#StartupsEverywhere: Megan Pilsbury, Founder & CEO, Dunya Analytics
This profile is part of #StartupsEverywhere, an ongoing series highlighting startup leaders in ecosystems across the country. This interview has been edited for length, content, and clarity.
De-mystifying environmental impacts
Dunya Analytics is providing digital tools to help businesses measure, manage, and report on biodiversity and nature-related risks. We sat down with their founder and CEO, Megan Pillsbury, to talk about her startup, her experience applying for Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grants, and more.
Tell us about your background. What led you to Dunya Analytics?
I have a very non-linear background, starting my career in engineering and immediately becoming interested in sustainability. That led me to business school and startups - this is my second startup. Most recently I built the business development team for a startup focused on climate risk analytics, which is how I became involved in the environmental, social, and governance space.
Risk assessments related to biodiversity loss were developed in the past few years, and now countries are beginning to adopt those frameworks as part of their regulatory systems. Between the complicated language of the regulations and pressures from investors, I knew this would be a challenge for many companies. I started Dunya Analytics to make navigating risk disclosure regulations easier for those companies.
What is the work you all are doing at Dunya Analytics?
There is a growing demand for comprehensive environmental accountability from both the public and private sectors, but there’s no clear-cut way for companies to meet those demands. Preparing complex environmental impact predictions is not something most companies are equipped to do, there’s no single tool or straightforward handbook to follow. It’s also difficult to scale this type of analysis to numerous sites because nature is very local–each ecosystem is highly unique.
This is where Dunya Analytics comes in. We are a digital platform that brings together disparate ecosystem data related to a site and shows how specific industrial activities would impact the local environment. Our software identifies the biggest ecosystem pressures in the area.We provide companies with actionable steps forward to strategize and adapt to those pressures. We’re automating a time-consuming, complicated bit of manual labor, and doing so in a way that is intuitive and transparent for the user.
Have you applied for federal grant programs? What has been your experience?
We were encouraged by the Small Business Development Center to apply for SBIR grants, but we were thrice rejected, and we still aren’t sure what could have made our application successful. It seems that perhaps the SBIR programs we applied to were intended for a different type of startup, such as one that is developing an environmental monitoring system.
Based on their feedback it seemed that the reviewers came from a purely scientific perspective, rather than the nexus of science and business. The nature risk space in which we sit is still quite nascent, and because of that we think the reviewers weren't familiar enough with our space to recognize how impactful our platform could be, even though we had strong data to demonstrate a growing market and emerging competition. The space in which we operate is still quite nascent. As a result, we believe reviewers may lack the familiarity needed to fully appreciate the potential impact of our platform, despite compelling data showing a growing market and emerging competition.
Has Dunya Analytics been impacted by any of the policy changes coming from the current administration?
As a software company, we haven’t yet been impacted by tariffs - we don’t import anything. However, we do depend on public data provided by the government, for example climate and nature data, and some of those datasets have been removed.
Are there any local, state, or federal startup issues that you think should receive more attention from policymakers?
There's quite a bit of regulatory complexity when operating an American business, and accessible resources for help aren't easy to find. Since we have team members in five different states, I need to handle the registration process in each state to employ people there."
I understand that state fees are part of employing people in different locations, but streamlined compliance processes would be incredibly helpful for startups. Many of us are managing remote teams with limited resources. Policies that simplify multi-state compliance could really support startup growth across the country
There is also currently no mechanism to understand all of your obligations, so it would be very helpful to have an affordable service that handles business registration comprehensively. This would also be useful for taxes- like a TurboTax for corporate registration and compliance. For example, it took us nearly a year to realize that even though we were incorporated in one state, we also need to be registered at the city level.
What are your goals for Dunya Analytics moving forward?
We are also registered as a public benefit corporation so we have a mission to help accelerate the transition to a sustainable and equitable economy. We want to see every company start to bring nature into how they approach decision making. We're proving to companies of all sizes that sustainable practices can also be profitable. I hope that we continue to grow, become profitable, and help make approaches like ours the industry standard.
We spend a lot of time thinking about how to operationalize equity, how to build it into our business model, embed it in our product design, and ensure it's reflected in how users engage with our platform. Our ambition is to be financially successful, driving positive outcomes and empowering companies to be part of the push for a better future.
All of the information in this profile was accurate at the date and time of publication.
Engine works to ensure that policymakers look for insight from the startup ecosystem when they are considering programs and legislation that affect entrepreneurs. Together, our voice is louder and more effective. Many of our lawmakers do not have first-hand experience with the country's thriving startup ecosystem, so it’s our job to amplify that perspective. To nominate a person, company, or organization to be featured in our #StartupsEverywhere series, email advocacy@engine.is.
