
Show HN: Chemical.io – Cloud-Based Lab Management Solution - ShaneCurran
https://www.chemical.io
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buckbova
Too many landing pages nowadays with too little information. Be nice to see a
better list of features, screenshots, or a demo without having to sign-up.

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kyro
It's been years since I've been in a chemistry lab, so I don't remember how
they monitored inventory levels, but do they really just jot down amount
used/remaining for each chemical? If that's the case, then I can certainly see
value in the app.

Just brainstorming, how feasible would it be to detect fluid levels/quantities
using the phone's camera? A chemist can simply snap a photo of a vile and the
rest is automagically taken care of. Or maybe you could at some point sell a
line of viles/beakers/flasks/etc with level markers, volume indicators, and
chemical labels that would work with your app.

A little design feedback: I would show the product on the homepage. Right now
you're just selling to me with words. And the weight of that typeface being
used for that sub-header is _really_ light. This is how it's rendering in
Safari - [http://i.imgur.com/izWWUbZ.png](http://i.imgur.com/izWWUbZ.png)

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shabble
barcode/qr-code/RFID sticker (to identify the product) & set of cheap(ish)
wireless weighing scales could probably do it easier than trying to estimate
based on crappy phone pics.

Does require more infrastructure though, but might not be a huge deal for the
stockroom if it improves the workflow/reliability of stock levels.

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kyro
Yeah, something like a Withings weighing scale for labs would definitely be
interesting.

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aroch
We use Quartzy right now, but if you can make the Facilities management (ie.
scheduling time on an FPLC) better (which, wouldn't be too hard) and
embeddable / supporting CalDav/CardDav I would use this.

I have an Excel sheet of all our chemicals (~500+ reagents), is there a way
for me to upload this? The data is fairly well ordered with the below headers

    
    
       Chemical Description	Bldg	Room	#Units	Qty.	Unit	CAS #	Lot #	Expiration	Vendor	Storage_Location	Comments	Container	Physical State	Max on Hand	Chemical Formula	Molecular Weight	PO #	Vendor Catalog #	EHSA Chemical #	Order Date	Open Date	Receipt Date	Contact	Contact Phone	PI Code

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ShaneCurran
I've added your suggestions to the development roadmap. Would you mind
emailing me that spreadsheet over to s@chemical.io and I'll see what I can do?
Thanks :)

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aroch
Sweet and sure thing, I'll send it over later today

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rcatsr
I'm sitting in a chemistry lab right now, and this is pretty sorely lacking in
anything that would make it remotely useful to a small academic lab, much less
a larger corporate lab. The experimental write-up section is a joke,
especially if you're going to make people pay for it. The fact that grams and
milliliters are the only options when inputting a chemical tells me you have
no idea what you're doing, and the idea that chemists are going to log in and
enter the amount they took out of a bottle every time they weigh something out
is ludicrous.

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chillytoes
Interesting that they launched first on Android. I wonder if that's because
lab managers are expected to use their own phones, and they'll likely have
Androids. Or, maybe labs purchase phones for this purpose, and Androids are
cheaper. Or, maybe the dev has an Android phone and that's what he or she
knows.

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randall
I literally know nothing about this space... but I'm aware of Quartzy (
[http://www.quartzy.com/](http://www.quartzy.com/) ) which I think competes
similarly.

Care to do a competitive analysis with them?

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ShaneCurran
Quartzy requires all the data on a chemical to be inserted manually.
Chemical.io automatically catalogs reagents based on their chemical formula.
We also have a mobile app and experiment writeup functionality.

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aristomc
Definitely going in the right direction, I remember doing inventory endlessly
in an inorg lab.

It would be nice to have a little more info about the products, but I think
this is a space that could do with some innovation.

Good job.

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nocashvalue
Looking really good. Just a minor, minor detail. On your signup page, the page
title reads "Chemilog|Login" which I assume is a legacy name...

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rnl
Nice, just what I was looking for. Now I don't have to keep any orders in
Excel or similar. Are you planning to add any export features?

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ShaneCurran
Yep, we're working on them as we speak :)

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viggity
20 euro/month seems way cheap. 20 euro/month for 24/7 technical support seems
crazy.

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japhyr
Do you have a demo of the "Experiment Writeup Functionality"?

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ShaneCurran
Yep, for 7 days after you register your account, you have full access to
experiment writeups. Click "Writeups" in the right sidebar in the dashboard
:-)

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japhyr
Are you planning to include an overview of this? This is the kind of thing I'd
like to glance through without having to register.

"Experiment writeups" is a pretty big domain, it seems like much more than a
side project for an app that aims to do inventory control. Can you say a
little more about where you are going with this?

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ShaneCurran
Working on it now, this was a bit of a weekend project so I didn't work too
much on the site itself.

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japhyr
Okay thanks, looking forward to seeing your approach. This is a pretty
interesting problem in and of itself.

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dutchguy
Just a heads up, firefox lists the website as a security threat.

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nocashvalue
I saw that too. Seems to be only when trying to access
[https://chemical.io](https://chemical.io) as opposed to
[https://www.chemical.io](https://www.chemical.io)

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kayhi
We're on the sales side of chemicals, drop me an email!

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ShaneCurran
Noted!

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michaelmior
You really should change re-agents to reagents.

