Help Me Grow Moldmap: A Lifesaving Tool for Safe Indoor Air

My Story: Recovering from Mold Illness

At Bell Memorial hospital in August 2021 trying to figure out why I was so sick.

Hi, I’m Justin. In 2020, my life changed forever when I became severely ill from indoor toxin exposure. What started as fatigue and constant headaches quickly spiraled into a three-year battle for my health. I faced mounting medical expenses, desperate searches for answers, and days where it felt like I’d never get better.

Today, I’m blessed to say that I’m much healthier, but the journey has been incredibly hard—and it’s not over yet. I still have ongoing expenses from medical debt, and I need to be very careful about the indoor environments I'm in.

Recovering from this condition was the hardest challenge of my life. But it also gave me a mission: I’m determined to do whatever I can to help others avoid what I went through.

The Crisis: Unhealthy Air in Our Buildings

Most of us don’t think twice about the air we breathe indoors, yet indoor air quality directly impacts our health. Unfortunately, mold and other microbial toxins lurk in more places than we realize:

• Over 50% of U.S. homes have toxic mold or excessive moisture issues that can lead to toxic mold.

• 85% of office buildings have experienced water damage at some point.

• Toxic mold can begin growing within 24–48 hours after water exposure.

Mold is very common in areas where moisture is not properly managed.

For people with conditions like CIRS, MCAS, asthma, or simply heightened sensitivities, exposure—even at low levels—can trigger debilitating symptoms. I’ve seen first-hand how mold can derail a person’s life.

My 'Aha' Moment: We Need a "Mold Map"

Regretting having booked this hotel...

Last year while traveling I unfortunately stayed in a particularly moldy hotel. In just a few days, some of my old symptoms returned. It was devastating to realize how quickly mold could set me back.

If only I had known about the condition of that hotel beforehand!

That’s when the idea hit me: We need a tool—a “Moldmap”—where people can share and access information about moldy (or mold-safe) buildings.

My early sketches of my vision for Moldmap.

Hotels, rental properties, apartments, office buildings—anywhere people might be living or working. Imagine a central resource where you can check before booking a hotel or signing a lease, so you don’t end up in an environment that makes you sick.

Right then and there I committed to making this idea a reality for the millions of people who need it.

My Mission: A World Where Everyone Has Access to Clean, Healthy Indoor Air

Think about how many people would benefit from healthy indoor air:

• Families with kids who have allergies and asthma.

• Military families tired of being gaslit about what’s making them sick—they could finally have the crowdsourced data to empower their situation.

• Individuals like myself recovering from chronic illness, who should never have to fear relapse just because they need to travel or move into a new place.

And countless other situations where people fall into illness and despair because they're unknowingly staying in a "sick" building.

Moldmap will empower everyone to make more health-conscious decisions about where they live, work, and stay. This is bigger than just the U.S., too. Indoor air quality impacts nearly every person on the planet!

It’s time we had a crowdsourced system to track, warn, and protect each other from harmful buildings.

What I've Done & Where We’re Going:

Moldmap founder Justin Carlson (left) and developer James Wallington (right).

I’ve spent the past year pouring my heart into building Moldmap:

1. RESEARCH & DATA COLLECTION: Working with Facebook groups that have been collecting user experiences--both good and bad--on hotels and short-term rentals around the globe over the last few years.

2. PLATFORM DEVELOPMENT: Working with my local tech accelerator to develop a prototype of Moldmap and grow our initial user base, based on mockups I've created in Canva over the last 6 months.

3. COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT: Connecting with fellow mold survivors, health advocates, and professionals who can help advise me and provide feedback on my development of Moldmap.

Home page of Moldmap showing our interactive map.

Moldmap Community forums where users can find and list mold-safe housing and share information on mold-free traveling.

We are now very close to launching a platform that will provide immediate value to anyone looking for healthy places to stay, and allow us to accelerate the rate at which we collect this data so that we can make our map and listings better and better.

Why I Need Your Help:

Even with the help of the local tech accelerator and the generous donations of so many in our Moldmap Community Facebook group, funding this project has been a significant personal challenge.

I’ve put every spare dollar and ounce of energy I have into Moldmap, because I truly believe this will save lives and prevent needless suffering. It's no longer acceptable that this information isn't available to anyone whenever they need it.

If we don't do this now, who knows how long it will be until it actually happens?

But without outside support, it will be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to sustain Moldmap and its growth. With your help, we can keep Moldmap going—and protect people around the world from toxic indoor air.

How Your Donation Helps:

1. GROWING COMMUNITY: Building out our Moldmap Community forums and growing our Moldmap Community Facebook group--the most valuable information and insights come from people joining together for a common cause!

2. HOSTING/API COSTS: Our platform uses Google Places and Google Maps to validate locations and ensure accurate information, as well as powering our interactive map. As our users increase, the usage-based costs for these services will increase proportionately.

3. EMPLOYEES: As Moldmap scales we will need a small but hardworking team of people to support continued development of the platform, maintaining our database, providing user support, and creating resource guides.

4. INSURANCE/LEGAL: We want to make sure all our bases are covered when it comes to being fully insured and legally protected, so we can be around for the long term!

5. SCALING OUR DATABASE: We want to grow our global network of volunteers and testers who can identify and map buildings, hotels, rentals, and workplaces with potential mold hazards, as well as put pieces in place that will allow us to build out a large-scale real-time sensor network.

What You Can Do:

• Donate: Every contribution—no matter the size—brings us closer to a future where no one suffers from mold exposure in secret.

• Share Our Campaign: Post it on social media, email it to friends or family, or mention it to any mold-safety or chronic illness groups you know.

• Spread Awareness: Talk about the importance of indoor air quality and the dangers of mold. Let’s break the stigma and misinformation surrounding these issues.

Thank You for Your Support.

If you’ve made it this far, thank you for taking the time to read my story and learn about our vision. Your compassion and support mean the world to me—and to everyone who will benefit from Moldmap.

Together, we can make sure that the next family, traveler, or individual never has to learn the hard way that their environment is making them sick.

Let’s build a world where we can all breathe healthy air, live without fear, and focus on what really matters: living life to the fullest.

Thank you for helping me build Moldmap—and for giving hope to the millions of people who need it.