Kai Pono Solutions: Reengineering Stormwater Filtration
Navy McKee delivers her pitch at the first in-person gathering of the BlueSwell Program in October 2024
Stormwater management poses a significant challenge to our cities and communities, impacting both environmental health and human well-being. Sediment, trash, bacteria, oils, and nutrients can all contaminate and disrupt aquatic ecosystems during storms.
Amidst these troubling circumstances is where innovation shines. SeaAhead’s team got the chance to catch up with Navy McKee, an entrepreneur focused on updating America’s antiquated storm drain systems.
Navy is the CEO and co-founder of Kai Pono Solutions, a startup dedicated to preserving the health of our waterways by intercepting harmful pollutants at a key source—storm drains. The system filters can capture a wide array of toxins and chemicals, as well as solid trash. The easy maintenance and low cost of their flagship model ensures that integrating this into existing municipal systems is seamless. Her target contaminants are total suspended solids (TSS), diesel, and motor oil.
What is the problem that you are addressing?
McKee: We’re addressing the large amount of pollution that goes into our waterways every time it rains or storms. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, urban runoff is the leading source of water quality impairment. We capture sediment, trash, and chemicals at the street level before they flow into waterways and contaminate them.
What is the story behind Kai Pono Solutions?
McKee: It started over 25 years ago. My dad was in the field as a blue-collar worker and was working on storm drain inlets. He realized that a lot of the solutions they were using were eyewash and nothing was solving the problem of contaminants going into the waterways. Back then, he drew up a prototype of what a solution could look like, but he didn't have the resources to make the company come to life. He kept the idea on a piece of paper, put it away, and didn’t touch it for many years.
When I got into college, I wanted to start a company specifically focused on oceans and environmental health. At the time, I didn't know what a storm drain was. My dad was able to pull that very image out of the box and showed me what he had come up with. He took me outside and we looked at a couple of storm drains, and I said, “this is amazing.” I did a lot of research on storm drains after that, mainly how big of a pollutant they are to our waterways. I hired some engineers and the rest is history! We built Kai Pono off that initial design and concept.
Does your dad have a bunch of ideas in that box?
McKee: Yes, he's crazy and brilliant – It's really cool. There are other ideas of his that have gotten commercialized, and he’s invented a lot. He asked me, “Are you ready for your next one?” I replied, “No, I'm just getting started here.”
What are some challenges you’ve had to navigate either recently or since the founding of Kai Pono Solutions?
McKee: The biggest challenge is breaking into a niche industry. Specifically picking through the already niche stormwater industry to figure out what your niche is. Over the past four years, we've homed in on what exactly in stormwater we're focused on and who our customer is. The stormwater industry is like the wild west: The regulations are all over the place and they don't know who wrote them or why they’re needed, but they follow the guidelines all the same.
Cutting through regulatory red tape has been difficult. It’s a big challenge we overcame recently by getting our Trash Capture Certification. The easiest part has been getting people on the phone because we’re dealing with big problems that nobody knows how to solve. There haven’t been a lot of fresh faces coming into the industry to solve these problems.
How did you learn about the Trash Capture Certification process?
McKee: We got familiar as soon as we got stuck in the regulatory red tape. Municipalities and industries won't install things unless they absolutely must. Because of that, we were trying to figure out what the certifications were to incentivize them. At this time, California came in with the 2030 Trash Amendment, which declared that 100 percent of municipalities had to have 100 percent full trash capture coverage on their cities or sites by 2030.
Everybody was scrambling and it was clear that trash was the big hub. Riding the energy, we tried to pilot with a few cities. The cities asked us if we were Trash Capture Certified, and when we replied that we weren’t, they relayed that it was pointless for them. They weren’t going to try the technology if we didn’t check off any boxes. We spent a year and a half focusing solely on getting the certification, which was treacherous. It was the hardest thing I've done in a long time. Once we got it, we finally started getting some customers.
McKee fields questions during SeaAhead’s annual “Ocean Startups in the Ocean State” event at CIC Providence, November 2024
Congrats for keeping at it. Now that you’ve conquered this regulatory challenge, what’s your new focus area for the next few years?
McKee: Our focus now, since we have our certification, is getting our manufacturing up and running. To do that, we have to raise money. In the short term, fundraising is our biggest hurdle and challenge we're working on.
Once we navigate that, I'll be focused on expanding the company and growing in terms of getting new customers, contracts, and even partnerships with other large companies and distributors. We want to understand more of the sales cycle. Something they say in the stormwater world is once something comes out and people start picking up traction on it, people become obsessed with it, and it becomes the thing for a while. We’re focusing on positioning ourselves that way. Getting acquired with hopefully within the next four to five years would be my goal.
Focusing on the manufacturing plant: would that be your own, or would you outsource?
McKee: It’s entirely outsourced, which is nice. We have a partnership with a facility in Osborne, Kansas called Osborne Industries. They already have a plant there with everything set up, so we don't have to get into the complex manufacturing space.
How has being a part of the fifth cohort of the BlueSwell Program helped you on your journey?
McKee: The human capital that SeaAhead and the New England Aquarium provide us with is incredibly valuable. I've never been a part of a cohort where people are so involved and so willing to help, where we’re all focused on the same broad mission. It’s about the knowledge the BlueSwell team provides and their dedication and drive to make these companies better. It doesn't feel like I'm just in it for the business lessons. Everyone is genuinely focused on pushing the company forward like it was their own.
BlueSwell has helped us gear up for our fundraising, and I couldn't imagine having to do this on my own or without the direct support of Ed Cesare and Julia Pangan. They've singlehandedly carried me through the entire fundraising effort. There’s also respect that comes with BlueSwell and how widely known they are in the space.
What advice would you give your past self, before you embarked on the founder journey, knowing what you know now?
McKee: One thing I would tell every founder to do is to have a Calendly link… don't try to set up meetings with people back-and-forth over email. Get a calendar link and be done with it. Advice for my past self is that there are a lot of ups and downs, and the plateaus can feel long. Keep waiting for your next high and next push and see it through. Stay focused, stay passionate, and stay driven. It’s not going to be great every single day. You're not going to be stoked every single day.
I read something recently about founders that recommended surfing the highs and lows in a level, steady state. Feeling the wide emotions can cause you to crash out. Developing an emotional baseline while accepting the wins and losses as they come seemed to help others. That said, it’s probably hard to do. Easier said than done.
McKee: Yeah, for sure. It's funny, I catch myself in plateaus, and every time I’m there, I say, “God, is this thing going to move? Is this the downfall of Kai Pono?” And then something amazing happens. At our last trade show, I told myself if we go and it's a total flop and nobody's interested or likes our idea, we're going to have to reevaluate what we're doing. And then we went, and we got three contracts. I was like, okay! Never mind.
We're still moving. Things are good.
Touching back on fundraising, is there anything you want to share about raising your round and what you’re looking for? You’re planning to use capital for manufacturing – but what are your other needs?
McKee: We believe that we are the spearhead of stormwater and the next big, major boom of innovation in stormwater. The industry hasn't been innovated in a long time and people are running out of ideas. We are the first ones to come up with something completely different than what's available on the market.
We've gotten a lot of positive feedback for it. I think a lot of investors are hesitant to be the first to invest, but I think it's important and admirable when an investor is willing to take that leap. With an investment into hardware, you can make real tangible impactful change at a physical and visible level.
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To get in touch with Navy, contact her at navy@kaiponosolutions.com
To learn more about Kai Pono Solutions, visit https://www.kaiponosolutions.com/
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BlueSwell, a partnership between SeaAhead and the New England Aquarium, takes a whole-ocean approach to fighting climate change and advancing the blue economy. The program focuses on bridging gaps between innovators, ocean experts, industries, and the venture community. BlueSwell leverages SeaAhead’s bluetech domain expertise, network, and experience in building companies, and the Aquarium’s 50-plus year history of using marine science to protect the ocean and marine animals to ultimately convert ocean-focused concepts into profitable, sustainable businesses.
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