Feb 7, 2018 3 min read

It began near the end of 2014, with an undetected leak inside his Brownsville home.

“I had high water bills for a few months,” Mark Kovscek recalled. “I started looking and found that our heating system had a leak. Water was literally going down the drain, along with our money.”

A problem-solver by trade, Kovscek searched for solutions but found only a few, and they cost $1,000. “I thought I had to find a cheaper way,” he said.

Kovscek launched a startup company, Conservation Labs, for which he strived to develop a smart water meter that would be cost-effective for customers. He secured a patent a year later, continued to work on the device and last month introduced it to the world.

His play-on-words product – h2know – was unveiled at the annual Consumer Electronics Show Jan. 9-12 in Las Vegas. The company touts the smart water meter as easy to install, accessible from an app and affordable – less than $100. Kovscek’s fledgling firm claims the device can save a homeowner $250 a year in water-related costs.

Conservation Labs, which he preferred to keep in “stealth mode” during the development of h2know, likewise made its public debut at the CES. “I think it’s the biggest trade show in the world, and it’s literally all over Vegas,” said Kovscek, Conservation Labs’ founder and chief executive officer. “We wanted to make a big splash and what better place to launch.”

H2know has yet to make a big sales splash, though. The device, Kovscek said, is in “a prototype phase” and is not yet available. Conservation Labs, however, is taking pre-orders “at a heavily discounted rate on Indiegogo,” he pointed out, plans to ship orders by the end of this year. “We’re thinking of taking online orders in 2019.”

The focus, for now, he said, is national markets, but he and his firm plan to make this a global product.

Kovscek said his innovation had an impact at the national show. The company participated in an area of the CES called Eureka Park, where an estimated 900 startups displayed their wares.

“Our reception exceeded our expectations,” he said. “We were nonstop at the show. I spoke with at least 300 people and was interviewed several times, including by Chinese TV.”

The CEO said his company is based in Brownsville for now, but that may change. Kovscek said he has an engineering “team” of one in New York City and a device team of one in Raleigh, N.C., but would like to add “four folks” during the next quarter.

Kovscek, 47, has devoted his quarter-century career to working in math and data science. He is a 1988 graduate of Belle Vernon Area High School and graduated from Carnegie Mellon University with a bachelor’s in math.

He and his wife, Heidi, have six children ages 7 to 21. Kovscek said the entire clan helped with naming. “My wife’s biggest involvement is keeping me sane, keeping my life balanced,” Mark said.

Kovscek is currently president of Velocidi, a data marketing firm based in New York City. He has done a lot of traveling in his position, and appreciates that “ownership has been very kind allowing me to launch (Conservation Labs).” But he said he plans to wean away from that company.

Kovscek is upbeat about the smart meter reader and its ability to make this world a little less leaky.

“I think this is the time and the right market.”