Clickbio focuses on customized labware

Clickbio is a new Reno-based company that designs and sells customized labware.

With over a decade of laboratory automation experience, CEO Cofounder Craig Vincze and CTO Cofounder Mykle Gaynor noticed a need for more innovative and affordable laboratory plasticware.

“We noticed a deficiency in the tools that were being used to perform science,” Gaynor said in a phone interview with NNBW. “The approach to design and launch new tools wasn’t where it needed to be causing a huge untapped market need for better lab tools.”

This is where the idea for Clickbio was born. The company launched in July of 2014. According to Vincze and Gaynor, something that sets Clickbio apart from its competitors is its flexible approach to design and problem-solving.

“If we approach the problem that a scientist is having from the ground up and listen to his entire problem, we’re able to better understand his needs,” Gaynor said.

Customers work directly with Clickbio’s team of manufacturing engineers and experts to brainstorm and develop a product. The first step is ideation. The team looks at the research their customers are doing and what they’d like to do. After that, the design stage begins and a 3D-printed prototype is made and tested by the customer. If it works, then Clickbio begins manufacturing.

“We can engage a customer, we can ideate around their problem and we can provide an in-hand and physical representation … of our suggested solution to them — and in the order of five business days or less,” Vincze explained.

Clickbio also has access to different kinds of material depending on a customer’s need.

“If someone needs a particular type of polymer for example … we can simply partner with whoever is already the best in the world at making that type of material and we screen them,” Vincze explained.

Among their team of experts are the cofounders themselves. Both Vincze and Gaynor have over a decade of experience in the lab automation industry in companies like Hamilton Robotics and Douglas Scientific to name a few.

Clickbio also provides flexible payment options for their customers.

“We’re able to look at an entire project beyond just the up-front engineering costs and work with customers who have a diverse source for their budgets. So we can work with them to allow their funds to be applied towards development efforts of individual products,” Gaynor explained.

“We have the flexibility to charge you less for the upfront engineering, but charge a little bit more for the parts and vice-versa,” Vincze added.

Clickbio is based in Reno, a decision the pair said was easy considering the growing infrastructure northern Nevada has developed in recent years.

“There’s an up and coming entrepreneurial support system in the area,” Vincze said. “It used to be that if you were starting a company like ours, you pretty much had to go to Silicon Valley to find capital, to find mentors, to find all the things you would need to start it.”

Vincze and Gaynor attribute a lot of their success so far to networking events and programs like One Million Cups, a weekly event that allows aspiring entrepreneurs to showcase their ideas to investors, and Summit Venture Mentoring Service, a program created by EDAWN in 2013 that matches entrepreneurs with local mentors and professionals.

“As you’re starting a company, it’s very valuable,” Vincze said about his experience with Summit VMS. “We kept finding what we needed and there was no reason to leave (Reno) and as time went on we’re really glad we (stayed) because we get to enjoy all the fringe benefits that are pertinent to a startup company but make a difference like lower living expenses and lower taxes than in California.”

Clickbio has manufacturing locations in parts of California and northern Nevada. Most of its business now is domestic, but Clickbio anticipates international growth.

For more information and for free samples of Clickbio’s labware, visit click-bio.com.