MARQUETTE, Mich. (WZMQ) – When Justin Carlson fell seriously ill in 2020, he wasn’t sure why. After many rounds of testing, he was later diagnosed with Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome (CIRS), caused by an exposure to indoor mold. This experience inspired Carlson to create a web program to further expand the resources for detecting indoor mold, and to alert others of these unknowing exposures.
“We have so few options for places that have healthy indoor air quality, which is particularly important for people with sensitivities,” said Justin Carlson, CEO and founder of Invivus Technologies. “I knew that I wanted to create a platform that helps people find places that have healthy indoor quality.” Moldmap helps by crowdsourcing information and allowing the public to provide air quality insights and reviews for rentals, gyms, hotels, and restaurants. Over its first two weeks, the website has seen a great amount of traction, receiving around 1400 location reviews globally so far.
“We’re live right now, we launched about two weeks ago, its our prototype so we’re still testing, learning, and getting feedback from users.” said Carlson. The company’s networking began with Invent@NMU last year, when Moldmap was still just an idea. Carlson then worked with PitchMI to share his idea for the company, eventually becoming an accelerated client with Innovate Marquette Smartzone.
“Through that, we have some grant money that we’ve been able to use for development of Moldmap, which has been critical as well as some marketing. That’s really what has allowed me to get Moldmap off the ground.”
The free website is available at moldmap.io. The company also plans to release a mobile app as well in the near future.
