Labdoor is a privately held medical company registered in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

, California, founded in May 2012 by Neil Thanedar. It provides information on dietary supplements, which do not require testing by the

FDA The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA or US FDA) is a federal agency of the Department of Health and Human Services. The FDA is responsible for protecting and promoting public health through the control and supervision of food s ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

History

Born and raised in

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the Greater St. Louis, ...

, the son of

Shri Thanedar Shri Shamal Thanedar (born February 22, 1955) is an American businessman, author, and politician serving as the U.S. representative from Michigan's 13th congressional district since 2023. A member of the Democratic Party, Thanedar served as a mem ...

, Neil Thanedar graduated from the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

Ann Arbor, Michigan Ann Arbor is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the county seat of Washtenaw County, Michigan, Washtenaw County. The 2020 United States census, 2020 census recorded its population to be 123,851. It is the principal city of the Ann Arbor ...

, with degrees in

Cellular Cellular may refer to: *Cellular automaton, a model in discrete mathematics * Cell biology, the evaluation of cells work and more * ''Cellular'' (film), a 2004 movie *Cellular frequencies, assigned to networks operating in cellular RF bands *Cell ...

Molecular Biology Molecular biology is the branch of biology that seeks to understand the molecular basis of biological activity in and between cells, including biomolecular synthesis, modification, mechanisms, and interactions. The study of chemical and physi ...

and

Business Administration Business administration, also known as business management, is the administration of a commercial enterprise. It includes all aspects of overseeing and supervising the business operations of an organization. From the point of view of management ...

. Neil Thanedar co-founded Avomeen Analytical Services with his father in 2010. He founded Labdoor (originally "Labrdr Inc") in May 2012 with co-founders Rafael Ferreira, Helton Souza, and Tercio Junker. Labdoor pursued venture investors in 2012, 2015, and 2016, ultimately securing approximately $11 Million from groups including

Y Combinator Y Combinator (YC) is an American technology startup accelerator launched in March 2005. It has been used to launch more than 3,000 companies, including Airbnb, Coinbase, Cruise, DoorDash, Dropbox, Instacart, Quora, PagerDuty, Reddit, Str ...

Floodgate Fund Floodgate Fund is a venture capital firm based in the United States created by Mike Maples Jr. and Ann Miura-Ko. It was originally named ''Maples Investments,'' but was renamed ''Floodgate Fund'' in March 2010. It is focused on investments in tech ...

, and

Rock Health Rock Health is a full-service seed fund that supports startups working in digital health, also called health technology. Rock Health offers funding, access to medical, venture, legal and corporate partners, and office space to its portfolio comp ...

. A controlling share of Avomeen Analytical Services was sold to an investment group in 2016.

Products and services

Since November 2013, Labdoor's primary income is

affiliate marketing Affiliate marketing is a marketing arrangement in which affiliates receive a commission for each visit, signup or sale they generate for a merchant. This arrangement allows businesses to outsource part of the sales process. It is a form of p ...

for retailers, such as

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon (company), an American multinational technology c ...

, of products they have tested and certified. Labdoor also offers testing services to supplement manufacturers, assessing "accuracy", "purity", and "sport". If a product passes testing, Labdoor will also "drive sales" through its certification program and retailer referrals. As of September 2021, Labdoor's new product selection procedure uses market research and an internal "tally of votes" system to choose which new product category will be selected to test next. In June 2018, Labdoor launched the

crypto-currency A cryptocurrency, crypto-currency, or crypto is a digital currency designed to work as a medium of exchange through a computer network that is not reliant on any central authority, such as a government or bank, to uphold or maintain it. It i ...

TEST. It seeks to create a incentive system for individuals or organizations to anonymously create or raise a

bounty Bounty or bounties commonly refers to: * Bounty (reward), an amount of money or other reward offered by an organization for a specific task done with a person or thing Bounty or bounties may also refer to: Geography * Bounty, Saskatchewan, a g ...

on a product for independent laboratories to test. TEST will be in

initial coin offering An initial coin offering (ICO) or initial currency offering is a type of funding using cryptocurrencies. It is often a form of crowdfunding, although a private ICO which does not seek public investment is also possible. In an ICO, a quantity of cr ...

(ICO) stage through December 2018. Labdoor buys dietary supplements directly from retailers, sends the products to an FDA-registered laboratory for analysis, and publishes the findings. Its mission is to share information to help consumers make the right decisions for themselves about dietary supplements. Labdoor's rankings have sometimes been published by the press and online media.

Government and legal interactions

Their findings resulted in the

taking a closer look at the safety of energy drinks. Labdoor evaluated

Alex Jones Alexander Emerick Jones (born February 11, 1974) is an American far-right and alt-right radio show host and prominent conspiracy theorist. He hosts ''The Alex Jones Show'' from Austin, Texas, which the Genesis Communications Network broadcas ...

's supplements, stating "the science behind many of their claimed ingredients are questionable." Some 2015 tests of supplement products conducted by a third-party laboratory, which was organized by Labdoor and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), were first published and later retracted upon repeat testing. The supplements were correctly labeled and there was no contamination nor deficiency in the products. As of August 2016, Labdoor allows manufacturers to challenge a report of a product by re-testing the product, or opt-out of having any reports of the manufacturer's products published on Labdoor's website.

References

{{Consumer protection Privately held companies based in California Consumer guides Consumer organizations in the United States Product-testing organizations

History

Products and services

Government and legal interactions

See also

References