Iconoclastic investor Peter Thiel famously has offered smart young people money not to go to college. Now his personal foundation, through a venture called Breakout Labs, wants to play a role usually left to the federal government: providing seed money to life-science companies too young to attract venture capital.
Foundations, charities and angel investors also have picked up some of the slack to boost what some VCs refer to as “science projects,” but these days, if it doesn’t quack...