Richard A. Gertzman originally founded TestEquity in 1971 as a provider of used equipment that not only looked new, but also was fully functional, fully recalibrated, and supplied with all the accessories and instruction manuals that the original buyer would have received. In the late 1970s, Richard began renting this used equipment and branched out by distributing a few lines of new equipment.

In 1997 Dan Copsey took the reins at TestEquity. At the time, the company was finding that demand for one of its refurbished product lines — environmental chambers — was far outstripping the available supply of used chambers. This prompted TestEquity to leverage its many years of experience in rebuilding and re-engineering these products — the company introduced the first of its own environmental chambers to the market in 1998. In this same year, TestEquity began to expand its rental business while assembling a knowledgeable and experienced outside sales force.