spinofflive
O2O2 CO-FOUNDER JERRY MAUGER WEARING AN ENGINEERING PROTOTYPE (PHOTO: SUPPLIED)
O2O2 CO-FOUNDER JERRY MAUGER WEARING AN ENGINEERING PROTOTYPE (PHOTO: SUPPLIED)

BusinessOctober 17, 2017

The Kiwi face mask breathing new life into clean air

Contributing writer
O2O2 CO-FOUNDER JERRY MAUGER WEARING AN ENGINEERING PROTOTYPE (PHOTO: SUPPLIED)
O2O2 CO-FOUNDER JERRY MAUGER WEARING AN ENGINEERING PROTOTYPE (PHOTO: SUPPLIED)

Combining the power of US capital and Kiwi engineering, O2O2 Facewear is on the forefront of anti-pollution technology. Jihee Junn talks to CEO Dan Bowden about how the future of filtration is transparent. 

In densely populated megacities like Beijing, surgical face masks have become a regular sight. But despite their near ubiquity, woven cloth masks are largely ineffective, causing some to seek out more advanced ways to reduce harmful airborne exposure.

While they may seem banal, face masks have evolved into a multi-billion dollar industry, one that more than a handful of businesses have been keen to get in on. 3M, for example, now offer a range of pollution mask models made from non-woven cloth, while startups like idMASK have opted for an air-tight, silicon-sealed solution.

But as O2O2 Facewear CEO Dan Bowden puts it, most products in the face mask industry are providing “analogue solutions for a digital world”, something which his company is hoping to change. Styled in London and New York but created in New Zealand, high-tech O2O2 masks are redefining the burgeoning respirator market. I talked to Bowden about the journey so far.

O2O2 MARKETING IMAGE (SUPPLIED)

How did O2O2 Facewear start and what was your inspiration behind creating this product?

All three founders of O2O2 experienced air pollution and the failures of the current technology separately. I was living in London and was aware of the little recognised public health crisis due to air pollution. Experts estimate there are some 10,000 deaths every year in the UK from air pollution. However, there was a paucity of information to enable community understanding and create a personal connection to the issue.

Our CTO, Jerry Mauger, wore masks and respirators on a daily basis and knew deeply of the discomfort and fundamental flaws in the technology from a user’s perspective. He wanted a better solution for him as a user.

But for our CMO, Ilya Vensky, the issue was more personal. Ilya was one of the first to introduce western brands to China. However, living there was resulting in such serious health issues for his family that they were forced to move. Luckily for us, it was to New Zealand.

O2O2 Facewear culminated when Jerry struck upon the idea that there was an opportunity to leverage the emerging properties of nanofibers, recent advancements in battery technologies, and advanced computer modelling to create a new solution for those at risk of air pollution. Over two years, he iterated and evolved the design, working with one of the co-founders of Auckland company Revolution Fibres.

O2O2 Facewear originates from New Zealand, but you guys took the plunge and went overseas. What was your reasoning behind doing this and how have you found the experience so far?

While the company is New York domiciled, the R&D and innovation remains here in New Zealand and will do so for the foreseeable future. But the catalyst for moving the company to the US was an investment from a joint venture between BMW and Global Venture Capital group, SOSV.

The experience has been beyond our expectations. The investment and relocation has opened doors which were otherwise closed to a company of our size, maturity, and geographic location. A good example of this is the partnership we formed with the US Navy who seconded an engineer to our team. By basing myself and the company in New York and the R&D team in Auckland, we’ve been able to marry up US capital and global networks to New Zealand creativity and engineering.

O2O2 CO-FOUNDER JERRY MAUGER WEARING AN ENGINEERING PROTOTYPE (SUPPLIED)

So how does technology actually work? 

First, it’s probably helpful to understand the flaws associated with existing solutions which may provide context as to why a change is needed. Our various competitors effectively rely on 1960s technologies, which are highly dependent on a tight seal around the user’s nose and mouth. This creates a host of other user issues such as the rebreathing of hot humid air, fogging of glasses, smearing of make-up and incompatibility with facial hair.

Our competitors really are dinosaurs, providing users with analogue solutions for a digital world. By virtue of this rehashed and simplistic design, they can’t collect or communicate data and they can’t interact to inform users they’re protected.

O2O2 Facewear flips the whole solution on its head. Jerry has designed a powered solution which cleans the air of pollutants and pathogens using the nanofibers developed with Revolution Fibres. The facewear then engineers the air by using a fan to create positive air pressure behind a clear shield to protect the user without needing any seal.

What sort of thought went into the current design of O2O2 Facewear? 

We’re all big adherents of design thinking, which when you strip out the jargon is just a process of having strong empathy with the user and thinking deeply about how and why the user interacts with the product. An example of design thinking in our product is the use of a clear shield because we believe that this enables human connections like the ability to smile and communicate.

The other foundation of our design is that Jerry has led a highly scientific approach. We all believe that the product needs to be subject to a high degree of scientific rigour and that our claims should be validated by third parties. This has led us to a great relationship with AUT who have tested our claims. We’re strong advocates of open innovation.

Obviously, O2O2 Facewear is much more efficient at filtering pollution than your regular face mask, but the big question for consumers is, is it actually comfortable and easy to wear?

Definitely. In terms of comfort, the lack of seal results in no rebreathing of hot humid air that you’ve just exhaled and no longer do you have a tight, restrictive mask pulling on sensitive areas of your face.

As for ease of use, the facewear can be put on as easily as a pair of sunglasses, and as we don’t have any need for a complicated fit test like our competitors. You can be protected in an instant and without any training.

“THE FACEWEAR CAN BE PUT ON AS EASILY AS A PAIR OF SUNGLASSES.” (SUPPLIED)

Air quality around the world is constantly deteriorating which is what’s necessitated a technology like O2O2 Facewear to emerge. But what would you like to see from our governments and businesses in order to help change that for the sake of our environment? 

I should probably state that this technology isn’t restricted to environmental pollutants in megacities like Beijing or London. This technology can equally be used in other polluted environments, such as hospital operating theatres, construction sites, and even battlefields.

The first step for me is encapsulated by the Louis D. Brandeis quote that “sunlight is the best disinfectant”, which means that the first step in making change is creating transparency around the issues and the sources of the problems we’re facing.

I believe that true, long-term change comes when we as a society can create a personal connection to a problem and we, as individuals, take responsibility for that positive change. It doesn’t often come from having a solution thrust upon us. It’s up to us as consumers and community members to lead our politicians into making the changes we want to see.

With that said, from a selfish point of view, I’d like to see the government provide incentives, particularly R&D grants, for those of us seeking to solve these big issues. The overarching government goal should be to internalise the distortive externalities that companies and individuals benefit from, as they currently seek to do so via cap and trade policies. Or put more simply, making sure the polluter pays.

However, this brings me full circle. In order to effectively close these externalities, you first need to have transparency around the impacts. That’s why O2O2 Facewear has an ambition to embed our facewear with pollution sensors which can thereby create city-wide data that can shine a light on the problem.

A CLEAR SHIELD IS USED IN THE DESIGN TO ENABLE OTHERS TO READ FACIAL EXPRESSIONS. (SUPPLIED)

Are there any specific countries or markets that you’re currently targetting?

The obvious market is China where there are a billion masks sold every year. The market is growing at 20% a year and will be a $1.5 billion market in five years. But what’s surprised us has been the flood of enquiries from South Korea, who face many of the same problems. Koreans are already making fan-made YouTube videos of the O2O2 product.

Lastly, tell us about a Kiwi start-up or business that you really admire right now.

More Reading

    I really like what Kode Biotech is doing. They’re about to explode on the world stage and when they do, they’re going to make every one of us proud to be Kiwis.

    The Spinoff’s business content is brought to you by our friends at Kiwibank. Kiwibank backs small to medium businesses, social enterprises and Kiwis who innovate to make good things happen.

    Check out how Kiwibank can help your business take the next step.

    Keep going!
    The University of Otago celebrates it’s 150th anniversary this year (photo: Getty Images).
    The University of Otago celebrates it’s 150th anniversary this year (photo: Getty Images).

    BusinessOctober 17, 2017

    The new work order

    BusinessDesk
    The University of Otago celebrates it’s 150th anniversary this year (photo: Getty Images).
    The University of Otago celebrates it’s 150th anniversary this year (photo: Getty Images).

    If robots are going to be the accountants, what is the point of getting a degree? Rebecca Stevenson reports on the future of work, and finds old skills are getting a new relevance.

    Late last month 100 New Zealand companies including Xero, Fonterra, The Warehouse, Spark and Fisher & Paykel signed an open letter that stated tertiary qualifications would not be needed for a number of skilled roles at these organisations.

    They instead are going to look at skills, attitude and adaptability, rather than relying on a bachelors as a denoter of a quality employee. 

    Education ‘futurist’, Mind Lab founder Frances Valentine says New Zealand businesses are struggling to find talented employees that can bring enthusiasm, natural talent, passion and potential to their companies and further, “qualifications do not always reflect the capability of the applicants”. 

    The initiative, NZ Talent, is part of a push to double GDP growth, and raise productivity. It says we are faced with a historic high in unfilled job vacancies, and warns of a rapidly changing world of technology where skills are valued and “fixed knowledge” is not. “The pace of change is rapid,” reads a line from NZ Talent’s open letter, “as employment is increasingly redefined by technology and new skills, the job market needs to respond in new ways to find talent.”

    As part of the initiative TradeMe has added a “no qualifications required” filter to its job search site, and at time of writing this piece there were 39 jobs up for grabs for non-qualified applicants, among them is Xero’s head of product design, TradeMe’s head of data and insights and national sales manager – agrifeeds – for Fonterra.

    How could this letter change these businesses? That could be tricky to trace. Xero, for example, doesn’t actively track how many of its employees have tertiary qualifications. “Outside of our grad program, we’re mostly hiring on professional qualifications for specific roles that require it (CA, AWS etc.), previous experience and soft skills rather than tertiary qualifications,” Xero NZ country manager Craig Hudson says.

    TALENT ONLY WANTED. PHOTO: SCREENSHOT

    How many people might this change benefit? The 2013 Census shows about 22% of people aged 15 years and older have no formal qualifications, but the number of us getting them has been climbing; degree attainment has risen from about 15.8% in 2006 to about 20% in 2013.

    The reasons to get a degree have been well publicised by the sector, with higher wages often highlighted and a current degree cheat sheet says graduates’ “median hourly earnings are 65% higher for New Zealanders with a degree or higher qualification”. The same page says 97% of those who hold a bachelor degree are employed, and you won’t be in debt for that long – seven years is the median time to pay off a student loan for one.

    The companies aren’t walking away from education, just taking a wider look around for new blood. After all, “traditional tertiary education has its place”, but “it is one of many pathways to employment”, the open letter states. “Internships, apprenticeships, new micro-credentials, on the job training, online courses and badging are all effective ways to learn.” Apprenticeships? Now that is back to the future.

    21C Skills Lab founder Faye Langdon hails the letter as a “seismic shift” – she says it “made explicit to young people and their parents that the New Work Order is well and truly here”. The highly accomplished Langdon says in the new world of work, many current tertiary qualifications are not seen by employers to prepare young people for real world roles.

    We have to get away from thinking about jobs, Langdon says, and which degree you need to get to have that job. In the past kids would aspire to be doctors, lawyers, professional jobs that you could make a lifelong career from, and now it is all about skills, Langdon says. This undermines the traditional “deal” schools have had with students, and parents – work hard, get bursary and get to university; the new work order flips that deal on its head.

    If the robots are going to be the accountants, or an algorithm inside software like Xero is, what’s the point of getting a degree?

    It’s a relevant example to this teenager. Ria Sharma’s father is an accountant, and while the expected option might be to head to university, become an accountant and take over her dad’s existing business it’s not one the 15-year-old is considering. “We’re being told you can be an accountant, but when we get there these jobs could be gone,” she says.

    SHARMA AT WORK. PHOTO: SUPPLIED

    Langdon says Sharma’s cohort are facing an entirely new landscape when they hit the workforce. She says a 15-year-old will likely change job 17 times across five careers, and that’s another reason we have to change what we are teaching. In our technology-obsessed world our kids need to be taught old school life skills like resilience, tenacity, adaptability and how to work in a team.

    We need to take a step back too, Langdon says, and look at school. She says our teaching workforce is not well-equipped for this new work order – that we need to be less fixated on measuring meeting the curriculum and instead look at measuring the “non-cogs” – again that’s being curious, a good communicator, problem solver and those resilient personal skills.

    “Education is definitely changing,” Sharma says.  She’s visiting The Spinoff office alongside entrepreneur James Hurman, part-way through an internship with the renowned brand strategist. It’s not her first dabble in the workforce, having completed her first internship at the age of 14.

    This poised and articulate teenager is a student at Hobsonville Point Secondary School, New Zealand’s first public-private partnership secondary school. It’s a new model of how to run a school, with the school’s assets – the buildings – designed, built and maintained by private companies; and that’s not where the changes begin and end. Hobsonville Point also has ‘Innovative Learning Environments’ and ‘Flexible Learning Spaces’.

    Gone are the rows of classrooms that can pen about 30 students, and the traditional setup of teacher at the front dictating lessons to seated pupils. At Hobsonville Point it’s all much more free flowing with larger areas (comfortable for up to 60 students) called ‘learning commons’ while smaller ‘breakout’ rooms can accommodate ones or twos. Kids might be working on the floor, or sitting in a bean bag.

    The school teaches the curriculum, but single interest subjects are a thing of the past so where you maybe would have studied maths and physics individually, now students are learning information that might run across a few subjects – in this case it might be ‘movement’.  In another example, Sharma says she was learning about mathematics and food technology and out of this, the class explored product development and marketing. “I never would have thought there would be carry over, but it does,” Sharma says.

    CLASS IS IN. PHOTO: SCREENSHOT HPSS

    The secondary school is part of a wider movement to dismantle traditional education, and rebuild it with an eye to the future. The rise of automation and artificial intelligence is going to dramatically change the work available when Sharma is job hunting, so surely it’s logical that what we are teaching, and how we are teaching it, has to evolve too.

    “We are going to get thrown out into this world, that you guys haven’t figured out yet… We have to make sure students are equipped with life skills. We need to be purposeful. We need to be self motivated. We need life skills rather than facts or tables,” Sharma says.

    And if uni is no longer the end goal, what should young people be studying?

    Langdon points to micro-credential learning badges like those offered by technology giant IBM, which are now even able to be used towards those dreaded degrees. They are, as IBM puts it, “a digital representation of an existing activity, like the completion of a class, an assessment or a demonstration of skills or abilities”.

    So what does Sharma think waits for her once she’s finished her untraditional education at Hobsonville Point? She pauses. She might take a year off? Or will she get her nine-year-old self’s dream job, and a degree at Auckland University, in law? Who knows. The next internship could be a game changer.

    rebecca@thespinoff.co.nz @bex_stevenson

    The Spinoff’s business content is brought to you by our friends at Kiwibank. Kiwibank backs small to medium businesses, social enterprises and Kiwis who innovate to make good things happen.

    Check out how Kiwibank can help your business take the next step.

    Business