The mania around data centers has a lot of companies looking to become “picks and shovels” providers, by building profitable businesses that are ancillary to the gold rush gigs of selling server access or training leading AI models.

MayimFlow, the Built World stage winner at this year’s TechCrunch Disrupt, is a good example. The startup is focused on essentially one task: preventing damaging water leaks.

Data centers use a lot of water, and that water can present a big risk, even if a leak is small. Founder John Khazraee told TechCrunch that many data centers only have reactive solutions for water leaks. That can saddle companies with downtime and set them back millions of dollars if one occurs.

Khazraee would know. He spent more than 15 years building infrastructure for IBM, Oracle, and Microsoft. With MayimFlow, he’s developed a combination of IoT sensors and edge-deployed machine learning models that can detect signs of impending leaks.

“I’ve noticed these issues in data centers, and the only solution they had was: ‘when the leak happens, we find out,’” he said in an interview. “Now you have to spend a lot of money to go remediate the situation. Now you got to turn off the servers. Now the data is being disrupted. So I decided to do something about it.”

Khazraee assembled a small team with plenty of experience to take on this challenge. Jim Wong, MayimFlow’s chief strategy officer, has spent decades working with data centers. Chief technology officer Ray Lok has carved out a career in water management and IoT infrastructure.

Beyond the scariest consequences of unnoticed water leaks, there’s an element of frugality to what Khazraee is trying to do with MayimFlow, which he said comes from his childhood.

“I grew up in a very, you know, I don’t want to say the word ‘poor’ family, but we weren’t the most well-off family,” he said. “And my dad would always, when I was taking a shower, tell me, ‘Hey, you’re in the shower too long. Are you singing in there?’”

As he grew up, Khazraee said he found himself always thinking about how to make things more efficient — especially as he studied to become an engineer. In college, he worked at a facility that collected frying oil from restaurants and converted it to biodiesel. It was a “messy job,” he said, but he liked the end result.

Khazraee is now trying to mix this penchant for frugality with the experience of his team. He believes they can give data center operators 24 to 48 hours of advanced warning that repairs will be needed.

MayimFlow has collected a glut of sample data from various industrial water systems that allow them to make these kinds of predictions, he said. The company can provide sensors that can help monitor a water system or plug its machine learning models into existing ones if companies already have similar hardware.

Khazraee said he wants to bring this solution beyond data centers to commercial buildings, hospitals, manufacturing facilities, and possibly even utilities. In his eyes, any company that wants to spot leaks early, or optimize water usage, could be a customer.

Khazraee thinks it’s such a big opportunity he’s turned down roles at multiple big tech companies while building MayimFlow over the last two years.

“I really believe in the vision. I believe in the impact that we’re making,” he said. “Water is becoming one of those big issues in our world.”

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