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Writer's pictureShane Needham

Set Goals, Celebrate Success and Have Fun

Updated: Jul 15

When I Co-Founded Veloxity Labs I wanted to create a climate of fun and competitiveness. As a serial entrepreneur, national champion bodybuilder, state champion powerlifter and overall competitive person, I knew that if we created a climate of winning that we could attract talent and grow our lab with a “sky is the limit” mindset. To create a healthy competitive climate the number one thing you need is to have your team centered around a common vision/purpose. For us at Veloxity, that purpose is “treating disease one sample at a time”. Every treatment, every cure, every therapeutic requires a bioanalytical measurement and that is so rewarding to know we are part of treating disease! It is a purpose bigger than the team!

Once the vision is set, it was up to me as the CEO to set the climate. We work in an environment based on timelines, deadlines, and their associated delays – yes it can be stressful. And we can embrace that with a growth mindset. Thus, our team fostered a climate based on fun and fulfillment. There are many ways we have fun outside of work with baseball games, golf events, bowling, hockey games and team lunches. Yet the most important time to have fun is at work! That is where we spend the majority of our day. So, when I see people laughing and smiling in conversation at work – I encourage it! This is productive – happy employees and those having fun are more productive and don’t “burn-out” like we hear of so much in the CRO world. Our mode of operi, 80% capacity is part of this solution of not having burnout on our team.

Part of the fun at work, is to celebrate even small wins. We set ambitious goals in 2023. As a business, of course we set revenue goals annually. More importantly to set though are the goals that will get us to that big goal, the daily habits of taking one step at a time to continual improvement. #kaizen

Our VP of Strategy, Joe Flynn set an ambitious goal in the fall of 2022 of achieving X amount of revenue in 300 days! That 300th day was April 25th 2023 and we were one month ahead of schedule for achievement of that goal! Reflecting on this I thought, “Wow that is an incredible achievement for a company barely one year old”. Frankly I didn’t think it was possible. And we did it. With that win, we celebrated with our team with a lunch and gift of YETI water bottles labeled with the goal. See the attached pictures.

As a result of our FUN climate, we continue to grow and expand and just added our 18th person to our organizational chart (another scientist – stay tuned!), purchased our 5th LC-MS SCIEX system and added two more lab spaces in the NEXT Center to our footprint. We have increased our footprint from 800 sq feet to >4200 sq feet in <18 months. I continue to be amazed by this team and what we accomplish. As we venture into our collaboration with immunoassays to serve all bioanalytical needs, our growth will only accelerate. I continue to be proud of our team and I am having the time of my life. #fun

Contact us to discuss your next project where we continue to “MOVE AT THE SPEED OF BIOANALYSIS”. And we are always looking for good scientists, project managers, administrators and anyone with a good attitude to join our team!


Shane Needham, Ph.D.

Co-Founder, CEO and President

Veloxity Labs, LLC






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