developed “a tremendous amount” of cloud-based software to help the company manage what he describes as a very complex, broad, and diverse inventory. The company typically has more than 10,000 stock-keeping units (SKUs). Even two pieces of the same make and model usually require different SKUs, he says, unless they were manufactured during the same year.
BioSurplus now has about 40 employees in four locations. The company’s listings include analytical chemistry systems, autoclave sterilizers, bioreactor-fermenters, cell counting and sorting systems, centrifuges, freezers for storing biological samples, glass washer-dryers, and other tools of the biotech trade. The systemized approach enabled the company to organize an extended auction last year for more than 2,000 items offered from the shut down of Biogen Idec’s San Diego facility. The value of Biogen Idec’s equipment was estimated at $10 million at the time.
SJF Ventures specializes in cleantech, premium consumer products, and business and Web-based sectors. In a statement to be released today, SJF Managing Director David Griest says the firm’s BioSurplus deal represents the first investment from its third fund, and “aligns perfectly with our focus on capital efficient, growth stage companies offering proven solutions.”
Author: Bruce V. Bigelow
In Memoriam: Our dear friend Bruce V. Bigelow passed away on June 29, 2018. He was the editor of Xconomy San Diego from 2008 to 2018. Read more about his life and work here.
Bruce Bigelow joined Xconomy from the business desk of the San Diego Union-Tribune. He was a member of the team of reporters who were awarded the 2006 Pulitzer Prize in National Reporting for uncovering bribes paid to San Diego Republican Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham in exchange for special legislation earmarks. He also shared a 2006 award for enterprise reporting from the Society of Business Editors and Writers for “In Harm’s Way,” an article about the extraordinary casualty rate among employees working in Iraq for San Diego’s Titan Corp. He has written extensively about the 2002 corporate accounting scandal at software goliath Peregrine Systems. He also was a Gerald Loeb Award finalist and National Headline Award winner for “The Toymaker,” a 14-part chronicle of a San Diego start-up company. He takes special satisfaction, though, that the series was included in the library for nonfiction narrative journalism at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University.
Bigelow graduated from U.C. Berkeley in 1977 with a degree in English Literature and from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1979. Before joining the Union-Tribune in 1990, he worked for the Associated Press in Los Angeles and The Kansas City Times.
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