5 Reasons Why We Founded LabLaunch

LabLaunch is a life science coworking lab network based in Los Angeles, California.

There are about a million reasons why we founded LabLaunch.

Here’s 5 :

1. Science belongs to everyone
2. Innovation happens fastest in a competitive marketplace
3. A thriving biotech economy requires a diverse ecosystem
4. There is a generation of underemployed scientific geniuses in America
5. Los Angeles is uniquely poised to become a world leader in Life Tech

1. Science belongs to everyone

Science - and biotech especially - are poised for a rapid rise over the foreseeable future. Growing needs for fuels and chemicals from sources other than crude oil, for future medicines, and for clean materials, are all set to drive a Century of Innovation in the Life Sciences.

The opportunities are great, and I believe that they should be accessible to all who are willing to do the work, take the risk and pursue them — without regard to background, or status, or which University they went to, or how much money they already have.

2. Innovation happens fastest in a competitive marketplace

Current, academia-centric models for biotech commercialization are almost universally based around slow-moving, proprietary products with heavy patent protection, such as drugs, that can take a decade or more to move to market.

By contrast, innovations in the tech sector happen almost overnight, as a dynamic ecosystem of risk-takers constantly compete to out-do each other’s technological achievements to win customers. The fruits of this innovation often feed back to solve problems in other areas.

The costs of experimenting in biotech are rapidly falling, even while academic overheads are rising — driving up the overall cost of research to the taxpayer. Our goal is to create a space where innovators can freely interact, experiment, and innovate. Together with mentoring and networking opportunities with investors and technology experts, we aim to create a dynamic and competitive environment for new technologies that can move rapidly to commercialization.

3. A thriving biotech economy requires a diverse marketplace

Academic Research Science has a serious problem. If we as a society are serious about creating the technologies of the future, freeing the world from its dependence on crude oil, maintaining healthy bodies in perpetuity, solving hunger and disease, cleaning up our environment, and all the other things; then we simply can’t afford to exclude talent.

We need the best, the hardest working, the smartest, and the most innovative people we can find to solve these questions. Everyone is welcome to be a part of LabLaunch as we look to build the bioeconomy of the 21st Century.

4. There is a whole generation of underemployed scientific geniuses in America

Employment prospects for scientists graduating with their PhD are horrible. For years, we have trained a huge number of graduate students in academic labs, where they form an enormous pool of cheap labor — far more than there are academic jobs available for post-graduation. Together with the poor pay of PhD graduates in post-doc positions*, many thousands of talented, capable scientists have simply given up and left the system.

*seriously, what other doctoral-level qualification would command an entry-level salary of under $40k after 9+ years of college??

Opportunity is limited both by the system, but also by the high cost of entry to biotech entrepreneurship, or even just to lab space for experimenting for the sake of science. By lowering these barriers, and by supporting those who dare to have vision, we can begin to free our young scientists to pursue their work independently.

5. Los Angeles is uniquely poised to become a world leader in Life Tech

Los Angeles’ greatest weakness, but also our greatest strength, is that no one ever seems to take us seriously. Maybe it’s all the Hollywoodness. Maybe it’s the Kardashians.

And yet:

• LA’s economy is larger than San Francisco and Silicon Valley COMBINED
• LA has the largest port complex and import-export marketplace on the West Coast
• LA has 3 Major Research Universities, more than a hundred universities and colleges, and over a quarter of a million post-HS students.
• LA is among the top 5 employers nationwide in every sector of the biotech economy, and is the #1 employer in the field of medical devices (Battelle-BIO2014)
• LA is building an efficient public transport system that will effectively link up our sprawling city — connecting the hubs of industry and tech on the Westside, South Bay, Eastside and SGV — all linking together in the resurgent Downtown LA .
• Have you seen Silicon Beach recently? Heavy investment by tech giants including Google & Facebook (and let’s not forget our old friends SpaceX) are driving talent, money, and a taste for innovation toward LA.
• 300+ Days of Sunshine. It’s good for you, it’s also good for your biosolar startup idea.

And yet, there is currently no accessible, affordable shared lab space in the City of Los Angeles. That’s where we come in.

I’m not going to pretend that we can cure all of our problems overnight, but I sincerely believe we can start something huge here in LA, and an affordable, accessible coworking lab space is the necessary first step.

Biotech is waiting for its great age, and LA is a sleeping giant that is long ready to wake up. “We have the Tools. We have the Talent!”.

We just need space to experiment and collaborate.