狼友视频

Megan Casey Glover was a communication major at 狼友视频 who figured she鈥檇 go to law school after her graduation in 2004, emulating her lawyer parents, Mary Butt and John Casey 鈥�67.

But when the time came, 鈥渋t just didn鈥檛 feel right,鈥� she says. So she stayed in Greencastle, running the Young Alumni Association for her alma mater. She called Angie Hicks 鈥�95 to solicit a donation and told Hicks 鈥淚鈥檓 really interested in your business.鈥�

One thing led to another and Glover went to work for 3 陆 years for Hicks鈥檚 company, Angie鈥檚 List, the home services referral website, where she 鈥渃aught the entrepreneurial bug.鈥�

And although she 鈥渘ever set out to start a business,鈥� Glover has, many years later, done just that, and in such fine fashion that she has won an award and financial support from AOL co-founder and former CEO Steve Case and attracted the attention of former President Barack Obama.

But let鈥檚 not get ahead of ourselves.

From Angie鈥檚 List, Glover moved into a series of marketing jobs, always clambering to join startups, 鈥渢he earlier the better.鈥� She had implemented the Compendium corporate blogging platform at Angie鈥檚 List and so eagerly responded to overtures from Alison Sales Roach 鈥�03 to become employee No. 5 for that startup. Compendium was founded by Chris Baggott, who previously sold ExactTarget to Salesforce for $2.5 billion; he later sold Compendium to technology giant Oracle. (Baggott鈥檚 son Matthew is a first-year 狼友视频 student.)

After that, Glover was off to聽Delivera, a marketing company, and then to two 狼友视频-connected companies 鈥� RICS Software, for which Jason Becker 鈥�04 is chief executive officer, and DyKnow, for which his father, David Becker 鈥�75, is CEO. (David Berque, a computer science professor, associate vice president of student academic life and dean of academic life at 狼友视频, holds two patents on the DyKnow software, with which teachers may provide electronic class notes to their students.)

鈥淔rom there, I had two little kids and I said I鈥檓 going to go out on my own and do some consulting,鈥� Glover says. As freelancers do, she was having coffee one day with Baggott and they began discussing the crisis in Flint, Mich., where 100,000 residents were exposed to lead-contaminated water.

鈥淐hris asked me, 鈥榓re you following any of this?鈥� I鈥檓 like, 鈥榊eah, you can鈥檛 not follow it; this is terrible.鈥� My kids were 2 and 5 at the time. And he said, 鈥楬ave you ever thought of it? Do you know if the water that your kids are drinking is safe?鈥� I said, 鈥楥hris, I鈥檝e never thought about it. I鈥檓 34 years old; I just expect that I pay for my water so it鈥檚 safe and, living in Indiana, we鈥檙e always going to have plenty of it. I鈥檝e never thought about water quality.鈥� I said, 鈥榊ou can鈥檛 stop thinking about it now, right?鈥� 聽聽

She didn鈥檛. Couldn鈥檛. She researched drinking water regulations and water testing. She learned that the industry was antiquated and the options for homeowners to test their water were slim 鈥� and, for most, prohibitively expensive. As a person who is 鈥渁lways conscious of what we鈥檙e putting in our bodies,鈥� she was troubled. But she also saw opportunity.聽聽

In April 2016, she, Baggott and a third partner pooled $130,000 to launch 120WaterAudit. The idea was homeowners would subscribe to have their water tested every 120 days. The idea faltered and they tweaked the formula, selling single-use kits to homeowners, who would receive them by mail, take a water sample and return it by mail.

Homeowners can still purchase kits, but the business has evolved significantly, now providing software services to civic entities 鈥� public water systems, cities, school districts and states. Glover had been equipped with a clipboard the first time she conducted sampling in a school district, and she came away thinking that there had to be a better way to manage the massive amount of information that would have to be gathered 鈥� inventories of lead-contaminated lines and testing results.

The company was developing a software prototype when she met someone from the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, who referred her to the person who was overseeing the state鈥檚 then-new lead-testing program in public schools. He had been looking for software to manage the work and the state ended up purchasing it from 120WaterAudit for $500,000. Just days before, the company landed a $300,000 deal with the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority.

Other civic entities, compelled by federal law, have followed. The company has 16 employees and Glover says she expects to grow to 35 employees and triple revenue in the next few years. 聽

About a year ago, Case came to Indianapolis for his investment firm Revolution LLC鈥檚 Rise of the Rest competition, which seeks out promising tech startups outside Silicon Valley with a plan to invest in them. Glover was among the Indianapolis-area entrepreneurs given the opportunity to present; Case invested $100,000.

Then last February, Glover was among the Rise of the Rest recipients Case invited to attend a two-day conference in Washington D.C., where she met Obama.

鈥淚t was kind of an out-of-body experience, politics aside,鈥� she says. 鈥淭hat was my first small roundtable with someone of that stature. He was incredibly thoughtful and he didn鈥檛 need to spend the hour and a half that he did with us five entrepreneurs, but he did.鈥�