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Ep. 11: Aeronics Finds Curious New Market

Blake Dube of Aeronics talks about making portable oxygen technologies across a variety of platforms, leveraging advanced materials to store oxygen more efficiently. The result is a new paradigm for gas storage which enables lightweight and safe oxygen systems for consumer, veterinary, and medical applications. Plus he will detail how it is helping pet owners and veterinarians! Thanks to Comcast for powering #50PGHSummerStories.

Transcription:

Hey, thanks for being on this journey with us here on the 50 PGH Tech stories of summer with Comcast. And everyday I get to step behind the mic here on my computer using zoom to grab these interviews. I'm always just amazed and reassured that Pittsburgh is full of just some of the coolest, most innovative, brightest people that are building products, doing things you never even think of. They're making such a huge difference. And that's what we have today with Aeronics. Blake Dube here today from Aeronics, how you doing today? Blake, what's up and what's going on in your neck of the woods, man?

I'm doing great, Jonathan. We've actually been pretty busy recently. And I was really happy to receive your call. And I'm excited to talk today.

Very cool. Yeah. So as some transparency goes by friends over the engineering department. I was talking with them about some cool stories going on here in Pittsburgh, and they were the first one that they brought up. I'm like, well, then please introduce me and they did. And I'm glad that I had not heard of you guys until you brought it up and I went to your website and was searching around like wow, this is a cool company, blitzing He seems to know what's going on. Let's make sure we get him on the show. So I'm glad you're taking the time to talk to us today. So first and foremost, what's your background? Like? You've been in Pittsburgh all your life. What's your story?

Yeah. So I actually I came to Pittsburgh for college, I am from Pennsylvania, a little place called New York. But I came to Pittsburgh, specifically to do Engineering here at Pitt. And now I've lived here for some six, seven years. And that's where the company was really born out of was diversity. Yes. So my background was chemical engineering. And I was in a lab there. And essentially, we found a problem we wanted to solve that grew into this product, which is, yeah, yeah. And they've been super supportive of this. And a couple years ago, in 2017, I graduated and we kind of spun out the company had been operating outside Pittsburgh ever since.

I love that story. This is so cool in so many levels, because first I love it when someone comes to Pittsburgh. They're in engineering school and they're working on a problem and they're learning how to solve it. Like we Second, this could become a company. And then it's like, yeah, we can help you make this become a company. And then when you graduate, your first job is your own company. That's me is freaking cool. And that to me is what makes Pittsburgh pretty kick ass. Simple as that. So, so tell us about erotics, what problem are you trying to solve?

Yeah, so basically, I mean, at a high level, we're trying to make oxygen more accessible. Right. So you see these big tanks everywhere. These heavy high pressure tanks. You probably seen people wheeling them around.

Okay, for those that have a hard time breathing, they need more oxygen, stuff like that. Yeah, exactly. And that the whole premise there is just gases are difficult to store and oxygen is no different. Right? You got to push those molecules together just now. Yeah, in a reasonable space. Right. So then you have this heavy high pressure tank, there's some safety concerns there. In the lab, I was studying in at Pitt, the Wilmer lab, they're focused on basically storing these gases more efficiently. So you get these lighter texts, and so it's better for the people carrying them makes it so Stuff like that. So. So yeah, so that's how we originally started in the lab. And we were focused on a human product. So making these tanks smaller for people with respiratory disease, and that that market was really found by my co founder mark. And actually, he is also a picker out of 2017. And we actually went to same high school to see Oh, that's kind of cool. Yeah, so we kind of met up back in college, and he was kind of the business side of this and really kind of identified the market and we decided, you know, we want to make this a real thing. So we worked on it in college with the help of, you know, some of our friends at Pitt. And then once we spun out, we actually had this amazing interaction with this veterinarian, who we knew as a friend, okay, and telling us she was basically saying, like, Hey, I love what you guys are doing with the smaller oxygen tanks now. I need this in veterinary medicine. I just need access.

Yeah, that's so cool. So someone have friend and their veterinarian and they're like, Wait a second, this could be useful. For veterinary practice that is so bad.

That wasn't even really on the radar for us at the time because I wouldn't be I wouldn't.

I know and once we looked into it I mean, she told us this really just heart wrenching story of these these pets who have basically died on the way to the emergency hospital because you know, when when they pick you up in an ambulance, they have oxygen immediately. You got your strapped on, and you're more breathing, right? Yeah, that ambulance is the kind of few and far between unreliable waiting time. So like a lot of pets. This kind of started as you know, you need something to get you to the next place, then. I mean, we came up with our first kind of iteration of this back in fall of 2018. It would have been and then that's just started saying like, why has this not been a thing before? Right. So yeah, we launched it in full at the beginning of 2019. And now we even have pet owners who use it at home for their flat fence dogs that might have read can you get like special little masks? Over there. Sadly, we're here. Here I actually brought it all cool. There's a good oxygen mask.

Yeah, a little oxygen canister right here. Wow, it's really small and portable. So basically, whenever it's kind of like a rescue inhaler, whenever they issue, they can get them to the hospital or just manage that crisis at home.

I see how long would that continue to last for?

So each one has 10 liters of oxygen. So you're usually looking at 10 to 20 minutes. So what we'll do is they'll usually have a couple of them, and then kind of go back to the vet as necessary to get so you know, sometimes vets are using it to get from one hospital to the other, right. So we actually work with a lot of that hospitals. And then often pet owners are taking this home. So we actually, we did have a pet owner recently reached out to us and they were telling us how their pet kind of D compensated or had an issue at home and rushed it to this hospital and they said hey, like, we can't take care of this problem here. You need to drive 45 minutes to the emergency hospital and she said I don't know if he's gonna make it. So luckily, they were actually one of the first schools to carry off or not and make it now. They made it to her and she was able to make it there. And I only know about this because she sent us this email thanking us for like providing this to the hospital, because the doctor said, you know, that's the reason he made it. And that was that's when he realized like, this is really something cool. Did you frame that email, like put it on your wall somewhere like, out and showed it to the best to my co founder because it was just, it meant a lot to us, you know, to see if it shows something you've done and it saved the dog's life. It helped an owner and then all the way around that to me is just freakin cool.

Yeah, it's rewarding for sure. But absolutely so so obviously. So this is this new market that you guys literally like kind of like stumbled into through a friend and never would have thought about this. And so now it's become a major part of what Aeronics is all about.

Yeah, so that's kind of what we focused on. For now. We still have these plans to go into more of the human markets. Cuz I know what we're building is, you know, translatable to that and there's a lot of help. And, you know, we talked to so many of these patients in college while we were doing our research that we really want to come back to it. But this was a really great way to start the company and help a lot of people with a problem that, you know, hasn't been solved today. So right now, we're really focusing on that, and we're full in on the veterinary market.

That is just amazing. So how have you been able to cope with the whole COVID thing? How has that impacted your operations? What you have to do, obviously, the working from home stuff, and how have you navigated that so far? It's Yeah, it's definitely been a challenge. I think we've been more fortunate than a lot of businesses that might rely more on face to face interactions. And because it was more, it was a change definitely for us. So what happened is we go to a lot of these conferences and veterinary hospitals to meet these hospitals and show them like, Hey, here's what our product is, and that's how we meet a lot of people. Obviously, travel is off the table right now. So we've had to resort a lot more to Making sure you know everything is available and accessible online. And we're really making sure that, you know, whoever it is pet owners, veterinarians, they can reach us without needing to reach us in person. So I think we've been fortunate we've been able to come into our office because we're a very small operation and we can abide by that, you know, the appropriate safety for pc 16 apart. Yeah, I've got enough room here. So that's, I mean, that's been really fortunate because we've realized, like, once we started this, it's kind of like, it's something that keeps going people once we're on the internet with this, people are going to see us and they're going to need our product, so we can't really stop we need to keep providing it to them.

Excellent. So cool. I say only in Pittsburgh can a story like this happen. That's why I get so pumped up to tell this type of stuff. So Blake, tell me a little bit more about like, your thoughts on how we can get more of what happened to you going on for lack of a better term. Like I said, I get really pumped up because I see our universities to me, our secret sauce, you pit and Carnegie And Carlo and Duquesne, we've got some great freakin schools here, some great research is going on. And the idea of getting that research and getting it out into the marketplace, and then also turning people into entrepreneurs and business owners at the same time. I think it's just, I think one of the best things a region can do. How can we do more of that here? Like, how can we get more people inspired to take the risk, like, like, like you do. So I'm assuming, you know, as a chemical engineer, you can get a job wherever you want. At that point, you graduate with a degree, you can get a pretty, pretty steady job where they're gonna pay you well, and you can solve some tough problems. But you, you took a harder route, and I like that.

Yeah, we were I mean, we were really fortunate to have all these supporters so Pitt has been really good to us and specifically the people within the University of Pittsburgh. So the engine home department was, I mean, starting with our our co founder and advisor Chris Wilmarth that was the he was the lead it lead of the lab I was in and he just was from the very beginning just believed in us and really pushed us to do this. And then actually, there's so many different programs at these universities, especially Within Pitt, we're very good at this where they'll put on these competitions or like business plan competitions. And that's, that's how we started. We I think the first time we kind of shared our idea was within the context of something called the Randall family. Big Idea that very well, absolutely.

And that's, I mean, that's been the kind of the spark for a lot of entrepreneurs around Pittsburgh. And it was huge for us. And, you know, even my co founder, Mark has gone back to talk in originally worked at the Innovation Institute there, which puts on so I think that, you know, when I came into school, it was maybe just starting up and we were part of one of the first waves and now I think that they're doing a increasingly better job of just supporting and making sure you have the you have the knowledge and you're comfortable to take that risk, because it is huge. You know, you you're declining a full time job.

It's like, come on, man.

Yeah, maybe financially, things like that. So we I mean, one the funds you can get from the competition's it can be really helped with that. And the city around Pittsburgh is kind of comparable compared to when you might go to a university where you know, that's all there is there. With Pitt, you they immediately connect you to you know, the health care which is huge in Pittsburgh or the manufacturing or the software and I think they've done a great job of you know, doing that a lot of our original investment came from people who had originally connected through us at Pitt or through Pitt.

Oh, that's awesome. It just goes to the power of the university to tentacles they have they reach into industry and potential investors and so forth. That's why I think it's so cool. I'm going to tell more of these stories let people know that like know if you're going to school, like start a company, you can do it and be helpful for that.

That's fine. We love telling they're like when when will sometimes talk to other students? It's like, it does not take a genius or anything like that to do this. Like I mean, we were okay in school, I'll be honest, like we were okay. But like it's I mean, sometimes they like kind of blow it up to be like a, you know, a noble thing to do or really hard thing to do when really like it takes the support system, but we had so much help on the way. So I think that if you go and ask for the help, you will absolutely get in. That's been our experience. I'm glad to hear that. Yes. And knowing that people might feel like they're on their own. But no, if you if you ask and you get plugged into the right channels that there is help there for you to guide you along the way and everything. I love it. That is so cool. So our final question, since you're hanging out with Comcast, and we're trying to raise money for the beyond laptops, initiative, through neighborhood allies, we're really trying to do our best to raise awareness around bridging the digital divide so much that through COVID, has really just become you know, a parent, and as we're trying to raise money for laptops for Pittsburgh public school students, and so like, I'd like to know, what's your thought? What are your ideas? What are ways that we can make sure that everybody has access to technology, and that we're all being connected and no one's being left behind?

Yeah, sure. I mean, I love what you guys are doing First off, I mean, this is just a great cause. The first is the hardware, right? You have to make sure they have something. And I think that, you know, we've started to see that sometimes internet is isn't always a given either. So I think that a huge thing. I mean, we've seen this with COVID, too, I think it's been especially bad. When we have to work from home, I'm sure you experience, sometimes the inner that's pretty bogged down, and everyone's working from home. And I think, you know, I think that's going to be a continuing thing, at least we're prepared for the fact that a lot of people are going to be at home. And you have to make sure that infrastructure is there to get everyone online and support a more remote workforce. And we're also trying to become more okay with that, like, not requiring people to come in and things like that, making sure that, you know, people have the access at our company to work at our company without physically being here. So, you know, I think that some of those things are might go a long way to helping but again, you know, I think what you guys are doing is a very actionable thing. It's just like, you know, any part we have in this I'm really happy to be.

You took a risk, started a really cool company and you're saving pets lives. That's even better yet. I think it works on so many levels, man I just keep saying only in Pittsburgh man only in Pittsburgh. So thank you for being part of this. You're doing Pittsburgh proud, man. Simple as that.

Thanks so much, Jonathan. That means a lot and you know, super fun talking to you today.

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Transcribed by https://otter.ai