Company Profile · B2B Media & Technology
CompareNetworks, Inc.
The quiet media company that helps science and healthcare professionals stay informed, discover products, and decide.
The quiet media company that helps science and healthcare professionals stay informed, discover products, and decide.
Every day, somewhere in a laboratory, a researcher hits the same small wall: which antibody, which ELISA kit, which centrifuge? The catalog is enormous, the stakes are real, and Google is a blunt instrument. CompareNetworks, Inc. built a company in that gap.
Founded in 1999 and headquartered in South San Francisco, CompareNetworks is a B2B media and technology firm whose job is deceptively simple: help professionals "stay informed, discover and decide." It does this through a family of vertical marketplaces - Biocompare for life scientists, Labcompare for analytical labs, Dentalcompare for dental practices, and editorial brands like American Pharmaceutical Review - each one a searchable directory wrapped in reviews, news and workflow tools.
The company doesn't manufacture reagents or sell instruments. It sells something manufacturers cannot easily build themselves: the trusted moment when a buyer is actually choosing. With roughly 62 employees and an estimated $15-17M in revenue, CompareNetworks has stayed lean, independent, and deep in its niches for more than two decades.
Most B2B markets in science and healthcare are fragmented. Thousands of manufacturers, tens of thousands of SKUs, and a buyer - often a busy scientist or clinician - with no neutral place to compare. CompareNetworks organizes that chaos into vertical directories where products can be searched, filtered, and evaluated side by side.
The problem it solves is discovery. On a CompareNetworks site, a life scientist can find antibodies, biomolecules, kits and lab equipment; read editorial and product reviews; and follow links straight to a manufacturer's page. The reader gets clarity. The manufacturer gets a qualified, high-intent lead. The company sits in the middle, translating attention into commerce.
That middle position is the whole business. It requires two things at once - editorial credibility that keeps professionals coming back, and a product database deep enough that manufacturers pay to be found in it.
The buyer's guide for life scientists - a searchable directory of antibodies, ELISA kits, biomolecules and equipment, paired with reviews and new-technology coverage.
Technology and product information for laboratory and analytical-science professionals choosing instruments and consumables.
Product directory and best-practices resource that brings order to a scattered dental purchasing market.
Media brands - including Pharmaceutical Outsourcing - serving pharma manufacturing and outsourcing professionals.
A syndication network and product API that embeds unbiased product data directly into scientific articles and publisher platforms.
Media and product resources built for the eye-care community, plus PharmaCompare and other niche verticals.
CompareNetworks goes an inch wide and a mile deep. Instead of one broad catalog, it runs distinct marketplaces tuned to how each profession actually buys. Illustrative view of audience emphasis across its verticals:
Relative emphasis shown for illustration; not audited traffic figures.
The model is B2B media and lead generation. Directories and editorial are free for professionals; manufacturers pay for listings, advertising, sponsored content, email, video and print placements, and qualified leads. On top of that sits a platform business - web and mobile content-management systems and custom sales-and-marketing app development.
What separates CompareNetworks from a generic directory or a search engine is domain fluency. Its founders are scientists: CEO Paul Gatti holds a Ph.D. in Microbiology and Immunology, and Chief Content Officer Mike Okimoto also carries a doctorate. When your audience is researchers, understanding the workflow isn't a nice-to-have - it's the moat.
The alternatives - SelectScience, Science Exchange, manufacturer catalogs, ThomasNet-style directories and plain Google - either lack the neutral comparison layer or the scientific credibility. CompareNetworks' bet is that trust built over 25 years is the hardest thing for a competitor to copy.
Ph.D. in Microbiology & Immunology from Tulane University. Grew CompareNetworks from an idea into a leading B2B media and technology company; former principal at Scienza Consulting.
Operations lead overseeing the day-to-day running of the company's marketplaces and media brands.
Oversees the life-science research brands, including Biocompare, bringing scientific rigor to the editorial side.
Paul Gatti, Andy Miller and Mike Okimoto launch the company in the San Francisco Bay Area, starting with Biocompare.
The company raises a $250,000 seed round to fuel marketplace growth.
CompareNetworks debuts its syndication network, embedding Biocompare product data into scientific content, with the Journal of Visualized Experiments as first partner.
The Biocompare antibody search tool becomes available on the iPad.
Main Street Capital facilitates a management buyout, keeping CompareNetworks independent under its leadership.
The company runs 9+ marketplaces with ~62 employees across three continents.
On the demand side: life-science researchers, laboratory and analytical scientists, dental and eye-care practitioners, and pharmaceutical professionals who use the directories to research and compare products before they buy.
On the supply side: the science and healthcare manufacturers who pay to be discovered - through listings, advertising, content and lead generation. The value CompareNetworks delivers to them is intent. A visitor comparing ELISA kits is far closer to a purchase than a random impression, which is why qualified leads sit at the heart of the model.
Paul Gatti's Ph.D. means the person running the company is a peer of the audience it serves - rare in media.
scrazzl let a scientist buy a reagent mentioned in a journal article without leaving the page, years before "shoppable content" was mainstream.
Biocompare, Labcompare, Dentalcompare, PharmaCompare - the brand is a literal network of "compare" sites.
It operates B2B vertical marketplaces and media brands - like Biocompare, Labcompare and Dentalcompare - that help science and healthcare professionals research and compare products, while generating qualified sales leads for manufacturers.
Yes. Biocompare is CompareNetworks' flagship brand, a searchable buyer's guide and product directory for life scientists.
Co-founders Paul Gatti (CEO), Andy Miller (COO) and Mike Okimoto (Chief Content Officer). It was founded around 1999 in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Through a B2B media and lead-generation model: manufacturers pay for listings, advertising, sponsored content, email, video, print, and qualified leads across its marketplaces, plus platform and software services.
Its headquarters is at 395 Oyster Point Boulevard, South San Francisco, California, with staff across multiple continents.
Watch & learn - product demos and coverage:
Primary contact: pgatti@comparenetworks.com · +1 650-243-5212 · 395 Oyster Point Blvd, South San Francisco, CA 94080