From a first colony
to UK customers.

Cristian · Founder of Entolab

Cristian brought a background in product design and entrepreneurship to a practical question: how do you turn a small mealworm colony into a working business?

He built the rearing practice, introduced sensors and visual computing, developed the brands and brought products to the UK market. Entolab brings that experience together, with an invitation to help shape what comes next.

Discuss a collaboration

An illustration, not the original farm. Counts are Cristian’s approximations.

Fig. 01

Anatomy of a bootstrapped venture

1 kg · 2–3 trays

Start small. Learn the organism.

Entolab began with 1 kg of mealworms and two or three trays. Cristian learned the husbandry from the ground up: feeding, life stages and the daily work of keeping a colony growing.

The starting point was hands-on rearing. Building the operation meant learning how the organism, its environment and the routine of the farm affected one another.

Founded 2021 · ≈ 250–300 trays

Build a repeatable practice.

Cristian started Entolab in 2021 and developed it through hands-on farming, research and product design. The operation grew from its first colony to approximately 250–300 trays. Sensors, visual computing and data became part of the work of understanding growth and improving efficiency.

The initial expansion in tray numbers took more than a year; it was one phase of the wider Entolab journey. The venture also involved developing brands, reaching buyers and exploring practical tools. Future industrial development would need its own testing and validation.

Live mealworms · frass · beetles

Take the work beyond the farm.

Cristian developed Entolab’s identity and distributed live mealworms, frass and beetles nationally in the UK. He also created EcoBooster, a dedicated brand for mealworm frass.

Building a brand and getting products to buyers connected production with real commercial work. Entolab and EcoBooster became two expressions of the same venture: rearing insects and finding a market for what the farm produced.

Explore the EcoBooster brand

Experience · research · know-how

Build on what already exists.

The rearing practice, brands, research and technical concepts offer different starting points for a future project. Explore a new operating venture, technical development or ways to build on the existing know-how.

Cristian is looking to reconnect with entrepreneurs, operators and investors who see value in both the work and the person who built it. The structure and scope of any future collaboration would be discussed directly.

Illustrative rearing and packing setup, not a drawing of the original farm. Tray counts and timing are approximate, based on Cristian’s account. The few trays shown represent stages of the work, not the total capacity.

Biology, design and a route to market.

The value of Entolab sits in the connections Cristian made between disciplines, through building and operating the venture himself.

Rearing practice: Mealworm husbandry developed through a growing operation, from the first colony to hundreds of trays.
Sensing & observation: The introduction of sensors, visual computing and data to investigate growth and operational efficiency.
Brands & distribution: Entolab and EcoBooster, with experience distributing live mealworms, frass and beetles across the UK.
Design & entrepreneurship: A product designer’s approach to making systems understandable, useful and commercially relevant.

A pause in production. An open next chapter.

Entolab has been dormant for the past year or two. Cristian is settling in Italy and winding down the UK company. This site is a record of the work and a place to discuss its future; a new operating venture has not yet been defined.

Build on the experience.

Explore a new operating venture, develop the technical concepts, or discuss how the brands and know-how could contribute to a future project. Tell Cristian what interests you and what you could bring.

Discuss a collaboration

Or email Cristian via hello@entolab.co.uk

This account of building and operating Entolab is based on Cristian’s recollection.