Bill Gates is considered a pretty smart guy and his Foundation has provided funding to find solutions to global problems.

But…

The results haven’t always been stellar, let alone affordable.

And it seems as if they’ve done it again.

After seeing an invention at the MIT Lab, Gates asked if it could be modified to use for birth control.

The Gates Foundation has pumped $4.6 million into a startup called MicroCHIPS, which has developed an implant that is capable of delivering steady, regular doses of hormones to control fertility for up to 16 years. When a woman is ready to start a family, her doctor simply disables the implant remotely, and then restarts it when she wants to prevent additional pregnancies.

This could be a Harvard case study of what happens when an idea is funded without thinking through the possible hitches, glitches and repercussions.

In short, contraception is both a religiously and politically charged concept and everything is hackable. (Read the article for the details.)

The thing for entrepreneurs to remember is that what sounds great late at night after a few beers, among a group of like-minded folks whose excitement and enthusiasm feeds off each other or like a flash of genius or an epiphany may not stand up to cold logic and due diligence—not to mention possible ethical implications.

Even if your name is Bill Gates.

Flickr image credit: Nam-ho Park hack

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 31st, 2014 at 1:15 am and is filed under Entrepreneurs, Innovation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Tags: Bill gates, innovative, MIT, think
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