Molekule | Dillip Goswami

 

About Dillip Goswami

Dilip is the Co-Founder and CEO of Molekule, a company he helped start based off of his father’s research in air filtration at the molecular level. The project began when Dillip’s father began the quest to help his son’s problem with asthma, now they’re bother working to bring it to the consumer market. Dillip received his Master’s in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University and his Bachelor’s from University of Florida.

 

Interview Transcript:

Alan
Welcome back. I’m here today with Dillip Goswami, he is the founder of Molekule Dillip. Welcome to the show.

Dillip
Thank you for having me.

Alan
So Dillip the listeners, can you give background how you got started your education? And, you know what, what led you into becoming the entrepreneur that you are today?

Dillip
Sure, so, so we’re, you know, we’re a company, we’re a company that’s based on science. And so unsurprisingly, my story has a lot of science in it. But my background, you know, educationally, I did my undergrad in electrical engineering from University of Florida. And, and then I did my masters from in electrical engineering as well, from Stanford, I was working actually working on my PhD, when I decided to jump out from Stanford and start the company. So that’s, that’s a little bit about my background.

Alan
That project, the white paper that you were doing for the PhD or what?

Dillip
No, so it was a little bit unrelated. It’s, it’s very much related to actually my personal life. So, you know, I’m somebody who’s suffers from asthma and allergies, and it was very severe as I was growing up. And it became a little bit better over time, as an adult, they learned to adopt different lifestyle changes to help manage it and was on you know, I’ve been constantly on a regimen of drugs to help manage it. But, but fundamentally, you know, that asthmas is triggered by different pollutants that are there in the air. And when I, when my body sees those triggers, it reacts. And so, you know, my father, who’s actually an expert to scientists in the field of solar energy, he looked at that problem when I was growing up, not just as a parent, but also as a scientist, and thought, well, you know, something needs to be done to get rid of those pollutants that are causing all these problems. And so that started him on a kind of a 20 year journey of research. The last five years, I actually of that journey, I was actually working with him on that research as well, you know, separately from my PhD, which was on, you know, somewhat related topic, but nothing directly applicable. But that training, that scientific training helped me to, to be able to support him and help him come up with, with new ideas, until we finally got it to a point where it was really helping me and then we decided to form a company so that I could go out and help other people.

Alan
You know, with the with the advancements of technology, burning of all the fossil fuels and the coals. And you can see in the air today, when you’re, especially on an airplane flying over the country, there is a definite layer of film, right and breathe that we’re, we’re in the middle of the soup, so we can’t see what what’s going on.

Dillip
Yeah, actually, the it’s an interesting thing, because people tend to think of air pollution as an overseas problem. But, you know, according to the WHO 56% of cities in the developed world, actually don’t meet their guidelines for in terms of their standards for air quality. And then, you know, that’s a further compounded problem, because indoors, according to the EPA, air is five times more polluted than air outdoors, we just concentrate all that stuff. That’s, that’s pollution outside indoors. And so, you know, that’s the problem that I dealt with growing up. And, and, you know, it was only until we started really getting into researching it that we realized, you know, how big of a problem it was here, and how that was exacerbating and causing all these different symptoms, that that myself and so many others suffer from?

Alan
You know, if so, why a new company? Why this new technology? You know, one could say, well, Dell, why don’t you just go down the store and buy an air filter? Sure. On that with how do you differentiate what you’re putting out now versus what’s on the market?

Dillip
Well, we did that our first solution was, well, let’s try and get something off the shelf, right, you don’t want to have to go through all the work of inventing a new technology, if you can just buy something that’s going to solve your problem. And the problem that we found was that, you know, the the air filters that are out today, but the standard is called the HEPA filter. And the HEPA filter was originally invented way back in the 1940s, as part of the Manhattan Project, they were trying to capture radioactive dust. And the problem is the pollutants that trigger all these different symptoms. They’re microscopic, and they’re very different from just dust I mean, if you think of think of, for example, mold spore, right a mold spore mold can often trigger allergies, and a whole host of problems in in people. And, you know, mold will just go right onto a filter. And, and it’s not just mold, but there’s also bacteria, even when they get captured on the filter, they can die and release endotoxins and then there’s some stuff that passed right through like viruses and gaseous chemicals known as VOCs. Um, And so there’s this whole range of different pollutants that have been filtered and deal with. And those were still causing the problem. So you know the answers that we that we tried tried out a number of solutions, and we realized that something fundamental had to be done in order to come up with something that can actually help our symptoms. And they’ll if.

Alan
I need to take a quick break I am visiting here today with Dillip Goswami He is the founder of Molekule and we’ll be right back after these messages.

Alan
Welcome back, I’m here today with Dillip Goswami He is the founder of Molekule. And until of that, you know before the on the first segment, we’re talking about some of the some of the areas say your purifier addresses such as the habit did not effectively take care of mold. And this this new purifier will, you know be more thorough in in between taking the pollutants in the mold and the dust from the air. But you know, you started this this project, the fact that you’re trying to deal with some asthma issues in your parish life, but how do I know if I need a purifier? But really, who is this product? For?

Dillip
Sure. So So for some people, it’s a really easy answer, if you have asthma or allergies. You know, this is definitely something that, that we believe, based on the evidence that we’ve seen so far, that can can can have a real impact in your life. But even beyond that, if you look at if you look at how we as a society, look at food and water, right, there was a time when we would just eat anything or drink Drink water as long as it was okay. But you know, we’ve come to a certain standard that we’re accepting, like when it comes to food, we’re looking for organic food, when it comes to water, we want to make sure that water is pure, we’ve seen what happens, you know, places like Flint, unfortunately, when that water is not up to our standard, right? So, but air is one field where we haven’t really demanded to have clean air. I mean, if you think about it, that people with asthma and allergies, they’re like the canaries in the coal mine, because they can immediately tell you when something is wrong, because they have direct symptoms. But all of us are affected I mean more, there’s more you breathe more air than you are interested in terms of mass than you’re eating food, or drinking water. So it has has a really profound effect on our bodies. And I think we’re only now just waking up to realizing how much better it can be because now we’ve got new technologies.

Alan
So when you’re when you’re applying solar, how does the application of solar into this system make it work?

Dillip
Sure. So, you know, analogy we like to use to explain the system is actually a solar cell. So when you have a solar cell and light shines on that solar cell, we take that we absorb the energy of that light and extract it as electricity. When it comes to our device, we have that same principle we have light that shines on a special nano coated surface. And when that nano coated surface sees the light, instead of extracting that energy, we actually use that energy to fuel a chemical reaction that breaks down the pollutants. So the minute that you know, let’s say for example, a mold spore or, or a gaseous chemical, like methane or tall You mean when it comes into our device and interacts with with that nano coated surface. It’s getting broken apart into its base elements, stuff like co2, water, stuff that’s that’s in your air already and safe to breathe.

Alan
So when we look at the outdoor pollution, today, I’m gonna go through you mentioned something about you know, that 56% of the major cities worldwide, right right now I have extremely high levels today. And I know that in the USA, within the last eight years, they’ve shut down a number of coal mines with the concern of you know, what it was effectively doing to the air but but how can outdoor pollution affect the quality of the air? That’s indoors?

Dillip
So what happens is that our air handling systems actually pull in air from the outdoors. And outdoors. What happens is that there’s wind and pressure that helped that, that help that pollution diffuse, but when it gets pulled once it gets pulled in indoors, there’s nothing to help it help get rid of it right? There’s no when there’s no atmosphere for it to diffuse into. So everything gets concentrated indoors. And then the other pieces that we’re bringing in other things that are polluting indoor. So, for example, you know, any new building materials like you think about when you brought in a brand new carpet in a place and how that smell that you’re getting, those are all chemicals that these things are being treated with that are then outgassing into your indoor atmosphere. And, and that indoor atmosphere. As you know, we tried to make really tight envelopes to make sure that we’re energy efficient. But unfortunately, that means that pollutants get trapped indoors.

Alan
So do I need to take a quick break. Been visiting here today with Dillip, Goswami He is the founder of Molekule we’ll be right back after these messages.

Alan
Welcome back, I’m here today with Dillip Goswami. He is the founder of Molekule it’s a company that’s getting ready to launch product of the next generation of your air purifiers. And just for listeners, right now, you’re still in beta test are?

Dillip
So we’ve we’ve taken a few pre orders, very limited batches, because we’re really focused on delivering a product with high quality and delivering that product on time. And so we will be opening another very small batch of pre orders sometime in the future. But, you know, stay tuned and check out our website, we have a waitlist forming for orders and for the launch as well.

Alan
Perfect. Okay, so, so moving forward, then, you know, you touched on the prior segment that your dad is a renowned scientist in the era of solar. And this technology is based on solar, using solar power to help to clean the molecules out there. You know, maybe touching on your, your dad has in this field. He was initially bringing this about to help solve the asthma problem that you’re having.

Dillip
Yeah, that’s right. I mean, he, you know, he looked at that problem, and, and then he looked at the existing solutions that are out there. So he’s a person, he’s a scientist, right? So he starts initially from, from the perspective of, okay, let me try and solve some of these problems, and put the research out there and hope that that people run with it. And so he, he did some initial research in this area, he came up with some new technologies, and he put them out there, and he saw that the market was, was still kind of running with the same old commodity technologies, because they saw that people were willing to buy them. And so that’s when he decided that, okay, he needs to go through this time, and not just kind of start the movement, but, you know, follow through develop the real commercializable technology. And then And then, you know, we took that took up that thread, and built it into a real product that can help.

Alan
People now I understand the Department of Defense has some interest in the technology you’re doing.

Dillip
Sure, yeah. So, so we’ve received funding in the past from both the Department of Defense and the EPA. And, you know, federal funding is, as has always been helpful, it’s very important at the foundational level to fund science, and to get it from that point where it’s just something that that’s a very lab bench type technology to something that’s really applicable in the real world. And so, so the Department of fence was concerned about a number of things ranging from ranging from, you know, just kind of having clean atmospheres in there, you know, for for their personnel up to being able to protect them from chemical and biological threats. And so because our technology is agnostic in terms of the type of pollutants, we can break down a range of chemical threats, we can really break down biological threats, such as anthrax, and, and a number of other you know, viruses. So, you know, that’s where the interest came on that side.

Alan
It’s amazing that, you know, thinking that the HEPA filter came about with the Manhattan Project best 40s Yeah. And here we are some 50 plus years later, finally get to the next level of technology here, right. So but, but this thing will go across the board, not only just to the pollutants in the air, but rate will radiation, will it will it hit on that or what?

Dillip
No, so, um, radiation Azada not a major concern for us that we’re not trying to address it with this technology, but, but you know, it’s kind of the full spectrum of pollutants that you’ll see indoors. And, you know, who knows, someday we may be able to take it hopefully outdoors and solve some of the major problems that we’ve got going on with climate.

Alan
Yeah. Dillip it’s, you know your dad come back he has a he has quite a story to tell I’ve you know, life wasn’t easy in the early days was it?

Dillip
No. Yeah he so so my father’s story is he originally came as a refugee to India, their family during your basically pre independence India they they were living in a part of India that’s now Pakistan so they migrated from there to to Delhi and something that, you know that that, that I think shapes helped shape us as entrepreneurs later on because what we’ve seen is that, you know, kind of indomitable spirit of just conquering looking at any obstacle and not thinking of it as as a big deal, but just looking at, as you know, and yet another step in your journey. And so, you know, having that perspective in your life helps prepare you for the types of struggles you might see as an entrepreneur where, you know, okay, if if you know that your previous generations have been through that, then then you know, it’s not, it doesn’t seem as your challenges that you’re facing today don’t seem as difficult, you realize there’s always a solution, there’s always something you can do in these race situations. So having that background, you know, is really shaped, it’s certainly I think, Ben key perspective for him. But it’s also been something that he’s passed on to, to us, his children, in terms of, you know, how we should have shaped our lives as well.

Alan
You know, I think it’s important that this point, you just made that having that point be in your life, you’re at point A and, and it’s not going to happen if you don’t will it to happen, right, yeah. And to overcome challenges and obstacles in life, every entrepreneur, their, their, their successes and their failures, teach them. Right, and, but being able to work through the obstacles and overcome the problem that help us to get to the next level.

Dillip
Yeah, and I think there’s another piece to that, which is, it’s important to be be open to learn the lesson, when something isn’t working. It’s really difficult because as an entrepreneur, you’re so invested in the success of what you’re doing that, that you know, your emotions and your other things sometimes can cloud that cloud you from seeing that lesson, and having a little bit of perspective, being able to step back and saying like, Okay, well, this is not the toughest thing that I faced, there are people out there facing tougher things. Let me just calmed down. And let’s approach this situation, you know, looking for a solution, and, you know, kind of divorced, be able to divorce yourself a little bit from that level of personal investment and look at it objectively, certainly has helped me as an entrepreneur, in terms of learning those lessons when they need to be learned.

Alan
Yeah, so DLF went one unit about what what area of square footage will it cover?

Dillip
So the unit that we’re bringing out covers 600 square feet of area, so and it’s, it’s portable, so you can move it around to different spaces, if you have a larger space.

Alan
And is like a portable air conditioner, or does it just do everything? Is it? Is it confined to just within the room. So the air comes in? Yeah, and goes out, you just wipe the filters cleaner. Sure.

Dillip
It’s a it’s a self contained unit. So so it’s continuously circulating the air in this space that it’s in. And it’s a it has, it has actually two filters. So there’s a nano filter that has our special technology that breaks down the pollutants, and so that you don’t need to wipe clean it. It’s you know, it’s continuously breaking down the pollution that it’s seeing. And then there’s a pre filter that gets rid of like the grossest part, like the really large sized dust particles, things like head hair, we’ve got a number of beta testers and have many pets and so that takes care of that stuff. And then the really small particles we break up with an animal.

Alan
For more information company where would a person go?

Dillip
So you go to molekule.com. That’s molecule spelled with a K not with a C.

Alan
Okay, Dillip, thanks for being on today’s show. Thank you

 

 

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This transcript was generated by software and may not accurately reflect exactly what was said.

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