is a lean approach applicable to BIOTECH?

I used to think bootstrapping a biotech company was impossible. So far, we’re doing it anyway - and we aren’t alone. Media City Scientific is following an unusual - but not unheard of - playbook for biotech companies.

While external capital isn’t necessarily off the table long-term, when we first registered the company, we challenged ourselves to get to market without raising.

This might sound crazy, and I get it. During my PhD, I dropped 10k on antibodies before 8am on a Tuesday. Wet-lab R&D is expensive, even before you factor in facility costs, working capital for manufacturing, and go-to-market logistics.

But over the past few years, we’ve been quietly building a chemically defined FBS replacement (FRS) without raising a pre-seed, without a big team, and without a large facility.

Just a few scientists, some creative business strategies and laboratory hacks, plus a stubborn belief that FBS should not be the standard. Oh, and a lot of nights dreaming about cell culture media ingredients.

We’re not the first to take this approach.

🧫 Abveris bootstrapped an antibody discovery service business using revenue from early contracts. They scaled steadily and were acquired by Twist Bioscience in 2021.

🧪 Promega Corporation was founded in the 1970s. Starting with just a few enzymes, it slowly expanded into a global life sciences powerhouse, largely funded by revenue growth.

🔬 Invitrogen began in a garage in the 1980s, selling kits for molecular biology. Similar to Promega, they grew steadily on product revenue and later became part of Thermo Fisher.

🇩🇪 NanoTemper Technologies has been super generous about sharing their nearly 20-year history via blogs and Philipp's LI posts. No VC, just steady, boot-strapped growth from grants and direct sales to scientists. Today, they’re a global leader in protein characterization technology, with over 150 employees world-wide. They’re still founder-owned.

I’ve lived both the bootstrapping and VC-backed playbooks for biotech. They’re very different games. Different challenges, different opportunities, and while some problems absolutely require substantial investment to get off the ground, I’ve enjoyed learning about the commercial teams who took the unconventional path to bring their science to the world. Turns out, the assumption that “biotech startup” equals “must raise VC” isn’t necessarily true. I’d wager most scientists have heard of at least one of the companies above.

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