

Quartzy (YC S11) Scores $1.2M To Help Life Scientists Stay Organized - jayzee
http://blogs.wsj.com/venturecapital/2012/02/23/quartzy-scores-1-2m-to-help-life-scientists-stay-organized/

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cperciva
Random piece of feedback, in case it's useful (I'm guessing that the Quartzy
guys will read this): My father is a professor of chemistry, but wasn't
interested in Quartzy because "the university already has software which keeps
track of all our inventories". Apparently the health and safety people decided
a few years ago that there must be central records of all chemical inventories
in case there's a fire or other disaster.

... and they're paying a lot of money for this. So if you're looking for an
area to expand, you might like to consider going after the "we'll help you
keep track of the labs which report to you" market rather than just the "we'll
help you keep track of your own lab" market.

~~~
jayzee
thanks! We discovered that labs on Quartzy are already on their own using the
reporting mechanisms for exactly this purpose. Here is a quote from our
testimonial page (<http://www.quartzy.com/testimonial/>): _Quartzy is ideal
for keeping an up-to-date chemical inventory (required by most Lab Safety
Compliance Offices) and helping my labmates know what is at their fingertips
while planning their experiments._ Lab Manager, Tufts University

~~~
cperciva
I'm not sure that's exactly the same thing. I interpreted that quote to mean
that _one lab_ at Tufts was using Quartzy to keep an up-to-date inventory;
what I'm talking about is a university mandating a particular platform which
_all_ its labs must use -- because that platform is convenient for the
administration, not because it's necessarily convenient for the individual
labs.

~~~
jluan
Yeah -- a lot of places use ChemTracker

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int3rnaut
I'm not a scientist, and this is perhaps irrelevant to this thread, but since
Jayzee is here, I just wanted to say how much I admire the charming video
they've had on their site. Not to be negative, but it's not the most artistic
or beautiful explanatory video out there, but that's why I like it; it's the
embodiment of the Lean Startup approach, and how you don't have to have to
spend loads and be a master at that particular craft to put something out
there to explain your product. For the longest time I was unsure if I should
make my own or pay for someone to do it (not sure what you guys did but I
assume it wasn't one of those $10,000 videos a lot of "starups" have.) but
seeing this gave me inspiration and the realization that this isn't some
blockbuster movie, it's supposed to explain the product--and well, you got me
moving and learning animation and some other neat skills in my spare time--and
you showed me a great lesson...so thanks!

Hope things continue to go well.

~~~
jayzee
wow, thanks! Adam's friend made the video and his wife gave the voice-over so
it has an all 'in-the-house' production!:)

I feel that for a non-consumer product like ours, where design is not the make
or break difference, a video like the one that we have is more than sufficient
to let people know more about the product.

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kayhi
I reached out to Quartzy just after launch since we operate in the same space
and can say they are class act.

I'm unsure how many founders take a 30 min phone call on a couple of HN
exchanges, but they did (thanks again).

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fleaflicker
A lot of startups seem to be raising seed rounds in the $1.1M-$1.3M range (a
cursory HN search turned up seven in the past few months, links below).

What kind of valuations are they getting? Anybody willing to post anonymously
(or otherwise)?

Gumroad $1.1M <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3568962>

Curebit $1.2M <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3520175>

RJMetrics $1.2M <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3419670>

Ginzametrics $1.3M <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3239636>

Zoomingo $1.3M <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3235490>

Tealium $1.1M <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3447834>

Cloudability $1.1M <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3395361>

~~~
jayzee
Quite a few startups that I know are doing a rolling close ... So the early
investors get a better valuation for coming in early without asking the
perennial, 'Who else is in the deal' question. Investors who come in later pay
a premium since the startup has been derisked (at least from a fund-raising
perspective)... So I think often there isn't a single valuation for these
rounds.

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cing
I'm a computational life scientist, so I'm not exactly in the target user
group, but I will say that I consider LabGuru's (<http://www.labguru.com/>)
research project tracking to be a killer feature that Quartzy lacks at this
point.

Keep up the good work though, I've yet to see anything close to my dream CMS
for science labs.

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rdl
"YC just funds consumer web apps", heh.

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teyc
I'm really curious because this is not the typical YC investment. I wonder
what is the kind of reasoning pg goes through, perhaps this is an exercise in
customer development?

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RichardPrice
Great job Quartzy. It's wonderful to see more startups join the movement to
accelerate science!

