His mother Sandy was a microbiologist and his father Sidney, a chemist as well as a chiropractor, herbalist and acupuncturist. In fact, Sidney would mix up herbal tinctures for patients in the family garage and later turned his colonic irrigation room into a lab. By 1997, they shifted from making tinctures to running a commercial testing lab – a move that wasn’t exactly part of the plan.
After an herb vendor asked Sudberg to retest some ingredients, more followed, and before he knew it, they had stumbled into a new business.
“We both looked at each other, my dad and I, and we said, ‘I guess we’re a laboratory.’ And that was kind of the accidental beginning of Alkemist Labs,” said Sudberg.
That ‘accidental lab’ started off with microscopy and now offers a comprehensive suite of testing services for dietary supplements and other natural products. While Sudberg describes Alkemist Labs’ start as ‘accidental,’ everything about the lab is deliberate – down to the floors.
“The floor is a chromatogram. I do so many laboratories, we wanted it to be kind of helpful in explaining chromatography. And so I basically gave the tile guys a picture of a wild yam chromatograph and said, ‘replicate this as best as you can.’”
Sudberg’s deep ties to the family business are unmistakable, with a microscope his father gave his mom as an engagement present on display in the lab. Next door to the lab is the ‘crown jewel’ of Alkemist is the Herbarium, an expansive collection of samples that Sudberg’s now-wife Michelle originally organized back in 1999.
With so much history inside the building, we sat down with Sudberg to hear more about the story behind Alkemist Labs and the legacy he hopes to carry on.
“This was an accident that’s been very fulfilling. Like, I didn’t wake up Sunday like, ‘I want to run a testing lab,’” he said. “It was a response to pressure and a love for plants and love for preventing cheating. But I get a kick out of helping our clients make sure they don’t get cheated.”
As the generations grow older, Sudberg said he hopes his dad will be able to one day retire.
“I know he would love to just work until the very end and we’d find him in the fume hood, like with a book or something like that, which is probably how he would like to go, but he should also be able to enjoy his hard work.”
He emphasized that it’s not about who takes over but rather maintaining high industry standards rooted in the family’s herbalist tradition.
“I’d love the fact that if the family legacy business could continue, but I don’t think it’s really realistic. So I think the important thing is what we’ve done is we’ve made a standard of testing in this industry,” he said.
“So our legacy is that we’re basically allowing folks to continue to make effective products [and] I think will be more important than if my children take over or something like that.”