Ask HN: Has anyone worked at a private research institute like Simons or Allen?

Asking again in hopes this that this thread might gain more traction than my last attempt.

This was inspired by the recent post asking about National Labs https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34414527

Essentially I'd like to hear from people who have worked at private research institutes, like Simons Foundation or Allen Institute, at any level, and how it compares/contrasts to working in the startup world.

In there much overlap or "cross-polination" from national labs to/from research institutes?