This month’s Face to Face With Chancellor May features Splash Tech, a forward-thinking startup tackling one of the most overlooked problems in home maintenance: swimming pool chemical management. 

Rain Sun and Sam Louderback of Splash Tech said their company is seeking to build a smart, sustainable technology that helps pool owners measure and manage chemicals with accuracy. Their goal is to save time, money and the environment.

Rain, a master's student in electrical engineering, and Sam, a computer science graduate, first crossed paths at UC Davis as undergraduates. A senior design project would eventually evolve into Splash Tech’s first prototype. 

“We were really looking for a gap in the market and we ended up finding out that there are swimming pool conventions that happen all across the country,” Louderback said. “We went down to one in Long Beach, and just started talking to different pool management company owners.”

As their vision expanded, so did the demands of startup life. 

“Doing school and doing a startup at the same time is very challenging,” Sun said. “The other challenge is to work together as a team. To be able to work with a team is extremely important to ensure the success of the startup.”

Chancellor Gary S. May agreed.

“You start with a good idea, but then you have to have the right people, the right team, they have to work together,” May said. “You have to have all those things that are really not core strengths of engineers, but you have to learn those things or at least add them to your team.”

The Diane Bryant Engineering Student Design Center and access to specialized lab equipment played a critical role in Splash Tech’s early development. Sun and Louderback credit their time at UC Davis for teaching them resilience, teamwork and the value of strategic planning.

Watch the episode to learn about Splash Tech’s future and how the UC Davis Big Bang! Business Competition was a turning point for the start up. 

More episodes of ‘Face to Face’

Chancellor May has interviewed more than 40 guests on his monthly talk show, including faculty, staff and students.

Listen to all of the conversations on the Face to Face webpage.