An Interview with Mark Sholin, Founder and CEO of Arbsource
Wastewater treatment in the US has become an issue for many businesses, big and small. Mark Sholin, the founder and CEO of Arbsource, created a solution to that problem. As part of the Edson Student Entrepreneur Initiative, Arbsource was created to relieve the burden of wastewater treatment and create a more sustainable, cost-friendly way to go about it.
Just recently, Arbsource was named one of the top 12 clean tech companies to watch in 2012 by ZDNet. They are constantly growing and building new partnerships. In an interview with Mark Sholin, he gives us a more in depth look at Arbsource. Our questions and his responses are below:
What grants/investments have you received since the start of Arbsource?
Arbsource has won competitive grant awards from the Edson Student Entrepreneurship Initiative, Cleantech Open, Idea2Product Global Competition, NCIIA, and Walmart Better Living Business Plan Challenge. Other development dollars granted to ASU by the Office of Naval Research also contribute to our R&D. We are still pre-revenue, so leveraging non-dilutive sources of capital is a high priority as we continue scaling our reactors. In the spirit of this strategy, we have other grant/competition submissions pending over the next few months on the order of $500,000 combined capital and have high hopes for success.
How does the ARBCell Biotechnology compare to other wastewater treatment systems?
The ARBCell is being developed to meet the same treatment speeds and quality as conventional methods, but at half the operations cost. We can achieve this by using a special class of bacteria, called Anode Respiring Bacteria (ARB for short), that work in conjunction with our unique reactor design to deliver identical treatment while using up to 70% less energy and producing up to 80% fewer solid sludge byproducts. Additionally, we create hydrogen gas as a value added byproduct that sees wide use in many industries.
How would you describe the team at Arbsource?
Our management team is comparatively young for most cleantech ventures, but we are passionate about our cause and have already collected relevant technical and market perspectives from prior work experience. We’re bolstered by a highly knowledgeable and experienced advisory board in both business strategy and technology development. Researchers at the Swette Center for Environmental Biotechnology, housed within the Biodesign Institute, are the brains behind the development of our ARBCell prototypes, giving us an extra layer of credibility among potential customers and investors.
How would you like to see your company expand?
Over the next year, we will be working diligently to build out our proof-of-concept pilots that will be placed in the processing facilities of different early customers to treat small portions of wastewater. From there, we expect to be ready to offer full-scale treatment systems in early 2013. Forging strong relationships with engineering design consultants specializing in commercial wastewater is key to nationwide deployment, some of which we have already contracted with. Recent connections we’ve made are also interested in pushing the ARBCell to countries outside the US, namely India.
Arbsource recently took second place in the Idea2Product (I2P) global startup competition based in Stockholm, Sweden. I2P has also made available a video, so you can watch Mark Sholin’s pitch to judges followed by a Q&A session.
Get connected with this exciting and innovative new venture!
Written by Tynnisha Hamilton, ASU LightWorks
