There were a few people in recent days who wanted to start a KickStarter project to fund this type of project. The project is the idea of using regenerative medicine, stem cell therapy, tissue engineering, and 3D Bioprinting to get an alternative to limb lengthening surgery into market.

What they were discussing was a recent post I wrote entitled – “How Close Are We Towards Growth Plate Regeneration To Grow Taller?”

In response, I have to show these people just how crazy it is to get something new in medicine to the public. Refer to Forbes.com post written back in 2014 entitled – “The Truly Staggering Cost Of Inventing New Drugs”

Eli Lilly, states that it would cost on average about $1.3 Billion USD to get just one drug approved and into the market. $1 Billion Dollars!

If you then take into consideration just how easy it is to have drugs fail trials and testing, then the real cost could be around $4 Billion. The high range is $11 Billion for just one drug to be approved.

I did a quick search on Google to find out what is the project in Kickstarter’s history which got the most funding. It seems that based on this article in Entrepreneur.com it would be the Pebble Time based Watch, with a grand total of $20 Mil. $20 Mil is indeed a lot of money to fund such a project. Of course I have been to trade shows for the latest electronic gear in Hong Kong and China before so I have seen at least 4-5 companies who have also come out with similar type products, aka a smart watch which looks suspiciously similar in design to the Apple Watch.

What we would need to get this project started would be something at least 50X that amount. How many people would even believe us that this idea we have is even possible?

I have emailed someone named Harald from the beginning of this website back in 2012 and he has still not been able to raise even $100 K  to get people to fund what he says is research. He claims he is part of a biomedical team of researchers. It has been 10 years and so far no one has been willing to step up. The honest truth is that no one will step up. The first $50 Mil will be just wasted money, since it will just be used as initial startup cost, which will be sunk cost which would take maybe 20 years to get back, if the project is successful.

This idea I have shown to be quite valid would require a truly herculean amount of will, effort, and money to get it done. There is probably less than 10 people in the entire world who would have the financial ability and incentive to fund us. Of course, for any type of potential investor to invest in us, (since no one wants to loose money on a bad investment), we would have to first show very clearly that the science and the technical details are completely valid and it will work.

Trying to get people to open their wallets is one of the hardest things one learns to do as an adult. Selling is truly the most important skill to learn.

Instead of going on Kickstarter, me and Tyler would have to go on Shark Tank and ask Mark Cuban, who actually has a billion, and the other less rich sharks to give us at least $100 Mil to get started on this project. Of course, then once we reach the first goal, we would have to go back and ask for another $300 Mil. At $300 Mil, not even someone like Kevin O’Leary would have the money to fund our endeavor.

I can see Mark Cuban, who loves basketball and owns a basketball team being very interested in funding a company or project like this, as well as the other sharks. Unlike Cuban, who is 6′ 3″, the others are of short stature. Daymond John, Kevin O’Leary, Robert Herjavek, Barbara Corcoran, they are all on the shorter side. I can see a trip on Shark Tank being most likely to work out. It would at least give our project the big exposure we need, and the short statured “sharks” would definitely be interested in getting something in life which even they can’t buy with their millions. Money can buy limb lengthening surgery for these guys but they probably will never be willing to put up with the pain, loss of time, and helpless feeling.

The other options is to find a rich Arab/Saudi Sheik or Prince who might have a height complex and is willing to give us maybe $50-$100 Mil to get the project started. Before when I used to work in the alternative energy sector in a former life, the CEO at the time said that the company I was at was in talks with a Saudi Family in getting investments (as well as the billionaire T Boone Pickens). My CEO told in passing that apparently the real net worth of the Saudi Family was a total of $1 Trillion!! (True Story).

The third option is to look for a crazy billionaire who was a scientist or biologist in a former life. Off of the top of my head, I am thinking Patrick Soon-Shiong. Patrick is supposed to be the richest person in all of Los Angeles. He is the type of person who is willing to take moon-shots, similar in style to Google. At the current moment Soon-Shiong is willing to put his own billions in looking for a cure for different types of cancers. If he is willing to put billions down to search for a cure for cancer, he just might be willing to also put a billion down to get this stem cell therapy to work out. I honestly believe that if this form of limb lengthening surgery alternative reaches the public market, it will become a multi-billion dollar industry within 10 years.

The last option is just a crazy billionaire who is willing to believe in our idea. Richard Branson. From Necker Island. Is someone like Branson willing to talk to a person like me? Personally, I have met Branson before when I was in Las Vegas in an audience where he was giving a speech and Q&A. He was very inspirational but he is also a very smart, shrewd, calculated business man who is always willing to get a good deal on a business.

If we are going to present our idea to any of these billionaires, I suggest that first we actually really dig deep into the science, learn everything we can, write out a 1000+ page book out to explain all of the technical details, and find someone who knows these types of investors in maybe 5 years.

This is assuming that the researchers at EpiBone don’t come along and get further into the research and development than us.