(1) Describe your startup.
Spectra Plasmonics makes innovative chemical detection technology that provides lab grade results in the palm of your hand.
(2) What inspired the creation of the startup?
We came together at our university’s startup incubation program, where entrepreneurial students come together, form teams, and start a company. Our team was interested in working on big problems. Marijuana was about to become legalized in Canada, the opioid crisis was worsening, to name just a few. There was IP being developed in our Department of Chemical Engineering that could help combat these issues, so we seized the exclusive rights to the IP and have been working together since.
(3) What differentiates your startup from the competition?
At Spectra we are part of a growing trend towards portable lab grade detection, but a big differentiator for us is our focus on how to best deliver information to the end user. Providing accurate, reliable testing is only the first step in a much larger workflow. The delivery and communication of the detection data to the user is just as important. This is why we follow a “measure, monitor, manage” system. We build additional software tools that allow customers to better monitor trends and anomalies in their measurements across time, and in some instances geography, which helps them better manage their work or tackle the problem at hand.
(4) Who is the target market?
Our initial target market revolves around illicit drug analysis, with target customers in public health, and law enforcement and related industries (e.g. prisons).
(5) How did you grow your presence in your target market?
A key to boosting our presence was participating in Health Canada’s Drug Checking Technology Challenge. Essentially, due to contaminants such as fentanyl and carfentanil, nobody really knows what drugs are in our streets. Health Canada sponsored this Challenge in hopes of new, portable drug detection and surveillance tools being brought to market. There were initially nine competitors, and we are now one of three finalists for a CAD $1M prize.
(6) What stage are you at?
We just wrapped up our first police sale, and will soon be initiating a drug surveillance pilot with a local health unit along with a six figure drug analysis pilot with a prison group.
(7) What are some of the biggest challenges that your startup have had to overcome?
Hardware is hard, and you can’t always hack together an MVP over the weekend. We have had periods (many weeks long) where things would not go our way. Tests were not going according to plan, for every tech fire put out another would pop up, and so on. These periods were hard to push through, but we were able to do so for a few reasons. 1) We took a step back and looked at the bigger picture, 2) surrounded ourselves with great advisors and support, 3) were not afraid to admit when we needed help.
(8) What is next for the startup?
We are hoping to make good progress on the pilots as this then gives us three strong use cases to point to: public health, police, and prison systems. From there we hope to rapidly push sales to start making an impact against the opioid crisis.
We have also begun R&D on the next generation of our technology, which is bacterial analysis. This product has also received some funding from a Health Canada sponsored grant. In the near future we are looking to connect with potential industrial testing/pilot partners to help guide the development and initial use cases.
(9) Where would you like to be in the next 5 years?
In the next five years we hope to see our drug analysis and surveillance technology deployed across Canada and the United States. While COVID has rightfully taken the spotlight, the opioid crisis is still a major public health issue and we want to do our part to fight it. By this point we have already launched another product or two in order to tackle other key health and safety issues.
(10) If you had to give one piece of advice to an up and coming startup what would it be?
Be honest with yourself. If you notice a problem, acknowledge it immediately and readjust. As much as it can hurt to admit mistakes or poor assumptions you made, if you continue down the path blindly ignoring these faults you will hurt your company more in the end.
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