop some ideas here and there though. Also, just to clarify and cause I don't want to give a wrong impression: I don't work in finance. It just happens that I provide a certain set of technical services which are often required when big investments or M&As happen. That's how I got insight into some aspects of this business.
The problem with some of the more knowledgeable and active members on these forums is, though, that they can be very dogmatic and narrow-minded. They may have scientific literacy but lack the (life and subject) experience to see their own limitations. One-eyed in the land of the blind, basically.
That being said, I am happy that you @waynakyo are picking this idea up; you have always been a great contributor on these forums and unlike others not been arrogant, dogmatic or narrow-minded because of it. Other people I could see being a valuable addition would be @INT or @ChemHead. Another idea would be to get Will Rassman on board.

Some thoughts:

Don't run off buying any machines just yet. Expenditures must be aligned with strategy. If you as an organization want to provide testing services as a membership bonus (which could pay off by getting more donors on board), great. But before you spend any money, long, medium and short term strategies should be decided. I am a fan of strategy diversification, by the way.

instead of reinventing the wheel, we should use similar past endeavors focused on speeding up research as examples. Some ideas:
- CoViD vaccine development
- Hyperloop
- DARPA challenges
These often really advanced their fields quickly. And what do they have in common? They were designed as challenges or bounties. That's why I suggested the different pots (basic research/seed funding, investment/milestone payments, and bounties/challenges).

And one more thing to consider: When setting up a private foundation or fund (not the same thing!), there are several ways of doing this. You could run a fund, for example, for greater autonomy. Technically, a for-profit investment fund might also be possible (if that would benefit our cause is another question). You could have a system where people can add or withdraw their money at will; or you could make it one-way. You could have a pledge system where people would make legally binding pledges (probably not advisable because not realistically enforceable). You could have a membership fee system with different membership levels to ensure constant cash flow (levels corresponding to different rewards, like access to a LC/MS testing or priority access to funded research or prototypes). Depending on what you do, there are various regulations to take into account.

I suggest a different set of milestones:
1. finding a good core team
2. brainstorming strategy
3. brainstorming legal form and mechanisms
4. Coming up with a financial plan for minimum expenditures (this whole thing will need legal advise and accounting)
5. setting up org, website, compliance mechanisms
6. executing strategy
 
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werefckd

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RU58841 is certainly useful and widely used, who knows if it’s pure. CB is expensive and sold with low purity. SM04554 is also a good shout. We could use all of these and know that they aren’t fake/low purity.
Ok, some questions... are you using RU8841? What do you think about possible side effects? Youtuber Hairliciously is kinda of against it:

Do you have any opinion about the arguments he made there?
 
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TurboFixer

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Ok, some questions... are you using RU8841? What do you think about possible side effects? Youtuber Hairliciously is kinda of against it:

Do you have any opinion about the arguments he made there?
Have you seen the letter from that one guy
 

werefckd

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I totally understand the worries. Heart problems is the biggest worry of them all. It’s not because of a lack of androgens. Because if it was transgender men would die of heart failure more often. The only explanation could be mRNA or epigenetic changes. However the metabolites have mostly 1 hour half life, the ones with higher half life are too little in quantity. So genetic changes would almost be impossible. In the end I think it comes down to individual differences in scalp skin and dermal barriers. Some goes systemic, but those with side effects has a high flux rate of RU which goes systemic quick.

Yes personally I use RU, and a pretty high dose. I use 120 mg per day. No side effects.
Interesting. Thanks for your response. Did you notice clear improvements after you started taking RU?
 

werefckd

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Absolutely. That sh*t revived my hair straight back from the graveyard. Had diffuse thinning from hell.
But you are also on a lot of other stuff right? Do you know with some confidence that some of your gains were caused in fact by RU?
 

waynakyo

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@benjt2 Thanks for your thoughts. I would have written a response to your interesting comments but (i) I did not get any volunteers or significant interest since I opened the thread and (ii) it seems that this thread morphed into the usual treatments discussion.
I think foundations to fund research further out are harder to grab the attention.

I will think of smaller initiatives. Now I have my eyes on hair loss research again. There are a couple of researchers I want to contact. If anything comes out of it I will update.
 

werefckd

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@benjt2 Thanks for your thoughts. I would have written a response to your interesting comments but (i) I did not get any volunteers or significant interest since I opened the thread and (ii) it seems that this thread morphed into the usual treatments discussion.
I think foundations to fund research further out are harder to grab the attention.

I will think of smaller initiatives. Now I have my eyes on hair loss research again. There are a couple of researchers I want to contact. If anything comes out of it I will update.
Man don't quit that easily. At least don't lose the end goal in mind.

Just sent you a pm.
 

benjt2

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@benjt2 Thanks for your thoughts. I would have written a response to your interesting comments but (i) I did not get any volunteers or significant interest since I opened the thread and (ii) it seems that this thread morphed into the usual treatments discussion.
I think foundations to fund research further out are harder to grab the attention.

I will think of smaller initiatives. Now I have my eyes on hair loss research again. There are a couple of researchers I want to contact. If anything comes out of it I will update.
No worries mate, fully understandable.

Btw, I had a closer look again at how DARPA (whose job literally is to speed up research) does things and they seem to follow the same three-pot approach, though they call them a bit differently:
- grants (roughly equals "seed funding" for new research angles/proposals)
- contracts (a specific outcome is expected, e.g, certain milestones for continued funding or final results; requires a contractual agreement)
- prizes (like challenges/bounties; requires no contract before work commences, but might require some sort of contract for payout)

If you or anyone else were ever to pick up this idea again, I'd take DARPA or a variation of this three-pot approach as an example.

For funding, I think a membership model which assigns reward levels in a hybrid (i.e., both determined by monthly payments and total amount paid so far) way would be best, to ensure constant cash flow.
 
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