Q&A With AlgenAir Founders Kelsey Abernathy and Dan Fucich
Could you provide background on your education and how your research led to this idea?
DF- My doctoral research at the University of Maryland focused on cyanobacteria (algae) stress response and carbon capture. As a Ratcliffe Environmental Entrepreneurial Fellow (REEF), I was exposed to business opportunities to translate benchtop research to solve real world problems and positively impact peoples’ lives. After learning more about the incredible untapped potential of algae, I fell in love with the growing problem of indoor air pollution and Sick Building Syndrome in energy efficient buildings.
How did you explore creating your product?
DF- We shopped around at a few hardware design firms in Baltimore, all were orders of magnitude over budget, I didn’t know numbers went that high! So we scrounged up the money we had, bought a 3D printer and learned CAD! It was the most fun distraction from our dissertations ever, I am sure our PI’s hated it.
KA- To add to Dan, one of the most exciting moments early on was sitting on the DC metro and realizing that we needed to be the ones to design it. We ordered a 3D printer from the metro car.
Why are you the best team to champion this product?
DF-We’re algae nerds who fell in love with solving the problem of sick building syndrome. Thankfully people are becoming more and more aware of indoor air quality in recent years and algae is nature’s most powerful tool for CO2 sequestration and O2 production.
What were some aspects of the processes that surprised you?
DF-How much fun designing, testing, and iteratively improving a hardware product is. Everything takes 2x longer and is 2x more expensive, but it is all infinitely more fun than the time and money is worth.
How did you make sure your product was a reflection of your target audience’s needs?
DF- We like to keep in touch with our customers to hear their feedback — good and bad! That way we can constantly improve the customer experience and get better for them and future users. We like to keep in contact through email campaigns, surveys, and through customer support, but the best way is to pick up the phone and listen about how they use the product in their daily lives.
KA- We spent a lot of time on research and customer discovery before founding the company. Our first step was actually going through the NSF I CORPS customer discovery program. It’s always been important to us to connect with our customers. Their feedback drives our iterative design improvements, messaging, set up materials and more. We reach out to our longtime customers every few months to check in and see how we can improve their experience
How does AlphaLab Gear help you reach your goals?
KA- There are so many reasons we chose to work with AlphaLab Gear. One of the main ones is the expertise in hardware. We are undergoing an electronics redesign and have already had many productive conversions with the AlphaLab Gear team on the project.
DF — Going through other business development accelerators were great to work on pricing models, raising capital, and branding/messaging, which are all important, don’t get me wrong. AlphaLab Gear brings so much more to the table. Being a truly hardware accelerator bridges the gap between ideation, design, and manufacturing. These stages and players typically think very differently and problem solve in incompatible ways. The team that AlphaLab Gear has assembled brings that typically striated process into one cohesive unit. It is a lot of fun to ideate and problem solve with the team!
What is next?
KA- Scaling the technology. The aerium is just the beginning, the patent pending technology can be scaled to clean entire homes and eventually buildings. We have already started developing a larger prototype that can clean air in a 5000 sq ft co working space.
DF- We’re working on pilot tests of larger installations so we can increase the system size and efficiency. The ultimate goal of the company is to improve the respiratory health of as many people as possible by improving indoor air quality. We know algae is nature’s best tool to combat Sick Building Syndrome so we can combine the biology with engineering and wrap it in an artfult elegant design.
What is the most important thing for readers to know about what AlgenAir does and how that’s beneficial to users?
DF — The aerium completes our users indoor ecosystem, much more than removing CO2 and creating O2, it can act as a replacement for users who may want plants but lack a green thumb, or it can compliment the plants our users already love! The spirulina grown in the aerium can be used as a all natural organic fertilizer. It brings variety to your space through biophilic design. Incorporating algae species to any indoor space increases your local biodiversity, bringing nature to you.
How can consumers follow you?
KA: We are active on social media! Follow us on Instagram for photo and video content about the product. We are also on TikTok where we share more behind the scenes of the product and building a startup.
DF- For sure! You can find us on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok at @algenairinc!
Outside of work, what do you like to do in your free time?
KA- When I’m not in the office, I love spending as much time outdoors as possible! Everything from swimming, to biking, hiking and more. On weekends I enjoy traveling and visiting new places.
DF — If I am not playing soccer, you can find me running or biking on some of the great trails in the parks around the city. Otherwise, I may be at a brewery with my dog, Rolo!
