00:00 Introduction and business overview

Steve introduces Mariam as one of the most scientifically impressive founders he has met in the startup ecosystem. Mariam describes AirLabOne as building embedded technology to digitise assets for complex industries, creating autonomy for machinery in healthcare, space, and mining. The business is part of a broader transition from physical to digital world and a response to the global shortage of human resources in safety-critical industries.

04:53 Microgravity and the space application

Mariam explains that microgravity, the near-zero gravity environment in space, creates conditions where cells behave differently than they do on Earth. Drug discovery experiments that cannot be conducted under terrestrial conditions need to happen in space. AirLabOne’s technology for making physical assets self-regulating applies directly to scientific instruments that need to operate autonomously on space missions, including the adaptation of existing Earth-based laboratory equipment for use in low gravity environments.

13:03 Five years of solo bootstrapping

Mariam describes the emotional reality of five years without co-founders, without funding, and working from a university innovation centre desk. The loneliness was real. What sustained her was progress: completing one step, seeing it work, and using that as energy for the next. She traces the evolution of her thinking on outside advice: early on she followed investor direction toward edtech and health tech, which wasted years. The breakthrough came when she trusted her own structured plan regardless of external pressure.

19:00 Select USA validation and expansion

AirLabOne won validation at the Select USA Investor Summit in Washington, which opened doors to the US market and provided independent confirmation that the technology was addressing a real and significant problem. Mariam is now preparing to expand to Southern California, where the concentration of aerospace and space technology companies aligns with AirLabOne’s most compelling applications. A major space grant is pending that could fund local manufacturing in clean rooms.

29:56 Sustainability and the old infrastructure opportunity

A core insight of AirLabOne is that the most sustainable approach to industrial digitalisation is not replacing old equipment but making it smarter. The planet cannot afford to throw away functional industrial machinery simply because it lacks digital intelligence. AirLabOne’s technology pairs with existing infrastructure, extending its useful life while adding the autonomy that modern operations require. This is both the pitch and the environmental case for the approach.