Steribin CEO Jon Cole Sits Down With the Business Resource Center

Jon Cole, CEO of Steribin, recently announced the company receiving $300,000 in its first round of funding in addition to receiving patent approval. Cole agreed to sit down with me to discuss his background, how Steribin is set to change the way we travel and the grossness of airport security bins (spoiler alert: you won’t want to use a bin without Steribin).

What is your background?

I’ve been involved with running several businesses. I was an executive for an international textile company for about 11 years, but was with the company for about 15-16 years. We sold it to a private equity group, and I continued running the company for a while. I’ve been involved with various investments and startups. That’s how I got involved with Steribin. It was a concept at the time and I said, “Hey! I want to invest in this.” So I jumped in, invested, became the CEO and tried to get it going.

How did Steribin come about?

The two inventors had seen a study in 2018 reporting how plastic airport security bins are eighteen times more contaminated than the toilets in airports, which is disgusting [laughs]. So they thought, “There has to be a solution to it.” They looked, and there were a couple products on the market trying to address security bin disinfection, but they kept coming back to the effectiveness of Ultraviolet (UV) light. They figured if they could use UV light, they could disinfect those bins. Basically, we created a device to do it. The bins get hit with high-intensity pulsed lighting, and in 3-4 seconds, they are disinfected.

Just to clarify, airports have no way to sterilize their bins right now, correct?

I wouldn’t say there’s no way. There are several products that will reduce germs, but there’s nothing that’s doing it after every single use or as easily as our machine can. Here’s what ours can do: travelers stand in line, and before they touch an airport security bin, Steribin has disinfected it since its last use. There are some airports, due to COVID, that are trying to pull the bins out of service maybe once a day, disinfect them by manually wiping them down with a chemical disinfectant; however, airport personnel can’t keep up with it.

I guess I never really thought about my airport bin being dirty.

The way I always describe it is, think about everything you’ve stepped in and what you see people step in, and then they’re putting their shoes in the bin, and you put your cell phone, your kid’s baby bottle, a baby blanket, your pillow--whatever it is you’re traveling with--in that bin. And you have to do this. If we can kill bacteria and viruses, it helps everybody.

How does a UV disinfection system work?

I’m no expert on the biology side [laughs], but the way it works is just like the sun but in a much higher dosage. It’s very high intensity, and the UV-rays are able to kill the cells by damaging the DNA or RNA. After the cells are destroyed, the bacteria or virus can’t survive. There’s a lot of research to support that. Similar technology is also being used in other industries, such as hospitals and food processing.

How do you think your funding is going to help Steribin?

Nearly all of it is going into product development, marketing, and international sales.

What is your ultimate goal for Steribin?

We want to have a Steribin device in every security line, worldwide. There are about 20,000 security lines around the world. Just like you can’t go through a security line without seeing an x-ray machine, we want people to see a Steribin device. We know disinfecting is a problem, airports know it’s a problem, and we have a solution for it.

How has Atwood Innovation Plaza helped you?

Atwood’s been great. It has been nice to lease office space, but also working with interns has been a great help. Zack, from the Makerspace, along with various interns, have helped with prototyping, graphic design, and marketing, and helped provide knowledge and feedback for our product. We’ve said it would be hard to have made the progress we have made here without the services offered. Atwood Innovation Plaza is an amazing resource in our community.

For more information on Steribin, please visit their website by clicking here.

For more information on Atwood Innovation Plaza, please click here.