Kesar - Affordable biotech equipment

[Ujjwal Thaakar]

What is Kesar?

Hi,

My name is Ujjwal. Last year I quit my job at Walt Disney India as the head of their innovation labs and set out on a lonely journey into SynBio. I had been fascinated with the concept and decided to take a leap of faith. After one year I'm very close to launching my first product.

Presently I'm developing easy to use and affordable lab equipment for biohackers. I'll be coming out with an essential piece of hardware in about 2 months. But before I tell you anything more about it, I'd like to share the mission and vision of my company. Our goal is to establish SynBio as an engineering discipline to solve some of the world's big problems. It's a bold mission but it's worth a shot. Please let me know your thoughts, questions and comments. Very soon I'll share more information about our product too.

[Ilya Vainberg Slutzkin]

Hi,

This looks very interesting. I would love to join some sort of a mailing list to be updated about your products.

Do you have a website? Online shop? Will you ship worldwide?

Thanks,

Ilya.

[Koeng]

I think that asking for interest in a product without telling what the product is is a good way to get very little interest. How is yours different from many of the other 'open' DIYbio hardwares?

-Koeng

[BraveScience]

Hi,

In your blog post/company presentation you say to be at the intersection of computerscience, biology and design. But you also tell me you are developing affordable lab equipment for biohackers. But again you mention the extra care and handcrafting love you put into you software, always in your blogpost. Oh, and you also say to be into synbio. Great!

So, at this point you got my interest, as I have no freaking idea what you do.
It's all sounds very strangely snake-oilish from here. Could you be more clear about what you do or make? Or hope to make in the next two months that should keep my attention warm for such a huge timespan?

Btw "let's make the world a better place" startuppy sentence is loosing it's effect after the series "the silicon valley".

Cheers,
Fede

[jrd210]

A Tease with zero content--doesn't do much for me!!

[Ujjwal Thaakar]

Hi Ilya,

Very sorry for the delayed response.

Yes. If you go on the website which is http://kesar.xyz, you'll find a form to sign up for further updates.

We will be launching a crowdfunding campaign for presales and yes we will ship worldwide.

[Ujjwal Thaakar]

Hi Koeng,

Sorry for the delayed response. Here I was just putting out the vision of the company without actually revealing much about the specific product. Not trying to be very secretive or anything though. The first product is going to be an 8 well PCR machine. How is it different from other 'open' DIYbio hardware?

Firstly it's a product so you don't need to source any parts or spend 6 hours assembling it like you do with the OpenPCR. Secondly it's much more refined in terms of the user experience of operating it. The goal here was to produce an affordable piece of equipment so that you neither have to assemble kits yourself nor use arcane second hand equipment. It would be just cheaper and much easier to buy this product considering the overall cost of purchase, time spent learning to operate the equipment and maintenance. Lastly the goal is also to make something that invites people with little prior experience to biotech which means refining the whole experience to a level where both newcomers and power users have something to work with.

Again the goal here was to put the word out and not the product. I will release concrete details very soon.

[Ujjwal Thaakar]

Hi,

Sorry for the delayed response.

I understand that the whole "let's make this world a better place" pitch has been overblown by the silicon valley as does any good message when abused. But making better biotech hardware+software actually has real potential of making the world a better place - not by us but people like you who will use it to accomplish unforeseen applications and innovations in today's stagnant industry. This is not another chat bot or messaging app. It's not a convenience or luxury. The reason I'm making hardware right now is I personally felt the pain. To reach a point where biotechnology is democratised and flourishes, the cost of pursuing it has to come down drastically as well as the overall experience has to be inviting enough. I think instead of biohackers spending time, effort and money on sourcing equipment, we should provide well designed solutions so that we can focus on the next step. I would not try to defend my "make the world a better place" pitch anymore. I'll just request you to observe. Either we're lying or we genuinely mean it. Either ways it shall be clear very soon. Actions speak louder than words.

To get very specific we are launching an 8 well PCR machine in the coming couple of months. The goal here is to be able to setup a lab very cheaply for yourself and therefore we also plan on making other instruments. I just feel the quality of diybio hardware needs to bump up and that's what I'm trying to do here.

[Ujjwal Thaakar]

Didn't know your preference. Wait for the next announcement. Everything there will be very concrete :)