You seem to have adaptability embedded already
Hey @WinniePoncelet! The fact that you could set up an education program in addition to your biohack space says a lot with respect to how open you keep your initiative. With questioning sources of funding, why do you guys feel the need to position yourselves so clearly? Do you have to choose how much anti something like government you are? Have you had opportunities to work with big biotech and passed? I’m curious because it looks like hacker values are there from ReaGent inception - openness, freedom, passion… so even if the model changes or mixes government funds with revenues through lab membership or classes you will still be operating under those things.
With Edgeryders we had always had some controversy: when we were under the Council of Europe shell it took more work to be credible to activists; when we became independent and taking on also private clients someone would come in and question that; when we go into a room and be too radical someone on the other side will cringe. It’s somewhat natural, as long as the work is aligned with our mission and speaks for itself.
Or: Is bioengineering these days so controversial that you need to be firm about what you are willing / not willing to do and who you’re doing it for?
I would recommend you read a short piece about selling as a moral act by @lasindias and invite @Juanjo_Pina who is experienced in activist market production to give a piece of advice. In the past they were asking if the market is the “ultimate alternative to the enclosure of fresh ideas into the dependence of public money or a way for converting activist into established business people”?