#StartupsEverywhere profile: Russell Schindler, Founder and CEO, SampleServe, Inc.
This profile is part of #StartupsEverywhere, an ongoing series highlighting startup leaders in ecosystems across the country. This interview has been edited for length, content, and clarity.
Creating a Digital Chain of Custody for Environmental Testing
SampleServe is a startup that’s helping field technicians, laboratories, and consultants streamline the collection and testing of environmental samples by using a digital chain of custody process to quickly turn testing data into reports. We recently spoke with Russell Schindler, the Founder and CEO of SampleServe, to learn more about his startup’s work, his thoughts on crowdfunding, and his plans for branching out into new markets.
What in your background made you interested in entrepreneurship?
I graduated from Western Michigan University in 1987 with a degree in geology. At the time, most geologists went to work for the oil industry, but they weren’t hiring much at the time because of the economy. The environmental industry, however, was picking up, so I started doing environmental work for a couple of companies for about five years. Environmental regulations are always changing, and back then they were changing frequently. At the last company that I worked, I remember going to my bosses and mentioning that we had 90 days to be certified as a result of a recent regulatory change, but they didn’t know what I was talking about. And it hit me that my future was in their hands. So that was the impetus for me to get my first company started.
Tell us more about SampleServe and the work that you’re doing. How does your app help simplify environmental project management?
Environmental samples in the industry are treated like evidence. There’s about 135 million samples collected in the U.S. each year, and most of those samples now are collected using a paper chain of custody. That entails handwriting sample labels, handwriting the chain of custody, and then sending it back to a lab or project manager to have it typed up. The time involved, in addition to the error rate, can cause problems. One of my clients told me that we should come up with some kind of a digital chain of custody to streamline the process, and I took that as a challenge. It took a couple of months to come up with and then refine the process but we did it. We can tell you, with certainty, the who, the where, and the when, of each and every sample collected and each transfer of custody. It’s actually way better than a paper chain of custody.
Our products help people collect data and move samples. The goal is to move from samples to reporting as quickly as possible. We have two primary mobile apps, a field app and a laboratory app, that help move all of the testing data into the reporting phase. We tie all of the field data together digitally—including GPS locations, photos, and samples—and marry all of that to create graphics that let people know where contamination is or isn’t located, what the concentrations are, and which direction it’s heading. Our field app generates QR coded labels that technicians use to label the sample bottles, and it sends the digital chain of custody information to the lab. Once the lab receives the samples, they use our separate Lab App to scan the QR codes on the bottles and confirm that they’ve all arrived.
Last year, we profiled how SampleServe was retooling its services in response to the pandemic. Can you tell us a bit more about this work?
We created a process for using our app to do COVID testing and sampling, and we initially received a lot of interest. I did a number of demonstrations, but interest has faded over time. While health officials are doing drive-thru testing and even vaccine distribution now, most sites still use paper to collect and catalog relevant information. Our app is still applicable, but unfortunately the process is disjointed from state to state. There isn’t one entity saying how the data should be collected. Hospitals and states and cities are doing the process differently. So we’ve largely had to move on to other things.
What are some startup-related policy issues and concerns that you believe should receive more attention from local, state, and federal policymakers?
Even as technology has advanced, the adoption of this type of app-based technology remains difficult. In our industry, state-level reimbursement policies aren’t always aligned with the improvements in modern technology. Michigan and other states have funds that act as insurance programs for leaking underground storage tanks. So if you’re a mom-and-pop gas station and you have an underground leak, then you can draw off this fund to reimburse the environmental cleanup on your property. The fund is a good idea, but the problem is reimbursement costs associated with this work still prioritize billable hours. So while we can create reports and graphics from the data in minutes because of technology, old-fashioned consulting engineering companies can take up to three days of billable hours to do this type of work. This is a problem for us because consulting companies don’t want to use our services, since our reporting product can complete reports in 10 minutes. Consultants typically bill two to three days of time, and there’s not much billable time in 10 minutes. So while technology is driving down costs, antiquated policies—in this case, how the states distribute reimbursements—are still keeping innovation at bay.
When it comes to startups in particular, the cost of entry to crowdfunding can be too high. We’ve started raising money through Netcapital, which allows people to actually buy stock in our company online. While a number of startups are moving to these types of platforms, the process is still complicated when it comes to the regulatory review that is required before you can actually begin to receive funding. Policymakers need to make it easier to receive funding through regulation crowdfunding websites to augment outside investors. And, unfortunately, some VC firms don’t like to work with startups that use crowdfunding services, so we need to change that mindset as well. I see crowdfunding as more of the future of investing, especially since COVID hit and the demand for online crowdfunding has skyrocketed. I know part of it has to do with not being able to pitch in-person to angel investors, since you lose a certain connection when pitching remotely. As online crowdfunding becomes more popular, it would be great if policymakers could make it easier for startups to access and use these platforms to access funding.
What is your goal for SampleServe moving forward?
Our core concept of collecting a sample and then getting it to a lab won’t change. But while we’re continuing that focus, we’re also exploring other similar collection processes. Our main app is for large multi-sample collection processes, where you have a big contamination site and need to collect 50 or more samples a month. But groundwater testing and surface water testing are different from drinking water collection and testing, and there’s different data in the reports and different visuals that are needed. A few months ago, we had a lab call us up that collects around 8,000 drinking water samples a year—they usually test when someone buys a house, or does something to their well, or for small gas stations with quasi-public water supplies that need to test their well water. And they did these one at a time through a paper chain of custody process. They didn’t want to download a mobile app for each one-off test, so we created a progressive web app—basically, a website that acts like an app—that we just released that last month called SampleH20.
Another big market that’s emerging is cannabis. As states legalize cannabis, there are specific tests that need to happen before it can be sold. This April, we plan on launching a new product called SampleTHC. It’s very specific to cannabis, and can be used in hemp production as well. We’ve also had calls with forensic investigators, arson investigators, and fishery officials about using our products. So there are all types of applications for our services when you need to combine photos, data, and other information along with a sample and keep the information all tied together with a digital chain of custody.
All of the information in this profile was accurate at the date and time of publication.
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