Building community and clean air solutions

Darren Riley: Hello. Thanks for hosting me.

Megan: Thank you very much for being with us. To start, let’s talk a little about Justair. How did the company’s idea come, and what do your company also do?

Darren: Yes, of course. The real thesis of Jumber, is in fact a mixture of my personal experience but also my professional experience. On the professional side, the background in software engineering graduated from Carnegie Mellon University, but I was always fascinated by how to use technology to support, innovate and pay the borders really in near and dear issues on my heart. The coming of Houston, Texas, coming from societies that are often restricted by some issues, and regular issues, are something that I have always carried in my heart.

On the personal side, that was about seven years ago when she moved to Detroit, in the southwest of Detroit, where she developed asthma. I did not originate with asthma and not developing any issues. This disease has truly opened my eyes on the extent of our environment on our health and welfare.

A mixture of these, this pain point and also my background in technology, you are fascinated by the reason that there is no data we need or why we do not have the infrastructure to solve these problems, to understand where the pollution comes from, and how it affects our societies, so that we can solve these problems and prepare an equivalent breathing environment for everyone. This is a kind of Justair in some way.

Indeed, it was about Covid-19 as we really started to move forward, as we saw all this information and research on health variations and many death rates about Covid-19, which coincides with chronic obstructive pulmonary, asthma and other diseases that are often burdened in societies that appear like, in our societies in white and brown. This is a kind of where we started our start.

What is the controversy today? Justair solves the problem of how to manage local pollution better so that we can make sure that our societies and lifestyles – where we work, where we play, and where we learn – really protected. Thus, what Justair is doing is the construction of air quality control networks at the excessive neighborhood level. Societies can access data, policy makers and decision makers who can use these data to really influence things and push them to help protect society, but other stakeholders can also use data to transfer the environment to a healthier state. This is where we are, and we are four years old, and I am very excited to be part of this trip here in Michigan.

Megan: So it was launched about four years ago. Why did you choose construction and growth there only in Michigan?

Darren: Yes, I think a mixture of things, the reason for my choice to start here and to be intended to build our team here. I think first revolves around supporting the ecosystem around Michigan. Therefore, the Medc has a network of what we call Smartzones, which truly provides financing, resources, guidance and consulting about the various challenges that can range from capital, legal and other issues that maintain a businessman from just going out there and putting their products in the market. First of all, I am very grateful and grateful to the country that really focuses on entrepreneurs and put it first in this regard.

Secondly, I think society. I really felt a strong feeling of society here in Detroit. One of the founding members of an institution called Black Tech Saturdays, which sees more than hundreds of hundreds, approximately 500-1000 people every Saturday of the month, only really participate and really participate with people who are technology from all different aspects of life, but they made a broken space for people who are often excluded from those rooms and their exit from those conversations. Once you see a network of entrepreneurs who come from a similar cultural background or a similar situation, taking into account this together and helping each other to move in some problems.

Then finally, I talk about this a lot, but solving problems fits. Being here in Detroit where I developed asthma, where we have many issues and many about the environment that struck some of the most difficult societies, here in Detroit in my backyard, I really want to focus narrowly and make sure that I build something that actually solves the problem on this journey in the first place. Not thinking about a regional, different, international, etc., but how we can build something here in the backyard that solves my neighbors and makes sure that we can make a real difference in society. Therefore, from society to the problem that I really care about and make sure of our solution, and then also support the ecological system is the reason that we are here in Michigan and why we really plan to grow and be part of this movement.