When Darren Riley moved to Detroit seven years ago, he didn’t expect the city’s air to change his life—literally. Developing asthma as an adult opened his eyes to a much larger problem: the invisible but pervasive impact of air pollution on the health of marginalized communities.

“I was fascinated about why we don’t have the data we need,” Riley recalls, “or why we don’t have the infrastructure to solve these issues, to understand where pollution is coming from, how it’s impacting our communities, so that we can solve these problems and make an equitable breathing environment for everybody.”

That personal reckoning sparked the idea for JustAir, a Michigan-based clean-tech startup building neighborhood-level air quality monitoring tools. The goal is simple but urgent: provide communities with access to hyper-local data so they can better manage pollution and protect public health. As Riley puts it, “JustAir is solving the problem of how to better manage local pollution so that we can make sure our communities, our lifestyles—where we work, where we play, and where we learn—are really protected.”

Founded during the height of the pandemic, when the connection between health disparities and air quality became impossible to ignore, JustAir now partners with local governments, health departments, and community residents to deploy monitoring networks that offer key data relevant to everything from policy to personal decision-making.

From the start, the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) offered key support that helped turn JustAir’s bold vision into technical infrastructure. Through the MEDC’s early-stage funding partners and a network of mentorship and resources known as SmartZones, JustAir sharpened its product-market fit and gained critical momentum.

Success for Riley isn’t just about scale, it’s about impact. “It warms my heart, and it shows that we’re doing exactly what we said we wanted to do,” Riley says, “which is to make sure that communities have the data that they deserve to create the future, the clean, healthy future that they desperately need.”

To other burgeoning entrepreneurs, Riley sees a sense of community as key to lasting and impactful change. “When people are celebrating you with your head up, and then when people are helping you put your chin up when your head’s down, I think it’s so, so critical. I found that here in Michigan, and also found it here in our community, right here in Detroit. Passion and finding a community that’s going to help get you through the journey is all it takes.”

This episode of Business Lab is produced in association with the Michigan Economic Development Corporation.

Full Transcript

Darren Riley: Hi. Thanks for having me.

Megan: Thank you ever so much for being with us. To get us started, let’s just talk a bit about JustAir. How did the idea for the company come about, and what does your company do as well?

Darren: Yeah, absolutely. The real thesis of JustAir, is really a combination of one, my personal experience but also my professional experience. On the professional side, background in software engineering, graduated from Carnegie Mellon University, but I was always fascinated by how to use technology to really support and innovate and really push the frontier on issues that are near and dear to my heart. Coming from Houston, Texas, coming from communities that often are restricted with certain issues, systemic issues, is something that I always carried in my heart.

Megan: So you launched about four years ago now. Why did you choose to build and grow just there in Michigan?

Darren: Yeah, I think a combination of things, the reason why I chose to start here and be intentional about building our team here. I think first is really around the ecosystem support around Michigan. So the MEDC has a network of what we call SmartZones that really offer funding, resources, mentorship, advisory on the different challenges that can range from capital, legal, and other issues that kind of hold an entrepreneur from just getting out there and putting their product in the market. First and foremost, I’m super thankful and grateful for just the state really focusing on and putting entrepreneurs first in that regard.

I think secondly is community. I really felt a strong sense of community here in Detroit. One of the founding members of an organization called Black Tech Saturdays, which sees over hundreds, 500-1,000 folks almost every Saturday of the month, just really sharing and really engaging with tech-curious folks from all different walks of life, but making intentional space for folks who are often left out of those rooms and out of those conversations. And just really seeing a peer network of entrepreneurs who come from a similar cultural background or a similar situation, really going after it together and helping each other navigate some issues.

And then lastly, I talk about this a lot, but problem-solution fit. Being here in Detroit where I developed asthma, where we have many issues and many around the environment that have hit some communities the hardest, right here in Detroit in my own backyard I really want to be very narrowly focused and make sure that I’m building something that actually solves the problem that got me on this journey in the first place. Not thinking about regional-wide, different country, international, et cetera, but how do we build something right here in the backyard that solves the problem for my neighbors and makes sure that we can make a real difference in the community. So, from the community to the problem that I really care about and make sure we solve, and then also just the ecosystem support is why we’re here in Michigan and why we plan to really grow and really be a part of this movement.

Megan: Fantastic. And you’ve touched on a few of those already, but as you were getting started, what specific resources, partnerships, or community support helped you navigate the early-stage research and development stages?

Darren: One example, really early, actually, I forgot about this for a while, but we have a Business Accelerator Fund here in Michigan where there’s funding offered to entrepreneurs for technical assistance. I used that to operationalize some of our technical roadmap processes to build out the infrastructure that we really intended to do. So, that real funding that was non-dilutive that the state provided helped accelerate some of those issues in the early days, where it was just myself and advisors going after this problem. And so now, where we are today, there are funds that receive funding from MEDC, so local funds and venture capital that help you get your first check. Those are really helpful as well. All that to say is basically a combination of funding primary source, but also strategically, that funding is going towards product positioning and product-market fit. Those were some of the two core examples that have been beneficial.

And then, I think the last thing I’ll mention as well, MEDC and a lot of the SmartZones within the state, these SmartZones are just bucketed in different regions and areas, so you have Ann Arbor, you’ve got Detroit, you have Grand Rapids, the whole nine yards, having these events and creating these clusters, if you will, of density of entrepreneurs, I think is super, super critical. I’ve experienced in New York, Chicago, and San Francisco, and other bigger ecosystems that density is so critical to where you’re constantly rubbing shoulders with the next entrepreneur, the next investor, the next customer, to really kind of accelerate that velocity of your journey.

Megan: Yeah. Having that ecosystem makes such a difference, doesn’t it?

Darren: Oh yeah, absolutely.

Megan: And tech acumen and business acumen are very different sets of skills. I wonder what was the process like developing out your technology whilst also building out a viable business plan?

Megan: Yeah, absolutely. And as you say, it can be a stressful journey, life as an entrepreneur, but I wonder if you could also share some highlights from your journey so far, any partnerships or projects that you’re really excited about at the moment?

Megan: Congratulations.

Darren: It is really exciting, yeah, in the social impact, social good category. There are many, many more, but I think the last one, I’m so, so grateful for, and I tell our team this all the time, is that we’ve already succeeded. Going to community meetings, hearing people raise their hand, asking questions about the adjuster application or about their data, and I to emphasize that when you hear community members saying ‘our data’ and not an ask, but as something that they have obtained, it warms my heart, and it shows that we’re doing exactly what we said we wanted to do, which is to make sure that communities have the data that they deserve to create the future, the clean, healthy future that they desperately need.”.

Megan: Yeah, absolutely, what an incredible achievement. And what advice, finally, would you offer to other burgeoning entrepreneurs?

Megan: Fantastic. All great advice. Thank you ever so much, Darren.

Darren: Absolutely.

Megan: That was Darren Riley, the co-founder and CEO at JustAir whom I spoke with from Brighton, England.

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