ZIONSVILLE, Ind. (AP) - Megan Glover was growing concerned about her water.
Four years ago, the country was on the heels of a water crisis in Flint, Michigan, that had alerted many to the dangers of lead poisoning and water safety. In Zionsville, Glover was acutely aware of the issues just a state away.
As a mom of two young children, she’d already been cautious about what her family ate and drank, taking care to buy hormone free and organic products - but she’d never thought about her water.
And after some research, Glover realized there were no affordable options for her to ensure her water’s safety.
“There wasn’t really a solution for consumers and homeowners to get their water tested,” Glover said. “I went back to my business partners and said … ‘I don’t know what this business is going to be, but there’s a problem. And it needs a solution.’ “
In 2016, Glover co-founded 120WaterAudit with two partners to create affordable at-home water testing kits.
What started as a relatively small startup filling product orders out of Glover’s parents’ garage has since expanded to provide water testing software and services to multiple states, including Indiana. Last year, the company earned $3.3 million in revenue.
CEO Glover said her personal experience as a mom was only part of the drive to create 120Water - she also saw an industry in need of change.
“Never in my career had I, one, had a problem I felt passionate about fixing,” Glover said, “but then also had a market and a market opportunity where they need to evolve.”
The company, now rebranded as 120Water and recently featured in Inc. magazine, announced last month it would be expanding its testing capabilities beyond lead to include other contaminants such as arsenic, Legionella and PFAS, or “forever chemicals.”
Entering the water market was a learning experience for Glover, whose history was in marketing and sales for technology companies, including Angie’s List.
Glover said she initially thought the company would find success in this consumer market, selling directly to homeowners. But then she started hearing from water facilities who needed an efficient way to maintain compliance with lead and copper regulations.
Glover saw an opportunity. By fall 2017, the company had pivoted to create a digital platform for agencies and water systems that would help them collect data and cut down on administrative work.
The system is something like a combination of Turbo Tax and Amazon, Glover says.
The company’s digital platform allows facilities and agencies to track water testing data across their system and comply with federal safety regulations, somewhat like how Turbo Tax helps people comply with federal tax requirements. And like an Amazon for water sampling, 120Water testing kits are delivered to the doors of people within that system for testing, complete with sample bottles, instructions and return shipping labels.
This method speeds up the sampling processes and allows agencies or utilities to track their progress, said Tom Bruns, the company’s vice president for business development.
“Because of our connection … we’re able to the get the information back to the consumer more quickly,” Bruns said. “In Pittsburgh, we were able to reduce turnaround time from 40 days to 14 days. It was an amazing improvement.”
Glover remembers the excitement the first time the company filled 1,000 kits. Now, she says, they fill about 100,000 kits a year.
“To be personal, it’s been a complete rollercoaster. There are plenty of times in the journey when the lows, I’m like, ‘I actually don’t know that we’ll be in business a week from now,’” Glover said. “But getting up every day and working on programs that actually provide safer drinking water is worth it, monumentally.”
The company’s products are in use at 180,000 locations nationwide. The company’s business reaches 14 states, including Indiana, and much of it is with large community water systems.
However, anybody can still buy an at-home water testing kit, which range in cost from $54 to $84.
“We’ll never get rid of that,” Glover said.
In addition to announcing 120Water would expand its capabilities to test for arsenic, PFAS and Legionella, the company also established two Centers for Excellence.
The Policy Center for Excellence’s leader Erika Walker will speak on regulations or legislation and provide input to lawmakers related to water quality. Bruns, who will oversee the Utility Operations Center for Excellence, will communicate with utilities about these laws and the company’s products.
Bruns retired in December after a decades-long career in water, most recently as president of Aqua Indiana, a subsidiary of water and wastewater utility Aqua America. He came out of retirement in February to join 120Water.
“One of the things that really struck me,” Bruns said, “was the opportunity to take some of the knowledge that I had from working in the water utility business and work with the people here on our mission of making sure that people have the best drinking water that they can. … The public trust in water is extremely important.”
120Water employs 36 people, but Glover said the company is in the process of expanding and may be announcing some key partnerships later this year.
“I think everybody thinks about us like we’re a little kit company, but actually we’re a … company focused on the water sector, which is a global problem,” Glover said. “We’re creating jobs, we’re working on massive global problems and making your community safer.”
Glover - and others - anticipate billions will be spent in digital technology in water in the next few years. Changes in regulations may also be on the horizon.
Glover said she has been following the proposed revisions to the decades-old Lead and Copper Rule, the Environmental Protection Agency’s standards surrounding the contaminants in water supply.
Expanding 120Water’s capabilities to include emerging contaminants like PFAS is another attempt to adjust for changes that may be coming to the industry.
“As a company, we’re kind of innovating in this space and it’s our job to understand, what are the trends that are coming down the line for our customer base and making sure that we’re always a step ahead or sometimes three steps ahead in providing what they need to address these issues,” Glover said.
The water market offers unique opportunities because unlike other industries, it has to be in business 100 years from now, Glover said. The industry may be complicated, she said - but it has potential.
“It’s probably, I would say, as a sector maybe one of the most antiquated,” Glover said, “but also where the most amount of change is happening.”
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Source: The Indianapolis Star
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