Labdoor is Going Indie!

Summary

Labdoor is now ten years old!

  • We’ve survived tough times and are now much stronger.
  • What’s next for us? Stay tuned!

We’re still independently testing supplements and CBD.

  • What do you want us to test next?
  • Baby formula? Dog food? Cosmetics?
  • Let us know on Twitter and Instagram!

We’re raising $1M from our users and fans to expand into new categories.

  • Community rounds will be our main fundraising channel now.
  • We want more independence to grow sustainably and not be forced to exit too early.
  • Invest now to own a part of Labdoor!

How we got here

Labdoor is based on the idea that there should be a people’s lab.

Neil Thanedar, co-founder and chairman of Labdoor, previously founded Avomeen, a private testing lab. They were specialized in product development testing, analyzing the difference between good and bad products. But this data was all secret. Until Labdoor.

Labdoor was founded on May 15, 2012, in Indianapolis. By November, we had moved to San Francisco to join Rock Health. Mark Cuban led our first seed round with $250K in 2013 and $500K in 2014. We got accepted by Y Combinator in late 2014. We raised our Series A led by Floodgate in 2016.

We built a lab, grew our team, and worked hard to raise our Series B in 2017. Lots of interest but no one would lead. We had to shrink our team, cut our costs, close our lab, and rebuild remotely.

Our last 3+ years have been a new era for Labdoor, focused on expanding our Certifications program globally and testing new categories like CBD.

Now we’re ready to expand again. 

Where we’re going

Our vision for Labdoor has remained remarkably steady since we started.

We’ve always wanted to be a trusted way to buy the best products, and we’ve now provided that service to tens of millions of people worldwide.

Our next milestone is to become the largest independent reviewer in the world, testing more than the 8,500 products and services that Consumer Reports has reviewed in their 86 years. (Labdoor has tested and reviewed 1,000+ products in 10 years.)

We want to go faster this decade, testing 5,000+ products and certifying the 1,000+ best ones.

Own a part of Labdoor!

We’re opening a Community Round to allow our users and fans to invest directly in Labdoor.

  • Labdoor was early to Community Rounds, making them a part of our 2015 Seed Round and 2016 Series A.
  • Hundreds of individual angels were able to invest as little as $100 alongside top VC firms like Floodgate.

Community Rounds will be our main fundraising channel now.

  • We love having our users and fans as investors!
  • Y’all are amazing advocates and ambassadors for Labdoor!

Angel investors are a better fit for Labdoor vs. VCs.

  • VCs like to exit via acquisition or IPO within 10 years.
  • We’re planning to be a 100+ year old independent company.

We’re raising $1M to expand our testing and certifications programs. Invest Now!