Coding for cures

breaks my heart to see her living with such a disease,” he said.

“I want to do whatever I can to find a cure.”

Pineau is aiming to raise $ 100,000 over the next 30 days through a fundraising campaign on IndieGogo, an online crowdfunding platform.

“I'm approaching this as if it were a real technology startup,” he said.

“$ 100,000 is the size of a typical angel investment, which covers the operating costs to get things going.”

He said he has a number of potential products in the pipeline.

“The amount of money we raise will influence what our first product will be,” Pineau said.

“The more money we raise, the higher we can set the bar.”

If no money is raised, the organization will need to bootstrap its development, meaning it will need to make the most economically viable product instead of a full- fledged version.

The initiative is user- friendly, Pineau said.

“Whenever we finally have this product built and customers are signing up, they get to choose which charities their money goes toward.”

The form will feature a dropdown menu outlining the customer’s choices.

“They can dictate if they want to support chronic fatigue syndrome, cancer, diabetes or whatever it is they’re supporting.”

The campaign will also rely on people spreading the word throughout the Internet.

“We need people to Tweet about it, blog about it, tell their friends about it and build a community to help kickstart our first product.”

For Pineau, the initiative ties his interests and skill sets together.

“In another life, I probably would have went to the medical field to work on disease research, but I went with the technology route,” he said.

“Since I can’t actively work first- hand on these diseases, this is the next best thing I can do. It feels good to be able to give back.”

Pineau is hoping to create a sustainable initiative with a suite of different products available.

“I think if I can get enough support and eyeballs on this campaign and raise some money, I think it’s going to make a big difference long- term.”

For more information, please go to www. codingforcures. com.