One thing we looked into is the infiltration of genomics into agriculture. In fact a lot of the breakthroughs and trends that we talk about in healthcare have actually been seeing traction on farms and in the R&D labs of agribusiness giants. Some companies are even applying their same technology to both, with TwoPoreGuys licensing deals with Monsanto and Caribou Biosciences working with DuPont.
Agriculture is an attractive place to test these technologies. The regulatory barriers are low, the business model and value proposition is clear (want cows that produce more milk? sequence them!), and you can quickly see the results from experiments (e.g. using CRISPR on plants or microbes). It’s likely that we’ll learn a lot about gene expression and gene-editing tools in agriculture before humans.
It also is an extension of a theme we’ve talked about, where healthcare companies create revenue streams outside of healthcare. It takes a long time to make money in health — so many of these companies rely on investor financing or public markets.
But we’re seeing a new breed of companies apply their technologies outside of clinical-grade healthcare to make some cash. This can be direct-to-consumer models like 23andMe, going to agriculture like TwoPoreGuys, or starting in fitness and moving into healthcare like Fitbit. This non-healthcare revenue stream is also an advantage for the large tech companies like Apple, which we highlighted in our analysis.
Everyone says you need a side hustle right?
Brainiacs
We did a dive into some of the developments happening in the brain hacking space. With new startups being funded and people like Elon Musk getting involved, it’s been garnering a lot of attention.
These companies will blow your mind, and scan it while it’s happening. Check it out.
