@BlendahTom Sure! I first connected with Mark Cuban in 2012 at the Westin in Indianapolis, of all places. I heard on Twitter that he was attending a Shark Tank viewing party there. @tscottcase helped me through two sets of bouncers and introduced me to Mark.
I thought I'd get 30 seconds or less to pitch him, but he kept hitting me with questions about the testing methods, data capabilities, etc. After close to an hour of back and forth, he told me to come back to him when my idea was a real business. When I reintroduced him to LabDoor, he quickly committed to leading our first outside round, and recently followed-on his investment.
Ha just talked to @NeilThanedar yesterday on the phone for a long time - I am incredibly pumped about this company and the impact they're making on the vitamins & supplements industry.
Traditionally it's been hard for consumers to judge the quality of supplements, but LabDoor does the hard work of rigorously testing these products and passes on that information so all of us can start buying the best with confidence.
Why did you move away from all pharmaceuticals to just focus on supplements and vitamins?
Report
@DavidSpinks I've always thought of LabDoor as a consumer-focused alternative to the FDA. We started with supplements because I believe it's where the FDA is least effective. But once we prove the power of our testing and brand with these products, I've got my eyes on expanding to the rest of the drugstore.
@NeilThanedar Tell us a bit more about the balance of your business model and providing this service.
Report
@BlendahTom LabDoor operates two monetization streams - B2C online retail and B2B data subscriptions. Consumers are our #1 focus, and drive 75% of the revenues.
I call our consumer-focused business model "verified commerce". It works because people trust LabDoor and want to support our service.
CMX
/ syndicate
Lex