Member spotlight: Turning idle lab assets into additional runway

In this blog, Matej Metkovic, CEO and Founder of Wasteless Bio, explores the valuable unused equipment sitting in labs that quietly erodes in worth. He argues that founders who regularly audit storage, assign ownership and plan dispositions can turn forgotten assets into meaningful time and capital.

Most founders we meet can tell you exactly how many months of runway they have left. Far fewer can tell you the value of the equipment sitting in cupboards and storage rooms. That quiet clutter can be worth real money.

Walk into any incubator, and you will find it. A freezer labelled “Do not use.” A PCR machine was bought for a short project. Boxes of unopened tips from a kit no one needed. We all recognise it. We just do not always act.

Idle assets: A quiet threat to runway

This matters because startups do not fail for lack of ideas. They fail because they run out of money before they prove their ideas work. Recovering capital from idle assets is not glamorous. It is not a substitute for good fundraising. But it can buy time. Time to finish a crucial experiment. Time to hit the data point that attracts your next investor. Time to extend runway by months, not days.

Why labs end up with surplus gear is obvious. Projects pivot. Staff move on. Procurement rules favour new purchases. Departments do not talk. Equipment sits in limbo. It is not negligence. It is inertia.

The scale is bigger than most people realise. About 65 percent of labs report storing unused or surplus equipment. Institutions estimate that billions of dollars of research assets sit idle across universities and companies. That is capital, not trash. When labs sell surplus early, they recover value. When they wait, value evaporates.

What founders can do today

Here are simple, practical steps that take little time and one person to run:

• Audit storage quarterly. Walk the shelves. Open the boxes. Make a short list. You do not need a full asset register at first. Start with the obvious items with resale value.
• Assign responsibility. Give one person ownership of dispositions. Without clarity, nothing happens. If no one owns it, the boxes remain.
• Plan disposition when projects end. Include asset review in your close-out checklist. It is part of the project lifecycle, not an afterthought.
• Ask for help. A local incubator, a regional cluster, or a resale platform can shorten the time it takes to find buyers. You do not have to be the one who photographs every item and chases every inquiry.

The impact of waste

We say this from experience. Before we started Wasteless Bio, we kept seeing labs that could have unlocked tens of thousands of pounds by selling on time. One team told us they had a list of 370 products after a site consolidation. Eighty percent were in date. The total value was £1.3 million. Imagine if they had sold half of that before priorities shifted. That is runway, not clutter.

This is not just about money. Speed matters too. Waiting on a new order can set back experiments by weeks. If you can source a validated instrument locally, you can generate data sooner. Faster data means faster decisions. Faster decisions can mean the difference between landing a round and being derailed.

There is also a sustainability angle. Reusing equipment reduces the need to manufacture more. It cuts supply chain strain. It lowers carbon tied to procurement. That matters to funders and to the people who work in our labs.

Some readers will worry about quality and compliance. Do not. Items come from reputable labs come with service histories and proper storage. A few checks go a long way. Ask for service records. Ask for images. These steps avoid surprises and keep quality high.

If this sounds like extra work, think about the alternative. Storage fees stack up. Disposal costs add up. Replacing items costs more than you think. The cheapest option is often to use what already exists in your network.

Assets into runway

If you are running a lab right now, try a quick experiment. Spend one hour this week walking your storage. Make a list of five items you could sell. Ask one person on your team to own the sale. If you recover even a few thousand pounds, you will see how fast this scales.

Turning assets into runway is not a magic trick. It is a simple shift in practice. It keeps labs alive longer and gives teams the breathing space to prove their science.

What is the one piece of equipment in your lab that has not been touched in months?