How's it Goin'

This blog has been quiet for quite some time.

So what have we been up to at BioCompute between Feb 2026 and now?

(a) Product
i. We built an end to end working prototype at the lowest cost for DNA data storage in the world. This is CRAZY exciting. The next step is to bring this prototype onto a chip.

ii. Tried to build an electronic lab notebook (ELN) as a separate product. The rationale was that we are building ELNs for our internal use anyways, why not commercialize it and use it as a steady revenue stream as well as a gateway into pharma? We spent ~2 months on it and then scrapped it because it became a distraction from our main product.

(b) Customers
i. Signed on two media production studios for early pilots (this came about when I spent two months in the US); figured out that media archival is our niche starting point as we head towards data centers

ii. Pitched to a large data infra player in Saudi, they were excited about working with us, but they pressed pause because of the conflict

(c) Team/Hiring
i. Hired a web developer who ended up growing into a software developer in the company. Abhishek ended up building our new website as well. Check it out here.

ii. Brought in an intern from National Technological University (NTU) Singapore, she helped automate many of our lab workflows.

iii. Tried to hire a senior scientist from a large pharma company. While she was excited about the role and was a great fit, she backed out due to family pressure. This showed me that hiring talent in India is not just about convincing the candidate.

iv. Brought in consultants for wet lab and marketing/storytelling. While the consultants were great people, I severely underestimated the time it would take for them to build context and then contribute to our work.

v. Spent time with a potential CTO candidate, and figured out it’s not a good fit; I learnt that there are some things you just don’t catch up about a person (in spite of reference checks, conversations with the team and advisors etc.) unless you personally spend a few days together

vi. Hired an operations associate and unfortunately had to revoke the offer

(d) Partnerships

i. Signed MOUs with IISc (Prof. Manoj Varma) and IIT Delhi (Prof. Ishaan Gupta) to accelerate product development by leveraging their research infrastructure. While the labs are great at what they do, I underestimated how much we would have to work on simple things like coordination, making sure people show up on time, clarity of deliverables (which is very different in academic settings vs a startup). That led to a bunch of hiccups, but we managed to get interesting stuff done.

ii. Narayan (R&D head Ather) joined us as a product advisor

(e) Grants, Accelerators, Competitions

i. I was selected as a Next Gen Bio Leader for the Synbiobeta Conference (the world’s largest synthetic bio conference) this year, and had the opportunity to present the work we do at BioCompute and build some fun relationships

ii. Won the People’s Choice Award at the BITSync Startup Pitch (the largest gathering of BITSians in the US)

iii. Wrapped up the Nidhi Prayas Grant with CCAMP

iv. Got accepted into the Rebalance accelerator and pitched at their demo day recently

v. Franci and Naveen represented BioCompute at the final round of Bharat Innovates in Mumbai

vi. Got selected for the second round of Karnataka ELEVATE Grant

vii. Found out that BIRAC is pausing BIG Grants after we spent a decent amount of time submitting an application

What’s next? More on that soon.