Founder Charles Robinson says Water2 is on mission-led development together with his direct-to-consumer enterprise.
“I’m all the time astonished by the methods by which water impacts individuals’s lives,” says Charles Robinson, the 24-year-old founding father of Water2.
To show a degree, Robinson, who launched his water filtration firm to market in 2023, is recalling an electronic mail despatched a number of hours earlier on the day that we converse.
It got here from the mom of a neurodiverse household of 4, starting from 9 to 19 and extremely delicate to style and scent. “Earlier than, they wouldn’t drink faucet water and she or he was spending on bottled water. Now they’d the straightforward repair of Water2 and I may by no means have anticipated that,” says Robinson.
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“Some canine additionally wouldn’t drink faucet water because of ranges of chlorine. I’d by no means have anticipated pet house owners would profit from the product in the identical means.”
Robinson, who grew up in West Sussex, moved to London in 2020 to check philosophy at College Faculty London (UCL), however didn’t gel with the course and dropped out two weeks later.
Having shunned college, the entrepreneur began promoting hand sanitiser in the beginning of COVID. Gelcard, a premium credit score card-thin hand sanitiser, offered models to Google, high company companies and motels equivalent to The Wolseley.
Water2 is seen as one of many fastest-growing UK client manufacturers, constructed with zero VC funding and in 180,000 properties.
{The teenager} made £100,000 inside the first six months and expanded the enterprise to Tokyo and Kuwait. He admits: “I used to be studying every part however not making that a lot cash at a loopy degree. I wished 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 excellent 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 electronic mail to professor Luiza Campos. “I realized rapidly that lecturers could be very receptive to younger individuals who wish to change the world,” says Robinson.
“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 electronic mail and making an attempt to persuade her to do it with me.”
Over two summers he undertook unbiased analysis with Campos on testing London water, working it by 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 era product in early 2023. “I nonetheless had some college debt and most of my mates 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 every part needed to work and nothing did.”
Charles Robinson dropped out of college after discovering hyperlinks between faucet water, contaminants like microplastics and PFAS ‘endlessly chemical compounds’. ·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 stumble on 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 grew to become 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 converse “as mates” 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 concerning the product.”
Bear Grylls bought a Water2 filter and have become a co-owner and investor alongside Charles Robinson, left.
By the tip of this yr, Robinson believes that the fast-growing UK client model might be in round 1% of all UK properties. “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 relatively that each single day I doubt the thought,” says Robinson. “I get up and take into consideration what may not achieve success. It implies that I’m looking for the holes and weaknesses till I get issues working.”
Water2 at present employs 5 workers within the UK, with 15 individuals outsourced in Asia for manufacturing, customer support and video modifying.
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Robinson’s product is designed to be self-installable and has a value level of £129 with just one filter change per yr. The corporate says it has offered into 180,000 properties whereas income has grown from six to an eight-figure enterprise in two years.
“Water filters had been a sterile and antiquated {industry}. Once I dropped all defences and spoke humanly concerning the issues in water and what we may do to reserve it, it took bravery to inform it.”
These trustworthy social media movies have proved a advertising and marketing winner in propelling the enterprise.
“Maybe I ought to have began to inform my story sooner,” he provides, “but it surely was the delivery of Water2 about being an excellent outstanding, digital first and easy to know model within the water filter {industry}.”
Objective
“We’re lowering individuals’s publicity to chemical compounds and microplastics within the water which could not see the profit now, however in years to come back that may 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 traditional 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 would title a number of bottled water manufacturers.
Key to success
The most important secret has been saying ‘no’ to many issues. VCs and massive retailers have wished to come back on board and Amazon (AMZN) additionally approached us early. The ability of ‘no’ imply you’ve got full focus, readability and actual mission inside the enterprise. If you do one factor at 100% it’s price a lot greater than doing two issues at 50%.”
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