Turning a volunteer project into a company

Discover the origins of AirGradient, which began as a volunteer project in Northern Thailand during the harsh "burning season" of 2019. Learn how this effort evolved into a company focused on providing open source air quality hardware, measuring critical metrics like PM 2.5 and CO2 to safeguard classrooms

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Chapters

00:00 Welcome

01:04 Meet Achim: From Siemens to Thailand and a Wildfire Crisis

03:20 Burning Season 2019: The School That Sparked AirGradient

07:50 DIY to Open Hardware: Arduino, ESP32, PM2.5 + CO2, and Dashboards

12:24 Values: Repairability, Ownership, and CC BY‑SA Licensing

16:40 Global Takeoff: Hacker News, Jeff Geerling, and the Kit Era

20:16 ESPHome vs Native: Building the Official Home Assistant Integration

32:26 Works with Home Assistant Platinum: Local‑First and Privacy by Default

36:40 Open Culture, Community, and Academia: Why Sharing Pays Back

41:45 UNICEF Laos: ML Air‑Quality Forecasts + Open Map Integration

44:55 Roadmap: Larger Displays, Portable Monitors, and More Pollutants

46:27 Safeguarding the Mission: Foundation Plan (Switzerland)

49:45 Achim’s Home Assistant Setup: Z‑Wave, ESPHome, Geofencing

56:16 Real‑World Use Cases: Factories, Schools, and Ventilation Control

01:01:58 Accuracy Matters: Calibration, Pitfalls, and Transparent Limits

01:05:19 Wrap‑Up and Where to Buy

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Hosts

Phil Hawthorne

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Rohan Karamandi

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