Brian Pinkard
CO-FOUNDER AND CTO OF AQUAGGA
BRIAN PINKARD’S ENGINEERING JOURNEY has taken him from destroying chemical weapons to tackling one of today’s most persistent environmental threats: toxic “forever chemicals” known as PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances). As co-founder and CTO of Aquagga, Pinkard leads a startup developing technology to thermochemically destroy these pollutants at the source.
His leap from research to entrepreneurship began in 2019 through the National Science Foundation’s I-Corps program. There, he and co-founders Nigel Sharp and Chris Woodruff began speaking with industry leaders and quickly heard a common refrain. “As soon as we started talking to people in the water industry, we just kept hearing about PFAS,” Pinkard recalled. “I had never even heard of PFAS before going through I-Corps.” That “light bulb moment” marked the beginning of Aquagga’s mission.
Aquagga has grown into a 22-person company with active projects, published work, and major customers like 3M—but that success was hard-won. “There were a number of years where we were kind of living paycheck to paycheck,” Pinkard said. “Only about three percent of clean tech VC funding historically goes to water startups, so keeping a company like ours alive is very challenging.” The team relied heavily on federal SBIR grants and support from agencies like the Department of Defense and Federal Aviation Administration to keep the company moving forward in its early days.
What three personal items would Brian Pinkard take to a deserted island? His Spotify library (with plenty of Bruce Springsteen), a kayak for exploring, and a few friends—because adventure’s better with good music and good company.
“A lot of us, especially engineers, assume we have to have all the answers or know how it all has to be done. It’s sort of just accepting that somebody else has figured it out. So, you know, you could probably figure it out too. You just have to jump in and go for it.”
—Brian Pinkard
“Some specific programs that have been great for us are the Jones and Foster Accelerator at the University of Washington, the Launch Alaska program, the Washington Maritime Blue incubator—they housed us for over a year—and the Cascadia Clean Tech Alliance,” Pinkard shared. “And we just got accepted to Imagine H2O, the premier accelerator program for the water industry.”
Now, the company is focused on expanding its demonstration projects and working with industries heavily impacted by PFAS regulations and litigation. “Even in absence of regulation, there are a lot of class action lawsuits—that still seems to be driving industry action,” Pinkard explained.
Despite the complexity of building hardware-based environmental technology in a niche sector, Pinkard remains grounded in a broader vision. He imagines a future where on-site PFAS destruction is standard at manufacturing plants and where regional waste facilities offer affordable, environmentally friendly treatment. But none of this, he emphasizes, is a solo act. “We have an incredible, incredible team,” Pinkard said.
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