Finnish laboratory testing company Measurlabs started as a side hustle of two PhD students. Today, the company boasts customers in close to 50 countries and has recently raised a €2.5 million seed round. The two founders’ roles have transformed with the rapidly growing business, their focus shifting from hands-on customer work to strategic planning and leadership.
Measurlabs offers an extensive selection of laboratory testing and analysis services in one place, hassle-free, and topped off with great customer service. Their customers range from startups developing their first product to multinational corporations. Now, co-founder and CEO Teemu Myllymäki explains how the company ended up expanding rapidly and raising funding in a difficult economic climate.
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From solving own needs to addressing customer demands
Measurlabs’ story started in 2017, when Myllymäki and his co-founder Kalle Lagerblom were working on their PhDs on biomimetic materials and aerobic catalysis, respectively. Having needed dozens of different measurements, many of which could not be performed at their universities, the duo soon became experts at finding the right laboratory for a variety of testing needs.
As friends working in academia and the business world noticed Teemu and Kalle’s skills in finding testing services, they soon secured their first customers. The first repeat customer appeared by accident. A friend of the founders had noticed their research and needed some testing herself. She asked Teemu and Kalle to organize the tests, was happy with the results, and started ordering tests on a regular basis.
“We started getting more and more customers and soon after defending our PhDs, we started as full-time entrepreneurs in 2019”, Teemu Myllymäki recalls.
From the first hire to the 40th
Measurlabs hired its first employee in 2020, continuing to grow steadily and making a profit during its first years on the Finnish Trade Register. To enable faster growth, the founders started asking some investors for their views on the company. Soon they had a term sheet for a €500k pre-seed funding round, and less than two years later, Measurlabs raised a €2.5 million seed round.
2023 was a year of rapid growth for the company.
“We acquired 268 new customers. To put that into perspective, with the 268 new customers we almost doubled the number of customers we have served, ever”, Myllymäki explains.
Measurlabs is continuing on the same trajectory in 2024, having just opened its first branch office in the UK. With several open positions, the company is also about to hire its 40th employee within the next couple of months.
Founder’s role in an expanding company
In Measurlabs’ early days, Teemu and Kalle handled all the day-to-day operations from sales to invoicing. When the team grew past 10 people, the focus started to shift from customer-facing work towards leadership and strategy. With the current team of close to 40 people, the founders have become managers of managers and work towards being the leaders that the multidisciplinary team of testing experts, developers, and marketing and sales professionals deserves.
Customer-centric approach as the key to success
Teemu Myllymäki considers Measurlabs’ success a result of always putting the customer first. Listening to customer feedback has influenced both the service selection and the hiring criteria for new employees. The goal is for the company to remain a bunch of down-to-earth people who simply wish to serve their customers in the best way possible.
Tips for fundraising
When asked about his tips for early-stage entrepreneurs looking for funding, Teemu emphasizes the importance of having built a company worth investing in.
“It’s easy to raise if you have built a good company. That means you have to address a challenge customers face with a model that brings value to them, while also making money. If a company is growing fast with good unit metrics and a talented team in a large market, it will attract investments”, says Teemu and adds:
“It should also be kept in mind that fundraising is not an end goal in itself, but it is an enabler of faster growth.”
Ambition inspires progress
Teemu Myllymäki doesn’t settle for minor goals, but instead states a bold target. In five years, he envisions the company as the best laboratory testing provider in the world. He wants Measurlabs to be known for two things – excellent customer service and an extensive selection of top-quality testing services. This is achieved by offering the buyers and sellers of testing services the best possible experience.
