About Us: Husband (data engineer) and wife (bioinformatist). I’ve worked in startups and big companies solving data problems, my wife has built LIMS (lab information management systems) for pharma and bio-tech companies. We live in the SF Bay area, and we’re always concerned about the safety of our environment for ourselves and daughter, but haven’t been able to validate that our home is safe to live in.
http://www.amazon.com/WaterSafe-Water-Test-Kit-Lead/dp/B000Q...
What kind of guarantees can you deliver that you're not yet another company without accountability- this is important stuff, and accountability for correctness is kind of a big deal.
The array of brands offering home test kits on amazon is incredible. I don't know any of them, and I don't know their reliability; nor do I know enough about this space to select the correct one. How do you differentiate yourself?
The main problem I see with this concept is that lead levels vary throughout living spaces, so you would need multiple samples. I'd think multiple, labeled, swab cloths would be more effective from a testing perspective.
Once again, not exactly "analyzing your dust" but I think this is the current consumer-grade solution to the problem of "are there dangerous levels of lead in my wall paint/ceramics/etc?"
OP is also offering water testing capabilities.
n.b., this is a great idea, but I really want a way to trust that the lab is doing the Right Thing, and false positives/negatives are acceptably low.
Is that likely? Could it happen? What might happen legally?
I'd likely consider buying something like that, though, if it were cheap.
Something that would be positive: testing for 'unknown unknowns' - people are becoming more conscious of things like radon, but if this test were likely to pick up a wide range of random stuff, it'd be more useful.
Did you mean: fill a vial?
Please don't go on about getting downvoted in HN comments—and especially not in Apply HN threads, where you're basically scribbling on someone's application.
1. For people who use some kind of a cleaning service, the cleaners usually bring their own vacuum cleaner. In this case the owner might be unable to send you the dust. Would be interesting to look into what fraction of your target audience falls under this category.
2. Would be nice if the service took the vacuum model number and sent out a box with a vacuum bag every n months, where the user could take their used vacuum bag put it in the box and mail it back, and use the new bag in the vacuum.
3. Could this be refactored into some kind of device that one could fit into the vacuum? This way there would be no headache of mailing bags out.
4. Whats the legality of sending out bags containing potential amounts of asbestos / toxins etc?
This could actually be a feature. Sell to the CLEANING services, have them offer your service as an add-on package so that people who have their apartments cleaned (e.g. people with disposable income) can find out what exactly is being cleaned up and what additional measures may be needed.
How much do you know about this industry? Are there regulations you need to meet? Who are the established big players, why aren't they doing this?
How are you going to do this better than anyone else?
How will you find customers?
The H2O OK Plus Complete Water Analysis Kit is the most complete way to ensure your drinking water is safe and free of 13 water conditions and contaminants including bacteria, pesticides and lead, a total of 23 tests. This complete, easy to use kit provides all containers needed. It gives the user instant results. Included 2 tests each for total chlorine, total hardness, iron, pH, total alkalinity, copper, nitrates and nitrites; 1-test each for lead, total coliform bacteria and pesticides with detailed instructions to test for iron bacteria and hydrogen sulfide
Ignore anything you read from anyone else here: put it up and start making sales. Today.
Go go go go go.
Did I make a huge and expensive mistake in deciding to buy this house? Here's $50. Be honest.
No. Your house is not going to kill you, your kids, or your pets, within 99.6% certainty.
Awesome. Best $50 I ever spent.
The tests that I did find were bloody expensive (300$+) and had to be done one per room. Too much for us.
Why should anyone believe that you'll just figure all this out later after you're given money? You haven't even been motivated enough to solve this problem manually for yourself yet.
Solve the problem for yourself
I would get a professional mold inspector, and compare the results to direct-to-consumer lab tests like http://www.amazon.com/MyMoldDetective-MMD100-Mold-Test-Kit/d...
Same for other tests.
I'd expect this to take maybe 20 hours of billable time doing research and logistics, $2-3k for inspections and tests, and 1 month of calendar time.
Research the market
Keyword Volume
mold inspection 4,400
mold test kit 8,100
lead inspection 260
lead paint test kit 1,900
* If I were considering investing into such company the questions I'd ask myself would be:
* would this area be a passion for the founders
* is this a good market
* can the founders execute on this idea
* No
* Yes
* No
"This is a good idea and the market. I think it's a little to early for you to raise money. Consider solving the problem for yourself and better understanding existing solutions. I'd love to chat again once you are further ahead."
I also live in SF, in an older home. I would love to know what kind of stuff comes out of our aging carpets - how much of the dust that I vacuum up is the carpet. what is the average makeup of the dust over time, i.e. is the dust changing to include more mold? Less? are my cleaning routines helping?
I have a mold allergy, detecting mold spores would be really good. Existing tests are not great, and not user friendly.
Companies like Zillow might also be good recommendation engines, since most people buying a house probably want to know the answer to these questions.
You could have a graphic of a home, all kinds of UI inputs:
* SQ FT
* Geographic location
* Flooring type
* etc...
Then a list of potential problems. The user starts to enable the problems they may have, and a Turbo Tax money ticker starts rolling. Then they adjust sliders for mitigation options. More money counter ticking.
If the cost if too high, sure I might not even order the test. But the sale would be consultative from the beginning, rather than the typical alarming approach.
See, for example, this (unfortunately now defunct) radon risk website: http://www.columbia.edu/cu/pr/00/01/radon.html
Data science might also help you recommend where to sample.
Trouble with all this, of course, is collecting enough data to start making useful recommendations.
I can only comment on lead, because I've had home lead testing done by a professional. The worry I have with lead is that encouraging vacuuming for sample collection could conceivably cause lead contamination to spread. We were told by our tester that if we attempted to clean problem areas ourselves, to only use water and disposable rags to avoid spreading lead dust.
Our lead tester used an XRF analyzer (these devices are expensive), which uses X-rays and requires no dust sampling. He could simply point it anywhere and see precisely where all the lead was.
I wonder if it would be feasible to include a packet of special wipes instead of a single dust vial. Then users could individually wipe and label by room, and ship each wipe in a separate, sealed, labeled, plastic envelope. This could solve any dust contamination issues, but I suppose it's possibly harder to test for contaminants from a wipe than a vial.
This seems like a service business and not necessarily a startup. But on second thought, maybe there's a hardware device that could test everything wherever you went: air and water. Perhaps even you could scrape a chip of paint into it. Now that's something I would strongly consider buying. You could take it when traveling to ensure there are pollutants in your water. As a (hopefully) future parent, I worry about my kids being exposed to even minute amounts of lead.
Also, do you have a potential cost in mind?
When you did tests on 100 people's houses, were they surprised by the results enough to pay you for more data?
There's enough fear around this kind of thing, but is there actually anything to fear once you look at the lay of the land of people's homes? (Similar to vitamin analogy... very few first worlders have vitamin deficiency, but there's entire vitamin aisles at the store)
How can this help me know what work I can DIY and what work is safer to hire out to someone who is an expert. Sure I can pay someone 2x as much to work on my kitchen but what is the relative risk to my health due to lead paint. It'd be nice if I could start a project and have sampling on a daily basis similar to what rad techs or a metric of information on how much lead is in the air as I'm working.
I'm pretty sure all parents have this concern especially when the doctor asks whether our place have lead and have no idea how to answer them. This is especially the case in the Bay Area where houses are old and is within the time frame of lead paint.
Several concerns here though. How hard is it to test for these things and how much would you charge the customer? Usually lab work are expensive and might not be within the price range.
You may find their approach interesting or if nothing else it's similar validation.
Awair (previously Bitfinder) - https://getawair.com/
When I lived in SF in an 1930s building I ordered a lead testing kit for the water and thankfully found none.
How will you acquire customers for this, in a marketing sense?