We are a diverse team, with both the vision and audacity to try to change the way molecular biology is done and make it affordable to millions, creating new markets and applications. Besides the youthful enthusiasm of the founders, we also have the maturity and wisdom that developing a successful start-up brings from Rob and Rik's past experience creating Biodesic, a world class bioengineering firm and Jim Hardy's decades in the trenches of the life sciences industry. We are an interdisciplinary amalgam of biologists (Jim and Guido), engineers (Rob and Rik), and philosophers (Joseph) united by the conviction that biology is a technology and mastering it is essential for improving health care, living standards, and economic growth. LavaAmp will lower the barrier to use PCR, the most important technique in molecular biology, giving birth to fully new applications of biotechnology. We expect users will develop customizable tests for infectious diseases, but many other possibilities exist.

Visit our Venture at: Unreasonable Finalist Marketplace

This letter has been forwarded on to you because you were a supporter of Guido and LavaAmp on the Unreasonable Institute Finalist Marketplace.

An overdose of awesomeness

Dear Unreasonable supporters,

As I sit to write this, I am filled with tons of emotions. An
increased gratefulness to you, my friends and supporters for making
this possible, an increasing awe to be among such great personalities,
that it seem will shape the future and make a difference for millions,
and a bit of uncertainty of what will happen during this, my
unreasonable summer. I am at the same time exhausted, but happy and
expectant, exposed to so many new ideas, worldviews and people,
learning, evaluating our achievements and improving our pitch.

This is only my second day at the Unreasonable Institute, but I feel
like what I have experienced and learned is densely packed in these
scarce hours, filling my brain and senses, already changing parts of
me. Of course, I do not agree with everything I am taught, it is in my
nature to be skeptical and questioning, but the mere exposition to
unfamiliar points of view gives me new ideas and arguments, enriching
my mind, adding diversity to my inner life. The part that I accept
nurtures me and teaches me, wisdom filling previously blind spots,
increasing my awareness. The distilled experience of our mentors
helping me to polish the presentation of our venture, this, our joint
dream of accessible diagnostics and democratized biotechnology.

I have some good news for you: I was selected as a TED (Technology,
Entertainment, Design) Fellow, and I will travel to Oxford, England,
to attend and speak at TEDGlobal 2010, a prestigious conference packed
with top people in their areas http://www.ted.com/pages/view/id/437. I
will go to England for a week, and while I am there, LavaAmp's
co-funder, Joseph Jackson, will be here in Boulder, experiencing the
atmosphere of the Unreasonable Institute and learning how to make a
better company that will be able to make an effective impact in the
world. I am attending to TED because your support gave me the courage
to apply and try to get in, because you knew that this vision is not a
mirage or a delusion, but the seed of something greater, potentially
life changing for millions of people.

I want to thank you yet again, even if truly there are no words in any
human language to express what I feel, this joy an expectation that
overflows my being. Were if not because of you, this would not be
possible and LavaAmp could be yet another discarded dream in the land
of the what-ifs. Success is not certain and the road ahead is long and
bumpy, surprises and unexpected trouble will arise, but knowing I am
not alone will make things easier. I appreciate that you have made
this possible. I think I have an overdose of awesomeness, and yet,
this is only the second day, I repeat to myself. The summer is still
young and full of promise. I will do my best so your contribution to
this is not wasted, so that in the future you can be proud of
supporting LavaAmp and know you were able to make a difference in a
key moment. Thank you, again and again.

Guido