Link Biosciences Case Study
Link Biosciences runs a deeply custom personalized-nutrition operation that off-the-shelf software could not handle. They did not just need software development. They needed a technical partner who could understand the operation firsthand and build the platform around it. 21 Solutions became that partner — building Sigma, a custom software platform integrated with specialized production hardware.
Built with Link Biosciences, a B2B operational engine for companies offering personalized supplements.
~300 → 1000s
Daily order capacity the software supports, up from manual limits
~1,200
Orders routinely processed for a single customer in one day
Portal
Customer visibility into formulas, orders, production, and shipping
Partner
A long-term technical partner, not just a vendor
With a second production machine online, daily capacity reached nearly 2,000 orders. Throughput at that scale reflects both the software and added hardware capacity.
Client
Link Biosciences — a B2B operational engine for companies offering personalized supplements.
Industry
Custom nutrition / personalized supplement operations.
Challenge
Highly custom formulation and fulfillment workflows could not scale through manual processes and generic tools.
Solution
A custom software platform — Sigma — integrated with specialized production hardware and customer-facing workflows.
Outcome
Higher throughput, better visibility, scalable order management, and a long-term technical partnership.
Link Biosciences’ work is operationally unique because every client can have different data inputs and formulation rules. Depending on the customer, the system might need to support DNA data, gut biome information, lifestyle surveys, customer-specific recipes, and production constraints — then turn all of it into a precise, personalized formula and a real production order.
Before Sigma, the business had to hold that complexity together with a patchwork of manual processes and disconnected tools.
Microsoft Access databases holding critical operational data.
Spreadsheets used to track customers, orders, and formulas.
Manual clean-room documentation for production.
A generic off-the-shelf system that required heavy ongoing support.
Significant programmer support just to keep the process running.
Manual ingredient weighing and batching on the production floor.
Disconnected customer, order, and formula tracking.
Labor-intensive workflows that were hard to track and costly to scale.
The problem was not that Link Biosciences lacked software. The problem was that none of the software understood the business.
The old process could produce around 300 orders per day — but doing so required significant manual labor and operational overhead. The ceiling was not ambition. It was the manual, fragmented system underneath the operation.
Link Biosciences was not a standard ecommerce or fulfillment business. It was a custom formulation engine. A generic platform could not easily account for the reality of how the operation actually worked.
“For a business this specialized, software requirements do not arrive neatly packaged. They have to be discovered by understanding the operation.”
21 Solutions did not wait for perfect specifications. Through Sergei Golimbievsky’s work, the team got close to the operation, learned how the business actually ran, and built software around the real workflow — not an idealized version of it.
“Sergei took the time to understand the process, the user, the formulas, and the machine. That made him different from other developers.”
When your business is too custom for off-the-shelf software, you need a technical partner who can understand the operation deeply enough to build the system the business actually needs.
Sigma is the custom software platform 21 Solutions built for Link Biosciences. It became the operational backbone of the business — unifying parts of the operation that had previously depended on manual handoffs, spreadsheets, Access databases, and workarounds.
Sigma gave Link Biosciences a single operational backbone for a business that had previously depended on manual handoffs, spreadsheets, Access databases, and workarounds.
Throughput
Previously about 300 orders per day through manual production workflows. Sigma supports thousands of orders per day from a software standpoint, with production constrained more by hardware and staffing than the software itself. The team has routinely processed around 1,200 orders for a single customer in one day; with a second machine, capacity reached nearly 2,000 daily orders.
Speed
Manual production and documentation once created a significant time burden. Now formulas are generated as orders enter Sigma, then batched for production. Batches can move through production in minutes, with a batch often containing hundreds of orders.
Customer visibility
Customers previously relied on spreadsheets and less transparent processes. Now they can log into a system, view formulas, see order progress, monitor production status, and track shipping.
Flexibility
The business was once constrained by rigid systems and manual workflows. Link Biosciences can now support different types of clients — including those using DNA, gut biome, survey-based, or recipe-driven personalization models.
Partnership
The relationship endured because 21 Solutions became a trusted technical partner who understood the business deeply enough to keep supporting new needs as the company evolved.
Unified operation
Sigma connected customer data, formulas, orders, batching, and production — replacing a patchwork of Access databases, spreadsheets, and manual handoffs with a single operational backbone.
Throughput at the highest volumes reflects both Sigma and added production hardware capacity. Production still involves staffing and hardware, and is not fully automated end to end.
The Link team described Sergei’s role as a partner, not a vendor. As the company grew and leadership evaluated its systems and relationships, the internal team advocated for keeping the technical partnership in place — because future growth and change depended on the system and the knowledge behind it.
When new leadership initially considered reducing or eliminating the external development relationship, the internal recommendation was straightforward: if the company wanted to keep growing and changing, removing that technical partner would be risky. 21 Solutions continued to demonstrate value — understanding the system, communicating with leadership, and continuing to deliver.
This is a normal part of leadership evaluation. In this case, it reinforced the value of the partnership rather than replacing it.
“For a custom process, you get custom problems. 21 Solutions understood how to work outside the box.”
Why partnership beats vendor relationships here
If your team is relying on spreadsheets, manual workarounds, disconnected systems, or software that does not match how the business actually operates, 21 Solutions can help you turn that complexity into a system that scales.
