Oncobox YC Application

Summer 2017Active

Oncobox went through Y Combinator in the Summer 2017 batch as a Healthcare company. Below: what the company does, who founded it, and its application to YC, reconstructed question by question in the real YC form.

YC batch: Summer 2017
Industry: HealthcareDiagnostics
Team size: 11
Status: Active
Launched: 2017

Founders

Andrew GarazhaFounder/CEO
Anton BuzdinFounder/CSO

What Oncobox does

Oncobox believes that many late-stage cancer patients are dying prematurely because doctors lack a data-driven tool to help them decide which drugs currently on the market would most effectively fight individual patients’ specific cancers. That’s where Oncobox comes in. Oncobox is low-cost personalized genetic profiling to help doctors decide which drug to use. In a recent study conducted by leading cancer researchers in Europe and Asia on 900 patients with various late-stage cancers, Oncobox increased the effectiveness of targeted therapies from 25% to 64%. How does Oncobox work? Over 150 targeted cancer drugs are currently on the market. But deciding which of these drugs to give to late-stage cancer patients is not a simple task. Cancer doctors are in a race against the clock. They don’t always know which medication will be most effective for their patients. Because these drugs are expensive and typically have significant side effects, they can’t just try them all. Because of these barriers, targeted cancer therapies are effective only 25% of the time, and 70% of patients with late-stage cancers die due to the toxic side effects of ineffective drugs. Oncobox Dx analyses tumor DNA, RNA, and molecular pathways using algorithms to distinguish which molecular targets are the most crucial for individual cases. Doctors receive a clinically actionable report that shows them which drugs are likely to be most effective on the patient. We actively seek partners from pharma, hospitals/clinicians, payers, and genomic centers. Feel free to contact us at. Our team and the scientific advisory board consisting of leading scientists and researchers from UCLA, Stanford, Johns Hopkins University, Boston University, Tufts University, and Rutgers University.

Oncobox's YC application, reconstructed

Y Combinator application

Oncobox, Summer 2017 batch. The real form questions, answered from public data.

Founders2
Company7
Progress7
Idea4
Equity3
Curious2
Batch Preference1

Company

Company name

Oncobox

Describe what your company does in 50 characters or less.

Finding the right cancer drug for each patient.

What is your company going to make? Please describe your product and what it does or will do.

Oncobox analyzes tumor DNA, RNA, and molecular pathways to produce a report that helps oncologists pick the most effective targeted cancer drugs for an individual patient. Our product focuses on late-stage cancer patients, where current targeted therapies only work 25% of the time. Our system increases that effectiveness significantly by identifying the key molecular targets specific to each tumor.

Where do you live now, and where would the company be based after YC?

We live in Walnut, CA and would base the company here after YC.

Explain your decision regarding location.

We are already based in Walnut, CA and want to stay here because of access to regional research partners and proximity to biotech clusters in California.

21 more answers in the full application

Founders, Progress, Idea, Equity, Curious, Batch Preference are in the full version. Create a free account to open it in YC Insights, next to every other YC batch.

See full application

Frequently Asked Questions

Is this the real Oncobox YC application?

No. Y Combinator keeps submitted applications private. This is a reconstruction: the real YC form questions, answered from Oncobox's public data (launch notes, founder backgrounds, product description). It shows how a company like Oncobox would present itself to YC, not the text they submitted.