Startups can play a significant role in saving lives by leveraging innovation and impactful missions. Here are a few ways they achieve this:

1. Developing Life-Saving Technologies:

   • Startups can focus on creating advanced health technologies, such as devices for early cancer detection. This approach, as discussed by Matteo Franceschetti of Eight Sleep, involves working on projects with high stakes and transformative potentials, like saving lives and enhancing health outcomes 1.

2. Implementing Effective Solutions:

   • Companies backed by effective altruism can prioritize cost-effective interventions, such as distributing mosquito nets to prevent malaria over more expensive projects, maximizing the number of lives saved per dollar spent. Although this approach may seem theoretical, it has real-world applications by focusing on impactful and scientifically validated strategies 2.

3. Bridging Ideas to Impact:

   • By transforming innovative ideas into practical solutions, startups in fields like oncology can develop drugs that significantly impact individual lives. Safi Bahcall highlights the extensive satisfaction derived from turning research and ideas into tangible treatments that can save lives, particularly in areas where progress has been slow 3.
     

     1

     Balancing Goals and Enjoying the Journey

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     2

     Effective Altruism Critique

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     3

     Bridging Ideas to Impact

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In summary, startups save lives by developing important health technologies, prioritizing effective interventions, and bridging innovative research to practical, life-saving applications.