Berkeley Startup Helps People Find Out What They’re Drinking

Scientific breakthroughs can be good business. Just license and commercialize that whiz-bang new technology you've developed, and you're off -- ready to make millions as an entrepreneur. But in the case of Berkeley-based SimpleWater, licensing a novel technology developed at Cal -- a method for removing arsenic from small rural water systems -- didn't pan out when an anticipated EPA grant to demonstrate the innovation in a small Central Valley town fell through.

The folks at SimpleWater say they still like their technology and hope to someday get it off the ground, but for now they've switched gears to a less capital-intensive product called TapScore. TapScore is a service, really, and it allows residential customers (especially those who get their drinking water from a private well) a convenient, relatively affordable way to have their water professionally tested for contaminants. The water experts at TapScore then evaluate the results and provide recommendations on point-of-use solutions (like under-sink filters) to remove anything harmful. 

Read more about the company and the service at California Magazine, where my story on TapScore/SimpleWater appears in the Fall 2016 issue.