In December, I joined Awair as a key advisor and board member. I first became interested in the company after meeting its founders and hearing about their dedication to studying and improving indoor air quality. While they started the company to improve their children’s lives, their products can help anyone measure indoor air quality in real time. To me, that creates an enormous opportunity to improve people’s lives everywhere.

Before joining I purchased Awair’s home product, Element, for my condo in San Francisco and was able to experience firsthand Awair’s positive impacts on my life.  Whether it’s cooking, cleaning, sleeping or getting ready in the morning, their solution shows you how your actions change the indoor air quality. For some reason, I would close my bedroom door when I would sleep at night. Throughout the night, CO2 levels would increase and I realized I need better ventilation in my room thanks to Awair. I know it seems insignificant but I’m now sleeping better and waking up more refreshed each day.  I even purchased Elements for my entire family for Christmas.  My aunt and cousin both called me about a week later thanking me because they realized their daily habits needed to change as well.  In fact, my aunt discovered a faulty home device that was exhausting VOCs thanks to Awair.

I spent most of my career in commercial construction and founded a software company, BuildingConnected, which was acquired by Autodesk.  BuildingConnected’s mission was to create a network for commercial construction.  During that time, I came to believe that sensors would play a dramatic role in the built environment.  I can’t think of something more important for sensors to monitor than the air we breathe.  More importantly, I believe that every person deserves to know the IAQ of any building they frequent.  This actually is contrary to many people in the space, but the writing is on the wall.  That is why Awair is focused on allowing their customers to share IAQ data across their network of devices.  We want parents to know their child’s IAQ at school, we want employees to know their IAQ data at work and we want people to have all that data along with their home in one application.  Essentially, we are creating a network for IAQ. 

I believe that Awair has the right combination of consumer and enterprise technology to bring indoor air quality to the masses.  When I was thinking about my next opportunity, I wanted to find something that could truly have a global impact and reach as many people as possible.  Awair is one of the few companies that has a real chance to make a positive impact on lives everywhere.  I’m really excited to be a part of the team and believe this company is going to be something special.