The Testing Business (An Idea I Can't Get Out of My Head)

Welcome to Biz Brainstorms –

My name's Connor.

I go down weekly rabbit holes of business ideas & lessons. Then, you get this 200 second email.

Today's Outline: Testing Companies
🩸 Blood Work
🌱 Soil
🧬 DNA
🦶 Orthotics
💡 Other Ideas…

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I love studying unique business models.

It provides me a framework that I can then look at with 100+ different flavors.

Examples of this would be things like micro-franchising which my buddy Chris is doing for Tree Biz Bootcamp.

Another example would be doing Databases as a Service like this company Cyberleads.

Well, here’s a business model that I don’t exactly have a name for (someone smarter probably does) but I love it.

Taking complex testing services and wrapping them with easy to use marketable services.

Let’s dive in with 4 examples then we can brainstorm more at the end.

Example 1: Bloodwork

Here’s the truth.

You can walk into almost any of the 2,000+ Quest Diagnostics centers in America and get your bloodwork done. Fairly cheaply.

But Derek (Famed Youtuber from More Plates more Dates) launched Marek Health in 2020 which helps people:

1. Get bloodwork done

2. Better read their results

And here’s the best part: They have zero retail footprint.

They send you to Quest & other bloodwork outpatient centers to do your testing, and then give you an easy to read report with suggestions on how to optimize your health from Cholesterol to Testosterone.

Their packages range from $250 —> $850.

Genius.

Example 2: Soil

Last week I saw a friend Kevin launch his mail-in-soil testing kit:

I think this is a genius move.

Kevin has built a massive audience in the gardening space through Epic Gardening, and now he’s scaling it even more with this service for only $55.

And there are dozens of up-sells once the owner knows that their soil might not be perfect (plus it gives the Epic Gardening team a lot of data).

Example 3: DNA

This one is obvious, but 23&Me is a $200M+ company which used to be worth $2B+ (stock has taken a hit).

Last year alone they did $299M in revenue.

While this isn’t the lesser talked about startups that I know people enjoy reading about here, it’s a testiment to the simple fact that people care about this behind the scenes data.

Since launching their product, the company has launched additional therapeutics and research businesses that are proving to be cash cows to support the flailing testing business.

That’s the beauty of these models: They can make money on the front end (though, less at Venture backed scale of 23&Me) and the backend through the data you capture.

Example 4: Orthotics

Upstep is a mail-in Othotics kit that helps you design custom in-soles directly from your house.

Zero doctor appointments.

Zero retail experience.

For $239, they’ll send you a kit to step in. You ship it back and they design your perfect in sole.

Rocket Research shows them doing $24M+ every year.

Thesis:

These businesses have a few things in common:

1. They are complex & require testing/special equipment (almost always health related).

2. They come to you.

3. They help you take action via upsells on the backend.

Ideas: 💡 

Here are 3 ways I think you could build a similar business.

1. Water Testing
   
   After horror stories in places like Flint, providing water testing kits for families at home either for their drinkable water or their shower head could be an easy-to-provide solution.
   
   Up-sells like filtration systems seem like a viable next step after the kit is received.
   

2. Sperm
   
   Hims exploded on the scene and went public at a 1.6B valuation doing 870M+ in revenue. There’s a ton of money in mens sexual health. And with headlines suggesting male sperm rate decreasing, at-home-kits could be the answer. Or, follow the Marek model and use outpatient centers here.
   

3. Sweat Patches
   
   Recovery is more and more important to athletes today. Traditionally, sweat patches have been used to detect drugs in a users system. But companies like Gatorade are beginning to administer them to athletes to determine their sodium content level to help them learn when they are low on electrolytes.

✌️ See you next week

-Connor

PS – If you’re hiring for an agency or e-commerce business, check out DTCHire.com