OUR HISTORY
Laxco comes from a long heritage, dating back more than 20 years. It didn't start out as Laxco, but rather a venture between two unlikely partners. Back in the early 90's two gentlemen by the names of Eric Chen and Steve Lytle formed a partnership that changed the face of 2 completely different industries. As young entrepreneurs, Steve and Eric saw a need for higher quality of imported Chinese manufactured products. The idea was simple, Steve would form a company in the US and handle setting up the distribution channels, while Eric would set up a factory in China and handle the supply chain. Their focus was on quality, and all products shipped to the US would go through a quality control inspection, labeling, and packaging, prior to shipping out to customers or to distributors. This insured that product with the Westover Scientific label, meant that it meet higher quality standards than products simply shipped into the US and put directly onto shelf's for customers to purchase. As the companies grew, so did their ambition, and quickly they realized that "why simply just import, why not develop our own products", and so began a legacy that has lead to two successful startups in the Telecommunication and Life Science industries. Westover Scientific was the first venture in which they started out developing and imported refractometers, microscopes, and fiber optic light sources. However in the late 90's an opportunity presented it self and first handheld fiber microscope was born. It was a simple design, that fit into the palm of your hand and allowed the technician to visually inspect the end of fiber optic cables prior to mating them. This ensured the end face of the fiber was free of dust, scratches or any other imperfections that might inhibit the laser from passing between connectors. Their concept and design quickly took off, and development of video based microscopes was soon introduced. By early 2000 Westover had grown to become a market leader in microscopes for the telecommunication industry and was soon purchased by a large Telecom giant. The brand name of Westover and all of its telecommunication related products may have been bought, but they still had the other half of the business, which was spun off into Advanced Microscopy Group (AMG). In the acquisition of Westover, Eric and Steve partnership dissolved on paper, but not in spirit. They continued to work in a exclusive relationship, and together in developing many more products in the years after the acquisition. Eric took control over the factory in China, while Steve ran the business of AMG. In order to support AMG, Eric formed the company Laxco, and out of AMG office. This allowed the two former partners to work closely together in building another successful story. When AMG opened its doors in mid 2008 it was comprised of a small number of employees brought over after the Westover acquisition and split. Their focus was to revolutionize the microscopy industry with a brand new concept to a traditional inverted design. Armed with more than a decade of experience in the microscopy industry, and a wealth of knowledge from developing video & digital based solutions for the fiber industry, AMG set out on a path to develop the first full integrated digital inverted microscope called the EVOS. The first generation of the EVOS was nothing short of a microscope, camera and screen. They had completely removed the need to have eyepieces, and made the system more ergonomically for easy access to samples. The idea stemmed from the idea that there was a better way of doing cell isolation on an inverted microscope. A traditional inverted microscope was ergonomically all wrong and the challenges of putting the system into a sterile hood environment had its own unique challenges. Over a few years the microscope evolved and later had a fully integrated computer, however it wasn't until they developed a system for fluorescence imaging did the EVOS product line and concept really take off. Being the innovators they were, AMG created a game changing way of capturing and overlaying multiple channels of fluorescence using a patented LED light cube. Within 3 years from the development of the EVOS FL, AMG was purchased by a market leader in the Life Science fluorescence reagent business. After the sale of AMG, Steve decided to hang up the hat, and retire, while Eric had other plans and continues on to build another great successful story. Laxco today drives on as yet another small startup company with a great visions, with the heart of innovation behind it. Now with over 2 decades of experience and the success of two startup companies, Laxco takes aim at building yet another successful brand in the Life Science industry. The focus of Laxco is to create change in the world we see through simple innovation.
