He Turned His High School Science Fair Project Into a Product That Solves a $390 Billion Problem: 'This Has Not Been Done Before' Vasya Tremsin was just 18 years old when he came up with the idea for outdoor fire sensor company Torch Sensors.
By Amanda Breen Edited by Jessica Thomas
Key Takeaways
- Torch Sensors' innovative network of sensors can detect fires at great distances, providing comprehensive protection.
- Tremsin says adaptability and continuous learning are essential for young entrepreneurs pursuing their big ideas.
In 2018, Vasya Tremsin, now COO of outdoor fire sensor company Torch Sensors, was a senior in high school when he saw a familiar but troubling sight on a drive back from Lake Tahoe: a "really big" California wildfire. "I thought to myself, Why does this happen over and over and over?" Tremsin recalls.
Image Credit: Courtesy of Torch Sensors. Vasya Tremsin, co-founder and COO.
Growing up in the state, Tremsin often saw large wildfires alongside the highway and on the news, but something clicked that day, and after further research, he realized that "the problem was actually way worse" than he'd believed. Some experts estimate that wildfires account for 20% of total greenhouse gas emissions, and a 2023 congressional report found that they cost the U.S. economy hundreds of billions of dollars annually.
When Tremsin began exploring the issue, "there was basically no technology" that could detect wildfires early enough to stop them before they grew larger, he says. So Tremsin decided to work on the idea for a science fair project — and his invention went on to win the best-of-category award at the International Science and Engineering Fair.
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A judge at the fair encouraged Tremsin to turn his idea into a real product. "I was just a high school student," he says, "so I wasn't aware of how startups or funding works or how to build a company — because I was 18 years old." However, one of the judges introduced Tremsin to Michael Buckwald, the co-founder and then-CEO of Leap Motion, a hand-tracking sensor technology company. Buckwald would become Tremsin's co-founder, along with his father, Anton Tremsin, and now serves as Torch Sensors' CEO.
"We quickly realized that at scale, this technology would be much more powerful."
Tremsin says the first prototype for the sensor took a while to build, as they had to make it "very robust" with reliable detection capabilities. To that end, they outfitted the product with infrared and spectral analysis cameras and gas, temperature and humidity sensors, all of which work in tandem "to give you a confident measurement" confirmed by multiple variables, Tremsin explains.
Image Credit: Courtesy of Torch Sensors
"We quickly realized that at scale, this technology would be much more powerful," Tremsin says. "The sensors can actually create this network aspect, and they can cover and protect an entire area — an entire property or community. We went from just one sensor spotting a fire to building a network of sensors covering a whole terrain."
Additionally, Torch Sensors uses its data and other wildfire data sources to help spread the "safety net."
"We [went] to different types of burns all around California to test and calibrate the sensors ourselves," Tremsin says. "After that, we were ready to demo to the big customers. We've been doing a lot of demos within the past year and a half, and we have good feedback, especially about the distance that we are able to see the fire from — we were able to see a fire that's just a few feet in size from the distance of a football field. Sometimes, you couldn't even see it with your eyes, but our sensors were still able to spot it that far away."
Image Credit: Courtesy of Torch Sensors
Torch Sensors' product generated considerable interest from large enterprises and communities with substantial assets that needed protection.
"They're constantly in a state of pain and worry because of wildfires that can come to them and destroy a lot of the things that they've built or own," Tremsin explains. "So we're alleviating that pain as much as possible with this all-in-one solution that includes a deep-tech hardware product and all of the data we collect."
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We were literally not able to ramp up and scale the production as fast as we needed for the thousands of acres of coverage that we had demand for."
The high demand has proven challenging from a supply-chain standpoint, Tremsin says.
"We were literally not able to ramp up and scale the production as fast as we needed for the thousands of acres of coverage that we had demand for," he explains, "which is a great problem to have, but it also creates a lot of pressure. We've had utility companies, parks, government entities, private landowners, asking us, 'When can I have this product? When is it going to be ready? We really need this.'"
Fortunately, the company found at least two suppliers for each key sensitive component to help streamline the process as it moves forward. Tremsin says the company is conducting its first batch of enterprise pilot tests this summer.
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Image Credit: Courtesy of Torch Sensors
Being a young entrepreneur hasn't been without its challenges, Tremsin admits, especially when it comes to establishing credibility and trust. "As a very young person, I've had to prove that our technology does what we claim it does," he says. "Because it's so novel and has not been done before, there's a lot of initial skepticism about what our product can do."
As Torch Sensors continues to prove its technology and scale, Tremsin looks forward to expanding to areas outside the U.S. and doing further research and development on product capabilities, whether it's increasing the sensors' range, decreasing their power usage or making them even better at detecting. He hopes to develop some of those capabilities with government agencies to garner more widespread support and "help all of us fight the problem of wildfires at scale."
"I had to become more open-minded and willing to accept any and all feedback."
Tremsin also has some advice for young entrepreneurs who want to see their big idea make a real impact on the world.
"Be as adaptable as you can, and treat everything as a learning experience," Tremsin says. "Step one is destroying your ego and being willing to accept that your opinion and way of doing something might be wrong, and it might be best for you to change it. Everything, no matter how difficult or uncomfortable it is in the moment, is a learning experience [that] will 100% come in handy in the future. While building Torch, I had to become more open-minded and willing to accept any and all feedback, whether it's from my customers, my co-founders or even from the people who work for me. And I've gained a terrific base of knowledge."
This article is part of our ongoing Young Entrepreneur® series highlighting the stories, challenges and triumphs of being a young business owner.
