data visualization tool. “Not only dashboards, but also integration into GIS systems,” she says. “We can look at where the high number of customers are and where the water lines are to predict where the trouble is.”
Part of the challenge, she says, is that even when utilities are acting in good faith and testing diligently, if a house or school has old pipes or faucet fixtures that contain lead, the results will show contamination.
“It’s not a fear thing, but a reality,” Glover says. “Every structure built before 1980 is probably going to have lead.”
The state of Indiana has so far kept information on the roughly 850 school districts enrolled in the water testing program in an Excel spreadsheet. This week, that document will be merged with the 120WaterAudit database, and the site will go live on Aug. 20.
Between early seed funding from angel investors and paid contracts, 120WaterAudit has so far been able to support its growth. In order to scale, though, the seven-person company is planning to start seeking investment capital at the end of the year.
There are a lot of potential problems with the country’s water supply, and they aren’t going away anytime soon. The brains of kids are so susceptible to contaminants, Glover says, that she agrees with the CDC’s contention that there is no truly safe threshold for lead. Because of that belief, 120WaterAudit will continue to distribute testing kits even as the company gets more technological.
“We want to be a software-as-a-service company,” Glover says. “But we’re small enough that we’re not turning anyone away. Clients can decide if they just want kits, or they also want to license our software and customer support services. We believe our future is in [business-to-business], but we’re still doing the kits because it’s great for word of mouth and makes us a little stickier.”
