Cindy Wu was an undergraduate student at the University of Washington when she hit on a new way to reengineer an enzyme treatment for anthrax bacteria using a videogame. She eagerly approached her professor, asking how she could fund an experiment.

“Cindy, the system doesn’t fund people like you, my professor said,” Wu recalls. “It only funds tenured professors.” Still, Wu’s professor funneled some funds from his grant for Wu’s research which is currently being followed up by the Army. But the experience stuck and Wu, now 24 abandoned a promising academic career to found Experiment.com, a crowdfunding science experiment platform with fellow scientist cofounders Denny Luan and Skander Mzali.