'Bear Grylls was our 8,000th water filter buyer after which turned a co-owner'

[ad_1] Founder Charles Robinson says Water2 is on mission-led progress along with his direct-to-consumer enterprise. “I’m at all times astonished by the methods by which water impacts individuals’s lives,” says Charles Robinson, the 24-year-old founding father of Water2.

To show some extent, Robinson, who launched his water filtration firm to market in 2023, is recalling an e-mail despatched a number of hours earlier on the day that we communicate.

It got here from the mom of a neurodiverse household of 4, starting from 9 to 19 and extremely delicate to style and odor. “Earlier than, they wouldn’t drink faucet water and she or he was spending on bottled water. Now that they had the easy repair of Water2 and I might by no means have anticipated that,” says Robinson.

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“Some canine additionally wouldn’t drink faucet water attributable to ranges of chlorine. I might by no means have anticipated pet house owners would profit from the product in the identical approach.”

Robinson, who grew up in West Sussex, moved to London in 2020 to review philosophy at College School London (UCL), however didn’t gel with the course and dropped out two weeks later.

On the time he was studying articles on microplastics, faucet water and the way UK water might be higher high quality. “I used to be intellectually however didn’t know the best way to go about it,” he admits.

Having shunned college, the entrepreneur began promoting hand sanitiser in the beginning of COVID. Gelcard, a premium credit score card-thin hand sanitiser, bought items to Google, high company companies and accommodations similar to The Wolseley.

Water2 is seen as one of many fastest-growing UK client manufacturers, constructed with zero VC funding and in 180,000 houses. {The teenager} made £100,000 throughout the first six months and expanded the enterprise to Tokyo and Kuwait. He admits: “I used to be studying all the pieces however not making that a lot cash at a loopy stage. I needed to construct a long-term, multi-decade enterprise and model.”

He determined to take revenue from the hand sanitiser and returned to UCL to work on creating a product. A number of episodes of fine fortune then took maintain. Firstly, on a visit to Milan the place the sanitiser was manufactured, he occurred to peruse an industry-first water filter catalogue and took again some prototypes from the close by facility.

“I used to be a philosophy dropout and distinctly unqualified on the technical aspect,” he provides.

He looked for consultants on water at UCL and wrote a prolonged e-mail to professor Luiza Campos. “I realized rapidly that lecturers will be very receptive to younger individuals who wish to change the world,” says Robinson.

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“Discovering her was wonderful and having the entry when college students went away for the vacation. It was deeply lucky however good luck paired with that e-mail and attempting to persuade her to do it with me.”

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Over two summers he undertook impartial analysis with Campos on testing London water, operating it by means of the product filter and he quickly pivoted to a water-first enterprise after creating a filtration system able to eradicating dangerous contaminants.

Water2 went to market with a primary technology product in early 2023. “I nonetheless had some college debt and most of my associates have been getting jobs within the Metropolis,” says Robinson. “I used to be on round £1,000 monthly from the small income I had. It was at a time the place all the pieces needed to work and nothing did.”

Charles Robinson dropped out of college after discovering hyperlinks between faucet water, contaminants like microplastics and PFAS 'perpetually chemical substances'. · Clynt Garnham Environmental Robinson says he went direct to retailers, housing builders after which door-to-door however felt he could not get the messaging proper on his product.

He then come across the kind of communication type that labored: social media movies the place he filmed himself speaking about UK water information, why he had dropped out of college and the story behind his water filter product.

“Individuals actually resonated with the uncooked authenticity of all of it and we flew with it,” provides Robinson.

In early 2024, British adventurer Bear Grylls turned a buyer — round Water2’s 8,000th, says Robinson — who expressed curiosity within the start-up’s objective. A deal was struck the place Grylls would grow to be co-owner and investor within the enterprise.

The pair communicate “as associates” on WhatsApp most days. “The connection has been wonderful and the kind of consciousness it has given us,” says Robinson. “He's a buyer, owns a part of the enterprise and might discuss candidly in regards to the product."

Bear Grylls bought a Water2 filter and have become a co-owner and investor alongside Charles Robinson, left. By the top of this 12 months, Robinson believes that the fast-growing UK client model might be in round 1% of all UK houses. “That’s round roughly one in each 100 households who use our water each single day which is unimaginable actually,” he says.

“I by no means had this unwavering perception that this concept will work, it’s slightly that each single day I doubt the concept,” says Robinson. “I get up and take into consideration what may not achieve success. It signifies that I'm looking for the holes and weaknesses till I get issues working.”

Water2 presently employs 5 employees within the UK, with 15 individuals outsourced in Asia for manufacturing, customer support and video enhancing.

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Robinson’s product is designed to be self-installable and has a worth level of £129 with just one filter change per 12 months. The corporate says it has bought into 180,000 houses whereas income has grown from six to an eight-figure enterprise in two years.

“Water filters had been a sterile and antiquated {industry}. After I dropped all defences and spoke humanly in regards to the issues in water and what we might do to reserve it, it took bravery to inform it.”

These sincere social media movies have proved a advertising winner in propelling the enterprise.

“Maybe I ought to have began to inform my story sooner,” he provides, “however it was the beginning of Water2 about being a brilliant distinguished, digital first and easy to know model within the water filter {industry}.”

Function

"We’re decreasing individuals’s publicity to chemical substances and microplastics within the water which could not see the profit now, however in years to return that can have an actual impact upon individuals on this nation. I believe we're having materials impact upon outcomes within the UK and that’s what I care about.

Model

It's a complicated {industry} for a standard client to tell apart between distillation, reverse osmosis and infiltration and there was a definite lack of name consciousness aside from Britta, however the place you possibly can identify a number of bottled water manufacturers.

Key to success

The most important secret has been saying ‘no’ to many issues. VCs and large retailers have needed to return on board and Amazon (AMZN) additionally approached us early. The ability of ‘no’ imply you will have full focus, readability and actual mission throughout the enterprise. If you do one factor at 100% it’s price a lot greater than doing two issues at 50%."