In this blog post we will highlight the trends in our first four months of purchasing scientific supplies. We aim to provide insight and guidance for scientists who are looking to start their own company (or already have). If you’re trying to plan for research costs as you put your business plan together, we’re happy to help.
Month 1
After receiving funding from investors, we began purchasing scientific supplies and equipment in May. Most of our time was spent setting up the lab and planning future experiments. Expenses were high in all categories but were dominated by Small Equipment. These items include some of the following and their price, which varies depending on the brand and your ability to negotiate or shop efficiently:
- $200-400 = Mini centrifuges, vortexers, pipettors, pipette-aids, heating block, and more.
- $400-800 = pH meter, precision balance, multi-channel pipettes, and an orbital shaker.
- >$800 = specialty items. You’ll have your own; ours include a Handheld Pin Tool for 384-well plates, a stereo microscope, a fluorescence adaptor, and a mutlistage gas regulator.
Month 2
After the startup spending in May, purchasing slowed down in June. General Lab Supplies were our biggest expenses as we realized we needed items such as test tube racks (more expensive than you’d think), ice buckets, PYREX 500ml storage bottles, and magnetic hangups for pipettors from Rainin, among other items.
Our science team had come together by this point – Ethan, Nina, Kiran, Sangeetha, and Tom. You can read about them here.
Month 3
Experiments had been initiated in June and we began consuming pipette tips, which led to high expenses in the Consumables category in July as our stock ran out. We also purchased more multi-channel pipettes to fulfill our pipetting needs.
You can take a tour of the lab as we headed into August: Perlstein Lab Tour.
Month 4
Our purchasing has plateaued for common supplies, which means we are able to anticipate our costs for the upcoming months. This will help us manage our startup “runway.”
Going forward, we anticipate consumables and reagents to be our biggest expenses. Be prepared…reagents are costly. This is where shopping efficiently can make a large difference and knowing which brands have the best quality so you can minimize the number of experimental repeats and, therefore, reorders of the expensive reagents.
In summary
As you prepare the first four months of your company you might go through a similar process:
Order supplies and plan experiments –> Start experiments –> Order more supplies –> Prepare for data to get you into your next round of funding. 🙂
If you want help, contact our Virtual Lab Manager, Tom, at tom@happilabs.org.
