i3 - March/April 2019 - 9

Tech

Q What is the background of Zero
Mass Water?
A When I think about big problems that are
global and humanitarian, clean drinking
water is the biggest. For the last five years, I
have been looking for a platform that would
be part of a solution for clean drinking
water. Nothing really popped out at me until
Cody Friesen - who is now the founder and
CEO of Zero Mass and is also a professor at
Arizona State - called me and said, "I've got
something that I have been working on in
my lab that I am rolling out into a commercial enterprise. Would you help me with it?"
And the entrepreneur in me, not necessarily the investor, said, "that's interesting." I
went to see Cody in July in Phoenix and it was
107 degrees. I pulled up to the Arizona State
campus at the Department of Engineering in
my rental car, and it was so hot, I didn't want
to get out. Cody showed me his prototype
unit for SOURCE in the desert with extremely
low humidity and high temperatures. You
couldn't imagine there was drinking water
that could be pulled from the air without
grid-based power. Slowly but surely this unit
was gathering water out of the desert air.
Cody had basically come up with a material
set that in the desert air would compete for
water, finding those moisture molecules and
effectively condensing and collecting them
into a reservoir. That was the launch of Zero
Mass Water. Cody took a sabbatical from
Arizona State while he worked as the CEO of
the company. I have been on his board from
the earliest days helping him navigate how
to grow this company. SOURCE is now sold
in over 18 different countries.

Q How was it received at CES?
A Zero Mass Water set up their booth outside
the convention center by design. All they
need is sunlight and air and the SOURCE
Hydropanel works. When most people saw
what Zero Mass Water was doing at CES, they
got excited and were intrigued. The complexity of our business has gone up, but the
progress has also been tremendous.

Q Is there a limit to how many people can
access water in an area?
A There is more water in the air than all the
fresh water on the planet. If you look at the
C TA . t e c h / i 3

ambient water that exists in the atmosphere,
there is a tremendous amount, and so you
are not at risk of running out. That is why it
is so remarkable what Cody did. So where
would this struggle? It would be in areas that
have very low temperatures for prolonged
periods of time. How would you solve that if
you were looking at some of the more Nordic
super-cold areas? How do I get enough heat,
so things don't freeze? These are important
environmental factors that Cody and his team
have had to consider while advancing the
development of the technology.

Q Where else can this technology go?
A I imagine at some point just like solar
farms - water farms could be created to
provide a higher volume of drinking water
to communities. I believe we will also see
the company's direct-to-consumer model
expanding. Today consumers can take
advantage of this technology by purchasing
SOURCE Hydropanels directly from Zero
Mass Water. This is similar to how people
purchase solar panels for their home for
grid-independent energy. I imagine that
over time, the footprint of the SOURCE
Hydropanel will continue to get smaller. I
wouldn't be surprised if at some point the
company designs versions that are light
enough to go in a backpack for people in
the armed services, or people doing work

for the Peace Corps, or people going into
remote areas where they can't access water
easily. Just imagine a version of this that is
portable enough to put in your backpack.

Q How do you define resilience?
A Simply put it's being able to withstand
the changes from mother nature or from
man-made disruptions. If you have a system
that can withstand those two things, that is
as close to impervious as one can imagine.
That is a resilient product or resilient technology. Think about it this way: If something
or somebody can come along and snip a
wire or break a piece of infrastructure and
shut your whole operation down, that is not
resilient. If someone can pour something
toxic into your water source, that is not
resilient. It could be delivered by a terrorist or it could be a bad storm that knocks
a power line down and therefore, certain
things just don't work. That is not resilient.
To the extent that you are relying on a wireless communications system, if it is easily
disrupted, I would not call that resilient.

Q You played a major role in bringing the
first Resilience Marketplace to CES 2019.
How does resilience translate to the
consumer market?
A If you look at keeping the world healthy,
warm, safe, fed, secure and powered

How does this
business expand?

A This is a global

problem. You need to
treat the whole world as the market,
which is not trivial, especially with
a topic like water. Water is very
personal. Depending on where you
go, to get these units out, there are
a lot of go-to-market complexities
in each geography. We also want
to make sure that the water is safe
and regulated so that people don't
find out that they are drinking
something that is not great for their
children. It is remarkable that in less

than four years, we find ourselves in
these countries where the market is
responding so positively.

MARCH/APRIL 2019

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i3 - March/April 2019

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