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(upbeat music) - Welcome to Business Forward.

I'm your host Matt George.

Joining me tonight, Dr. Shane Needham and Dr. Mitch Johnson.

Dr. Needham is the President, and CEO and Founder of Veloxity Labs.

And Dr. Johnson is also a Founder, and Laboratory Director of Veloxity Labs.

Welcome guys.

- Thank you.

Thank you for the opportunity.

- Thank you for having us.

- Yeah, so what is a bioanalysis company?

Dr. Needham, I'll start with you.

- Yeah, so what we do, it's called in our industry, a contract research organization.

And so we are a contract research organization that contracts with biotech, biopharma, and pharma companies to help them develop new therapeutics and drugs to treat disease.

And we use analytical instrumentation to do that.

- Okay, and so when you reading about this company and reading about both of you, you're both scientists, is that correct?

- I would paint myself with that brush in one way, yes.

- Okay, I wouldn't paint myself with that brush.

What about you?

- Yeah, absolutely.

I mean, Shane and I both received and earned our PhDs in analytical chemistry in this technique called mass spectrometry, which we use to analyze these drugs that people eventually take one day.

- So, off topic here, how does somebody coming out or going into school, do somebody say, I just wanna be a scientist.

or how does that come about?

What made you get into this field?

- Yeah, so just from an early age, I always just had that curiosity, and just it's fundamental as a scientific method about that loop of being able to design an experiment, collect the data, make your interpretations, and gain that information.

But for me, getting into this space was kind of just serendipitous and going to graduate school, and wanting to pursue higher education.

And an advisor there had this technique that was also applicable to the pharmaceutical industry, which I wanted to get into.

And to me, it was just a natural segue to become a scientist and help develop drugs one day.

- Wow, that's pretty amazing.

So Dr. Needham, Veloxity Labs, where did this come about?

Was this your idea, or how does this come about?

'Cause you're from here.

- Yeah, no, I'm not from here.

I actually live in Moscow, Idaho.

That's where my boys are at and they're still in school.

And so I'm with them as well.

And so it's certainly not my idea.

It's a culmination of ideas, and it's something...

I've always had an entrepreneurial spirit.

I've always liked to start things and build new businesses.

I'm a serial entrepreneur.

I've done this before and now I'm just putting together the right team and doing it again.

I guess I don't believe in coincidences, but the connection story is this.

I was starting another scientific business, a consulting company.

And one of the things I was going to do is help mentor and help start up people, start companies and scientific companies.

'Cause scientists have their own ways of doing business.

And you have to converge this business and scientific mind to make sure things are successful.

And I have that track record.

Well, I launched this scientific business, and the next thing that you know is, Mitch reaches out to me on LinkedIn and he says, "Hey, I need some mentorship advice or advice."

And I didn't know what it was gonna be about, but we have this virtual call on Google Call or Zoom or something in June of last year or summer of last year.

And by the end of the conversation, he has this business plan and I've been looking for somebody like Mitch in my own organizations for over 20 years, that has not only a scientific mind and being able to use those scientific principles with that at background expertise, but the communication skills and the business sense of an entrepreneur.

And so when I first talked to him, live on a virtual call.

I'm like, "This guy's the guy."

I just knew that.

And at the end of the conversation, he's telling me about his business plan.

He wants to start this lab and like, "Well, these are great ideas.

How are you gonna fund it?"

He says, "Well, I'm gonna go to a local bank and SBA loan."

I'm like, "That's a way to do it.

I don't think you're gonna get enough finances to do that.

'Cause they don't know about the business.

- [Matt] Or to do it right.

- To do it right.

- Okay.

And I said, "But have you ever thought about a business partner?"

And he said, "Well, sure.

Who?"

And I said, "Me."

And his eyes got really big, had a big smile on his face.

And he said, "Yes."

And so the rest is history.

We just started moving.

And every step that we took and he took, I mean just the initiative that he took, and the enthusiasm and the positivity, I knew he was the right guy then, and he's still the right guy now.

- I mean, what a story.

So, are you from here?

- So, I grew up about an hour north of here in Ottawa, Illinois.

So I'm very familiar with the area.

I went to Monmouth College for undergrad and have just a lot of friends, that live in the Peoria, that were from Peoria.

And now I live in Germantown Hills now, so.

- Good.

I mean, this is awesome because we talk about on this show, many things, one of the things you brought up, Dr. Needham was mentorship.

So, the whole thing that I got out of all of this is, you had the thought of reaching out to somebody and asking.

- Exactly.

- And that is huge because a lot of people, I did the same thing.

In a different business, a very similar story where I reached out to someone on Shark Tank and next thing you know, he's my mentor.

And there it's an interesting dynamic.

And I say to people that I mentor now all the time, just ask.

What's the worst thing that can happen?

And for you, it's cool about it is you are sitting here going, "Wait a minute, I kind of wanted to go this route, but now I've got somebody who's got just much energy as me, maybe more, but pure Illinois."

So there's kind of a cool story that I heard you talk about a couple weeks ago.

- It's a really cool story actually.

And so later on that conversation in the summer, and I'd already been thinking about where would I put a lab, you know?

And I thought, okay, so I've had a West Coast presence, and I want it to be centrally located or maybe somewhere on the East Coast, maybe RTP, North Carolina, wherever.

I didn't know.

And so the next question I asked to Mitch was, "Where are we gonna put this?"

And he says, "Peoria, Illinois."

And remember, I know nothing about Illinois.

I'm an Idaho boy, right?

Born and raised in Pacific Northwest.

And so, I know nothing about Illinois, and I immediately said, "Whoa, Chicago."

I said, "I don't know if I'm a fan."

He's like, "No, no, no, no, no, there's Chicago.

And there's the rest of Illinois."

I'm like, "Okay."

And he's right.

And I said, you know what?

I've learned from my own mentors... And one of my mentors is also a business partner in Palko Corrin and you'll meet him someday as well.

And he's my mentor.

So he's helped me.

And one of the things I've learned is to listen to other people, not just make your own decision.

To ask them for help.

Okay, again, I'm thinking, I see some red flags here, right?

But I told Mitch, I said, "I'm gonna give you the benefit doubt.

I'm gonna come out there and visit."

So we come out and visit with shake hands.

We have coffee, I think we even had lunch or something.

And he just took me on the tour facilities or the tour of Peoria, where he was kind of living and all these areas.

And all I saw was affordable housing, economic place to do business.

I saw access to local airports and regional airports and international airports.

I saw- - [Matt] Not just Peoria.

- No.

- Bloomington.

- Bloomington, Molene, Chicago.

I mean, all these places that are huge strengths in this area that I know from starting businesses in the past, we want access to those airports, have FedEx overnight, have FedEx on Saturdays.

I knew that was a key.

And so I'm checking all these boxes.

Oh, wow, check, affordable housing, check, quality of life.

No major traffic.

Perfect size city.

I mean, you can go to a Double-A baseball game with no traffic.

I mean, you can go to a off-Broadway type play at the Civic Center.

And I started asking about educational resources, like, okay, where are we gonna recruit from?

Where are we going to get our pipeline of scientists, and of educated people?

So it's like Bradley University is right here.

And then he started naming these other colleges, Eureka College and Illinois and branch campuses.

And OSF is right here.

A big medical community.

- ICC.

- All these things.

I don't even know them all.

- Yeah.

- But he actually showed us on a map at our first board meeting to all of our business partners.

And we're just like, "This is just great."

And then there were zero yellow flags or red flags, when he actually brought me here.

And if there was one, I don't have to do this.

I wanna do it.

I don't have to do this at this stage of my life, but it's fun and it's the perfect opportunity.

And things are just going so well.

We're already ahead of our expectations that we set for our business plan already.

- It's cool that you had your own way of vetting the city in a way, because some of those things that an average person wouldn't think about, but you even look at restaurants and flow, and you mentioned airports.

We're talking about potential rail to Chicago now, and some really cool things in the future.

So, was your excitement level just going up every time that Dr. Needham came here?

- Yeah.

It's really interesting to look back, Matt, because it is just such an interesting story.

And I felt, it's funny that you mentioned Shark Tank because on that initial call that Shane referenced, I felt like I was on Shark Tank when he was like, "How do you want a business part?"

- [Shane] It's the same.

- It's just the same thing.

And I was just like, my heart started to thumping.

And what I look back and was thinking about this morning is that mentorship that you talked about is so critical because along the whole way.

I mean, Shane is a thought leader and expert in this field and just has really helped move bioanalysis forward.

And Veloxity is just gonna continue to do that in accelerated rate.

Just all along the way as we're going through those things, he's able to guide Veloxity in the way of a seasoned veteran.

And if we're thinking about things, a lot of times he has some insight, "Yes, this will work.

No, this hasn't worked in the past.

We need to deflect and maybe think about this direction, or we're gonna head in this direction."

It's just been critical.

I mean, if I hadn't connected with him, started this potentially, there's no way I would even be here where I'm at probably five years from now.

I mean, the team that we have in place, the energy, the expertise, and just the desire to move this industry forward.

We're just gonna make waves and it's just exciting to see the progress that we've already had together.

- Yeah, and you do don't know what you don't know.

- Exactly.

- I mean, so if you're in Dr. Needham shoes, I'm speaking for you now, I guess, but he's sitting here probably thinking the same thing with you going, "I've got a fresh look at something.

I've got a different..." And that is what moves business today.

A lot of people have come on this show and talked about, there's a lot of just entitlement sometimes of businesses.

I've been here forever.

And I should be here forever.

But COVID taught us one thing, that business is changing pretty heavily.

And so this is a great example of...

So what does a day at Veloxity Labs look like?

- It's very dynamic, very ever-changing.

So.

for me as a laboratory director, I have responsibility to kind of oversee all the day-to-day operations.

So, what that looks like is training junior level staff that gonna be hiring, showing them how to use the equipment, and perform the experiments.

I have a lot of contact with the, we call them sponsors at pharmaceutical companies.

They're responsible for executing, outsourcing the work to us.

So, we're constantly providing them with updates, explaining our capabilities, engaging in scientific discussions with them to help them know that we're interested in their projects and to help them succeed ultimately.

So a lot of conversations on that front.

- You answered a question that I couldn't frame right.

I was gonna ask, how does like a...

I'm just making a company up, Eli Lilly or Pfizer or somebody, how do they know that you're doing great work?

Do they give you, "Here's the plan and we want you to get here," or?

- Yeah, it's very relationship-based.

And so a lot of these projects that we're gonna be working on initially are from relationships that Shane and myself and others in our organization have established previously.

As well as we're marketing, and having efforts on LinkedIn and other campaigns as well.

But ultimately, it's starts with an inquiry or a phone call or a message now, is as simple as that.

And then, we typically will get on the phone with them, with their consultation.

They tell us about, for instance, they might be working on some CNS, central nervous system, or leukemia programs or anything oncology-focused.

And they'll tell us about their programs.

In most situations, we can help them out in some capacity through bioanalysis.

We tell them kind of about our service offerings, what a report would look like from us, ultimately what the deliverables gonna be, and how they're gonna interact with us as an organization.

And from there, we typically will, like anything else provide a bid or quote for them and they'll decide if they wanna execute that study.

Once it gets placed, simply they'll send us the materials.

We perform the bioanalysis and generate high quality data for them to help make decisions if they wanna advance that molecule further in the pipeline or not.

- That is so cool.

I always wondered how that process works, because you always hear pipeline when you hear about...

When you're analyzing stocks with companies like Pfizer, Merck, or, they talk about in the pipeline, in the pipeline and that pretty much summed up what the pipeline is.

So, how do you price something like this in a business like yours?

- Yeah, well, that's a good question.

I think it's a very competitive market, and some people command ties, which is fine.

I not scared of that word.

That doesn't mean that we're any less than anybody.

It's actually a good thing.

It means people understand the market and they understand...

So, it's a competitive market.

It's no different than other competitive markets where it's like, you have to be competitive with what your competitors are charging.

- Insurance or whatever.

- Yeah, exactly.

So you have to be competitive.

And so that's what we are.

And it's interesting in this journey that we have in these... We're very relational and not transactional because we know that those relationships will last decades if we foster them appropriately, whereas transactions are easy.

We're relational, transactions it happens and nobody cares.

- Like a hit and run.

- Yeah, exactly.

- Like a hit and run.

- What's been really cool in this, and every step of the way, I've realized that I'm in business with the right people, when these are the things that we're hearing from the clients that we have on the other side of the phone, or the sponsors as we all also call them, is the reason we're doing this, you guys, this is our sponsors talking, is because of your reputation, Shane, and your reputation, Mitch, period.

It's a very relationship business.

- It feels good.

- We don't wanna be a transactional business.

That's how we separate our sales from our competitors, is that, you know what, we're private, we're employee-owned.

We are very focused on LC-MS-MS bioanalysis that gives us a niche.

And you know what, we're gonna be responsive.

We're gonna be attentive.

We're gonna be collaborative.

All those things that are bigger competitors, that have to steer these battleships, can't do.

So we're so excited about that.

And the traction that we have already is to just exceeding my expectations.

- Yeah, you're basically saying we're best in class because.

- That's what we're trying to say.

We also have a lot of humility, so we would rather have them show them that instead of us say that, but we do feel that we do have a niche that our competitors can't provide.

And my other business partners too, Herb Martin and Paul, same thing.

The reputation in the industry is huge.

I never hear anybody say, "Oh, they never pause."

They always say, "Oh, wow.

Yeah, you guys are doing- - You got a team.

- And we have a separate asset management division.

We're a high-lead capital intensive laboratory.

So, we need lots of capital equipment.

And that, lake Mohawk Venture is what they're called.

And they provide that asset management to us.

I knew it would be successful.

I didn't know how important it would be.

And again, that is a separate type of division than any of our competitors have.

So we procure equipment so much more easily, more efficiently, more productively.

- Well, you're getting me fired up.

And you both, after talking to you, make me wanna work for you.

- We have some job openings coming up, so yeah.

- If anybody's looking for a position, info@veloxitylabs.com.

- Well, that leads into my next question.

So what types of employees do you need?

- Yeah, so we're looking for scientific personnel to start out with, so anybody with a life science degree.

We prefer chemistry or biochemistry, biology as well.

Things like that.

Basic laboratory skills are kind of what we're looking for.

And those are typically acquired within four-year university degree.

And so the jobs that we're gonna be promoting are jobs that we wanna provide that weren't here, like when I graduated from undergrad.

And so, I went to graduate school and then same story.

When I finished there, I had to go to the East Coast to find a job.

And so, we're looking for scientists that wanna start, learn, and be able to use state of the art instrumentation and start their career with, fun and professional company, and kickstart and help us treat disease one sample at a time is what we're looking for.

- I like that.

So what's cool too, is if you are coming out of college or if you're young in your career and you want to start up with, basically a startup company.

I mean, Veloxity is the place.

I mean, it'd be like somebody being in the space of when Google started or something.

I mean, it's the same type of thing.

You're kind of rolling the dice on fun because the upside is huge.

- Well, and that's part of our missions.

Part of my job as CEO and President is to set the mission and the vision of the organization.

So, what is our purpose and what is our why?

And that's really cool.

We're a part of curing disease.

We're a part of treating disease.

That is really cool.

Some of these diseases, for example, might be cancer in pediatric patients.

Cancer in babies.

So, we might only have a small part of treating that disease, but we're still part of it.

And especially, the generation that's coming out of college nowadays, they wanna make an impact.

So, you come work for us, you're gonna make an impact.

What I thought was important in my second stage of my career in my life is to really create environment.

This is our mission, create an environment that is fun and vibrant and professional.

'Cause you know what, to me, I'm living my dream.

I don't feel like it's work at all.

It's like I'm on vacation or whatever you call it.

I love it.

- You're having fun.

- I'm having fun.

And I wanna create that for every single one of our team members.

Create that fun, professional environment, so we can really provide that gold medal service to our clients.

And going to do that.

I already see us doing that already.

Just to watch the clients on the other line.

We're talking to them about proposals and whatnot.

They just smile.

And they say things like, I love your enthusiasm.

I love your positivity.

I love your background and your experience.

And those that has to do with all of the team that we're surrounded by.

And just this, we are so much energy involved.

- Yeah, you know, this the first time we met, but I was on a call with you a couple weeks ago.

And I knew I wanted to talk to you about Veloxity when you said the region, Peoria region has passion, perseverance and grit.

- Yeah.

- That was your quote.

I wrote it down.

- Absolutely.

- I memorized it.

- Absolutely.

- And I wrote it down because growing up in Central Illinois and still being here, it makes you proud.

'Cause I talk all the time on this show.

Chicago, St. Louis, Indy.

If you're not having fun up there, please come to middle Illinois.

Because everything that you said at the beginning of the show, they're all positives.

And it's huge to have new business in Central Illinois.

- Well, let me follow up with that because I fly into Moline because it works for my schedule and that's about an hour and 10 minutes away.

And then I drive through farm country to get to Peoria.

And every time I do that, I love to drive through farm country.

Why?

That makes me feel like I'm at home.

I grew up in farm country.

I've worked on farms, right.

And here's what I know, those people in this area, Central Illinois are willing to serve, willing to work and they want to help you.

And so it has that ethic work experience that it's just like, we want to be successful with you.

You talked about entitlement earlier.

There's no entitlement at all.

It's like they're grateful for those particular positions.

That's where we wanna build a team around.

I love the people.

And that's what I've always said is like, the people is why we're here.

The people, I mean, I can give you an example today.

It's like a door was open for me because my hands were full at the next center.

And then I lost my card.

So somebody got me one like within five minutes to open.

And I'm like, what, this is just unheard of.

But that's the type- - It's who were are.

- It's middle America.

It's rural America.

And there's no reason...

I think what we've learned in the pandemic is that, there are advantages to maybe living in a Boston or Chicago, but we now know that we can run businesses and do businesses remotely, or we can do them in other places in the nation.

- I love it.

- People are escaping some of those urban areas.

Because it doesn't have the quality of life.

It doesn't have the affordable housing, and the climate and the people, the lower... What would I say?

More laid back lifestyle.

- Yeah, and chill.

- It's chill, and so people are- - But we're still working hard.

- That's right.

A lot of people think that chill is like, "Oh, you're not getting anything done."

- No, no.

- No, no, no, no.

- Well, I appreciate you saying that.

So Peoria next, did they find you or did you find them?

I mean, how'd that even come about?

- Yeah, I mean, in very infant stages of this thought.

I mean, it was a thought, and I was just Googling places, you know?

And I was looking in Peoria specifically, and I just came across, PRX Innovation.

I can't even remember what the Google search was that I did.

And I start looking and I'm just scrolling, and I'm kind of a disbelief.

What's going on and I'm looking and everything.

So, I send an email within a minute.

I get an email back from the secretary there and was like, "Yeah, we have lab space available."

And at the time I was welcoming my son being born.

And so that kind of was on halt for a little bit.

And then I'm on maternity leave and repick the subject up.

And at that time, by that point, Mike Stubbs, who's the Director there, had been hired.

And he kind of gave me a little bit more information, and was like, "Come on up and check it out."

And Mike has been instrumental in getting us to be a tenant there and he's bending over backwards.

And I just went and toured the place myself and was just blown away.

I mean, if we were to start this business without that space, you have to do certain ventilation, electrical, you have expensive just tables and benches and things that as a startup is very capital intensive.

And it's just a platter they're waiting for you.

It's amazing.

- Yeah, capital intensive and time.

- Try getting anything done right now with contract.

- You can't.

- You can't.

So we're able to, from the minute, hook our equipment in, get it installed, move other things in chemicals and supplies and other things in.

And I mean, within... We moved in January 1st, we're gonna be ready by March 1st to go.

I mean, that is just such an acceleration by having that facility there.

The costs are very reasonable.

Just today, we're asking them if we could do something in addition, and they have the problem-solving mind.

They wanna help us.

They are there to help us in any way.

And they wanna bring these businesses here.

Peoria is thirsty for this type of work.

This biotechnology work.

They want it here and we're grateful and thankful to be a part of that, so.

- And lastly, you can get hold of somebody like that.

- Instantly.

- You can't do that in a downtown Chicago.

- No way.

- You're not moving that fast.

Well, I mean, this is really cool.

I think I've got 20 more pages to talk about, but I think what I'd like to do is have you guys back about four to six months from now to kind of just do, where are you now?

- [Needham] We'd love that.

- We'd love that.

- Because I'm really, really interested in this.

I love that you picked Peoria, Illinois.

Thank you for that.

And I learned a lot, so Dr. Needham, is great meeting you.

- Thank you.

Thank you very much.

- Let's talk again.

- We absolutely will.

- And it's awesome that you're from Germantown now, and here and keep up the good work.

Hire some good local people.

- [Needham] That's what we're gonna to do.

- I love it, I love it.

Well, we appreciate everything you guys are doing, and welcome to middle Illinois.

- Excellent, thank you very much.

- [Shane] Thanks, Matt.

- I'm Matt George, and this is another episode of Business Forward.

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