Company: Population, San Francisco, CA
Nomination Submitted by: Population Lights, Inc.
Company Description: Population future-proofs businesses against infectious diseases and creates healthier, more connected indoor spaces. 4-time founder, Megan Groves, built Population to help companies adapt to increasing public health threats. Population has already garnered multiple enterprise customers, and received an IOT/Smart Cities innovation award during the prestigious Plug and Play Tech Center accelerator.
Nomination Category: Individual Awards Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Best Female Entrepreneur – Business Products –10 or Less Employees
 Nomination Title: Megan Groves, Founder & CEO
- Outline the nominee's achievements since July 1 2020 that you wish to bring to the judges' attention (up to 250 words):
Total 245 words used.
Most people think it can take several years and millions of dollars to bring a public health solution from conception to customer, but in less than 2 years, Megan Groves and team did just that, a tall task for an emerging technology with no pre-existing market. She identified the opportunity, fixated on an urgent solution to Covid-19, but also building towards the enduring need to safeguard against foodborne pathogens or emerging threats driven by antibiotic resistance and climate change. Population built a product and set out to validate its performance through 3rd party labs. The data proved it could effectively destroy >99.99% of most common airborne and surface viruses and bacteria, and even 99.9% of live SARS-CoV-2 in under one minute at 21cm away, offering much protection against the spread of Covid-19 and other infectious diseases when implemented as a whole-room solution.
Along the way, Megan sought out and recruited valuable industry advisors including one of the world’s foremost Far UV-C experts who advises the WHO and one former CDC epidemiologist who helps Fortune500 companies set up effective food safety programs. Megan also formed valuable industry collaborations with researchers, suppliers, and distribution partners. She generated a robust pipeline of enterprise customers across the U.S. [REDACTED FOR PUBLICATION] and globally [REDACTED FOR PUBLICATION]
Today Population is an automated, app controlled platform that uses human-safe UV to disinfect occupied indoor spaces and has launched with paying enterprise customers.
- Reference any attachments of supporting materials throughout this nomination and how they provide evidence of the claims you have made in this nomination (up to 250 words):
Total 46 words used.
Supporting materials include the company website (www.populationtech.com), the nominee’s LinkedIn profile (https://www.linkedin.com/in/megangroves), an overview deck of Population with renderings and photographs, Population lab reports detailing scientific results, and a scientific article on Far UV-C as an emerging tool for pandemic control.
- Which will you submit for your nomination in this category, a video of up to five (5) minutes, explaining the achievements since July 1, 2020 of the nominated woman, OR written answers to the questions? (Choose one):
Written answers to the questions
- If you are submitting a video of up to five (5) minutes in length, provide the URL of the video here, OR attach it to your entry via the "Add Attachments, Videos, or Links to This Entry" link above, through which you may also upload a copy of your video. If you are submitting written answers to the questions for this category, provide them in the spaces below.
- Briefly describe the nominated individual: history and past performance (up to 200 words):
Total 149 words used.
At the start of the pandemic, Megan Groves saw a need to leverage her background commercializing emerging technologies to stop Covid-19 in its tracks and “future-proof” indoor spaces against infectious diseases.
She sought out and engaged a few superb scientists and technologists as one of the first women in the world to productize and commercialize Far UV-C, a human-safe ultraviolet lightwave that kills dangerous bacteria and viruses like Covid-19 while remaining safe for use in occupied spaces. This is now a startup called Population.
Prior to Population, Megan Groves founded Infusion, a center dedicated to digestive & reproductive health, and Modular, a marketing automation company, both exited.
She also served as interim CMO for over 20 venture-backed tech startups, often responsible for positioning and launching deep-tech products requiring new category creation.
Megan speaks 5 languages and earned both a Certificate of Cross-Cultural Negotiation and a Masters in Business Administration from Thunderbird School of Global Management.
- Explain why the achievements you have highlighted are unique or significant. If possible compare the achievements to the performance of other players in your industry and/or to the nominee's past performance (up to 250 words):
Total 248 words used.
Population is among the first companies in the world to take human-safe Far UV-C – the newest evolution of ultraviolet light – to the mass market and create healthier shared indoor spaces.
Other solutions to kill pathogens require manual labor, chemicals, or unsafe traditional germicidal ultraviolet light that can only be used intermittently or away from areas where people interact. Population products are a hands-off, persistent solution safe for use in occupied spaces. They disinfect without chemicals and are energy efficient.
While Far UV-C is still an emerging technology, Megan saw a need to create smart, connected devices with a valuable intelligence layer that would not just create a healthier built environment but that would make it easier for business managers to support their ESG initiatives. Population has an information advantage through its smart setup approach, IOT-enabled products, and business app. Together this solution provides confidence in the ability to reduce risks for teams and customers and enables managers to better adhere to corporate health and wellness goals.
Population also has an advantage through the partnerships it’s developed and by producing industry-leading real world research with a multinational company to prove the products work just as well in an office environment as in the lab. The results of this study will soon be published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal.
Population was selected and participated in the Plug and Play Smart Cities / IOT accelerator program and won an award for best new technology as voted on by corporate leaders.
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