A business accelerator is a fun and competitive (and crazy) experience. You will definitely learn a lot over the course of one. But remember, the accelerator itself is a business for the VC firm, exactly like your fledgling business. It’s not a charity. It’s not community service the VC firm does for the benefit of the community. It only exists to make money.
So if you are lucky enough to have you and your business selected to participate in an accellerator- What does that mean?

It means you need to start fighting.

The VC firm thinks that your business has a decent chance to become a profitable company. They think that their investment of $20,000 will yield returns of millions in a few years. They think that their business accelerator program will give you the training and the opportunities to achieve that business success. You might be surprised and flattered at this – we were. We liked our cool little idea, we thought it was nice that someone else was willing to give us a chance. We didn’t really take to heart that this was a business transaction where each side commits to making this a successful venture.

Our advice to you? Make them put their commitment in writing.

When we were first selected for the program, we signed a letter of intent, a brief 1.5 page document about our responsibilities to the accelerator. The responsibilities of the accelerator to us were not documented here, and we expected to see them in the detailed contract which was forthcoming. This 7 page contract was more detailed—but only about the nature and type of shares that we would give them in exchange for their financial and material support. Very practical, and, from our limited experience, reasonable. After all, it makes sense that these guys would want to protect their investment.

However, we also needed to think about protecting our own investment. We were leaving jobs, moving overseas, and committing fully to a program we would be dependent on for the next three months. Aside from the words ‘material support’, there was not another or further defined responsibility for the accelerator in the contract. No mention of the mentors or training that would be provided, no description of the facilities, no outline of the opportunities they would provide. Under our current agreement, there are many ways that we can be in violation of the contract, but it is impossible to hold the accelerator accountable. We are entirely dependent on their sense of fairness and goodwill – a dangerous place to be as a new start up.

So, when you receive the contract, start asking questions. Question yourself, your business partners, and question the accelerator. Identify your framework for success and express it confidently. If you require specific materials, facilities, mentoring, or consulting to be successful, verify that they can provide it and make them commit to providing it in writing before you sign. If you feel the terms are unfavorable say so, and have the research at hand to back it up. Reading the contract start to finish isn’t enough. You can read the whole thing, understand everything in it, and still not know what it means. Instead, try reading a section, then restating that section out loud to your business partners and advisors in your own words. You might see some obvious and trivially easy adjustments you can make to protect yourselves and your company.

Another note - absolutely everything is negotiable.

We negotiated. We agonized about it and spent hours drafting emails and worried that we’d be rejected from the program outright, but we shared our concerns. And as a result, we reduced the equity exchanged for their investment by 30%.

Remember your position at the negotiating table if you get a contract like this. They chose you. They think your idea, your business, your team has a chance of hitting it big. Their business depends on finding ideas and teams and businesses like yours, and they depend on you being a success. You need to address items that are important to you and work out contract wording that makes you confident in this partnership. A good business partner will respond to your concerns, a bad one will dismiss them with “that’s not important.”

It may very well be that this is your only shot and you have to take it regardless of the terms – that’s fine. Such is life. But it never hurts to stand up for yourself. You will need that backbone to make it in the business world.

Color is at the heart of our project here at Revolution Bio. Color makes things brighter, more fun, and more engaging. Color can also become a rallying point for people interested in building a common cause.

The field of synthetic biology is fractured at the moment, with competing definitions and widely varied goals. We need a symbol that’s accessible and meaningful, one that welcomes people interested in the field and provides an umbrella for future discussions. A color with a story might be the place to start.

Given that synthetic biology takes inspiration from nature and engineers beyond it, I think indigo might be the right color for this new field. Indigo is a deep blue dye originally derived from Indigofera plants – huge quantities of plants, as it makes up only about 0.5% of the plant leaf. However, you cannot extract indigo directly from plants, only the colorless, water-soluble precursor, indican. Indican must first hydrolyze to indoxyl, and then oxidize to become the molecule indigo. A variant of this molecular reaction is what turns your colonies blue when you do a blue-white screen during cloning.

Being a striking and vibrant dye, indigo is in high demand. In the 19th century, demand drove intensive cultivation of Indigofera plants and contributed to the slave trade in India and the Americas. But even this dehumanizing, industrial production could not satisfy the demand for ‘blue gold.’ And so researchers began to look for ways to make synthetic indigo. Some limited progress was made through the 1800s towards a synthetic indigo, but it wasn’t until 1901 that the first industrially relevant process was put into use. Later that century, affordable synthetic indigo made blue fabric (and blue jeans) ubiquitous.

The investigation into the best way to make synthetic indigo and indigo dyes is ongoing. It is challenging – indigo is not water soluble, and harsh chemical conversions are required to manufacture indoxyl and set the dye. Synthetic indigo manufacturing yields a product ten times cheaper than the natural plant based extractions. However, the natural dyes are still sought after though, for high-end fabric and cosmetic applications.

The indigo arc- from a rare natural ingredient, through massive industrial production, to a renewed search for a better solution- is a common one, and I believe synthetic biology has a role to play in finding a better solution. Using engineering principles in combination with biological components to understand and improve the biochemical pathways in Indigofera we may be able to come full circle on indigo, developing an all-natural production platform that meets the global demand. Inspired by nature, engineered by people? Sounds like synthetic biology to me.

What do you think? Does synthetic biology look good in indigo?