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What you’ll hear in this episode:

• A disruptive and innovative Austin based startup
• Monitoring aquatic invasive species
• Using biotechnology to help the world’s water systems

We were joined live at South by Southwest 2019 to talk with the CEO, John Higley, and Co-Founder, Stefan Schuster of the Austin-based startup Environmental Quality Operations, EQO, about their disruptive technologies. EQO began in 2016 with the intent to help water resources with aquatic invasive species issues by using innovative and disruptive technologies. They began putting their system to work in hopes to solve the issue of the invasive zebra mussels that plague Austin’s waterways, but their technologies aren’t just used to rid the waterways of invasive species. It’s also used for early-stage detection, risk management mitigation, and to protect endangered species. The company’s main goal is to use its technologies to create long-term, biodiverse, sustainable ecosystems, and water supplies not just in Austin but around the world.

The pair shared with us what exactly the technology is, an automated sampling platform that’s installed at points of likely entry such as dams and marinas. The sampling platforms are installed in these points because invasive species, zebra mussels especially, travel largely by recreational boats. The sampling collectors that are installed concentrate biological samples through a series of filters and use a proprietary buffer to preserve any DNA or RNA to be studied by a lab. By using DNA and RNA, EQO can find detailed information about the water that allows them to draw conclusions about what is happening in the water systems. Since the sample packs can be easily swapped for another, the company can quickly and consistently give updates on the water.

Despite the success the company has had, the pair stated it was not without its challenges. They discussed that the water industry is rather conservative due to it being tasked with the one job of providing clean and safe water and doesn’t take well to new and disruptive technologies like EQO’s. They’ve had to go to great lengths to start the process of gaining acceptance from the industry. Through these efforts, the company has formed partnerships with Texas Parks and Wildlife, U.S. Fish and Wildlife, and the Western Regional Panel on Aquatic Invasive Species which is at the forefront of writing regulations around molecular sampling.

They discussed how they’re grateful for the partnerships they’ve made because they want the company to become standard in federal guidelines saying that their technology should be used. They are also working on a product that will assist in eradicating the zebra mussels without harming anything else in the ecosystem.

To hear more from John Higley and Stefan Schuster on the technologies used by EQO and what their future plans are, be sure to listen to the second installment of Up and Comers. If you enjoy the episode be sure to share with friends and colleagues!

Up and Comers is a founding_media podcast created in partnership with Heather Wagner Reed

Host: Heather Wagner Reed

Guests: John Higley and Stefan Schuster of EQO

 

Transcript:

this is a founding media podcast if Hey everyone welcome to another episode of founding often up and comers a podcast about Austin’s vibrant innovation sector an exciting start up boom I’m your host heather Wagner read so we’re continuing our show this week with a fascinating interview with John Higley and Stephan Schuster of EQ our life they have a start up the just completed and won a major cash prize from the mashed challenge Texas accelerator program we totally geek out in this interview we talked about how their cutting edge technology works and how they monitor aquatic invasive species to protect our water resources it’s a huge issue we recorded this interview live during south by southwest this year at the long center so let’s jump in and hear more from John and Stephan

good morning everybody and welcome to another episode of up and comers he was found in Austin magazine my name’s heather I’m your host and we’re gonna get into a really cool start up story coming out of Austin Texas we’re down at the long center this morning smack in the middle of south by southwest it’s a really exciting time here in the city and before we start I just when I think Richard’s rainwater and brain juice we’re we’re drinking this this morning to bring use for their support of our episode this morning sell welcome to my two guests John Hinckley and Stephens Shuster morning good morning I am just so excited to have you on the show today because I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know these guys recently and hearing their start up story and it is really a disruptive innovative concept that is so good that we just had to have a Monday so something thanks for being here thank you so their companies called EQ and I’m gonna let them tell you a little bit more about it why don’t you when you start driving sure yes EQ our ego we started probably around twenty sixteen I first are doing the research for it we help water resources with aquatic invasive species like zebra mussels are then played in Austin by using next generation genetic technologies my background is in mostly cancer research and molecular biologist I did a lot of early stage cancer diagnostic platforms microbiome analytics to extend and bio pharmaceutical development and for centuries leveraging those technologies to help the environment so we do I’m really early stage detection so we can do prevention but we also do risk management mitigation and things like that so there’s certain technologies that we employ that are not currently on the market from other companies and so we can determine things like are they alive or they all dead which seems simple but it’s not something that can be determined right now except for by us but we can also look at how they respond to treatment so if they’re experiencing stress early on later on stress this with allows you to kind of make better mitigation decisions also you know protecting spawning things like that the technology is not limited to zebra mussels we can also leverage it for endangered species protection or really any invasive species boring dangerous species the idea is to create long term sustainable biodiverse ecosystems and water supplies throughout the country and around the world and that’s kind of the mission
wonderful so I I know that many Austinites know about the muscle issue that happened here a few weeks ago maybe seventy want to talk a little bit more about what happened and why this is an issue or potential epidemic absolutely and so I met John three years ago to conference and heard him speak about his technology in my background is in water resources and supplies so I immediately knew that our water suppliers in Texas are facing a big issue in regards to the zebra mussels because of the impact that it has on how much power we use and how the water quality is affected in the lakes and so if you’ve been using the highland lakes over the past two three years you started to see their necks are getting clear the water quality is changing and that has a big impact on how our water comes to us and so what happened with the city of Austin is something that could actually been prevented with our technology because we would’ve been able to detect the problem before they turn the pipe back on and so what happened was the they’ve turned a pipe off let it dry out basically turned it back on without knowing that it was totally covered with deeper muscles on the inside so we watched a bunch of dead organic material into our drinking water it’s so there dot will happen to other water suppliers in the area and so we’re trying to prevent that

I think as a normal citizen in Austin you know these are things you just don’t even think about anticipate and what happens right so you know that’s just something that’s so fascinating to know that behind the scenes this type of science is actually you know that what your science being brand new but this this type of issues going on absolutely and it’s coming right out here out of Austin that’s which I think is really exciting is that we’re we’re starting here in Austin and it’s a problem that’s that’s very much developing here in Austin for our for our city and our regional water supplier so we’re proving them for preventing or presenting a solution at a time where everybody’s looking for one so the timing couldn’t be better well yeah and and you guys are all over the news when when that happens exactly so you’re basically thought leaders the issue I I think right now

so this is not something that’s obviously just having Austin’s a global issue I’m curious about you know how this could work with governments around the world I guess for that matter yes so obviously Z. the zebra and quagga mussel problem is a big issue here in the U. S. also in Canada while some western Europe in their additional invasive species all over the world to me as you know as people have expanded they move around shipping things like that invasive species that move from place to place and the concern is you know what maybe a normal native species in one environment is invasive and takeover in changing environment where they show up it seems kind of like well what’s wrong with a little a couple extra species the problem is that they take over the environment to an extent that it makes the environment a lot less biodiverse and in biology basically diversity isn’t the best way to have the same legal system more diversity you have the more it is able to respond to pressures so governments around the world are impacted by this the state department is it has their treaties around this the state department has to get involved in so it’s really a global issue and our technology can be applied pretty much everywhere especially as were as we become more interconnected society as global warming changes migration patterns and things like that we’re only gonna see increased issues with invasive species and loss of habitat and and usable drinking water if we don’t act now

so I’d like to talk more about the technology so how does it work sure what is the concept is this something that you know the I guess it did it say let’s say I want to have it in my backyard is that even possible sure is thank you for an individual citizen Avenue backyard but essentially we have kind of an automated sampling platforms so it’s a it gets installed at a point of critical infrastructure like a damn or at a point of most likely entries so dams and marinas these things observer muscles travel mostly by an invasive species in general from a largely by recreational boaters so clean drain dry and all that kind of stuff so this platform goes and it’s got a series of these what we call sample collectors that essentially concentrate biological samples over a series of filters and we have a special proprietary buffer that goes and and stomps the degradation of any DNA and RNA which are the kind of what we’re gonna be measuring the lap so that kind of preserves at our camp pickles that keeps it in the states so the laws to kind of take a snapshot of what’s going on at that moment and then the person who operates that are you know we’re whatever wherever it is all they have to do is swap out sample packs ensure the back forth the lab so we’re constantly sending them updates about what’s going on there late and they’re constantly just on the ideas popping out popping anyone in any program the whole thing from a cell phone it’s runs on solar power on a solar panel it’s pretty low maintenance piece of equipment
I love the DNA aspect of that so this is where you’re taking your background in cancer rates applying it to bioscience are by attack so can you talk a little bit more about the science there yeah sure Ashley so DNA as we all know it’s kinda blueprint right or it’s more like a library of blueprints that’s in every cell of the body D. as a very stable molecule it doesn’t break down very quickly it persists in the environment for a pretty long period of time so we can collect DNA offers pretty much anything particular matter dead skin cells or something else either the remote sump pumps it out we can find that all that stuff and then you can also measure it and figure out exactly how much is your nice baseline it doesn’t tell you if the thing that you’re reading is alive or dead though because the Americans for around for quite a while our names remember our central dogma biology right it’s DNA transcribed into RNA Arnie’s more transient molecule it’s very fragile it breaks down extremely quickly and that gets translated to protein which does all the actual work so the army since it breaks down very quickly if we can capture that out of the source which are technology does not allows us to take a snapshot of what genes are on or off at the time so we can determine is alive or dead by looking at this metabolized or not we can determine if it’s if it’s experiencing stress because there’s all these different genes that are turned on whenever you expect when ever you are as he were muscle or anything else his experiences stress there’s different families obviously different species have different ones that they utilize but zebra mussels a look fairly simple so it’s pretty easy to just kind of figure out what it’s doing and why it’s doing it based on what genes are turned on and off at them at that moment

I gotta say I was there the night that you guys won a very big prizes MassChallenge so there’s a lot of obviously a lot of innovation around this concept and this this this company is super disruptive and so I just wanted to ask you that stuff and if you could talk a little bit more about that experience because y’all were the big winner absolute that night for the national accelerator and you’ve done a lot of other accelerators in the past few years and you’re going to do more and it’s fascinating that everybody supporting you through this process absolutely fantastic place for that community in the MassChallenge has been really great to us it was a really great place to to get with mentors and and have a really good idea of how to structure a business and and be successful in terms of growing and thinking about things that we haven’t really even encountered yet in terms of scaling getting are companies ready for the types of things are gonna happen from here on forward the types of successes were gonna have so it’s really great to be able to be working in the accelerator environment with a disruptive technology because there’s others like like minded individuals around you at all times you can help you know whether it’s something they’ve never dealt with a marketing perspective or on fundraising perspective you’re always exposed to really great mentors and resources to be able to to solve your problems and so on national interest fantastic to be able to be part of such a large group and you know it’s competitive you start with four hundred companies at the beginning and then I think sixty four accepted alternate for accepted and then you making into the final sixteen and and kind of getting to a point where you know you really realize that there’s something big happening yeah mass challenged and that wind has been fantastic they want a hundred thousand dollars absolutely the biggest cash prizes right was the largest cash prizes there were two hundred thousand dollar cash prize that was the largest here that’s that’s as a speech by Ms did too also how you know really the mentors were the ones involved in in helping select these winners and and I guess just you know you’ve got a lot of people supporting you and

now you’re working capital factory are you along with their xcelerated we are we are so we’ve been through a few we started out might well when I start this as you know scientists I hadn’t started previously but I was the white lab coat they rolled in to talk science knows a biopharma company I wasn’t the C. suite so I thought I still had this kind of thought process as you make something really cool and then everybody’s going to buy it because it’s great my Wednesday and that’s not how business works at all I kind of had to learn that along the way and and you know Cindy Walker peach was a big part of pushing us to go to ATI as program that you T. puts on conceal that was the first one that was kind of intensive summer accelerator program is essentially like an MBA for entrepreneurs but condensed into a summer and that was super helpful now we met some great people there David all teams one of our big advisors he was running out of time hi David yeah I would say another watching and and you know from that and there was a mass challenge and now it’s it’s kind of now we’re at the point where we know how to run a business quite well it’s kind of the accelerator programs in our country it’s just a matter of they have to be fairly hands off an offer as good access to funding right and those are big criterion house in our part of tarmac which is great because they’ve been extremely generous with us that’s a social and green impact rates are up to sort of accelerate or not and that’s funded by three AM and we’re part of capital factory and we just got accepted into this well we’re gonna be competing to to do to be were finalised now for this urban futures price that NYU’s putting on that’s the kind of breaking news that came out yesterday the main broke that were one of the five finalists for our division oh my gosh Langley’s well info yes flatly innovation center up in New Hampshire which was John Flatley up there is a well known biotech in commercial real estate mogul and he has a love for start ups that were won first prize of them all so I guess I guess we are we are being pretty disruptive after all in the end I think that speaks to their question heather around what have what is our success through mass challenge in in the programs that John just mentioned done for us and it’s really that national exposure right we right we’ve gone from trying to address the problem problem problem locally to really gaining some notoriety in other places so I read that that same accelerator and incubator type of a program so it’s given us a national footprint it’s really exciting right
so how is it when the story broke in Austin about the muscle issue here that must have been just a huge pay that for you all because I think a lot of people in explaining to them that this is going on into it actually affects their daily life it’s probably you know difficult to grasp yeah so has that been a big change and that created a major change for you guys as far as in this market or just in general yeah I Sir every time they’re in the news in Austin it kind of hits us pretty heavy and then so we were doing we’re raising funds through so you can currently and when we did our our big showcase event the next morning everybody woke up to discussed installing showers which was not bad timing for us is a terrible thing for the city if you could just one big favor whole whole day I was just getting inundated with phone calls and emails up until like one in the morning of what we do is it safe this out the other end all the questions you would think to ask and then Monday morning was the same thing and then we end up on Friday morning the same thing that we ended up doing a whole bunch of press around it because obviously people want to talk about the problem
right Sam well so I guess then you know maybe one of the couple questions I have just completely at more of an inspiration site is what it’s like for you guys with this I know you’ve started companies before you have a history in the water business and maybe you can talk more about your background to but you know is this company being as disruptive as it is how different how different is it from things you’ve done in the past what is some of the challenges you’re facing you know as as people that are trying to do something so innovative that it’s almost hard to grasp because such a new technology it’s a great question and it’s certainly something that will that work with me on being challenged by because the water industry as a whole is relatively conservative they’re tasked with providing safe reliable drinking water at all times in any kind of disruption or a change in how that’s done is taken with great deals of caution so it is a something where you know we’re really having to to visit with them and and try to identify specifically what their problem with their solution might be to try to see how we fit in so it’s been for me very interesting I’ve always thought of myself as an innovator and and pushing new ideas about what’s really exciting about being able to do this but facing the industry it’s been interesting because they are so conservative in terms of implementing new technology so it takes a little bit of time frame or even the city of Austin you know they are they’re being very cautious in terms of how they’re approaching the problem into something new take some time to to you know integrate into the process so that’s been something that I certainly enjoyed doing that I’m trying to bring in new ideas to the table something I’ve I’ve always appreciated doing and but that’s been probably the big realization for me is that we don’t from the water industry perspective don’t innovate as quickly as we probably would like to turn

right and then on that side we also has many amazing partners at federal and state agencies we we’ve gotten to know and that’s kind of a you know our our strategy early on was we realize that we had to become thought leaders in this industry for anybody to believe that what I’m coming within saying Hey you know this cancer type thing we can use it here they kind of look at you like seal wizard known science number that I have to kind of go through and explain the science of talk about it show what it can do to pilot studies that kind of thing but through that process we made amazing friends and partnerships with Texas parks and wildlife US fish and Wildlife prepare a reclamation of two and wonderful work with us USGS has been fabulous there’s a whole group called the western regional panel on aquatic invasive species chart to them because Elizabeth brown that runs and she’s also in a species coordinator for Colorado and Ali al well just fabulous work and we’re working on them currently that kind of write regulations around molecular sampling in our industry well when that’s really the point is

I think that’s that’s really what we’ve established it’s as a reputation with the regulators and people who to do bring that kind of technology to the market so that in four years the regular you know the federal guidelines are going to say you should be using this technology and that’s what we’re working on sort of the end around to where the municipalities are gonna go back to the guide book and see what we do and it’s gonna say use this kind of technology and and that’s not just a good business practices they need to on solutions I mean these people work and ridiculously long hours and credibly hard to try and protect our water supplies is just that the current technology the current state of art is is not up to the task and so it’s a necessity to kind of move the ball little bit forward on the technology side to get this going we’re also working on a product with bureau of reclamation that’s an actual like smart drug approach to just two around kids in our muscles and leave everything else alone that’s a longer haul but it’s you know we have to keep moving the technology forward if we’re gonna do if we’re going to have a sustainable ecosystem in water supply going forward when you talk about invasive species what other types of species are there to be concerned about arts Asian carp is certainly when the arms to mind most immediately it’s a national problem traditionally for invasive species we few plants that India hydro and enjoying someone now and and having issues me up and foil up north yeah one jar stone work we hear about that a lot they’re invasive technologies are attacking quarrel in Hawaii there’s mud snails Asian clams I mean there’s a less on this new journey are obviously a pain you know those are larger mammals but still okay so now you’re working you’re working on this concept of you know the DNA based approach to a rowdy Kading something preventing something

Sir what other things could you apply this science too besides what you’re doing right now so the danger to workers kind of one that pops up the easiest is this idea of you know there’s these endangered species and you know it’s difficult to detect a lot of them obviously here in Austin we have these blind salamanders and they live kind of in caves and groundwater supplies and you know that’s why they’re blind right how do you find those guys and and the grand the the answers you divers with a lot of time and you don’t it’s not there’s not a great way to really try to population because they’re in places where we can’t go so looking at DNA and RNA and things like that can get you a better

understanding of not just where the population is but also how healthy is it what’s he doing you can find better ways to to protect those endangered species yeah there’s a lot in the end from a business perspective there’s a lot of opportunity there as well but there are tons of endangered species around the country and every river way every freshwater resource essentially is a protected environment for endangered species so it’s a massive area I like I sing it the end goal is to kind of look at you know you’ve heard of may have heard of the microbiome for like got Michael Bayat and human health week we consider this the macro Bynum right and it’s but it’s for environmental health so the microbiome as the as the the quality environments for terrestrial environments are incredibly important to the health of the planet it’s the same idea as your gut microbiota so we want to be able to sample in figure out everything that’s living in their native as invasive as everything in dangers and how are they doing harvest populations interacting and what we need to do as stewards of our environment to to push one lever one way or the other level yeah either way to create sustainability test there’s there’s a big movement going on DNA and prevention right now they are for help for him health of humans health of animals things like that so this is more health of the environment actually very cool is there a term that describes this movement you know this yeah I mean well we usually get lumped into were essentially a biotech company but we usually get lumped into enviro tad clean tag or something along those lines we like to say we’re sass company science as a service company which always gets a laugh and certain types in the end that the investor worlds right as far as the movement goes in a lot of this is just it’s molecular sampling is what it is or I I I aside from that I I don’t know when I think there’s a general point one we should I don’t have right this is it lives but I think there is something around this general environmental awareness right there there is a over the last decade there’s been much more focus on what kind of impact are we having on the environment and I’m trying to understand baseline data where are we in certain and the stages of our awareness around pieces of the environment particularly water and water quality we’re we’re looking at emerging contaminants and we’re starting to understand more and more about how the water quality is actually being impacted so I think there’s a general trend that we’re sort of participating in where there’s a greater focus on trying to understand our environment and we’ve got a technology to easily understand them you know and and get a broader array of what that what’s happening then coming back to your question around you in John’s answer around and endangered species and native mussels are a major issue in our Texas rivers currently and it’s something that is going to significantly improve unpacked the supply side of things how how much water is coming down the river in order to protect those habitats and we don’t understand much about those muscles yet they’re going to get listed this fall as endangered and we don’t really know what to do again our technology can help characterize those those rivers and and let you know where and what kind of condition those muscles and so we we see a lot of application in that general awareness around what is the quality of our environment right so that’s a quality environmental quality assessment maybe that’s the term we’re we’re trying to work on but something like that right well

I think it’s awesome that you’re here in Austin and launching this company we’re super excited to excess and I know it’s gonna blow up and it’s just a matter of time and just great to get this interview we can’t because you’re going to be going a little other than that you know thank you where can people learn more about about you guys Sir website is EQAO dot life and you can go there and then we always are happy to take you try to be as open and accessible as possible to the community so sends an email through that we have a contact us section on there but again the website’s EQAO dot life and yeah I think that’s the best place absolutely and they can talk to you yeah check out some of our many press appearances right into it complaints over medium yeah this is the best one so far cath well thank you so much for being here especially during south by we’re just thrilled that the timing is perfect just rough to the south and views and come out of Austin with swing and so things are being hearing center thank you so much

thank you to Richard rainwater and two Rangers Rangers yet these I I’m I’m so excited about this and the long center for having us here today we love your space when I come back and all of you for listening to up and comers thank you thank you so much again John and stuff and I know even after the microphones turned off today we couldn’t stop talking I am super excited to see what your technology is going to do in the world and what’s gonna happen next free shipping on the show the up and comers team is hosted by yours truly heather Wagner read produced by Mariah gossip and our audio and video engineer Jake Wallace special thank you to Dan Dillard and everybody at the founding media team for your support Hey if you’re enjoying the show make sure you subscribe on your favorite podcast platform Hey maybe leave us a little five star reviews to help other people find the show and you can follow me personally at Jews consulting on Instagram that’s my company and for more information the link is in the show notes thanks for listening