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Be a patron of science.","description":"What they do: Experiment is a crowdfunding platform for science research. We transform everyone with a credit card into a modern day patron of science. Researchers from over 150 institutions and universities are using Experiment to fund important seed-stage research.Why it's a big deal: Since 2010, 80% of principal investigators spend most of their time writing grant proposals and 67% are struggling with less funding. \"Big science\" has become synonymous with \"budget cuts\" .Experiment empowers people to invest in their futures. By creating a crowdfunding marketplace for science research, Experiment helps scientists break through bureaucratic barriers and lets patrons make financial contributions to meaningful research. With over $1M in funded projects and 9,000 backers, it's clear that people are eager to make a contribution to the research that matters to them. Experiment opens up possibilities for researchers, leading to more possibilities for our future.","location":"San Francisco, CA","website":"https://www.experiment.com","total_amount_raised":81000,"total_investors":27,"is_funded":true,"is_active":true},"key_claims":[{"claim_id":"claim-total-raised","text":"Total raised on Wefunder: 81000","citation":"https://wefunder.com/microryza#claim-total-raised","provenance":{"source":"FrontCompanySummary#amount_raised","last_verified_at":"2026-06-06T05:00:35Z","as_of":"2026-06-06T14:16:00Z","confidence":"high"},"observed_at":"2026-06-06T05:00:35Z","expires_at":"2026-06-07T05:00:35Z"},{"claim_id":"claim-total-investors","text":"Total investors: 27","citation":"https://wefunder.com/microryza#claim-total-investors","provenance":{"source":"FrontCompanySummary#number_of_investors","last_verified_at":"2026-06-06T05:00:35Z","as_of":"2026-06-06T14:16:00Z","confidence":"high"},"observed_at":"2026-06-06T05:00:35Z","expires_at":"2026-06-07T05:00:35Z"}],"verified_facts":[{"claim_id":"claim-total-raised","text":"Total raised on Wefunder: 81000","citation":"https://wefunder.com/microryza#claim-total-raised","provenance":{"source":"FrontCompanySummary#amount_raised","last_verified_at":"2026-06-06T05:00:35Z","as_of":"2026-06-06T14:16:00Z","confidence":"high"},"observed_at":"2026-06-06T05:00:35Z","expires_at":"2026-06-07T05:00:35Z"},{"claim_id":"claim-total-investors","text":"Total investors: 27","citation":"https://wefunder.com/microryza#claim-total-investors","provenance":{"source":"FrontCompanySummary#number_of_investors","last_verified_at":"2026-06-06T05:00:35Z","as_of":"2026-06-06T14:16:00Z","confidence":"high"},"observed_at":"2026-06-06T05:00:35Z","expires_at":"2026-06-07T05:00:35Z"}],"company_claims":{"tagline":"Crowdfund science research. Be a patron of science.","description":"What they do: Experiment is a crowdfunding platform for science research. We transform everyone with a credit card into a modern day patron of science. Researchers from over 150 institutions and universities are using Experiment to fund important seed-stage research.Why it's a big deal: Since 2010, 80% of principal investigators spend most of their time writing grant proposals and 67% are struggling with less funding. \"Big science\" has become synonymous with \"budget cuts\" .Experiment empowers people to invest in their futures. By creating a crowdfunding marketplace for science research, Experiment helps scientists break through bureaucratic barriers and lets patrons make financial contributions to meaningful research. With over $1M in funded projects and 9,000 backers, it's clear that people are eager to make a contribution to the research that matters to them. Experiment opens up possibilities for researchers, leading to more possibilities for our future.","story":"The average age in mission control was 26 when we put a man on the moon. Hundreds of thousands of Americans contributed to the effort and a half-billion people watched the first step. Experiment is a crowdfunding startup with a mission to bring that same sense of excitement to the science research each one of us cares about. The meteor that struck Russia in February showed how the internet changes the way science can be experienced. At least for a moment, the world was united over a single scientific event. Experiment co-founder Denny Luan believes this can happen much more often. \"The Internet provides a nice way to connect with science. It happened with the Curiosity rover. These events are like the 60s when a man landed on the moon,\" Denny said \"Everyday in labs and in the field, there are these big moments when discoveries are made, we want to share that sense of wonder back with anybody.\" How Experiment Was Born Experiment helps donors fund scientists that are left behind by the traditional grant funding model. They have big goals, hoping their platform can one day be used to fund a cure for cancer, alternative energy, and put a man on Mars. When they began the startup, it seemed the only thing holding them back was their young age and their non-Silicon Valley cred. To change that, the young scientists-turned-entrepreneur duo Denny Luan and Cindy Wu persistently stalked 500 Startups VC Dave McClure until he invested $25,000. This determination shines through in everything they do. To get Experiment off the ground they taught themselves how to code, design, and record production quality videos. Their current team has made big improvements to the site, but the first version of Experiment was completely home grown by the founders. Their efforts gave them validation that Experiment could transform the way science is done, and tap the power of the crowd to fund thousands of compelling projects that don’t fit within the rigid confines of the traditional grant funding model. Denny’s email signature says it all “Not stopping until we fund the cure for cancer, intergalactic photon rocket, and time machine.” Denny and Cindy met while they were undergrads in David Baker's lab at the University of Washington in Seattle. Cindy had discovered a potential way to create an antibiotic to treat methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). However, there was no way to get the small amount of funding she needed to run some initial tests. Luckily her professor funneled money from an existing NIH grant to fund her side project. “Not stopping until we fund the cure for cancer, an intergalactic photon rocket, and a time machine.”- Denny's email signature \"I never would have been able to take the idea forward otherwise, and I was in the unique position of having a professor that could help me. Later, we interviewed 100 scientists and they all told us they had an idea that they had to put on the shelf due to lack of funds so they could definitely use our platform,\" Cindy said. She later turned down offers from the best Ph.D. programs in the country in order to start Experiment because she knew thats the current funding structure wouldn't allow her to do the kind of science she wanted to do. Fixing The Way Science Is Funded Experiment is structured a lot like Kickstarter in that it takes a 5 percent cut of what is raised and the projects only get funded if the goal is met. Experiment is its own scientific experiment, beginning as a place to fund the long tail of research, projects that don't cost that much or require a multi year commitment. The scientists give donors a front row seat to the projects as they unfold by sharing photos, text, and video updates in real-time. Typically, researchers spend three months a year writing grants, only to have 80 percent of them rejected because they don't fit into the big projects that agencies like the NIH are set up to fund. Helping university researchers is just the start. Cindy and Denny are also building Experiment for the new world of science where innovation can happen at home as well as in the lab. \"Once you think about research and ideas outside of universities, you start to look at citizen science. To do computational biology today, all you need is a fast computer and a PCR machine,\" Denny said. \"Getting beyond traditional research, you start to look at developing countries. It's not just a lack of funding, it's a lack of infrastructure in countries like Africa, Brazil, and India that prevent innovative ideas from getting off the ground. Helping to surface those ideas and get them funded is the long term vision of where we want to take Experiment\" Denny added. For instance, scientists in Tanzania found that they can trap mosquitos by isolating chemicals that cause stinky feet. They couldn't get funding, so they took a grant from The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.They created a device that attracted mosquitoes to it and lowered malaria rates by 4 times. Donors Get Excited When Cindy was a kid, she wanted to be a paleontologist. Her mom and dad would take her to museums, but she really wanted to go on digs herself to see the excavation process unfold first hand. One Experiment donor, who was keen on donating to a dinosaur project put up by University of Washington paleontologist Christian Sidor, wanted to give her son exactly what Cindy had dreamed about. Cindy said: \"Sidor received an e-mail from a mother asking if she could send her son on the trip. Her son was still very young likely in elementary or middle school. Dr. Sidor obviously could not take a kid on the trip, but he wrote back saying that there may be a chance for her son to be involved with his research in a more hands on way when he was older. The mom made a large donation to the project afterwards.\" A few professors are already successfully crowdfunding their own projects. Experiment will open that up to everyone and give donors more options of interesting things to fund. There are thousands of projects that would get a specific group of people as excited as the general public was about the meteor, but they have no way to find them, or participate in the experiences as they happen. Jose Gomez-Marquez is a professor at MIT who has experienced the pain of grant writing first hand for the do-it-yourself medical devices he makes for the developing world. \"Crowdsourcing science can disrupt the established trends of of prevailing funding targets. It can provide gateways to respond to patients faster than the academic research process as long as it doesn't get hijacked into funding more science for the sake of publishing instead of our quest for impact in everyday people. But like every good experiment, science projects can often fail --- and the backers have to accept those possibilities,\" Gomez-Marquez said.","quick_facts":["$1.45M in funded projects","9,327 backers","16% weekly growth","262 funded research projects"]},"computed_metrics":{"total_amount_raised":81000,"total_investors":27,"team_size":6,"featured_investor_count":0,"faq_count":3,"recent_post_count":10},"quick_facts":[{"claim_id":"claim-fact-1","value":"$1.45M in funded projects","citation":"https://wefunder.com/microryza#claim-fact-1","observed_at":"2026-06-06T05:00:35Z","expires_at":"2026-06-13T05:00:35Z"},{"claim_id":"claim-fact-2","value":"9,327 backers","citation":"https://wefunder.com/microryza#claim-fact-2","observed_at":"2026-06-06T05:00:35Z","expires_at":"2026-06-13T05:00:35Z"},{"claim_id":"claim-fact-3","value":"16% weekly growth","citation":"https://wefunder.com/microryza#claim-fact-3","observed_at":"2026-06-06T05:00:35Z","expires_at":"2026-06-13T05:00:35Z"},{"claim_id":"claim-fact-4","value":"262 funded research projects","citation":"https://wefunder.com/microryza#claim-fact-4","observed_at":"2026-06-06T05:00:35Z","expires_at":"2026-06-13T05:00:35Z"}],"latest_fundraise":{"id":5139,"entity_id":"wefunder:fundraise:5139","state":"successful","offering_type":"506(b)","structure":"convertible_note","testing_the_waters":false,"can_invest_now":false,"funding_started_at":"2014-10-07T18:34:02Z","funding_closed_at":"2015-03-03T08:30:40Z"},"investor_memos":[],"team":[{"id":8306,"entity_id":"wefunder:company_role:8306","name":"Cindy Wu","title":"Founder","role":"founder","profile_url":"https://wefunder.com/cindywu"},{"id":17128,"entity_id":"wefunder:company_role:17128","name":"Denny Luan","role":"founder"},{"id":17132,"entity_id":"wefunder:company_role:17132","name":"Oscar Jasklowski","title":"Engineer","role":"employee"},{"id":28496,"entity_id":"wefunder:company_role:28496","name":"Ryan Lower","title":"Engineer","role":"employee"},{"id":33002,"entity_id":"wefunder:company_role:33002","name":"Andrew Wong","title":"Operations","role":"employee"},{"id":33094,"entity_id":"wefunder:company_role:33094","name":"Megan Guerin","title":"Designer","role":"employee"}],"featured_investors":[],"relationships":[{"source_entity_id":"wefunder:company:5733","relation":"has_team_member","target_entity_id":"wefunder:user:12279","target_url":"https://wefunder.com/cindywu"},{"source_entity_id":"wefunder:company:5733","relation":"has_team_member","target_entity_id":"wefunder:company_role:17128"},{"source_entity_id":"wefunder:company:5733","relation":"has_team_member","target_entity_id":"wefunder:company_role:17132"},{"source_entity_id":"wefunder:company:5733","relation":"has_team_member","target_entity_id":"wefunder:company_role:28496"},{"source_entity_id":"wefunder:company:5733","relation":"has_team_member","target_entity_id":"wefunder:company_role:33002"},{"source_entity_id":"wefunder:company:5733","relation":"has_team_member","target_entity_id":"wefunder:company_role:33094"},{"source_entity_id":"wefunder:company:5733","relation":"has_recent_update","target_entity_id":"wefunder:feed_item:151099","target_url":"https://wefunder.com/feed/151099"},{"source_entity_id":"wefunder:company:5733","relation":"has_recent_update","target_entity_id":"wefunder:feed_item:133806","target_url":"https://wefunder.com/feed/133806"},{"source_entity_id":"wefunder:company:5733","relation":"has_recent_update","target_entity_id":"wefunder:feed_item:91664","target_url":"https://wefunder.com/feed/91664"},{"source_entity_id":"wefunder:company:5733","relation":"has_recent_update","target_entity_id":"wefunder:feed_item:90537","target_url":"https://wefunder.com/feed/90537"},{"source_entity_id":"wefunder:company:5733","relation":"has_recent_update","target_entity_id":"wefunder:feed_item:82663","target_url":"https://wefunder.com/feed/82663"},{"source_entity_id":"wefunder:company:5733","relation":"has_recent_update","target_entity_id":"wefunder:feed_item:75430","target_url":"https://wefunder.com/feed/75430"},{"source_entity_id":"wefunder:company:5733","relation":"has_recent_update","target_entity_id":"wefunder:feed_item:12574","target_url":"https://wefunder.com/feed/12574"},{"source_entity_id":"wefunder:company:5733","relation":"has_recent_update","target_entity_id":"wefunder:feed_item:331","target_url":"https://wefunder.com/feed/331"},{"source_entity_id":"wefunder:company:5733","relation":"has_recent_update","target_entity_id":"wefunder:feed_item:298","target_url":"https://wefunder.com/feed/298"},{"source_entity_id":"wefunder:company:5733","relation":"has_recent_update","target_entity_id":"wefunder:feed_item:297","target_url":"https://wefunder.com/feed/297"},{"source_entity_id":"wefunder:company:5733","relation":"has_latest_fundraise","target_entity_id":"wefunder:fundraise:5139"}],"faq":[{"question":"Have you guys (founders) backed any of the projects on Microryza? If so which and why?","answer":"Here are all the projects I've backed: https://www.microryza.com/users/cindy There's a story behind every project I've supported. :)"},{"question":"Why do you fail to mention Petridish.org as a competitor?","answer":"The Petridish founders have moved onto another business. You will find that there have been no projects running on the site for over 6 months."},{"question":"Hi Experiment team, please reply directly if you can't post publicly... thank you for the investor update.... 1) Will there be a followup funding round? If so, when? Have you considered Angellist? 2) Given the current revenue, growth and runway, what is the current forecast fo...","answer":"James, thanks for your questions. 1/ There may be another funding round in 2017. We don't know if or when. When we know, we will let you know. We have used Angellist in the past and have had a great experience with their syndicates. Our did a triple syndicate led by Jude Gomila, Dave Morin, and Joshua Schachter. We would also love to use Wefunder again! 2/ We plan to focus on revenue in Q1. Our forecast for a break even point is in May 2017, but that may change. As long as Denny and I are ali..."}],"recent_posts":[{"id":151099,"entity_id":"wefunder:feed_item:151099","title":"Robert Downey Jr. donates $300k to Experiment Foundation","preview":"​Robert Downey Jr.\u0026nbsp;published an essay in\u0026nbsp;Fast Company today explaining\u0026nbsp;why he donated $300,000 to Experiment Foundation. We've granted\u0026nbsp;10 working scientists\u0026nbsp;$25,000 each\u0026nbsp;to distribute to projects on Experiment.\u0026nbsp;Robert Downey Jr.: Here’s how to accelerate discoveries to help the planetWe are putting into practice the idea called\u0026nbsp;Science Angels. Questions can be directed to David Lang at\u0026nbsp;david@experiment.com.","published_at":"2021-12-15T21:52:32Z","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/feed/151099"},{"id":133806,"entity_id":"wefunder:feed_item:133806","title":"angel round closing friday!","preview":"We are closing the angel round for our newco Friday!We now have 21 months of runway in the bank.We are onboarding teams into our private alpha including Protocol Labs and Accion Systems. Teams at UC Davis and Brown University have been using us weekly. Our first scientific journal user is also coming onto Jelly--the Journal of Caves and Karst Studies, an 80-year old scientific publication.Starting next week we start opening up to our waitlist!If you want to invest in this round, let me know t...","published_at":"2020-05-12T23:02:10Z","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/feed/133806"},{"id":91664,"entity_id":"wefunder:feed_item:91664","title":"Our Annual Dinosaur Dig, Earth Day, Science Magazine","preview":"I'm popping up to give you three updates. 1.\u0026nbsp;CAA Foundation funded all of the environment projects on Experiment\u0026nbsp;in honor of Earth Day 2.\u0026nbsp;The National Bureau of Economic Research\u0026nbsp;published a paper using project data of 728 Experiment campaigns. They found women have a higher success rate than men, and a majority were led by students.\u0026nbsp;Science Magazine\u0026nbsp;covered the news. 3. We have a few spots left on our\u0026nbsp;annual dinosaur dig. We learned many people don't have 7...","published_at":"2018-04-12T22:07:45Z","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/feed/91664"},{"id":90537,"entity_id":"wefunder:feed_item:90537","title":"a podcast","preview":"I\u0026nbsp;sat down with one of my favorite humans for this podcast.https://soundcloud.com/morethantalk/ep-5-cindy-wu-experimentWe recount meeting Denny\u0026nbsp;for the first time, making cake, free pizza, rejection, chasing investors, leaving seattle, six employees living and working in a one bedroom in sf, moving to nyc, rebooting, leaving science, obsession over jelly, and building a world where anyone can science.If you want the behind the scenes of what we're all about and how we plan to build ...","published_at":"2017-07-14T13:57:47Z","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/feed/90537"},{"id":82663,"entity_id":"wefunder:feed_item:82663","title":"The Experiment Grants Program","preview":"We announced something big. Our first grants program: experiment.com/marine-mammalsWe also got some press: http://www.dailydot.com/geek/crowdfunding-marine-mammal-studies-grant-competition/Some snippets:\"Cindy Wu, Experiment.com’s founder, told the Daily Dot that this was the first of what she hoped would be many such grant programs. The anonymous donor funding the grant program cares deeply about the state of marine mammals in our oceans, she said, but they didn’t have the time to pick out a...","published_at":"2016-01-29T16:49:33Z","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/feed/82663"},{"id":75430,"entity_id":"wefunder:feed_item:75430","title":"Introducing Sergey Varaksin! Sergey is joining Experiment as an...","preview":"Introducing Sergey Varaksin!Sergey is joining Experiment as an engineer. Sergey likes skateboarding and cat shirts. His favorite ruby method is inspect. Who are you and what will you be doing at experiment?I’m joining the engineering team and going to be working on making experiment even more awesome!What challenges are you looking forward to?I usually find that the biggest challenge is to be able to keep things simple, so that you can focus on making them perfect.What science gets you excite...","published_at":"2015-08-20T22:07:44Z","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/feed/75430"},{"id":12574,"entity_id":"wefunder:feed_item:12574","preview":"Today we're celebrating over $2 million dollars contributed to science on Experiment. 🎉Now, that's a big milestone. As a thank you to our community we are matching all pledges until midnight! 💵=💵+💵experiment.com/twomillion","published_at":"2015-06-22T20:44:25Z","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/feed/12574"},{"id":331,"entity_id":"wefunder:feed_item:331","preview":"I've been traveling all over the country meeting with our scientists. I'm trying to hit all 50 states before the end of 2015. Here is a nugget for you from the field. \"From 1849 until almost now, this was the only bone ever found, and it was found across the river in New Jersey. And then a couple of years ago, a guy came to us and he said, “Hey, I found this really weird bone. What do you think it is?” And my boss, Dave Parris at the museum, he took one look at it and he said, “That’s the out...","published_at":"2015-05-22T11:50:14Z","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/feed/331"},{"id":298,"entity_id":"wefunder:feed_item:298","preview":"Today we will be announcing that we're sending our first experiment to the international space station. experiment.com/chicksinspace Chicks in Space is an all girls team launching a hydroponic garden to the international space station. Their campaign ends in 48 hours and they're going to be successful no matter what, but I wanted to let you know because... well... because awesome. Huffington Post wrote about them: How Young Women Are Driving The Future Of Space Entrepreneurship I really belie...","published_at":"2015-03-27T15:32:15Z","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/feed/298"},{"id":297,"entity_id":"wefunder:feed_item:297","preview":"Lab Notes are a big part of what makes Experiment special. We’ve invested in the visual design of each lab note, and today we’re proud to share with you the new lab notes. We added a ‘Fund this Project’ button. We noticed that a lot of traffic is directed to lab notes and it was unclear that the project was fundraising. Now, if a project is fundraising it is clear that the visitor can back the project. We added a Lab Notes timeline. Each individual lab note was stand alone. The timeline shows...","published_at":"2015-03-25T23:34:40Z","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/feed/297"}],"provenance":{"source":"wefunder_public_company_profile","as_of":"2026-06-06T14:16:00Z","claims":{"total_amount_raised":{"source":"FrontCompanySummary#amount_raised","last_verified_at":"2026-06-06T05:00:35Z","as_of":"2026-06-06T14:16:00Z","confidence":"high"},"total_investors":{"source":"FrontCompanySummary#number_of_investors","last_verified_at":"2026-06-06T05:00:35Z","as_of":"2026-06-06T14:16:00Z","confidence":"high"},"active_raise_states":{"source":"Fundraise.visible(nil, nil)","last_verified_at":"2025-02-06T01:17:55Z","as_of":"2026-06-06T14:16:00Z","confidence":"high"},"latest_fundraise_state":{"source":"Fundraise.visible(nil, nil).order(funding_started_at)","last_verified_at":"2025-02-06T01:17:55Z","as_of":"2026-06-06T14:16:00Z","confidence":"medium"}}}}}}