How We Built a 51-Person Laboratory in Four Years

'It’s impossible.’

We must have heard those words at least 100 times over the last few years. My partner, Chad Holman, and I created a business plan with a goal that almost everyone considered ridiculous: to build a $3 million lab in three years.

Investors rolled their eyes at our lofty projections and other lab owners told us we were crazy, that the business doesn’t work that way. There were times we even doubted the plan ourselves but we resolved to banish our doubts by working out every detail of the execution ahead of time.

Chad and I both grew up in the lab business and we both had great mentors. Chad had Bill Layman and Jim Cason who founded TLC in Orlando; I had my father, Gene DeFranco, who founded and ran Prodontic Laboratories for over 40 years, and Josh Green who was an icon in the industry. They taught us that knowing...