Founder of GitLab battles cancer by founding companies

There's a crazy story in here where Sytse invested in a click chemistry cancer research startup (Shasqi) in 2017 and ends up becoming a customer six years later.

I sincerely hope it works out for him.

Maybe it's time for him to give the metabolic cancer theory a go and try to bump up his mitochondrial function as much as possible? It's practically untestable due to science testing all compounds in isolation instead of a cocktail over longer period of time that can't be properly controlled even if it might be true. Every single cancer cell has a damaged mitochondria and often switching it properly on leads to cancer cell's apoptosis. He should also take desloratadine as some Swedish hospital observational study showed a significantly increased survivability on all tumor types with it. Some people had success with the combination of DCA, R-ALA, B1 HCl megadoses >2g, CoQ10 + PQQ, glucosidic astaxanthin, nattokinase/serrapeptase/lumbrokinase, low-dose aspirin, pancreatic enzymes and lactoferrin, with complete removal of fructose from the diet (as the cancer explosion can be correlated with years when fructose started getting introduced into diet in large quantities).

That's pretty amazing. I believe he's also a founder/investor in Kilo Code which I use and really like.

Really awesome that he was able to do this and give back, but none of this would have been possible without his unfathomable wealth and access.

Most people slow down when something like this hits. Starting companies is a very specific way of refusing to.

Kudos to Sid for trying it and hopefully it benefits others in the long run. Not everyone has the money, will or commitment to do this. My own father died with a battle of myeloma, a blood and bone marrow cancer, after 2 years, it wasn't the disease specifically that got him, it was the secondary conditions that caused irregular heart rhythm and eventually one day it stopped and no one was there to help. 2 stem cell transplants, rounds of chemo, almost full failure of kidneys. The cancer did its job. Ultimately what I'm saying, the medicine gives us time, but no one beats death. Maybe the treatment gives us time to come to terms with that, hopefully my dad did. I was in total denial. Anyway good luck to you Sid.

All the best to all the cancer survivors out there, and to the loved ones who lost them.

I hope he will feel better.

There's a crazy story in here where Sytse invested in a click chemistry cancer research startup (Shasqi) in 2017 and ends up becoming a customer six years later.

I sincerely hope it works out for him.

Also helps we were all batchmates in W15, so the serendipity is even higher.

It's mentioned in the slide deck on the url linked. I highly recommend clicking through all the slides. It's absolutely one of the most fascinating decks I've come across. His sheer will to want live is impressive and inspiring.

I hope he will feel better.

That's pretty amazing. I believe he's also a founder/investor in Kilo Code which I use and really like.

Most people slow down when something like this hits. Starting companies is a very specific way of refusing to.

All the best to all the cancer survivors out there, and to the loved ones who lost them.

Really awesome that he was able to do this and give back, but none of this would have been possible without his unfathomable wealth and access.

That's not a "but". Because he developed wealth and access, this is possible for one person when before it wasn't possible for anyone. This is how societies developed everything from refined sugar to rockets, as they passed various thresholds where individuals could afford to try things out.

And all of a sudden, I was bestowed with the greed to acquire more money than I can spend in a single lifetime. If I get cancer, I'd rather be rich and be able to do stuff like that, rather than die quietly.

According to some online sources his total wealth is under $3B. Hardly ‘unfathomable wealth’ IMO. Sure, billionaire territory but nowhere near the ultra-wealthy.

This is an excellent use of his wealth and skills. Much better than Steve Jobs' response.

I remember reading a similar article about a (cancer?) patient who used 3D printing for his personalized cure.

There are grad students babying organoids right now. Saturday morning. If you can work a pipette you can do this.

> ...but none of this would have been possible without his unfathomable wealth and access.

What's that supposed to mean? Is that bad?

You can do the same thing as he did, what's stopping you?

You said it’s untestable but then said a Swedish hospital did a study on it? I don’t see why things can’t be tested over a long term. There are many such studies.

Also helps we were all batchmates in W15, so the serendipity is even higher.

This is an excellent use of his wealth and skills. Much better than Steve Jobs' response.

I remember reading a similar article about a (cancer?) patient who used 3D printing for his personalized cure.

There are grad students babying organoids right now. Saturday morning. If you can work a pipette you can do this.

It’s more like I hope more bad things happen to rich and powerful people so they start doing something against it. As long as it happens to ordinary people most of then hardly care.

Reminds me of the GOP who was against stem cell treatments until Reagan got Alzheimer‘s

According to some online sources his total wealth is under $3B. Hardly ‘unfathomable wealth’ IMO. Sure, billionaire territory but nowhere near the ultra-wealthy.

3 billion is ultra wealthy, you can't be serious.

Friend, $3B is unfathomable wealth for an individual.

This comment left me speechless... There are just a bit over 3000 billionaires in the world, 900 in the USA. If $3B isn't "unfathomable wealth" I don't know what is.

You said it’s untestable but then said a Swedish hospital did a study on it? I don’t see why things can’t be tested over a long term. There are many such studies.

Swedish hospital study was about desloratidine:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33550204/

Metabolic theory of cancer is untestable in practice as you can't control all variables over long time.

> ...but none of this would have been possible without his unfathomable wealth and access.

What's that supposed to mean? Is that bad?

You can do the same thing as he did, what's stopping you?

wealth and access that is merely fathomable

Wealth is mostly based on either luck and more often heritage.

It’s more like I hope more bad things happen to rich and powerful people so they start doing something against it. As long as it happens to ordinary people most of then hardly care.

Reminds me of the GOP who was against stem cell treatments until Reagan got Alzheimer‘s

This comment left me speechless... There are just a bit over 3000 billionaires in the world, 900 in the USA. If $3B isn't "unfathomable wealth" I don't know what is.

Swedish hospital study was about desloratidine:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33550204/

Metabolic theory of cancer is untestable in practice as you can't control all variables over long time.

Friend, $3B is unfathomable wealth for an individual.

I can fathom 3B, I can’t fathom 300B

3 billion is ultra wealthy, you can't be serious.

It’s entry-level billionaires club. The top 10 each hold $100B–$300B+, so the wealth distribution is extraordinarily skewed even within billionaires themselves. Musk is hundreds of times richer. Hardly obscenely rich.

Wealth is mostly based on either luck and more often heritage.

Not only Sid didn't come from any of those backgrounds, neither did the founder of Freshworks who literally started his company based on reading a hacker news comment. [0]

So I only see more excuses here.

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28336815

wealth and access that is merely fathomable

You can literally apply to YC, just like Sid and now you are reading his story.

He did not come from any of those backgrounds.

I can fathom 3B, I can’t fathom 300B

Quick, without doing any kind of Googling or calculation: if I asked you to count 3B grains of rice by hand, how long would that take you? How big would that pile of rice be? How long would it take you to eat it?

A billion is already unfathomably large. If you think it isn't, you just haven't tried imagining what a billion of anything would be like.

Yes, big number better, everyone gets it.

The point is that you’re deluding yourself if you think that there is any difference in terms of relative “unfathomability” between 3 billion and 300 billion.

3 billion generates more in interest per day than 99.99% of people make in a year. That’s unfathomable volumes of wealth for even the very rich.

It's entry-level obscenely rich club.

I must be talking to AI

You can literally apply to YC, just like Sid and now you are reading his story.

He did not come from any of those backgrounds.

Not only Sid didn't come from any of those backgrounds, neither did the founder of Freshworks who literally started his company based on reading a hacker news comment. [0]

So I only see more excuses here.

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28336815

Yes, big number better, everyone gets it.

The point is that you’re deluding yourself if you think that there is any difference in terms of relative “unfathomability” between 3 billion and 300 billion.

3 billion generates more in interest per day than 99.99% of people make in a year. That’s unfathomable volumes of wealth for even the very rich.

A billion is already unfathomably large. If you think it isn't, you just haven't tried imagining what a billion of anything would be like.

It's entry-level obscenely rich club.

I must be talking to AI

This AI recommends you visualize inequality at scale and see the difference between 1B vs 300B. https://youtu.be/c7sr46hxVM4

Nope. He applied to YC and took that risk and already knew how to make money.

You miss 100% of the shots if you do. not. try.

This AI recommends you visualize inequality at scale and see the difference between 1B vs 300B. https://youtu.be/c7sr46hxVM4

The percentile ranking increase is greater between median human and 1B compared to 1B and 300B. Bad AI

Nope. He applied to YC and took that risk and already knew how to make money.

You miss 100% of the shots if you do. not. try.

But you don’t hit 100% if you try. That’s where the luck part comes into play.

Right time, right place

I’ve taken agency in the treatment of my bone cancer (osteosarcoma in the T5 vertebrae of the upper spine). After I’ve ran out of standard of care treatment options and there were no trials available for me I’ve started doing: maximum diagnostics, created new treatments, started doing treatments in parallel, and scaling this for others.

Elliot Hershberg wrote a great and extensive article about my cancer journey.

My cancer journey deck is embedded below, there also is a recording of an OpenAI Forum presentation. Please scroll further on this page for my data and other information.

I think the medical industry can be more patient first, see this great article by Ruxandra https://www.writingruxandrabio.com/p/the-bureaucracy-blocking-the-chance

For my data please see https://osteosarc.com/ that includes my treatment timeline and a data overview doc with 25TB of publicly readable Google Cloud buckets.

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Contact me at cancer@sytse.com