BC Business
Co-founder and CMO
AGE: 23
COMPANY: Clad Innovations Ltd.
“Air pollution is the number one daily health risk, but it’s not monitored at all on a personal level”
The Story: Many young people find themselves pondering their future while travelling overseas. Not many, however, wind up potentially coming up with the next big thing in wearable technology. But trekking through polluted cities in Europe and Morocco inspired Port Coquitlam native Laura Moe and friend Kevin Hart to come up with the concept for Tzoa: a wearable air quality sensor that measures pollution and UV rays and transmits the readings to a smartphone app via Bluetooth. “Air pollution is the number one daily health risk, but it’s not monitored at all on a personal level,” says Moe, a former nurse who says she was surprised to find her passion in consumer electronics.
Markers of Success: Tzoa—the inaugural offering from Moe and Hart’s company, Clad Innovations—is still a year or more away from coming to market, but public health departments at UBC and Yale University have expressed interest in testing the product. Tzoa was also on display at the Consumer Electronics Show in January, and Moe is part of the first cohort of the Next Big Thing Foundation’s entrepreneur accelerator program led by Hootsuite founder Ryan Holmes and branding expert Meredith Powell.—Jessica Barrett
Meet Laura Moe and the rest of the 2015 30 Under 30 winners at this year’s celebration event!