The arrival of the pandemic forced the world to go remote, but what about essential workers in tight, poorly ventilated spaces that didn’t have this option?
For Branden Doyle, a former nuclear engineer for the U.S. Department of Defense, this scenario was a serious health safety concern on the aircraft carriers and submarines he worked on.
His experience led to the creation of Seattle startup Violett, which has developed technology to disinfect air using ultraviolet light.
Doyle and his team conducted thorough testing on existing air filtration products, but they couldn’t find effective solutions. “There were claims on boxes that weren’t necessarily true when you tested them,” Doyle said. “I knew if I was going to come up with a solution, I was going to have to go do it myself.”
Founded in late 2020, the company is now selling and delivering products primarily for healthcare and eldercare, but also reaches schools and fitness centers. It landed $400,000 last year from investors.
Using their extensive backgrounds in engineering, technology, and molecular biology, Doyle and his co-founders Adam Ibrahim and Jessie Perez had to completely rethink the underlying technology for portable air purification.
In their product, air enters the base of the unit through all directions and first passes through a HEPA prefilter to eliminate any large particles and pollutants. In the light chamber, a unique cyclone technology then holds the air longer than competitive offerings, Doyle said, and maximizes UVC exposure, effectively killing any pathogens in the system. The disinfected air is then released back into the room.
With this high level of disinfection, about 800 square feet can be purified in just 15 minutes, said Doyle, who spent more than 12 years with the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard.
“We had such a critical piece of technology during the pandemic when people were dying and we knew we could save lives if we got it out faster,” Doyle said. The greatest challenge was balancing his full-time day job at the DoD with the development of Violett, but the impact of the product drove Doyle to go full-time on Violett.
The company has three full-time employees. Ibrahim previously worked at Ebara Technologies and was a propulsion engineer with the U.S. Air Force, while Perez spent two years at Nanostring.
Violett was recently a finalist at the Seattle Angel Conference in November.
Violett plans on expanding its business model with industrial solutions such as direct HVAC integration and even addressing global issues such as water pollution with cost-effective water disinfection.
We caught up with Doyle for this Startup Spotlight feature. Continue reading for his answers to our questionnaire.
Our ‘secret sauce’ is: Our technology. I know plenty of people probably say that, but we have technology that allows our product to perform a lot better than anything else that’s out there. We also have a team that has spent years designing, researching, and perfecting this. We have the right team and we have the right technology to disrupt the air purification space.
“We have the right team and we have the right technology to disrupt the air purification space.”
The smartest move we’ve made so far: Finding good people to work with and good advisors to help us get on the right path. Being a career engineer that has led teams but never formed a company before, I like to surround myself with people that are smarter than me in a lot of different areas and I would recommend that to everybody. Even if you’re a 5-time entrepreneur, it’s still a great idea because you can only know so much. I have a lot of really smart people around me now that are helping make sure we’re going in the right direction.
The biggest mistake we’ve made so far: When growing a team, it’s important to take the time upfront to really make sure it’s a good fit before taking the plunge because startups are hard and they’re not for everybody. It is a big time investment when you bring somebody on and it doesn’t work out. So, take a lot of time upfront to make sure as much as you can.
The biggest thing we look for when hiring is: A willingness to roll your sleeves up and do whatever is required. If you have somebody that really wants to do one thing but they’re not going to be willing to do other things, it’s not going to be a good fit for an early-stage startup. Maybe in a year or two, they will be a perfect contributor but they’re probably going to burn out and be more of a burden than a help.
What’s the one piece of advice you’d give to other entrepreneurs just starting out: Find a good set of mentors that have done what you’re doing before and interview them as much as they will let you before you start. Go in with open eyes. Lucky for me, I am the type that once I start to do something, I’m going to go make it happen no matter what. But not everyone is like that. Going through what I’ve gone through, I would hate to see people try to do this —leave their job, and then realize that it’s really hard, more stressful, and more frustrating. So, go out and find and make requests to talk to people you don’t know that have done it before. For the most part, people are more than willing to share the knowledge that they’ve gained with people that are looking to go do that. Take the time upfront.
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