Offbase

Colossal is getting paid $200 million to resurrect the Woolly Mammoth

Uncovering the science and business model behind the de-extinction of the Woolly Mammoth

Image from DALL-E

Abstract

Colossal is resurrecting the Woolly Mammoth by editing Asian elephant DNA to look like a mammoth’s.

Colossal has two business models:

• Product — selling to conservation orgs & governments.
• Process — patenting innovations made in their research, licensing their tech to other companies.

Insight: To get paid to drop the ‘fi’ in ‘sci-fi’, you’ll probably need the following:

• A charismatic protagonist, usually the founder but sometimes the product.
• Something to pay the bills, like a spin-off business.
• Tangible outputs from your research, like licensable tech.

Most startup ideas probably shouldn’t exist.

They either:

• Don’t solve a problem
• Would do so unprofitably

You’d assume Colossal matches this profile. After all, most people I know are not lamenting the global shortage of woolly mammoths.