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Documented path

David Weinberg

Founders / operators · Science/Research · milestone at age 26 ·Professionally distinctive
Selected age-relative milestone · age 26
Published first-author papers in Science, Cell, and Nature as a PhD student at MIT, describing novel gene regulation pathways. Also filed a patent.

Academic star turned biotech entrepreneur. Deep RNA biology expertise.

Starting point

Education: MIT, PhD in Biology (2007-2013); UCSF Faculty Fellow

Current position (2026)

Founder at ParcelBio

Where the conditions came from

Three sources, read side by side

Each is placed on a −1 to 3 scale from documented evidence, and the three are never added together. A combined total would rank David Weinberg against other people. Held apart, they explain why this path ran differently from another one—which is the only comparison this project supports.

The marble itself

What they brought

+3Tailwind

What capability, drive, or early skill is documented in the person rather than their surroundings?

Exceptional scientific intellect; PhD in David Bartel's lab at MIT, discovered novel RNAi pathway in budding yeast, 3,498 citations.

Where it was dropped

What they were handed

+1Tailwind

What money, family standing, network, or permission was already in place before the work began?

No evidence of family wealth or connections, but access to MIT graduate education suggests solid educational foundation.

The shape of the track

What surrounded them

+3Tailwind

What place, timing, institution, or peer group made the next step available?

Trained in the Bartel Lab at MIT (HHMI), one of the world's top molecular biology labs; later at UCSF and Freenome.

A −1 is a documented headwind, not a missing value; a 0 means the sources record nothing notable either way. Annotation confidence: High. These are analyst readings of what the sources record, not measurements of merit, talent, or effort. The twenty-two scored dimensions remain available inside the deeper research detail.

What moved through the conditions

Perseverance and luck stay visible—not scored.

Documented perseveranceTrained in the Bartel Lab at MIT (HHMI), one of the world's top molecular biology labs; later at UCSF and Freenome.

This records repeated behaviour or recovery described by sources; it is not a grit or merit score.

Encounter luckExceptional scientific intellect; PhD in David Bartel's lab at MIT, discovered novel RNAi pathway in budding yeast, 3,498 citations.

This is an unchosen opening or condition in the record, not an estimate of how much luck caused the outcome.

Open the legacy 22-field research annotation
How this path compounded
01 Starting advantages

4/24 starting-position score

Strongest documented signals: Elite institution pipeline, Frontier geography, Exceptional peer / cofounder.

Describes the starting position, not what the person later made of it.

Cohort percentile: 64
02 Built or converted leverage

10/25 multiplying-capacity score

Strongest observed levers: Complementary team, Capital safety, Domain proximity.

Measures what was present, not whether it was inherited, earned, self-built, external, or mixed.

Cohort percentile: 68
03 Compounding trajectory

3 documented steps

The timeline below shows the sequence of work and transitions around the selected early milestone. It is evidence of a path, not proof that every step was necessary.

Milestone at age 26
04 Observed career standing

T3 · Domain-recognized

Notable and widely recognized within the domain. The tier summarizes documented career recognition through the data cutoff—not David Weinberg's worth or future potential.

Question four · where did the leverage come from?

David Weinberg's leverage provenance

Each non-zero lever gets a best-supported origin, evidence signals, and confidence. Unresolved is the honest default when the biography cannot distinguish self-built, advantage-enabled, earned, external, or mixed.

Complementary team1/2
Advantage-enabledmedium confidence

One or more documented starting advantages plausibly enabled this lever.

Exceptional peer / cofounder (1/2)Elite institution pipeline (1/2)
Capital safety1/2
Advantage-enabledmedium confidence

One or more documented starting advantages plausibly enabled this lever.

Elite institution pipeline (1/2)
Domain proximity1/2
Advantage-enabledmedium confidence

One or more documented starting advantages plausibly enabled this lever.

Direct domain exposure (1/2)Frontier geography (1/2)Elite institution pipeline (1/2)
Prior reps1/3
Advantage-enabledmedium confidence

One or more documented starting advantages plausibly enabled this lever.

Elite institution pipeline (1/2)
Scarce skill depth1/3
Advantage-enabledmedium confidence

One or more documented starting advantages plausibly enabled this lever.

Elite institution pipeline (1/2)
Native distribution1/3
Advantage-enabledmedium confidence

One or more documented starting advantages plausibly enabled this lever.

Elite institution pipeline (1/2)
Elite ecosystem network1/3
Advantage-enabledmedium confidence

One or more documented starting advantages plausibly enabled this lever.

Elite institution pipeline (1/2)Frontier geography (1/2)Exceptional peer / cofounder (1/2)
Structural wave / timing1/3
Externalmedium confidence

A structural wave is external to the person, even when their position improved access to it.

Frontier geography (1/2)
Concentration intensity1/3
Unresolvedlow confidence

No current annotation distinguishes self-built, enabled, or earned origins for this lever.

No decisive linked signal

This is a bounded inference from the current annotations—not a claim about private effort, merit, or the percentage of David Weinberg's outcome attributable to any origin.

Luck is not a leftover score.

Structural luck, Encounter luck, Event luck, Outcome variance can change every arrow in the path. This successful-only dataset cannot observe the near-identical paths that did not break through, so luck stays visible and unscored.

Within Founders / operators, David Weinberg's starting-advantage total is at the 64th percentile. Separately, their built or converted leverage total is at the 68th percentile. Other T3 profiles average 5.3 / 24 starting advantage and 11.0 / 25 leverage. Similar scores appear in other tiers, so these figures describe positioning—not a cause.
Trajectory
  1. 1985 · age 0
    Born
  2. 2003 · age 18
    MIT, PhD in Biology (2007-2013); UCSF Faculty Fellow
  3. 2023 · age 38
    Founded ParcelBio
    YC Winter 2024
Primary leverage engine
Technical depth
Scarce technical / intellectual depth
Secondary engine
Timing/platform wave
Built/converted leverage
10 / 25
evidence: Low
Built or converted leverage

Multiplying capacity documented later in the path. Measures what was present, not whether it was inherited, earned, self-built, external, or mixed.

Started serious reps before 20
0/1
Prior reps
1/3
Scarce skill depth
1/3
Native distribution
1/3
Elite ecosystem network
1/3
Complementary team
1/2
Structural wave / timing
1/3
Concentration intensity
1/3
Capital safety
1/2
Domain proximity
1/2
Starting-advantage scores (0–2 each)

Access or conditions documented near the beginning of the path. Zero means "no clear evidence in reviewed sources," not "advantage was absent."

Family financial platform
0/2
Parent / family domain
0/2
Inherited audience / network
0/2
Elite institution pipeline
1/2
Frontier geography
1/2
Rare early tools
0/2
Dedicated mentor / coach
0/2
Exceptional peer / cofounder
1/2
Early online platform
0/2
Direct domain exposure
1/2
Prodigy / innate ability
0/2
Adversity / constraint catalyst
0/2

Family context

Not documented.

Parent / family domain

Not documented.

Archetype & tags
Elite performance pipelineFrontier ecosystemElite peer/collaborator
Evidence summary

Academic star turned biotech entrepreneur. Deep RNA biology expertise.

advantage confidence: Low · source count: 5 · audit: not_independently_audited · status: founder_research_beta

Sources
Related — same primary engine