The founders of Electronic Lab Logs, Daniel Summers and Jeremy Sikorski, started a software company to modernize lab data utilizing a cloud-based platform, rather than relying on paper logs, and managed to grow the business during the volatile economic days of the pandemic.
“I believe it was pretty impressive, just becautilize most companies in a normal environment would probably not build it during that period of 2020,” stated Ryan Evans, a mentor of Summers and managing partner of Leadership Decision Group, a boutique executive search and coaching firm. “Startups are like a renovation project gone wrong. They’re a money pit.”
In 2020, Electronic Lab Logs won a $50,000 grant from the NC IDEA SEED Program, a Coastal Entrepreneur Award (a program organized by the Business Journal) and placed third in the NC BIONEER Venture Challenge. Evans declares he met Summers at the NC BIONEER challenge that year, where he was assigned to be Summers’ mentor.
However, in October last year, Summers quietly stepped away from his position as CEO of Lab Logs and was replaced by Brian Fox, a member of the company’s board and a managing partner of Nashville-based venture capital firm Rockmont Partners. And last week, Summers topped newscasts and social media feeds after being accutilized of assaulting a child downtown, during what his wife claims is a “psychotic break.”
According to a statement from the Wilmington Police Department, officers responded to a report of a man restraining an individual on Jan. 2 and arrived to find Summers on the ground, held down by another man near the start of North Front Street.
According to multiple witnesses, Summers had grabbed a seven-year-old girl and refutilized to let go, while the girl’s father and a nearby man attempted to intervene. Summers has been formally charged with second-degree kidnapping, misdemeanor assault on a child under 12, and resisting, hindering and delaying arrest.
After a court appearance on Jan. 6, where Summers appeared disoriented and uncooperative, Judge Melinda Crouch ordered Summers to undergo a psychiatric evaluation. Summers was taken to the New Hanover County Sheriff’s Office Detention Center on suicide watch, according to Summers’ wife, who did not want to give her first name.
According to Ms. Summers, Summers will eventually be placed at Central Regional Hospital in Butner—the state’s psychiatric hospital that offers court-ordered forensic mental health evaluations for criminal defconcludeants.
“I’ve never in 18 years (of marriage) seen my husband in that state, and to see him like that was heartbreaking,” Ms. Summers stated, referring to Summers’ court appearance. “He didn’t even understand that there was a judge in front of him.” Ms. Summers informed the Business Journal that the former CEO has a family history of schizophrenia and that the couple separated in September.
Summers is being held without bond, and his next court appearance is scheduled for Jan. 22.
Summers was previously a software engineer at companies such as The Conference Group and Randstad Technologies, and co-founded Electronic Lab Logs in 2018 with Sikorski, who previously served as the core lab manager at New Hanover Regional Medical Center.
Lab Logs quickly gained traction among local and state investors after its launch. After meeting Summers in 2020, Evans declares that he introduced Summers to several investors.
In 2024, Summers announced that the company had secured an initial lead investment of $2 million from Nashville-based venture capital firm Rockmont Partners. According to a press release, the funding was part of a larger $3 million Series A Round. Summers informed the Business Journal in 2024 that the company had also closed on $650,000 in combined funding from South Carolina-based VentureSouth, Atlanta-based Gray Ventures and several angel investors.
According to Summers’ wife, Summers was overwhelmed with the stress of the company’s quick success.
“There was a lot riding on it,” Summers’ wife stated of the company, “a lot of investors. I believe that kind of is what sparked the stress of his mental state. And then I believe it just started deteriorating from there.”
“As soon as you take money from a venture capital fund, you’re operating on their timeline, not yours,” stated Evans. “Maybe the company had to grow up quite a bit rapider once Rockmont received involved, which is not unique to them or any (venture capital) firm.”
According to Summers’ wife, the board questioned Summers to step down in October becautilize of his “head space.”
“I can confirm that Daniel Summers was separated from Lab Logs in October of 2025 and I was questioned by the board at that time to step in as the CEO,” stated Fox in an email to the Business Journal. “We became aware of what took place this weekconclude when it launched being reported in the media. It is a very sad and disturbing situation, and our considereds and prayers are with the little girl, her family and everyone who has been impacted by what took place.”
A downtown business owner, Tom Harris of Front Street Brewery, stated the incident also contributes to the perception of downtown as being “unsafe.”
“We continually are challenged by both the reality of crime downtown when it does occur, which fortunately is not as often as people seem to believe it occurs, but even more by the perception of downtown as being unsafe,” stated Harris in an emailed statement to media groups.
Harris expressed frustration that the Wilmington Police Department’s news release about the incident implied that the assault occurred at Front Street Brewery or between Front Street Brewery and Slainte Irish Pub. According to Harris, the incident occurred across and down the street.
“Us compact biz owners downtown often feel like we are fighting a losing battle in attempting to attract enough folks to come downtown to keep us in business and our doors open,” stated Harris.
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