jeffbaumes
commented
5 years ago Thanks for drafting this. My initial reaction is that this is a bit too specific and too long.
My original thought was that you'd respond with something quick, maybe something closer to this:
I'm part of a team at Kitware (www.kitware.com) attempting to address some major issues metabolomics researchers face with a new open source platform for metabolomics research. Any major pain points you wish to raise would be greatly appreciated.
Grant details: https://projectreporter.nih.gov/project_info_description.cfm?aid=9792042&icde=43584022&ddparam=&ddvalue=&ddsub=&cr=4&csb=default&cs=ASC&MMOpt=
Please feel free to either reply through these forums or email brandon.davis@kitware.com If you are available to follow up and tell us more about your lab's needs via video chat, please email me and I can schedule something with our team.
subdavis
The following is a draft of what I'd like to send out to forums and anywhere else I can find researchers congregating.
As you can tell, I'm quite concerned about coming off like a slimy startup who just wants your email address so I can try to sell you stuff and pump my user conversion stats to show Series A investors. If I were on the other end of this pitch, I'd be pretty skeptical.
I've also never written something like this. The tone may be too informal.
Question
Metabolomics researchers: what tools are you using for multivariate analysis?
Body
Do you use tools like SIMCA or MetaboAnalyst in your work? My team is currently engaged in building a free and open source web-based application for univariate and multivariate analysis of metabolomics data.
Our application is similar in scope to MetaboAnalyst, but aims to provide a better user experience, interactive visualizatons, and support fusion of multiple datasets.
Project Details
I'm Brandon, and I work for Kitware Inc, a research and development company focused on open source software and open science. We currently have SBIR Phase II grant funding from the US National Institute of Health (NIH) to build such a tool, and are looking for feedback from the research community on the current metabolomics ecosystem.
Grant details: https://projectreporter.nih.gov/project_info_description.cfm?aid=9792042&icde=43584022&ddparam=&ddvalue=&ddsub=&cr=4&csb=default&cs=ASC&MMOpt=
You can learn more about Kitware at https://www.kitware.com
Some of Kitware's other open source technologies include
Specific questions
Describe your typical workflow.
What problems have you experienced with existing tools?
Has your lab written its own custom analysis tools?
What new features would make your analysis workflows easier?
What data formats do you work with? Example: 80% CSV, 20% xlsx
How important is the MetaboAnalyst r command history to you?
Would you be willing to...
Contact Info
Please feel free to either reply through these forums or email brandon.davis@kitware.com
If you are available to follow up and tell us more about your lab's needs via video chat, please email me and I can schedule something with our team.
Final Notes
This is not an advertisement. We won't subscribe you to automated emails, and you won't be asked to purchase anything.
Thanks in advance!