June 17, 2023 • 53 mins
Learn how DrinkPrime, an innovative water purifier company in India, is tackling the country's water crisis. With millions suffering from waterborne diseases, DrinkPrime offers IoT-enabled purifiers that adapt to varying water quality. Trusted by over 200,000 households in three cities, they are scaling profitably with support from leading investors Alteria Capital, Surge, and Omidyar Network India.
Timestamps for Easy Listening:
1
(00:30) - Intro to DrinkPrime and Water Purifier Market
(02:54) - Why DrinkPrime was started?
(07:00) - Decision to build new Water Purifier rather add Subscription to existing ones
(11:05) - How water quality in India changes across regions and in different seasons
(14:43) - The Current Landscape & History of Water Purifier Market
(17:33) - Why Celebrities market water purifiers and how DrinkPrime took a different approach
(23:40) - The challenges with doing Hardware Innovation
(28:34) - Cost Structure of the traditional Water Purifier Industry
(34:19) - STOP over-purifying your water
(37:58) - Why the traditional water purifier companies are too big to change
(40:49) - How DrinkPrime is supplying free water to government schools
(47:29) - If you're buying Water Purifier, here's how you should go about it?
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
VJ - DrinkPrime (00:00):
Water pur repair is a 30 year old
(00:01):
industry, right?
Why do you have to reverseengineer anything?
I would say it was a treasurehunt.
Each question which we got, wasactually a direction which we
had to take.
We just don't put everything andev anything right into the water
pur repair, right?
Because we know the input, weknow the output.
No, it's just what is a functionwhich I need to make, right?
There were so many situationswhere we wanted to shut down, so
(00:24):
the thought was why can't youdonate your leaders what you
have to the people who don'thave whatever.
Sid (00:30):
Hello and welcome to the Indian Dream Podcast, and today
I have an exciting episode wherewe are gonna be talking about
water and water purifiers.
Before I tell you more about theguest today, let's look at some
numbers like we usually do Everyyear, close to 38 million
people, or four crow peoplesuffer from waterborne diseases
like diarrhea, typhoid, andother viral infections.
(00:50):
It is estimated that it coststhe country about 600 million or
roughly 5,000 crow rupees justbecause of all these waterborne
diseases.
So access to clean water isclearly a large problem that
needs to be solved for as itstands today.
The only scalable andenvironmentally friendly way to
access clean water is throughwater purifiers.
The other ways, like packagedrinking water or tanker mafia's
(01:12):
are either environmentallyunfriendly or not affordable to
majority of the Indians.
Talking about water purifiers,India's first water purifier was
launched in 1984, and in 40years we've had many company
launched many different productswith innovations like R O U V,
UF, and frankly many other termsthat a foreman man doesn't
really understand.
It's a product that's marketedlike any other appliance where
(01:33):
it seems like more features arebetter for you, but did you know
more features are not reallybetter for you?
Depending on the water qualitythat you get at your homes, you
need to purify it accordingly.
If you overtreat it, youactually make the water worse
for you.
Therefore, I find it very funnythat in a country like India
where water quality changesevery four kilometers, you have
companies marketing and sellingthe same water purifier across
(01:56):
the country.
Technically speaking, you need adifferent water purifier
depending on the differentregions.
So to address all these problemswith gender and Manan started
during prime back in 2016,imagine a water purifier that's
iot enabled, connected to yourphone, that tells you exactly
the kind of water that you'reconsuming and adapts the
purification techniques based onthe water that needs to be
filtered.
(02:16):
That's exactly what during Primedoes.
They've had a very, veryinteresting journey with a lot
of Twist interns.
They've done a lot of innovationon product distribution and
marketing, and today they'retrusted by more than two lack
households in three cities,banked by leading investors like
Teria Capital, Sequoia Surge,and OED Network.
They're scaling very fast andthey're scaling profitably.
(02:36):
Tuning to this episode, not justto know more about how they
build a hardware business inIndia, but also to know more
about the water that you'reconsuming.
And before we jump onto theepisode, you know the drill.
You need to subscribe, you needto light, you need to put a
comment on the kind of peoplethat you want on the podcast,
and we'll try and get them.
Without further ado, let's jumponto the episode.
Vij, thank you so much forjoining us on the Indian Dream
(02:57):
Podcast.
Um, I'll tell you a brief storyabout Ring Prime.
I first heard about Ring Primewhen I was trying to research
about.
Which water purify to buy.
I'm based out of indoor, so youguys weren't present here.
Uh, but that also got me curiousabout this entire market.
Cause there's just so manydifferent terminologies that are
used.
And as a layman you have no ideawhat kind of water, purify to
buy.
Buy.
(03:17):
Um, and that's when I had heardabout drink time.
And then I think last year,sometime last year when we were
talking about interesting, youknow, opportunities on this
podcast.
We spoke about during Prime,that's when I'd done research.
So, uh, very glad to have thisconversation with you, to
understand more about duringPrime the thesis and you know,
how you've grown, um, over thelast few years.
I wanna start at, you know, backin 2016, um, you, you are
(03:40):
working as a, you know, hardcoreengineer.
Uh, that, that's where yourfocus is, what brought you to
the water purifier market.
You had no connection to it perse, right?
VJ - DrinkPrime (03:51):
Yeah.
Uh, first of all, thank you somuch Si for having me here.
I mean, it's a pleasure, uh, tohave a nice conversation with
you.
So, yeah.
Uh, coming to the point, uh, soyeah, uh, I am a computer
science researcher, so I wasthere, I passed out from is c
Bangalore.
And then I was working in mycore technology.
I was part of AMD processescompany, working on the next
(04:13):
generation processes, which, uh,which, which the world needs,
right?
So that's what was the thing.
But, uh, I would say it was, uh,a basically a hobby kind of a
project where we started offwith, but it ended up being such
a big company, which is DrinkPrime, right?
So, One of the things, my lifewas almost set like it was good
(04:34):
because I was working for a goodcompany.
I was paying well paid well, andeverything was sorted right?
But ironically, if you see the,one of the major problems,
which, which I had personallywas drinking water.
Because the thing is, uh, wewere not having access to safe
drinking water for my personal,um, home, right?
Which I was staying.
So there were only two optionsfor me.
(04:55):
Either.
First option was kind of go andbuy a water can, which is
available in every mom and popstore, where I'm sure we don't
have much more, uh, much moretrust on that bottled water that
has, uh, issues on there.
The second side of it is we haveto buy a water purifier.
There are only two ways ofgetting pure water, right?
But for me, when I started mycareer, I was not clear how many
(05:18):
days I will be there inBangalore.
So I did not, uh, wanted to goand commit and buying a water
purifier because wherever Ishift, I have to take the water
purifier and go, right?
So that's what my thing, andthat's where I started off with
bottled water.
That's what it was.
Comfortable, but again, for theobvious reasons of quality.
I, I kind of started, uh,flickering and getting scared
(05:40):
that what is the water I'mdrinking?
That's when the whole idea was,uh, came to my mind that why
can't, why can't, there is noservice where, which gives a
water purifier from a CapEx toan OPEX model, right?
Where I don't have to pay theupfront investment for the CapEx
because I, I don't know, I'm notclear how many days I'll be
there, so that's why I'm dis I,I'm clear that I don't want to
(06:02):
do an investment.
But in a way, uh, in a way Iwant good water.
Right?
So that's where the wholeideology came in.
Where let's, uh, give, there area lot of people like me, they
were, at least in my analysis,they were close to four crow
households in the 2020 cities,which we are present, right?
Who wanted a substitute to, uh,bottled water because they were
(06:25):
using bottled water.
Because they were not ready tobuy a water purifier.
So that's where the idea was whycan't we give this water
purifier on a subscription tothose four crow households who
are using water water so that wecan solve that?
Right?
That was the core thesis, and itall started with my personal
problem.
It's not someone else, it'smine.
Sid (06:45):
That's actually a very interesting, uh, point because I
think I've lived in six, sevencities over the last 10 years
and.
Most of the places I've ended upbuying a lot of purifier and
then selling it in the same citybecause, as you said, it makes
no sense to carry it to anothercity and, and install it there.
Right.
Um, so I, I identify with theproblem, but in order to solve
(07:05):
it, Did you have to really builda new water purifier?
Because, you know, you could tryand build a model with the
existing water purifier is whereyou give that out on
subscription.
You buy it upfront, you do therentals, right?
That's one way you couldpotentially think about it, but
what led you to sort of, youknow, building a completely new
water purifier, uh, IOT led, AIled.
(07:25):
Tell me a little bit about thatsort of, you know, that journey.
VJ - DrinkPrime (07:29):
Uh, sure sir.
So as you rightly said, I mean,being a, being an engineer and
being a person with logic,right?
It makes absolute sense to justbuy it from the market and give
it on our end to the customer,right?
So definitely, and also to befrank, we started doing the same
thing when we are early days,right?
We, we thought that, see, Waterpurifier is a 30 year old
(07:50):
industry, right?
Why do you have to reverseengineer anything?
Let's give it and increase theaccess to, uh, bot water
purifier by giving anon-subscription.
That's the thought.
But to enable the subscription,also, we, we had to build a
little more of iot technologybecause, We need to make sure
that the purifier, uh, kind ofchecks the water quality,
dispenses the right amount ofwater, how much a customer
(08:13):
subscribed to.
So that was a small innovation.
We have done it, uh, in thethings and we have put it, and
we also launched 2000 waterpurifiers like that.
But then later what we realizedis, uh, the first thing is what
we thought was, can't we can't,they associate with a brand,
connect with a brand, and thenautomatically we go to the
market together?
Right.
(08:33):
But with that thought process,we approached a couple of
brands, but one of the things,what came out very well, very
strong to us was Branch was notinterested to even change their
model.
They, they just, just becausethey, they kind of sell their
products with their dealers anddistributors.
Everything was sorted for them.
Right.
It's just that they want to do a20% growth.
(08:55):
They don't, uh, they don't carewhether water is, people are
getting good water or not.
They just want to do their toplines properly.
They have a good channel where,uh, where they can sell their
water purifies and there is noneed of innovation itself.
Right.
That's what was the wholecontext.
And when we come and talksomething like this,
subscription brands were sayingthat key.
Are you crazy?
Why do we want to disturb our,our whole things, right?
(09:17):
So that was one reason.
The second, uh, then that's whenit came to the point that we had
to build our waterproof.
But the second important reason,after doing the 2000, uh,
purifiers by, uh, buying it fromthe market and doing it, what we
realized is, Uh, we, we also, asan IOT rate, we started putting
sensors with our iotsubscription IOT bot, which I've
(09:39):
told right to enable thesubscription.
With that, we also put insensors about water quality.
We put in couple of sensors inthe IOT solution where it starts
measuring the input waterquality and also the output
water quality.
Right.
Once we installed these 2000devices, we started getting
different patterns of water, uh,water qualities, right?
There were too many insightswhich was happening.
(10:02):
One of the core insights whichcame to us was every three
kilometers, water quality waschanging.
I mean, that was, that was areally shocker to us, because no
one even thought about that.
The water quality kept changing,right?
The second input, what we cameto the point was every season in
the same area, the water qualitywas changing.
(10:22):
So, so then that was kind ofreally shocking to us saying
that, Keith, what is happeningin this market, right?
I mean, why is this happening?
Why, why is the water qualitychanging so much?
Right?
So then we decoded back, uh,basically we ran the company
completely like, uh, I would sayit was a treasure hunter.
Each question which we got wasactually, uh, a so, uh, a
(10:46):
direction which we had to takefrom the inception of the
company from 2016.
I would say it was always atreasure hunt.
The treasure hunt started withmy personal problem, but as in
when we went into detail, therewas another question which came,
then we, it took us to anotherroute.
It was.
Just like a treasure hunt.
Like, uh, for example, if therewere hints given to us and then
(11:06):
we were taking that direction,right?
So that was the company that,the problem in phase was the
water quality was changing.
Now, when we went back, we sawthat the source water was not
constant because in every city,in every part of India, right,
there is not a single source ofwater.
There are multiple sources ofwater, right?
Like some people have tankerwater.
They use tanker water for theirapartments.
(11:28):
Some people use bowell water.
Some people use, uh, moons partywater, which they get from the
government, right?
So the sources were different,right?
So that's where the waterquality was changing area by
area.
The second season is, thesources also changed depending
on the seasons.
Like for example, in summerseason, moons party water is not
too much available, so peoplebuy tankers.
(11:49):
So once they buy tankers, thewater of that area is already
changed.
So this, this was pattern washappening, right?
But when, when we saw thetraditional water purifiers,
they were so dump in the senselike it was a one size fit all
solution, right?
Whether you are living in Delhi,whether you're living in Mumbai
or Chennai or wherever in thecountry, the production happens
somewhere in Mumbai or uh, Pune.
(12:11):
From there, the device comes toacross India and get installed,
right?
Without even understanding whatis your water quality of your
area.
So that led to the point thatgiving a one size fits all
solution, is this the rightsolution?
That's when we got into waterscience.
We started developing the watersciences.
It took like two and a half tothree years to build the product
(12:32):
and then with, with the help ofwater science and what is the
right purification for each ofthe areas, then we came to the
solution that we.
We have to give a customizedsolution for each of the, each
of the areas which we presented.
We started tailoring the waterpurifier.
We started customizing the waterpurifier and give.
As of now, all the waterpurifiers are.
(12:53):
Tailored to your, each of yourwater requirements and water
input quality, and then we givethis on a subscription.
That's how we ended up buildingthe whole water purer from
scratch.
That's very
Sid (13:04):
interesting.
That's an interesting insightabout water quality changing not
just by region but also byseason.
Right.
Uh, does that also mean thatyour water purifiers and how the
purification happens changes byseason because it is a
subscription business, so I'massuming that's part of the
service.
VJ - DrinkPrime (13:20):
Yes.
Yes.
It, so basically that's what,right, we, it's an iot device,
right?
So we know what is happening inthe water quality.
There are some, uh, there areways inside the purifier which
automatically changes the purpurification flow.
There are some things, and thenif there are, if it is beyond
that capability, then we send atechnician to kind of, uh,
change the purification, right?
(13:41):
So we take care of that, we takecare of that, and we customize
it according to your input waterquality of that season.
Sid (13:49):
Interesting.
If you go on, you know, anyelectronic store or Amazon,
wherever you go, there are, andif you search for water
purifier, one, the price rangesare, you know, like it's a large
price range.
It starts at 10,000, goes up to30 to 35,000.
Right?
And then there are so manyterminologies that are used, uv,
copper, r o.
(14:10):
That as a, as a person who'strying to buy a water purifier,
I have no idea what I need to bebuying.
Right.
It actually takes a good, if youwant to research, it actually
takes two hours of research justto figure out what kind of water
purifier you want to buy.
Is that problem solved then bydrink Prime?
Because, um, it automatically,you, you sort of customize it
(14:31):
per region, per seasonautomatically.
Is that, is that part of theproblem that's being solved?
VJ - DrinkPrime (14:36):
Yes, uh, Sid, that's what is one of the
claims, but let me tell you whythis happened, right?
The why are there so manyoptions and
Sid (14:43):
yeah, actually, yeah, I'd love to understand the market
landscape because I'm assumingthis industry has been like that
for decades now, right?
So why is it like that and, andwhat's changing now?
VJ - DrinkPrime (14:52):
Yeah.
So I would say in this industrythere were definitely product
innovations.
Like for example, rivers Osmosiscame, they were UV came and all
right, so they were literally,there was not much marketing
innovation done in this wholeindustry, right?
Because they used whatever themarketing worked for other
appliances, right?
Like for example, AC or TV orfridge or whatever, right?
(15:14):
How the marketing, uh, uh, wherestrategies were there for the
appliances industry, right?
That's what was the same.
Strategy used for even waterpurifies.
Right?
Because in their mind the peoplethought, I mean the, the
companies thought that waterpurifier is also applying.
So let me use all the logic ofappliances and then, uh, put
that industry right.
(15:35):
So in appliances, what happens?
A CRT TV at this cost.
Then you have an little TV atthis cost.
Then you have a 55 inch of atthis cost, then you have a 57
inch of at this cost, right?
So that's how it is.
Even in water purer, a UVpurifier is this much.
Then an arrow purifier is thismuch.
Then an r plus UV is this much.
Then r plus UV plus copper isthis much, right?
So in the whole marketingmessage, right, it is just, it
(15:57):
is just the strategy of an anyappliance.
There's no innovation, right?
So, and also if you see no oneeven talks about your input
water quality.
So it, they were always talkingabout the output water talking
in the sense, right, like, thiswill give you this copper water,
whether this will give that,right?
But never, no one even talkedabout what is your input, right?
(16:18):
Whether do you need really acopper, whether your input water
may already have copper, right?
If your input water is alreadycopper, why do you need to give
a copper of this thing, right?
So the, if you look at the lensof input water, Then the whole
game changes suddenly.
So that's what is the reason whythese many varieties came in.
Right.
And I would say we are the firstcompany who are actually trying
(16:42):
to do what is justice to thewater purer industry by talking
the water purifier terms, right?
Not talking about the applianceterms or these things.
Right?
So we are talking water becausepeople are buying water
purifiers for not for water pur.
They are buying for water.
Water is the output, not waterpurifier.
(17:02):
That
Sid (17:02):
actually makes sense.
And, and uh, I was just checkingthe website and.
There's just one SKU UTechnically there are, there's a
lot of, you know, customizationthat happens for, you know,
depending on the differentregions, but it makes sense to
just have one SKU U, right?
Because everything inside thatmy end output needs to be pure
water for my household.
It doesn't matter if it cansolve a problem in Bombay or
(17:24):
Chennai.
I want pure water in myhousehold and indoor, right,
and, and it needs to becustomized accordingly.
That makes complete sense.
Um, I wanna double down twothings that I wanna double down,
but we are on the topic ofmarketing, so we are gonna go
down there.
But I also want to talk aboutthe hardware innovation, right?
Because this seems like a, aninteresting challenge in itself
on, on all the customization,but, uh, going down the route of
marketing, this is traditionallya market where a celebrity would
(17:49):
come on, um, a television andKen, right?
Like that's a, that's a cult adthat everybody has gone through.
Is the, is the segment thatyou're targeting different,
first of all, I think that's oneof the questions.
Second, what kind of marketingstrategies have you used to
actually take the name of DreamPrime out there?
Right.
Because, um, I, the reason why Iask this is because when I speak
(18:12):
to my parents or other people,there are a few brands that come
up on water, purify, lato, youknow, take a trusted brand.
Now that trust is actually veryimportant in a product like
Water Purify, because you know,you're talking about water.
How did you go about buildingthat trust?
I know you're present in threecities, but if you can talk
about how you approach marketingin general and how you approach
(18:33):
trust building, that'll be,
VJ - DrinkPrime (18:34):
that'll be very interesting.
So let me, uh, start off withwhat happened, because I always
am a fan of what happened inwhy, why, why are we where we
are?
Right?
So that's, that's, that's veryimportant, right?
So when all the brands started,right, like when there are big
celebrities coming, right?
That point of time, the problemwas, People were not even using
(18:54):
a waterproofer.
So the problem there, it wasawareness, right?
See, people were thinking thatwhatever I drink, water is good,
right?
I mean water.
Because if you don't seeanything in water, they used to
think that it is good.
I mean, if you don't see dust oruh, mud bread, because
microbiological things don't,are not visible.
So at that point of time, thetrust building process was
(19:16):
always with celebrities becausethat point of time we had to
build the trust.
Uh, push that, right?
Because people even didn'tunderstand that there is a need
for a waterproof fair.
There was not even a thoughtthat came.
No, my water is good, right?
Why do I need a waterproof fair?
That was a scenario I would say20, 30 years back.
Right?
So that's where all the brandsdid their parts.
(19:37):
How do, how do I increase theawareness of the thing?
And one of the easy ways ofdoing the awareness was having a
celebrity endorsed and thenpushing it.
Now, fast forward to the currentmarkets, right?
See, now we are a generationwho, I mean, to be frank, we
know that okay, there's acelebrity coming, right?
What is our thought is.
(19:58):
Celebrity has made good money.
I mean, they would've, thisbrand would've given a big money
to the celebrity, and celebrityis talking.
Because our generation isbasically more logical
generation, right?
We want more logic and data tobe convinced about anything,
right?
We are not at a point of wherewhen someone comes and says
that, you take it and say, dude,let me go and check the reviews.
(20:18):
That is the generation we are,right?
We don't just follow for us, thecelebrities, just that, okay,
it's a big brand.
I mean, if he's able to affordan or some money, it means that
it's a big brand.
So there are, so this is onelevel of trust factor, right?
But our trust is only happenswith data and then the reviews.
(20:39):
So now the way you have tomarket start marketing things
has to change because the kindof people are different.
Right?
Now that is where for us, right?
I mean, when we're at doubleclick on drink prime Journey,
one of the things we starteddoing is let's put facts and
figures upfront.
Let's not talk about, uh,having, I mean, uh, what we said
(20:59):
before, the old generation usedto say that your WA water is
very good.
Now, I, I am saying that how,how good is my water?
So just put a number to thefact, put reviews to the fact,
put everything onto the table,right?
Like for example, currently, ifyou see the buying decisions,
Are data driven.
They're never, they're never, Imean, obviously there is an
(21:19):
emotional connect to the brandand all agree to that.
But the point is that barrierwill only come first.
You complete your base barrier,which is data.
Once you do your research, onceyou are re read the reviews,
once you have enough data in it,then you'll go to the emotional
attachment.
Whether should I buy that ornot?
Right?
But the first barrier for us isdata interview.
(21:40):
Right?
So that's what is the strategywe took.
The, that was a clear case ofbuilding the trust for us,
right?
We showed that, so we actuallycracked the trust with some, one
of the very, very innovativeways saying that, right?
We started giving our waterpurifiers as a seven day risk
free trial.
We said that take our waterpurifier for seven days for free
(22:01):
of cost.
If you like the water, then youstart paying the subscription,
right?
Otherwise, no questions asked.
We will take back our waterprooffair.
And then we started showing thedata that this is how sea water
purifier is working.
This is your input waterquality.
This is your output waterquality.
See, it is really doingsomething.
The water purifier is actingonto your input water and
(22:23):
reducing the impurities.
And this is the quality ofoutput water, right?
So that data.
Was directly showing the trustfor the consumer, right?
And then our confidence ofgiving a risk free trial to the
consumer was also helped us alot, right?
So that was a growth hack, or Iwould say the confidence we had
on our product where we wereable to easily build trust.
(22:45):
Interesting.
Sid (22:46):
So now that I think about it, there's obviously product
innovation.
The, the entire product isdifferent.
There's marketing innovation,but there's also the go-to
market innovation, which istraditionally the way this is
sold.
Dealers and you know, suppliers.
And then there's, there are,there's a third party who takes
care of the, the servicing andthere's a lot of.
Murky things that happens in theservicing industry where the
(23:08):
filters are not really changed.
Uh, but you're, you're sort ofbuilt for the entire amount
there.
There are a lot of, you know,uh, stories out there about
that.
Um, but by doing all of this,you've given a completely
different experience to howpeople consume, um, water
through a water purifier.
That, that's very interesting toknow.
Um, coming back to the point ofhardware innovation 2016, you
(23:32):
know, you don't come from thisindustry.
You realize that the problem isactually the purifier itself,
not just subscription.
We need to go out and build, uh,water purifier, building.
Anything in the hardwareindustry comes with its own set
of challenges.
Right.
Tell us about that journey.
How long did it take to actuallyperfect the hardware?
How many ions did it take, andhow did you fund that?
Did you raise capital back thenbecause this is, this is an
(23:53):
endeavor that requires a decentamount
VJ - DrinkPrime (23:55):
of cap capital.
So, I mean, uh, to start offwith said it was not a small
journey for us.
It was a really, really painfuljourney, and I would say during
2016 to 2020, there were so manysituations where we wanted to
shut down.
Because the point is, uh, whathappens is, I mean, coming from
(24:17):
a, a traditional background, Imean, uh, not like having too
much backup.
Uh, from your right, and alsobecause what we have built
ourselves, right?
Whatever, Manus, Manus is myco-founder, Manus and me built,
right?
We were all stood down our legs,right?
I mean, we never had any supportfrom anyone, right?
So obviously we were very trueto our problem statement, which
(24:39):
was.
So giving clean drinking waterto everyone, right?
That was a problem statement,right?
But building hardware was avery, very, very difficult, uh,
uh, kind of situation to be in,right?
See, for me, being a computerscience researcher, I know for
sure I can build or I can spendsome more time and learn more
skills of ai, ml and whatever,and then start sitting and
(25:02):
coding and build things, right?
But, but it was very, verydifficult because the first
thing is I'm not from a hardwarebackground.
The second thing is hardwaretakes real money.
It is not over, over.
And see, for example, software,I just don't go to aws.
I get a free instance and Istart coding, and then I start
deploying and making thingsright.
But hardware is not, uh, notlike that, right?
You need to really havesomething in the, in the way,
(25:25):
uh, basically.
To fund it.
So what happened is, uh, firstthing we manen may have put in
our life earnings completelyinto the company where we went.
I mean, it, it helped us to,from 2016 to 2017, and maybe I'm
with digressing the topic, butit is the general our journey,
right?
So we have given up everything,right?
(25:46):
I mean, whatever savings, eventhere was a point that we have
broken our, uh, FDS and alsopeer.
That is the money is what wehave broken, put in everything.
And then we, uh, after that isover.
Then we went to our parents andthen saw that, uh, can, can we
lend some money from them?
Right?
I mean, we, we took their help alittle bit.
The third important aspect, whathappened is seeing our struggle,
(26:10):
right?
I mean, we went to this struggleof up, uh, completely down, not
even ups, right?
I completely down there were lotof many.
Many good people around us,right?
I mean, who were trying to helpus, who were seeing us struggle
and, uh, saw our fight to givewater, right?
They started coming to together,right?
So it was not like a fun fund.
(26:30):
They wanted to invest, but theystarted spending more time with
us, be it some r and d guys,where they said that I will,
don't pay me for the r and d.
I will help you build the wholewater purifier.
I will give you per, per week,like 10 hours to you.
Uh, just, just don't, don't, uh,because they liked our product.
They like our passion.
(26:51):
They liked everything.
They just said that, okay, wewill figure out how do you pay
me at a later point of time, butright now, let's solve your
problem.
They, they invested their teams.
They have put in, uh, people.
Out of their pocket and thenstarted helping us, right?
To build the product then.
Then that's where later as we'vescaled it, right, we got some
good dealers and distributors ofwater purifier industry who were
(27:13):
not brands, right?
Who really saw that this isgoing to be the future of the
water purifier.
They, they started investing onthe water purifier, right?
And they said, I will give youwater purifiers with whatever
you want.
You put your iot and you go tothe market, right?
And let's do a revenue share.
They started speaking about theoutcomes.
They said that input, we bothwill take care in the outcome
(27:34):
you give me as a revenue shareto, uh, which you are earning
from the market.
You don't have to pay anyupfront investment, right?
So like that, I would say tosell 2000 motor purifiers in
2016 to 2020, we took four yearstechnically to sell just 2000
water purifiers.
That's how the journey was.
(27:55):
Little difficult, but the goodpart about this man and me, we
come with a, a special power,which is resilience.
We don't give up.
So we are, uh, so there weremany situations where in the
night we decided that dude, It'sdone.
I mean, I can't, right?
But somehow the next day we werein a thought process that let's
try for another week.
(28:16):
Let's try for another week.
Right?
That's how we pulled, pulled,pulled.
And then all the four years,when, when we came back in 2020,
we did it finally.
And then we got, uh, big notabletire one investors across globe
to command investors, right?
So that's how it was a difficultjourney.
I can,
Sid (28:34):
I can completely imagine kudos to, you know, how far
you've come.
Um, the last number I saw wasthere are one lack active
subscribers.
So one lack water, beer repliesthat have been deployed.
I'm sure the number is muchmore.
Um, so from, you know, spendingfour years to get 2000 to, to
getting two lack in the last,you know, few years, last couple
of years, um, getting one lag inthe last couple of years and
(28:56):
bitta positive, that's been somejourney.
Uh, Vijay, that's been, I mean,uh, thank you so much for
sharing that so candidly aboutall the, the struggles that you
went through.
Um, I wanna double down now onthe cost structure of this
industry, right?
There's traditionally, this wasa one time cost that people
incurred anywhere between 10 to25, 30,000, depending on what
(29:16):
they needed.
Um, appliance like marketing,and I'm sure a lot of rich folks
actually ended up buying thingsthat they did not need.
Probably hurt them more than ithelped them because they got,
you know, UV and RO and UF andMF and you know, all of those
terms that are there, but youprobably don't need them.
Um, but, and then on top ofthat, there's a, you know,
(29:37):
yearly maintainance charge of,let's say, four or 5,000 in, in
terms of filtration that comesin, how does that change with a
subscription model?
How does the cost structurechange with the subscription
model and whatever you can shareon your end in the entire value
chain, where does the costgenerally get distributed in the
traditional industry, and howdid that change with you guys?
VJ - DrinkPrime (29:55):
Right.
Uh, so to answer this questionsaid, let me first change your
glasses first, right?
The way how you look things,right?
Because that will completelychange the perspective of the,
the, the answer which I want togive.
Right?
When you come to the point thatyou are not selling water
purifies, come to the point thatyou are selling water.
(30:18):
Now when you keep that lens ofselling a water, right, then you
can start seeing what we havedone in the whole industry.
Right?
So, makes sense.
First, let me just summarize theindustry, how it worked
traditionally, because the wholeconcept, what the industry was,
how many s I can sell.
Yeah, that was the whole idea,right?
(30:39):
So now just like fridge
Sid (30:41):
fans, whatever, how many units can I sell?
Yes.
VJ - DrinkPrime (30:44):
How many units, how many boxes can I sell?
Was the thought process, uh,basically when you see the,
right now go back to themanufacturing part of it.
Right?
So what was the, uh, the kind ofinput to the manufacturer was
also saying that key, make asmany boxes as possible so that I
can give those boxes to my nextdealer.
(31:04):
That guy will go to the nextdistributor, then that guy goes
to the retailer, and that's howthe whole supply chain happens,
right?
Again, same traditionalappliance strategy where I make
a tv, I sell it to the dealerdistributor, and that's how it
goes, right?
So the same, uh, thing wasfollowed, right?
So if you see though, theproduct was manufactured at
5,000, 6,000 rupees.
(31:26):
By the time the product came tothe customer, it was somewhere
around 15,000 because everyonehas to survive, right?
In the whole supply chain, thereis a dealer who has to serve,
survive.
There's a distributor, there's aretailer.
There is like all these channelslike econ, everyone has to kind
of, uh, fit in their costs,right?
So that's where, that's wherethe whole traditional industry,
(31:46):
and this is true for anyappliance, that's how the
appliance industry is there,right?
So the coming to the point, theidea was to sell purifiers.
Now coming to the, our point ofthink about that, how many water
leaders I've sold.
When you look at that lens,right, then this all doesn't
come in.
So now when you want to talkabout the water quality
(32:09):
changing, and when you'retalking about the giving the
right water, right, the dealersand distributors are not going
to support because as a company,you need to have connection to
the customer.
Because unless you, you have aconnection to the customer and
you don't know the problems of acustomer, right?
So you don't know how to solvethe problem because your
proposition is what not waterpurer.
(32:30):
My proposition is giving water,right?
So to give water, I need to knowwhat is the situation of, uh,
of, of the input water in thatcustomer place.
So that's where our company needto be a direct to consumer
product.
So we, we cannot build a dealerdistributor network, right?
We had to go direct to consumerswhere we started talking to the
(32:50):
consumers via Facebook, gettingleads from them, understanding
where do they stay, what istheir water quality and all
these things, right?
And then once we understand thewater quality, we were able to
backtrack saying that now thewater is this, the out output
water should be this.
Now what should I do to this isthe input, this is the output.
Now understand, let me put, whatis the process?
(33:13):
To get there.
So when you see water as a lens,right, this is the impurities in
water.
This is the output water wherethe good water should be there.
Now what should I build it inthe middle?
So that's point of time when youlook at that, right?
So we started building waterpurifier to each and every
consumer.
Now, when we started buildingthe things right, we will put
(33:34):
only what is needed.
We just don't put everything andanything right into the water
purer, right?
Because we know the input, weknow the output.
No, it's just what is thefunction which I need to make.
Right?
I, I talk more on maths thanengineering because I'm an
engineer, so what is thefunction I need to build?
Right?
So that's where, that's wherethe idea is we need to build a
waterproof fair, right?
(33:55):
So the cost structures, if yousee.
It is not the cost structures ofwhatever the traditional market
is, because the traditionalmarket, since they don't even
know where the water purifier isgoing, they have to build a
water purifier, which is workingfrom Kashmere to Kanya Kumar,
which also
Sid (34:12):
means that it doesn't work for 50% of those people, right?
Because you, you have a one sizefit, fit all
VJ - DrinkPrime (34:17):
approach there.
Yes.
It's a one size fit allapproach, and if it is not
right, the other point is it isoverly featured.
Oh, for sure.
The, the other problem is seewater is, is a way that you
cannot over purify also, nor youcan under purify.
Yeah.
So one of the, again, at thispoint the over purification is
also much more, uh, biggerproblems.
(34:38):
Right.
See what happens.
I actually want you
Sid (34:39):
to double down on the over purification problem because
somebody told me this, I thinkone of the technicians told me
this, that if you over purifywater, you actually take out all
the good parts of the water, allthe minerals that are, that are
there.
Is that true?
Tell me, tell me a little bitabout over purification.
VJ - DrinkPrime (34:54):
See the water, right?
I mean, if you see though, it isnot a major source of, uh,
minerals and all, I mean, I'll,I'll put it minerals and all
come from food, minerals andvitamins and all come from food.
Water is a definitely a good,uh, thing, right?
But point is when nothing isthere in water, right?
What happens is water is equalinto pure H two, which is
(35:15):
actually not drinking water.
It is called solvent.
Like in the, in the researchlabs, right?
Like for example in your, uh,maybe in your early BTEC or
something, you would be in, uh,in the chemical labs, right?
There is a hedge two.
They don't call it as water,right?
So when that is a pure hedgetwo, it doesn't have anything,
right?
When you drink that solvent, I'mnot calling it as water, it is
(35:36):
called solvent.
When you drink that solvent,right, what it body doesn't
observe that water.
Because, uh, intestines are thethings which kind of observe the
water.
It doesn't get observed.
Uh, the intestines don't observewater because what intestines
need something in the water tobe observed, right?
So though you are drinking threeto four liters of water, the
(35:57):
water is actually not hydratingyour body because you are taking
in, it is just going out.
The body is not observing.
The cells of the endocrines arenot observing water.
So if you're not observing, thenyour body's actually not getting
hydrated.
Interesting.
Very interesting.
So if it is not hydrating,that's where you get the
problems of A C D T.
Then there is this joint andknee problems, which all come,
(36:18):
right?
I mean, this is prevalent in lotof markets where the water
quality is good, but you put toomuch technology like A O U V U
of everything inside the waterpur repair, which.
Everything in the water getsover.
I mean, there is a term calledtedious, right?
Tedious is like total dissolvedsolids, right?
It is like the measure of, uh,whatever is there in the water
measure of dissolved solids inwater, right?
(36:39):
So, uh, anything which is aroundabout 52 200 is good for
drinking.
Anything less than 10, right?
Is actually a solvent.
And that's where it is not theright water to drink.
Right?
And also another thing, if yousee the other angle, right, the
pH, uh, there is somethingcalled pH, right?
I mean, pH is the, to determineany liquid, whether it is acid
(37:02):
acidic, or whether it isneutral, or whether it is base
right?
For any human body to drinkwater, you need to have a
neutral pH water.
But when you have the TS goingvery less right, it becomes acid
acidic.
So you are actually drinkingthree liters of acid.
So went into your body.
When nothing is there in thewater.
So that's where the whole ideacame to us is, should we really
(37:24):
over purify the water?
Right.
And that gives us to the pointthat why do you have to have
some special filters, which arenot needed?
Let's kind of remove thosefilters.
Right.
And that's where we gave exactlywhat is the right filters to be
given to the consumer.
Sid (37:37):
Interesting.
That also makes your, uh, go-tomarket that much harder.
Right.
Which also explain why you arein three cities right now.
Right.
Because it's not, it's not putit on Amazon and sell it to the
entire country.
It has to be a region by regionproblem that needs to be solved.
You have to go activate regions,uh, to make sure you are, it's
customized to that particularregion.
Interesting.
Very interesting.
(37:58):
Has that, um, since you've,since you've started and now
scaled, how has the traditionalindustry.
Taken to this change.
Right.
I'm sure they're aware thatthere's something called Ring
Prime.
They've moved to subscription.
I did see there are a couple ofother subscription players that
did come up, but how is thetraditional, you know, the, the
ones that have been there fordecades, how are they reacting
(38:19):
to this?
Are they still, you know,focused on manufacturing the,
and selling that data?
VJ - DrinkPrime (38:23):
Yeah.
So see if they, if you see theirperspective, right?
I mean, they really, they'rebecome an elephant.
I mean, each of these companiesare like 2000 people, uh, coming
somewhere to 10,000 people,right?
See what happens in this, uh,kind of setup is.
It is, first thing is it is verydifficult to move, right?
I mean, you cannot move anelephant, uh, whatever it is
(38:45):
doing, right?
The second important problem,what happens is, uh, again, from
the first point, there is amindset already there in
everyone's home, right?
See everyone in the wholeemployees, uh, chain, right?
It is about how do I sell, howdo I sell?
How do I sell?
That's the whole, uh, what doyou call the DNA of the company.
So that's where they're right.
The second problem, when theywant to do anything, which we
(39:07):
are trying to do, right?
See, we are a direct to consumerbusiness, right?
So we kind of keep the dealersand distributors aside in the
whole thing, right?
It's a direct to consumer.
We don't want to give anyone,right?
So when they have to do whatthey want to do, uh, what, what
we are doing, right?
What, what it means that theyhave to ditch their dealers and
distributors.
(39:28):
Now, the point is, Should I takethe risk of my current business
to doing something in thefuture, which I don't know.
I really don't know whetherit'll work out right.
See, I may get some thousandcrows from my current business.
Now, should I put at stake mycurrent business and do
something which is innovative?
The reason W is if I ditch mydealer and distributor, I see my
(39:49):
dealer and distributor is notjust selling my water purifies.
They're selling my air purifier.
They're selling my fans, they'reselling my vacuum cleaners.
They're selling me so many otherproducts, right?
Which I have all in the range.
Now, should I take the risk ofdisturbing my dealer and
distributor because that is 80%of my revenue?
Mm mm So that is their problemthough.
(40:09):
They like the thing they need tobe.
Careful when doing the thingsright.
And that is a big entry to themsaying that, should I really do
Sid (40:18):
this?
Is that classic innovatorsdilemma, right?
Like, they probably see it, theyprobably know that this is a
market change that's happening,but they just can't make that
change internally to completelyswitch gears.
And they can't really run bothof these parallelly unless you,
you know, build a new brand andbuild a new team and, and do all
of that.
Um, very interesting.
Um, Vijay.
(40:38):
Now what I want to focus on is,um, like we were discussing
earlier, we've just spokenabout, you know, supplying
purified water, but there's alarger vision at play.
I want you to sort of talk aboutthat vision.
The, the kind of work thatyou're doing is very inspiring
with the government schools,with the Lake re rejuvenation
project.
Tell us a little bit aboutwhat's the long-term vision and
(40:59):
what are you,
VJ - DrinkPrime (40:59):
what are you up to?
Right.
So, uh, again, as I told you, aspart of our, uh, treasure hunt,
what, what we realized is wesaw, I was, uh, I was a
customer, first customer.
I did my stuff.
Then I saw somewhere relevant ofmy customers who were the top
30, 40% of the market.
I provided something, but thencame to the point was, what,
(41:23):
what about the other part of thecountry?
Mm-hmm.
What about the other 60% of thepeople?
Let's see, because at least wecame from the fundamental
thought, right?
Water is a fundamental right.
Water is just like air.
Whether you are rich, whetheryou are poor, whether you are
anything.
There are some things in thisworld has to be unique to
everyone, right?
Given the opportunity should begiven to everyone.
(41:46):
So that is a fundamental thoughtprocess.
We came out saying that.
Why only Rich should get thewater purifiers or whatever,
right?
Why can't the pure poor alsohave it?
Right?
Because it's a fundamental,right?
No one created water.
No one destroyed water, right?
It's just, it has to be giventhe, the world should be an
equal play for everyone, right?
You cannot just change thegames, uh, rule games, right?
(42:07):
That's what was the thoughtprocess, because water has is
the source of life.
Water is something like air.
I cannot say that I'll not giveair to someone and I'll give air
to other person, right?
And only if people have money,they have air.
We cannot do that.
Right?
So with the same thoughtprocess, we started thinking
that how can we enable peoplewho can't afford the waterproof?
(42:29):
Currently water pur is there,it's some one ru two rues per
liter they're buying.
Right?
But what if people who are notable to afford the water pur,
right?
That's where, that's where wethought that we already have
like more than one plus lacksof, uh, people, uh, of a
customer base.
Right?
Can they come together tosupport other people, uh, other
(42:49):
people who can't afford, right.
That's where we started a smallcampaign, something called Water
for All.
This campaign was saying thatlet us give water to people who
can't afford water.
Right?
So when in our drink presubscription, what happens is
people recharge the number ofliters, but every time what
happens is that every month whatit ended up coming to the point
(43:09):
that they have more liters, theywould not have completed the
liters.
Like for example, you have torecharge two 50 liters.
It would not have been over.
Right?
So now anywheres that liter isthere again, you have to
recharge.
You'll get many liters again,right?
So the thought was, why can'tyou donate your liters, what you
have to the people who don'thave water?
So that's where the whole schoolproject came in, where we said
(43:30):
that we will come and installthe water purifier, the current
one, one lack, two lacksubscribers, where we have,
right, you start donating waterto the garment school.
So we acted in a way thatinstead of providing water
purifiers, we started givingwater, right?
So people can donate wheneverthey're recharging their 20
liters, 30 liters of water toany government school.
(43:51):
So that lit get transferred tothe government school and then
the people get, uh, water,right?
So the government schools we'veinstalled free of cost and all
our subscriber base startcontributing to the water,
right?
Because.
Uh, our customers are, areactually a community we are
building.
It's a community where we are,we want to make water available
to the next generation, right?
(44:12):
I mean, hardly 20, 30 years welive, right?
But the point is the nextgeneration has to get water,
right?
So our customers come togetherto support these government
schools, right?
That's how.
That's how the Water forSchools, uh, campaign started.
We have more than 200 schools,more than 15, 20,000 cus uh,
school kids who are the nextgeneration, right?
(44:33):
I mean, they are the nextgeneration after we go, they are
the people who are going to takethe country ahead, right?
So all the current customersstart donating water to the next
generation people so thatthey'll be strong enough.
The reason being is 80% of thediseases in India waterborne
diseases, right?
So that's what we wanted to.
Tackle and that's how it is now.
That is the first angle to it,right?
The second angle to it is, see,what is the, one of the insights
(44:56):
which we got was every yearthere is three meters of
groundwater getting depletedbecause we are pulling from
bowell, we are pulling all thatwater, right?
The groundwater is going, so nowwho will take the responsibility
of putting back the groundwater?
Now point is consider asituation where you don't have
input to water.
Then what will you do about thepurification and everything,
(45:18):
right?
So that's where the idea camein.
If you don't have input towater, then how to do it, right?
So that's where we startedsaying that for the next
generations we have to startgenerating input water.
So the way to input water is youneed to start conserving water.
You need to start making, makingsure the water tables are back
to the, uh, original situationwhere when we were kids, right,
(45:41):
whatever the situation was, wehave to get the water tables to
that right?
So it means that we have to getback the lake.
Uh, basically they used to saythat Bangalore used to have more
than 200, 300 lakes.
But they're, they're, I thinkvery down, came to double digits
and, all right, so we startedsaying that, okay, let's put J
because lakes are the very goodpieces where, which will add
(46:02):
water to the groundwater.
And then if you see thetraditional, uh, uh, world or
something, the ancestors, rightlakes, they say again, in Cara,
at least right, lakes areinterconnected, is what they
say.
When you fill one lake, itautomatically starts filling
another lake, right?
They're somewhere connected inthe ground is what, uh, people
(46:22):
kind of say.
I mean, I don't have data forthat, but people say that all
the lakes of Bangalore and the,the places are all connected.
So we start that lake's, add ge,regenerate the lakes back,
right?
So that the next generation havesome input water, which will be
purified and consumed.
Right?
These were the two thoughtprocesses because I mean, we
fundamental believe that ifwater are already the reason
(46:43):
where.
I think states are fighting,countries are fighting.
Now the point is, if someonedoesn't take the action and
start doing things right, thenthe world will start fighting
as, as someone told, right?
The World War three will happenmajorly on water.
And that is what we, uh, webelieve that we want to stop
that.
Sid (47:04):
That's very inspiring, Vijay.
I think, uh, that concept, I, Ilove the concept of donating,
uh, the water, sort of, youknow, to government schools
because it is so frictionless.
I'm going to be recharging.
I can see there's an option, um,or whatever is left at the end
of the month.
I, I can just donate thatfrictionless donation.
Um, I is, is fantastic and, andas you said, um, if there's no
input water, then there is noconcept of purification.
(47:27):
So, um, both, both those thingsare very inspiring.
Vijay, one last question beforewe go.
I know you're present right nowin Bangalore, Heba, and Delhi.
So for the people there, youshould obviously be subscribing
to drink Prime.
But for the people who are notin these cities, if somebody's
out there trying to figure outwhat water purify to buy, how
should they even evaluate whatneeds to be bought?
(47:49):
And you know what, what, what'sthe process that somebody needs
to go through to get the rightperiod water purified for their
home?
VJ - DrinkPrime (47:55):
Right.
So, uh, Sid, uh, I mean, firstof all, uh, what we wanted to
say is we are expanding tomultiple cities.
So in the next, uh, I would sayat least in the next 12 to 15
months, we will be there in thetop 10 cities.
That's what, uh, our growthplans are where we want to grow
aggressively because now we havenailed down everything.
(48:16):
Right?
It is how much access we cangive it to the consumers, right?
That's where, that's where weare heading to.
We will be soon coming to yourcity.
I mean, if you, if you kind of.
Want to wait.
Also, we will be able to solveyour problem in the, in the
next, at least in the top 10cities.
If you are considering your, youhave a buying decision, maybe
stick with your current solutionbecause we are coming soon to
(48:36):
kind of help you there.
Right?
So that's, uh, being said that,but also, let me give you the
insights.
Uh, how do you take a decision,right?
So what I would, uh, recommendis first thing, start
understanding.
What is your input?
Water quality?
Right?
So it is not just about waterpurifier.
The important inside is thewater, is also the water which
(48:56):
you are using for shower.
The water means you are alsousing that water for utensils.
The water means that you arealso using it for washing
clothes, washing your home.
See, water is everywhere.
It's not, just don't think aboutdrinking water, right?
So what is the first thing isstart?
Understanding water in a bitway, right?
(49:17):
Start understanding that whatyou are drinking, start
questioning yourself.
Key.
What is that?
What I'm drinking right point oftime, right?
With that thought process kindof, you will evolve in yourself
automatically whenever you arethere, right?
So, Start understanding thewater better.
And then for that first attemptis at least you buy something
called a tedious meter.
(49:38):
There's something where, whichyou'll be getting in an online
where 300 rupees may, you willgo get it, uh, um, in, in easily
from Amazon or even.
You can go to any, anysupermarkets or any electrical
stores where you get a tediousmeter, you can easily buy it at
somewhere 300 bucks, right?
So wherever you are, you canjust check what is your water?
Make sure that you drink thewater, which is anywhere 50 to
(50:01):
one 50.
I mean, 50 to one 50 is the, thenumber, the tedious meter says
that.
What is the reading?
That is the measure.
Right now, when you are buyingthe water purifier, you kind of
keep a small, I'll give you asimple table, right when you are
thinking about right.
Anything.
If you are input to what a TedDs is, less than 500, less than
300, 300 in your home.
(50:22):
When you put the meter and whenyou check what is less than 300,
try to see whether you can buysomething, a UV based water
purifier, right?
You don't need to have a hightechnology based r r water
purifies, right?
So anything post 500, if you seeit's advisable to kind of do.
Uh, I mean, uh, by an narrowbased water purifier.
Because the reason why I telllike that is when you consider
(50:45):
500 and all right, as the waterquality is changing seasonably,
right?
You need to take into that, uh,consideration also, right?
So that's where anything above500 is what you need to do.
But I advise you to check yourwater quality every, every, I
mean biweekly or monthly ones,right?
Put the check and check,understand.
(51:05):
Make, make a map of water.
What is the water, right?
I mean, what is happening withyour water?
And then accordingly, if youhave subscribed to amc, reach
out to your service provider andsay that the water has changed,
right?
The input water has changed, theoutput water has changed.
Please help me and come and dothe service, right?
Because in the A M C, theyshould cover you.
That is the point of a emc,right?
(51:26):
I mean, you are paying 5,000rupees or 6,000 rupees getting
an authority that whateverhappens, I'll come to you.
Right?
Start calling them, start askingthem, saying that, okay, this
water quality has changed,please come and do something
about it.
Right?
Because that's where you havepaid and you have every right to
ask the AMC supply, right?
I mean, that's where you shouldstart understanding.
When you understand water only,you can do all those things.
(51:49):
So that is the right way tomaintain a water purer before we
are there.
Till then you can manage withthat.
We will come and replace yourexisting water purifiers and
make sure that we remove yourheadaches, uh, out, uh, from
you.
Vijay,
Sid (52:03):
thank you so much for taking the time out and being so
candid throughout the entirediscussion about how you've
disrupted this, you know, legacyindustry that probably hasn't
changed in any way in the last20, 30 years.
There, as you said, there hasbeen product innovation, uh, but
how this was being sold, how wasthis was being taken to market.
(52:23):
Um, The way you've disruptedthat is very inspiring.
Um, you've told me to notdisclose the numbers, but I've,
I've kept a track on how youguys have grown over the last
few years.
It's phenomenal.
The fact that you're a bittapositive, you've built the
company in the right way, um,funded by, you know, tier one
investors across the globe.
All those, you know, sleeplessnights in those journeys of
(52:44):
should we continue building thisor not has, has come to
fruition.
So, uh, really, you know, reallyinspirational and thank you so
much for taking the time out.
VJ - DrinkPrime (52:53):
Thank, thank you so much Si for having me.
It was a pleasure, uh, I mean,having a proper discussion.
Thank you so much.
Water pur repair is a 30 year old
(00:01):
industry, right?
Why do you have to reverseengineer anything?
I would say it was a treasurehunt.
Each question which we got, wasactually a direction which we
had to take.
We just don't put everything andev anything right into the water
pur repair, right?
Because we know the input, weknow the output.
No, it's just what is a functionwhich I need to make, right?
There were so many situationswhere we wanted to shut down, so
(00:24):
the thought was why can't youdonate your leaders what you
have to the people who don'thave whatever.
Sid (00:30):
Hello and welcome to the Indian Dream Podcast, and today
I have an exciting episode wherewe are gonna be talking about
water and water purifiers.
Before I tell you more about theguest today, let's look at some
numbers like we usually do Everyyear, close to 38 million
people, or four crow peoplesuffer from waterborne diseases
like diarrhea, typhoid, andother viral infections.
(00:50):
It is estimated that it coststhe country about 600 million or
roughly 5,000 crow rupees justbecause of all these waterborne
diseases.
So access to clean water isclearly a large problem that
needs to be solved for as itstands today.
The only scalable andenvironmentally friendly way to
access clean water is throughwater purifiers.
The other ways, like packagedrinking water or tanker mafia's
(01:12):
are either environmentallyunfriendly or not affordable to
majority of the Indians.
Talking about water purifiers,India's first water purifier was
launched in 1984, and in 40years we've had many company
launched many different productswith innovations like R O U V,
UF, and frankly many other termsthat a foreman man doesn't
really understand.
It's a product that's marketedlike any other appliance where
(01:33):
it seems like more features arebetter for you, but did you know
more features are not reallybetter for you?
Depending on the water qualitythat you get at your homes, you
need to purify it accordingly.
If you overtreat it, youactually make the water worse
for you.
Therefore, I find it very funnythat in a country like India
where water quality changesevery four kilometers, you have
companies marketing and sellingthe same water purifier across
(01:56):
the country.
Technically speaking, you need adifferent water purifier
depending on the differentregions.
So to address all these problemswith gender and Manan started
during prime back in 2016,imagine a water purifier that's
iot enabled, connected to yourphone, that tells you exactly
the kind of water that you'reconsuming and adapts the
purification techniques based onthe water that needs to be
filtered.
(02:16):
That's exactly what during Primedoes.
They've had a very, veryinteresting journey with a lot
of Twist interns.
They've done a lot of innovationon product distribution and
marketing, and today they'retrusted by more than two lack
households in three cities,banked by leading investors like
Teria Capital, Sequoia Surge,and OED Network.
They're scaling very fast andthey're scaling profitably.
(02:36):
Tuning to this episode, not justto know more about how they
build a hardware business inIndia, but also to know more
about the water that you'reconsuming.
And before we jump onto theepisode, you know the drill.
You need to subscribe, you needto light, you need to put a
comment on the kind of peoplethat you want on the podcast,
and we'll try and get them.
Without further ado, let's jumponto the episode.
Vij, thank you so much forjoining us on the Indian Dream
(02:57):
Podcast.
Um, I'll tell you a brief storyabout Ring Prime.
I first heard about Ring Primewhen I was trying to research
about.
Which water purify to buy.
I'm based out of indoor, so youguys weren't present here.
Uh, but that also got me curiousabout this entire market.
Cause there's just so manydifferent terminologies that are
used.
And as a layman you have no ideawhat kind of water, purify to
buy.
Buy.
(03:17):
Um, and that's when I had heardabout drink time.
And then I think last year,sometime last year when we were
talking about interesting, youknow, opportunities on this
podcast.
We spoke about during Prime,that's when I'd done research.
So, uh, very glad to have thisconversation with you, to
understand more about duringPrime the thesis and you know,
how you've grown, um, over thelast few years.
I wanna start at, you know, backin 2016, um, you, you are
(03:40):
working as a, you know, hardcoreengineer.
Uh, that, that's where yourfocus is, what brought you to
the water purifier market.
You had no connection to it perse, right?
VJ - DrinkPrime (03:51):
Yeah.
Uh, first of all, thank you somuch Si for having me here.
I mean, it's a pleasure, uh, tohave a nice conversation with
you.
So, yeah.
Uh, coming to the point, uh, soyeah, uh, I am a computer
science researcher, so I wasthere, I passed out from is c
Bangalore.
And then I was working in mycore technology.
I was part of AMD processescompany, working on the next
(04:13):
generation processes, which, uh,which, which the world needs,
right?
So that's what was the thing.
But, uh, I would say it was, uh,a basically a hobby kind of a
project where we started offwith, but it ended up being such
a big company, which is DrinkPrime, right?
So, One of the things, my lifewas almost set like it was good
(04:34):
because I was working for a goodcompany.
I was paying well paid well, andeverything was sorted right?
But ironically, if you see the,one of the major problems,
which, which I had personallywas drinking water.
Because the thing is, uh, wewere not having access to safe
drinking water for my personal,um, home, right?
Which I was staying.
So there were only two optionsfor me.
(04:55):
Either.
First option was kind of go andbuy a water can, which is
available in every mom and popstore, where I'm sure we don't
have much more, uh, much moretrust on that bottled water that
has, uh, issues on there.
The second side of it is we haveto buy a water purifier.
There are only two ways ofgetting pure water, right?
But for me, when I started mycareer, I was not clear how many
(05:18):
days I will be there inBangalore.
So I did not, uh, wanted to goand commit and buying a water
purifier because wherever Ishift, I have to take the water
purifier and go, right?
So that's what my thing, andthat's where I started off with
bottled water.
That's what it was.
Comfortable, but again, for theobvious reasons of quality.
I, I kind of started, uh,flickering and getting scared
(05:40):
that what is the water I'mdrinking?
That's when the whole idea was,uh, came to my mind that why
can't, why can't, there is noservice where, which gives a
water purifier from a CapEx toan OPEX model, right?
Where I don't have to pay theupfront investment for the CapEx
because I, I don't know, I'm notclear how many days I'll be
there, so that's why I'm dis I,I'm clear that I don't want to
(06:02):
do an investment.
But in a way, uh, in a way Iwant good water.
Right?
So that's where the wholeideology came in.
Where let's, uh, give, there area lot of people like me, they
were, at least in my analysis,they were close to four crow
households in the 2020 cities,which we are present, right?
Who wanted a substitute to, uh,bottled water because they were
(06:25):
using bottled water.
Because they were not ready tobuy a water purifier.
So that's where the idea was whycan't we give this water
purifier on a subscription tothose four crow households who
are using water water so that wecan solve that?
Right?
That was the core thesis, and itall started with my personal
problem.
It's not someone else, it'smine.
Sid (06:45):
That's actually a very interesting, uh, point because I
think I've lived in six, sevencities over the last 10 years
and.
Most of the places I've ended upbuying a lot of purifier and
then selling it in the same citybecause, as you said, it makes
no sense to carry it to anothercity and, and install it there.
Right.
Um, so I, I identify with theproblem, but in order to solve
(07:05):
it, Did you have to really builda new water purifier?
Because, you know, you could tryand build a model with the
existing water purifier is whereyou give that out on
subscription.
You buy it upfront, you do therentals, right?
That's one way you couldpotentially think about it, but
what led you to sort of, youknow, building a completely new
water purifier, uh, IOT led, AIled.
(07:25):
Tell me a little bit about thatsort of, you know, that journey.
VJ - DrinkPrime (07:29):
Uh, sure sir.
So as you rightly said, I mean,being a, being an engineer and
being a person with logic,right?
It makes absolute sense to justbuy it from the market and give
it on our end to the customer,right?
So definitely, and also to befrank, we started doing the same
thing when we are early days,right?
We, we thought that, see, Waterpurifier is a 30 year old
(07:50):
industry, right?
Why do you have to reverseengineer anything?
Let's give it and increase theaccess to, uh, bot water
purifier by giving anon-subscription.
That's the thought.
But to enable the subscription,also, we, we had to build a
little more of iot technologybecause, We need to make sure
that the purifier, uh, kind ofchecks the water quality,
dispenses the right amount ofwater, how much a customer
(08:13):
subscribed to.
So that was a small innovation.
We have done it, uh, in thethings and we have put it, and
we also launched 2000 waterpurifiers like that.
But then later what we realizedis, uh, the first thing is what
we thought was, can't we can't,they associate with a brand,
connect with a brand, and thenautomatically we go to the
market together?
Right.
(08:33):
But with that thought process,we approached a couple of
brands, but one of the things,what came out very well, very
strong to us was Branch was notinterested to even change their
model.
They, they just, just becausethey, they kind of sell their
products with their dealers anddistributors.
Everything was sorted for them.
Right.
It's just that they want to do a20% growth.
(08:55):
They don't, uh, they don't carewhether water is, people are
getting good water or not.
They just want to do their toplines properly.
They have a good channel where,uh, where they can sell their
water purifies and there is noneed of innovation itself.
Right.
That's what was the wholecontext.
And when we come and talksomething like this,
subscription brands were sayingthat key.
Are you crazy?
Why do we want to disturb our,our whole things, right?
(09:17):
So that was one reason.
The second, uh, then that's whenit came to the point that we had
to build our waterproof.
But the second important reason,after doing the 2000, uh,
purifiers by, uh, buying it fromthe market and doing it, what we
realized is, Uh, we, we also, asan IOT rate, we started putting
sensors with our iotsubscription IOT bot, which I've
(09:39):
told right to enable thesubscription.
With that, we also put insensors about water quality.
We put in couple of sensors inthe IOT solution where it starts
measuring the input waterquality and also the output
water quality.
Right.
Once we installed these 2000devices, we started getting
different patterns of water, uh,water qualities, right?
There were too many insightswhich was happening.
(10:02):
One of the core insights whichcame to us was every three
kilometers, water quality waschanging.
I mean, that was, that was areally shocker to us, because no
one even thought about that.
The water quality kept changing,right?
The second input, what we cameto the point was every season in
the same area, the water qualitywas changing.
(10:22):
So, so then that was kind ofreally shocking to us saying
that, Keith, what is happeningin this market, right?
I mean, why is this happening?
Why, why is the water qualitychanging so much?
Right?
So then we decoded back, uh,basically we ran the company
completely like, uh, I would sayit was a treasure hunter.
Each question which we got wasactually, uh, a so, uh, a
(10:46):
direction which we had to takefrom the inception of the
company from 2016.
I would say it was always atreasure hunt.
The treasure hunt started withmy personal problem, but as in
when we went into detail, therewas another question which came,
then we, it took us to anotherroute.
It was.
Just like a treasure hunt.
Like, uh, for example, if therewere hints given to us and then
(11:06):
we were taking that direction,right?
So that was the company that,the problem in phase was the
water quality was changing.
Now, when we went back, we sawthat the source water was not
constant because in every city,in every part of India, right,
there is not a single source ofwater.
There are multiple sources ofwater, right?
Like some people have tankerwater.
They use tanker water for theirapartments.
(11:28):
Some people use bowell water.
Some people use, uh, moons partywater, which they get from the
government, right?
So the sources were different,right?
So that's where the waterquality was changing area by
area.
The second season is, thesources also changed depending
on the seasons.
Like for example, in summerseason, moons party water is not
too much available, so peoplebuy tankers.
(11:49):
So once they buy tankers, thewater of that area is already
changed.
So this, this was pattern washappening, right?
But when, when we saw thetraditional water purifiers,
they were so dump in the senselike it was a one size fit all
solution, right?
Whether you are living in Delhi,whether you're living in Mumbai
or Chennai or wherever in thecountry, the production happens
somewhere in Mumbai or uh, Pune.
(12:11):
From there, the device comes toacross India and get installed,
right?
Without even understanding whatis your water quality of your
area.
So that led to the point thatgiving a one size fits all
solution, is this the rightsolution?
That's when we got into waterscience.
We started developing the watersciences.
It took like two and a half tothree years to build the product
(12:32):
and then with, with the help ofwater science and what is the
right purification for each ofthe areas, then we came to the
solution that we.
We have to give a customizedsolution for each of the, each
of the areas which we presented.
We started tailoring the waterpurifier.
We started customizing the waterpurifier and give.
As of now, all the waterpurifiers are.
(12:53):
Tailored to your, each of yourwater requirements and water
input quality, and then we givethis on a subscription.
That's how we ended up buildingthe whole water purer from
scratch.
That's very
Sid (13:04):
interesting.
That's an interesting insightabout water quality changing not
just by region but also byseason.
Right.
Uh, does that also mean thatyour water purifiers and how the
purification happens changes byseason because it is a
subscription business, so I'massuming that's part of the
service.
VJ - DrinkPrime (13:20):
Yes.
Yes.
It, so basically that's what,right, we, it's an iot device,
right?
So we know what is happening inthe water quality.
There are some, uh, there areways inside the purifier which
automatically changes the purpurification flow.
There are some things, and thenif there are, if it is beyond
that capability, then we send atechnician to kind of, uh,
change the purification, right?
(13:41):
So we take care of that, we takecare of that, and we customize
it according to your input waterquality of that season.
Sid (13:49):
Interesting.
If you go on, you know, anyelectronic store or Amazon,
wherever you go, there are, andif you search for water
purifier, one, the price rangesare, you know, like it's a large
price range.
It starts at 10,000, goes up to30 to 35,000.
Right?
And then there are so manyterminologies that are used, uv,
copper, r o.
(14:10):
That as a, as a person who'strying to buy a water purifier,
I have no idea what I need to bebuying.
Right.
It actually takes a good, if youwant to research, it actually
takes two hours of research justto figure out what kind of water
purifier you want to buy.
Is that problem solved then bydrink Prime?
Because, um, it automatically,you, you sort of customize it
(14:31):
per region, per seasonautomatically.
Is that, is that part of theproblem that's being solved?
VJ - DrinkPrime (14:36):
Yes, uh, Sid, that's what is one of the
claims, but let me tell you whythis happened, right?
The why are there so manyoptions and
Sid (14:43):
yeah, actually, yeah, I'd love to understand the market
landscape because I'm assumingthis industry has been like that
for decades now, right?
So why is it like that and, andwhat's changing now?
VJ - DrinkPrime (14:52):
Yeah.
So I would say in this industrythere were definitely product
innovations.
Like for example, rivers Osmosiscame, they were UV came and all
right, so they were literally,there was not much marketing
innovation done in this wholeindustry, right?
Because they used whatever themarketing worked for other
appliances, right?
Like for example, AC or TV orfridge or whatever, right?
(15:14):
How the marketing, uh, uh, wherestrategies were there for the
appliances industry, right?
That's what was the same.
Strategy used for even waterpurifies.
Right?
Because in their mind the peoplethought, I mean the, the
companies thought that waterpurifier is also applying.
So let me use all the logic ofappliances and then, uh, put
that industry right.
(15:35):
So in appliances, what happens?
A CRT TV at this cost.
Then you have an little TV atthis cost.
Then you have a 55 inch of atthis cost, then you have a 57
inch of at this cost, right?
So that's how it is.
Even in water purer, a UVpurifier is this much.
Then an arrow purifier is thismuch.
Then an r plus UV is this much.
Then r plus UV plus copper isthis much, right?
So in the whole marketingmessage, right, it is just, it
(15:57):
is just the strategy of an anyappliance.
There's no innovation, right?
So, and also if you see no oneeven talks about your input
water quality.
So it, they were always talkingabout the output water talking
in the sense, right, like, thiswill give you this copper water,
whether this will give that,right?
But never, no one even talkedabout what is your input, right?
(16:18):
Whether do you need really acopper, whether your input water
may already have copper, right?
If your input water is alreadycopper, why do you need to give
a copper of this thing, right?
So the, if you look at the lensof input water, Then the whole
game changes suddenly.
So that's what is the reason whythese many varieties came in.
Right.
And I would say we are the firstcompany who are actually trying
(16:42):
to do what is justice to thewater purer industry by talking
the water purifier terms, right?
Not talking about the applianceterms or these things.
Right?
So we are talking water becausepeople are buying water
purifiers for not for water pur.
They are buying for water.
Water is the output, not waterpurifier.
(17:02):
That
Sid (17:02):
actually makes sense.
And, and uh, I was just checkingthe website and.
There's just one SKU UTechnically there are, there's a
lot of, you know, customizationthat happens for, you know,
depending on the differentregions, but it makes sense to
just have one SKU U, right?
Because everything inside thatmy end output needs to be pure
water for my household.
It doesn't matter if it cansolve a problem in Bombay or
(17:24):
Chennai.
I want pure water in myhousehold and indoor, right,
and, and it needs to becustomized accordingly.
That makes complete sense.
Um, I wanna double down twothings that I wanna double down,
but we are on the topic ofmarketing, so we are gonna go
down there.
But I also want to talk aboutthe hardware innovation, right?
Because this seems like a, aninteresting challenge in itself
on, on all the customization,but, uh, going down the route of
marketing, this is traditionallya market where a celebrity would
(17:49):
come on, um, a television andKen, right?
Like that's a, that's a cult adthat everybody has gone through.
Is the, is the segment thatyou're targeting different,
first of all, I think that's oneof the questions.
Second, what kind of marketingstrategies have you used to
actually take the name of DreamPrime out there?
Right.
Because, um, I, the reason why Iask this is because when I speak
(18:12):
to my parents or other people,there are a few brands that come
up on water, purify, lato, youknow, take a trusted brand.
Now that trust is actually veryimportant in a product like
Water Purify, because you know,you're talking about water.
How did you go about buildingthat trust?
I know you're present in threecities, but if you can talk
about how you approach marketingin general and how you approach
(18:33):
trust building, that'll be,
VJ - DrinkPrime (18:34):
that'll be very interesting.
So let me, uh, start off withwhat happened, because I always
am a fan of what happened inwhy, why, why are we where we
are?
Right?
So that's, that's, that's veryimportant, right?
So when all the brands started,right, like when there are big
celebrities coming, right?
That point of time, the problemwas, People were not even using
(18:54):
a waterproofer.
So the problem there, it wasawareness, right?
See, people were thinking thatwhatever I drink, water is good,
right?
I mean water.
Because if you don't seeanything in water, they used to
think that it is good.
I mean, if you don't see dust oruh, mud bread, because
microbiological things don't,are not visible.
So at that point of time, thetrust building process was
(19:16):
always with celebrities becausethat point of time we had to
build the trust.
Uh, push that, right?
Because people even didn'tunderstand that there is a need
for a waterproof fair.
There was not even a thoughtthat came.
No, my water is good, right?
Why do I need a waterproof fair?
That was a scenario I would say20, 30 years back.
Right?
So that's where all the brandsdid their parts.
(19:37):
How do, how do I increase theawareness of the thing?
And one of the easy ways ofdoing the awareness was having a
celebrity endorsed and thenpushing it.
Now, fast forward to the currentmarkets, right?
See, now we are a generationwho, I mean, to be frank, we
know that okay, there's acelebrity coming, right?
What is our thought is.
(19:58):
Celebrity has made good money.
I mean, they would've, thisbrand would've given a big money
to the celebrity, and celebrityis talking.
Because our generation isbasically more logical
generation, right?
We want more logic and data tobe convinced about anything,
right?
We are not at a point of wherewhen someone comes and says
that, you take it and say, dude,let me go and check the reviews.
(20:18):
That is the generation we are,right?
We don't just follow for us, thecelebrities, just that, okay,
it's a big brand.
I mean, if he's able to affordan or some money, it means that
it's a big brand.
So there are, so this is onelevel of trust factor, right?
But our trust is only happenswith data and then the reviews.
(20:39):
So now the way you have tomarket start marketing things
has to change because the kindof people are different.
Right?
Now that is where for us, right?
I mean, when we're at doubleclick on drink prime Journey,
one of the things we starteddoing is let's put facts and
figures upfront.
Let's not talk about, uh,having, I mean, uh, what we said
(20:59):
before, the old generation usedto say that your WA water is
very good.
Now, I, I am saying that how,how good is my water?
So just put a number to thefact, put reviews to the fact,
put everything onto the table,right?
Like for example, currently, ifyou see the buying decisions,
Are data driven.
They're never, they're never, Imean, obviously there is an
(21:19):
emotional connect to the brandand all agree to that.
But the point is that barrierwill only come first.
You complete your base barrier,which is data.
Once you do your research, onceyou are re read the reviews,
once you have enough data in it,then you'll go to the emotional
attachment.
Whether should I buy that ornot?
Right?
But the first barrier for us isdata interview.
(21:40):
Right?
So that's what is the strategywe took.
The, that was a clear case ofbuilding the trust for us,
right?
We showed that, so we actuallycracked the trust with some, one
of the very, very innovativeways saying that, right?
We started giving our waterpurifiers as a seven day risk
free trial.
We said that take our waterpurifier for seven days for free
(22:01):
of cost.
If you like the water, then youstart paying the subscription,
right?
Otherwise, no questions asked.
We will take back our waterprooffair.
And then we started showing thedata that this is how sea water
purifier is working.
This is your input waterquality.
This is your output waterquality.
See, it is really doingsomething.
The water purifier is actingonto your input water and
(22:23):
reducing the impurities.
And this is the quality ofoutput water, right?
So that data.
Was directly showing the trustfor the consumer, right?
And then our confidence ofgiving a risk free trial to the
consumer was also helped us alot, right?
So that was a growth hack, or Iwould say the confidence we had
on our product where we wereable to easily build trust.
(22:45):
Interesting.
Sid (22:46):
So now that I think about it, there's obviously product
innovation.
The, the entire product isdifferent.
There's marketing innovation,but there's also the go-to
market innovation, which istraditionally the way this is
sold.
Dealers and you know, suppliers.
And then there's, there are,there's a third party who takes
care of the, the servicing andthere's a lot of.
Murky things that happens in theservicing industry where the
(23:08):
filters are not really changed.
Uh, but you're, you're sort ofbuilt for the entire amount
there.
There are a lot of, you know,uh, stories out there about
that.
Um, but by doing all of this,you've given a completely
different experience to howpeople consume, um, water
through a water purifier.
That, that's very interesting toknow.
Um, coming back to the point ofhardware innovation 2016, you
(23:32):
know, you don't come from thisindustry.
You realize that the problem isactually the purifier itself,
not just subscription.
We need to go out and build, uh,water purifier, building.
Anything in the hardwareindustry comes with its own set
of challenges.
Right.
Tell us about that journey.
How long did it take to actuallyperfect the hardware?
How many ions did it take, andhow did you fund that?
Did you raise capital back thenbecause this is, this is an
(23:53):
endeavor that requires a decentamount
VJ - DrinkPrime (23:55):
of cap capital.
So, I mean, uh, to start offwith said it was not a small
journey for us.
It was a really, really painfuljourney, and I would say during
2016 to 2020, there were so manysituations where we wanted to
shut down.
Because the point is, uh, whathappens is, I mean, coming from
(24:17):
a, a traditional background, Imean, uh, not like having too
much backup.
Uh, from your right, and alsobecause what we have built
ourselves, right?
Whatever, Manus, Manus is myco-founder, Manus and me built,
right?
We were all stood down our legs,right?
I mean, we never had any supportfrom anyone, right?
So obviously we were very trueto our problem statement, which
(24:39):
was.
So giving clean drinking waterto everyone, right?
That was a problem statement,right?
But building hardware was avery, very, very difficult, uh,
uh, kind of situation to be in,right?
See, for me, being a computerscience researcher, I know for
sure I can build or I can spendsome more time and learn more
skills of ai, ml and whatever,and then start sitting and
(25:02):
coding and build things, right?
But, but it was very, verydifficult because the first
thing is I'm not from a hardwarebackground.
The second thing is hardwaretakes real money.
It is not over, over.
And see, for example, software,I just don't go to aws.
I get a free instance and Istart coding, and then I start
deploying and making thingsright.
But hardware is not, uh, notlike that, right?
You need to really havesomething in the, in the way,
(25:25):
uh, basically.
To fund it.
So what happened is, uh, firstthing we manen may have put in
our life earnings completelyinto the company where we went.
I mean, it, it helped us to,from 2016 to 2017, and maybe I'm
with digressing the topic, butit is the general our journey,
right?
So we have given up everything,right?
(25:46):
I mean, whatever savings, eventhere was a point that we have
broken our, uh, FDS and alsopeer.
That is the money is what wehave broken, put in everything.
And then we, uh, after that isover.
Then we went to our parents andthen saw that, uh, can, can we
lend some money from them?
Right?
I mean, we, we took their help alittle bit.
The third important aspect, whathappened is seeing our struggle,
(26:10):
right?
I mean, we went to this struggleof up, uh, completely down, not
even ups, right?
I completely down there were lotof many.
Many good people around us,right?
I mean, who were trying to helpus, who were seeing us struggle
and, uh, saw our fight to givewater, right?
They started coming to together,right?
So it was not like a fun fund.
(26:30):
They wanted to invest, but theystarted spending more time with
us, be it some r and d guys,where they said that I will,
don't pay me for the r and d.
I will help you build the wholewater purifier.
I will give you per, per week,like 10 hours to you.
Uh, just, just don't, don't, uh,because they liked our product.
They like our passion.
(26:51):
They liked everything.
They just said that, okay, wewill figure out how do you pay
me at a later point of time, butright now, let's solve your
problem.
They, they invested their teams.
They have put in, uh, people.
Out of their pocket and thenstarted helping us, right?
To build the product then.
Then that's where later as we'vescaled it, right, we got some
good dealers and distributors ofwater purifier industry who were
(27:13):
not brands, right?
Who really saw that this isgoing to be the future of the
water purifier.
They, they started investing onthe water purifier, right?
And they said, I will give youwater purifiers with whatever
you want.
You put your iot and you go tothe market, right?
And let's do a revenue share.
They started speaking about theoutcomes.
They said that input, we bothwill take care in the outcome
(27:34):
you give me as a revenue shareto, uh, which you are earning
from the market.
You don't have to pay anyupfront investment, right?
So like that, I would say tosell 2000 motor purifiers in
2016 to 2020, we took four yearstechnically to sell just 2000
water purifiers.
That's how the journey was.
(27:55):
Little difficult, but the goodpart about this man and me, we
come with a, a special power,which is resilience.
We don't give up.
So we are, uh, so there weremany situations where in the
night we decided that dude, It'sdone.
I mean, I can't, right?
But somehow the next day we werein a thought process that let's
try for another week.
(28:16):
Let's try for another week.
Right?
That's how we pulled, pulled,pulled.
And then all the four years,when, when we came back in 2020,
we did it finally.
And then we got, uh, big notabletire one investors across globe
to command investors, right?
So that's how it was a difficultjourney.
I can,
Sid (28:34):
I can completely imagine kudos to, you know, how far
you've come.
Um, the last number I saw wasthere are one lack active
subscribers.
So one lack water, beer repliesthat have been deployed.
I'm sure the number is muchmore.
Um, so from, you know, spendingfour years to get 2000 to, to
getting two lack in the last,you know, few years, last couple
of years, um, getting one lag inthe last couple of years and
(28:56):
bitta positive, that's been somejourney.
Uh, Vijay, that's been, I mean,uh, thank you so much for
sharing that so candidly aboutall the, the struggles that you
went through.
Um, I wanna double down now onthe cost structure of this
industry, right?
There's traditionally, this wasa one time cost that people
incurred anywhere between 10 to25, 30,000, depending on what
(29:16):
they needed.
Um, appliance like marketing,and I'm sure a lot of rich folks
actually ended up buying thingsthat they did not need.
Probably hurt them more than ithelped them because they got,
you know, UV and RO and UF andMF and you know, all of those
terms that are there, but youprobably don't need them.
Um, but, and then on top ofthat, there's a, you know,
(29:37):
yearly maintainance charge of,let's say, four or 5,000 in, in
terms of filtration that comesin, how does that change with a
subscription model?
How does the cost structurechange with the subscription
model and whatever you can shareon your end in the entire value
chain, where does the costgenerally get distributed in the
traditional industry, and howdid that change with you guys?
VJ - DrinkPrime (29:55):
Right.
Uh, so to answer this questionsaid, let me first change your
glasses first, right?
The way how you look things,right?
Because that will completelychange the perspective of the,
the, the answer which I want togive.
Right?
When you come to the point thatyou are not selling water
purifies, come to the point thatyou are selling water.
(30:18):
Now when you keep that lens ofselling a water, right, then you
can start seeing what we havedone in the whole industry.
Right?
So, makes sense.
First, let me just summarize theindustry, how it worked
traditionally, because the wholeconcept, what the industry was,
how many s I can sell.
Yeah, that was the whole idea,right?
(30:39):
So now just like fridge
Sid (30:41):
fans, whatever, how many units can I sell?
Yes.
VJ - DrinkPrime (30:44):
How many units, how many boxes can I sell?
Was the thought process, uh,basically when you see the,
right now go back to themanufacturing part of it.
Right?
So what was the, uh, the kind ofinput to the manufacturer was
also saying that key, make asmany boxes as possible so that I
can give those boxes to my nextdealer.
(31:04):
That guy will go to the nextdistributor, then that guy goes
to the retailer, and that's howthe whole supply chain happens,
right?
Again, same traditionalappliance strategy where I make
a tv, I sell it to the dealerdistributor, and that's how it
goes, right?
So the same, uh, thing wasfollowed, right?
So if you see though, theproduct was manufactured at
5,000, 6,000 rupees.
(31:26):
By the time the product came tothe customer, it was somewhere
around 15,000 because everyonehas to survive, right?
In the whole supply chain, thereis a dealer who has to serve,
survive.
There's a distributor, there's aretailer.
There is like all these channelslike econ, everyone has to kind
of, uh, fit in their costs,right?
So that's where, that's wherethe whole traditional industry,
(31:46):
and this is true for anyappliance, that's how the
appliance industry is there,right?
So the coming to the point, theidea was to sell purifiers.
Now coming to the, our point ofthink about that, how many water
leaders I've sold.
When you look at that lens,right, then this all doesn't
come in.
So now when you want to talkabout the water quality
(32:09):
changing, and when you'retalking about the giving the
right water, right, the dealersand distributors are not going
to support because as a company,you need to have connection to
the customer.
Because unless you, you have aconnection to the customer and
you don't know the problems of acustomer, right?
So you don't know how to solvethe problem because your
proposition is what not waterpurer.
(32:30):
My proposition is giving water,right?
So to give water, I need to knowwhat is the situation of, uh,
of, of the input water in thatcustomer place.
So that's where our company needto be a direct to consumer
product.
So we, we cannot build a dealerdistributor network, right?
We had to go direct to consumerswhere we started talking to the
(32:50):
consumers via Facebook, gettingleads from them, understanding
where do they stay, what istheir water quality and all
these things, right?
And then once we understand thewater quality, we were able to
backtrack saying that now thewater is this, the out output
water should be this.
Now what should I do to this isthe input, this is the output.
Now understand, let me put, whatis the process?
(33:13):
To get there.
So when you see water as a lens,right, this is the impurities in
water.
This is the output water wherethe good water should be there.
Now what should I build it inthe middle?
So that's point of time when youlook at that, right?
So we started building waterpurifier to each and every
consumer.
Now, when we started buildingthe things right, we will put
(33:34):
only what is needed.
We just don't put everything andanything right into the water
purer, right?
Because we know the input, weknow the output.
No, it's just what is thefunction which I need to make.
Right?
I, I talk more on maths thanengineering because I'm an
engineer, so what is thefunction I need to build?
Right?
So that's where, that's wherethe idea is we need to build a
waterproof fair, right?
(33:55):
So the cost structures, if yousee.
It is not the cost structures ofwhatever the traditional market
is, because the traditionalmarket, since they don't even
know where the water purifier isgoing, they have to build a
water purifier, which is workingfrom Kashmere to Kanya Kumar,
which also
Sid (34:12):
means that it doesn't work for 50% of those people, right?
Because you, you have a one sizefit, fit all
VJ - DrinkPrime (34:17):
approach there.
Yes.
It's a one size fit allapproach, and if it is not
right, the other point is it isoverly featured.
Oh, for sure.
The, the other problem is seewater is, is a way that you
cannot over purify also, nor youcan under purify.
Yeah.
So one of the, again, at thispoint the over purification is
also much more, uh, biggerproblems.
(34:38):
Right.
See what happens.
I actually want you
Sid (34:39):
to double down on the over purification problem because
somebody told me this, I thinkone of the technicians told me
this, that if you over purifywater, you actually take out all
the good parts of the water, allthe minerals that are, that are
there.
Is that true?
Tell me, tell me a little bitabout over purification.
VJ - DrinkPrime (34:54):
See the water, right?
I mean, if you see though, it isnot a major source of, uh,
minerals and all, I mean, I'll,I'll put it minerals and all
come from food, minerals andvitamins and all come from food.
Water is a definitely a good,uh, thing, right?
But point is when nothing isthere in water, right?
What happens is water is equalinto pure H two, which is
(35:15):
actually not drinking water.
It is called solvent.
Like in the, in the researchlabs, right?
Like for example in your, uh,maybe in your early BTEC or
something, you would be in, uh,in the chemical labs, right?
There is a hedge two.
They don't call it as water,right?
So when that is a pure hedgetwo, it doesn't have anything,
right?
When you drink that solvent, I'mnot calling it as water, it is
(35:36):
called solvent.
When you drink that solvent,right, what it body doesn't
observe that water.
Because, uh, intestines are thethings which kind of observe the
water.
It doesn't get observed.
Uh, the intestines don't observewater because what intestines
need something in the water tobe observed, right?
So though you are drinking threeto four liters of water, the
(35:57):
water is actually not hydratingyour body because you are taking
in, it is just going out.
The body is not observing.
The cells of the endocrines arenot observing water.
So if you're not observing, thenyour body's actually not getting
hydrated.
Interesting.
Very interesting.
So if it is not hydrating,that's where you get the
problems of A C D T.
Then there is this joint andknee problems, which all come,
(36:18):
right?
I mean, this is prevalent in lotof markets where the water
quality is good, but you put toomuch technology like A O U V U
of everything inside the waterpur repair, which.
Everything in the water getsover.
I mean, there is a term calledtedious, right?
Tedious is like total dissolvedsolids, right?
It is like the measure of, uh,whatever is there in the water
measure of dissolved solids inwater, right?
(36:39):
So, uh, anything which is aroundabout 52 200 is good for
drinking.
Anything less than 10, right?
Is actually a solvent.
And that's where it is not theright water to drink.
Right?
And also another thing, if yousee the other angle, right, the
pH, uh, there is somethingcalled pH, right?
I mean, pH is the, to determineany liquid, whether it is acid
(37:02):
acidic, or whether it isneutral, or whether it is base
right?
For any human body to drinkwater, you need to have a
neutral pH water.
But when you have the TS goingvery less right, it becomes acid
acidic.
So you are actually drinkingthree liters of acid.
So went into your body.
When nothing is there in thewater.
So that's where the whole ideacame to us is, should we really
(37:24):
over purify the water?
Right.
And that gives us to the pointthat why do you have to have
some special filters, which arenot needed?
Let's kind of remove thosefilters.
Right.
And that's where we gave exactlywhat is the right filters to be
given to the consumer.
Sid (37:37):
Interesting.
That also makes your, uh, go-tomarket that much harder.
Right.
Which also explain why you arein three cities right now.
Right.
Because it's not, it's not putit on Amazon and sell it to the
entire country.
It has to be a region by regionproblem that needs to be solved.
You have to go activate regions,uh, to make sure you are, it's
customized to that particularregion.
Interesting.
Very interesting.
(37:58):
Has that, um, since you've,since you've started and now
scaled, how has the traditionalindustry.
Taken to this change.
Right.
I'm sure they're aware thatthere's something called Ring
Prime.
They've moved to subscription.
I did see there are a couple ofother subscription players that
did come up, but how is thetraditional, you know, the, the
ones that have been there fordecades, how are they reacting
(38:19):
to this?
Are they still, you know,focused on manufacturing the,
and selling that data?
VJ - DrinkPrime (38:23):
Yeah.
So see if they, if you see theirperspective, right?
I mean, they really, they'rebecome an elephant.
I mean, each of these companiesare like 2000 people, uh, coming
somewhere to 10,000 people,right?
See what happens in this, uh,kind of setup is.
It is, first thing is it is verydifficult to move, right?
I mean, you cannot move anelephant, uh, whatever it is
(38:45):
doing, right?
The second important problem,what happens is, uh, again, from
the first point, there is amindset already there in
everyone's home, right?
See everyone in the wholeemployees, uh, chain, right?
It is about how do I sell, howdo I sell?
How do I sell?
That's the whole, uh, what doyou call the DNA of the company.
So that's where they're right.
The second problem, when theywant to do anything, which we
(39:07):
are trying to do, right?
See, we are a direct to consumerbusiness, right?
So we kind of keep the dealersand distributors aside in the
whole thing, right?
It's a direct to consumer.
We don't want to give anyone,right?
So when they have to do whatthey want to do, uh, what, what
we are doing, right?
What, what it means that theyhave to ditch their dealers and
distributors.
(39:28):
Now, the point is, Should I takethe risk of my current business
to doing something in thefuture, which I don't know.
I really don't know whetherit'll work out right.
See, I may get some thousandcrows from my current business.
Now, should I put at stake mycurrent business and do
something which is innovative?
The reason W is if I ditch mydealer and distributor, I see my
(39:49):
dealer and distributor is notjust selling my water purifies.
They're selling my air purifier.
They're selling my fans, they'reselling my vacuum cleaners.
They're selling me so many otherproducts, right?
Which I have all in the range.
Now, should I take the risk ofdisturbing my dealer and
distributor because that is 80%of my revenue?
Mm mm So that is their problemthough.
(40:09):
They like the thing they need tobe.
Careful when doing the thingsright.
And that is a big entry to themsaying that, should I really do
Sid (40:18):
this?
Is that classic innovatorsdilemma, right?
Like, they probably see it, theyprobably know that this is a
market change that's happening,but they just can't make that
change internally to completelyswitch gears.
And they can't really run bothof these parallelly unless you,
you know, build a new brand andbuild a new team and, and do all
of that.
Um, very interesting.
Um, Vijay.
(40:38):
Now what I want to focus on is,um, like we were discussing
earlier, we've just spokenabout, you know, supplying
purified water, but there's alarger vision at play.
I want you to sort of talk aboutthat vision.
The, the kind of work thatyou're doing is very inspiring
with the government schools,with the Lake re rejuvenation
project.
Tell us a little bit aboutwhat's the long-term vision and
(40:59):
what are you,
VJ - DrinkPrime (40:59):
what are you up to?
Right.
So, uh, again, as I told you, aspart of our, uh, treasure hunt,
what, what we realized is wesaw, I was, uh, I was a
customer, first customer.
I did my stuff.
Then I saw somewhere relevant ofmy customers who were the top
30, 40% of the market.
I provided something, but thencame to the point was, what,
(41:23):
what about the other part of thecountry?
Mm-hmm.
What about the other 60% of thepeople?
Let's see, because at least wecame from the fundamental
thought, right?
Water is a fundamental right.
Water is just like air.
Whether you are rich, whetheryou are poor, whether you are
anything.
There are some things in thisworld has to be unique to
everyone, right?
Given the opportunity should begiven to everyone.
(41:46):
So that is a fundamental thoughtprocess.
We came out saying that.
Why only Rich should get thewater purifiers or whatever,
right?
Why can't the pure poor alsohave it?
Right?
Because it's a fundamental,right?
No one created water.
No one destroyed water, right?
It's just, it has to be giventhe, the world should be an
equal play for everyone, right?
You cannot just change thegames, uh, rule games, right?
(42:07):
That's what was the thoughtprocess, because water has is
the source of life.
Water is something like air.
I cannot say that I'll not giveair to someone and I'll give air
to other person, right?
And only if people have money,they have air.
We cannot do that.
Right?
So with the same thoughtprocess, we started thinking
that how can we enable peoplewho can't afford the waterproof?
(42:29):
Currently water pur is there,it's some one ru two rues per
liter they're buying.
Right?
But what if people who are notable to afford the water pur,
right?
That's where, that's where wethought that we already have
like more than one plus lacksof, uh, people, uh, of a
customer base.
Right?
Can they come together tosupport other people, uh, other
(42:49):
people who can't afford, right.
That's where we started a smallcampaign, something called Water
for All.
This campaign was saying thatlet us give water to people who
can't afford water.
Right?
So when in our drink presubscription, what happens is
people recharge the number ofliters, but every time what
happens is that every month whatit ended up coming to the point
(43:09):
that they have more liters, theywould not have completed the
liters.
Like for example, you have torecharge two 50 liters.
It would not have been over.
Right?
So now anywheres that liter isthere again, you have to
recharge.
You'll get many liters again,right?
So the thought was, why can'tyou donate your liters, what you
have to the people who don'thave water?
So that's where the whole schoolproject came in, where we said
(43:30):
that we will come and installthe water purifier, the current
one, one lack, two lacksubscribers, where we have,
right, you start donating waterto the garment school.
So we acted in a way thatinstead of providing water
purifiers, we started givingwater, right?
So people can donate wheneverthey're recharging their 20
liters, 30 liters of water toany government school.
(43:51):
So that lit get transferred tothe government school and then
the people get, uh, water,right?
So the government schools we'veinstalled free of cost and all
our subscriber base startcontributing to the water,
right?
Because.
Uh, our customers are, areactually a community we are
building.
It's a community where we are,we want to make water available
to the next generation, right?
(44:12):
I mean, hardly 20, 30 years welive, right?
But the point is the nextgeneration has to get water,
right?
So our customers come togetherto support these government
schools, right?
That's how.
That's how the Water forSchools, uh, campaign started.
We have more than 200 schools,more than 15, 20,000 cus uh,
school kids who are the nextgeneration, right?
(44:33):
I mean, they are the nextgeneration after we go, they are
the people who are going to takethe country ahead, right?
So all the current customersstart donating water to the next
generation people so thatthey'll be strong enough.
The reason being is 80% of thediseases in India waterborne
diseases, right?
So that's what we wanted to.
Tackle and that's how it is now.
That is the first angle to it,right?
The second angle to it is, see,what is the, one of the insights
(44:56):
which we got was every yearthere is three meters of
groundwater getting depletedbecause we are pulling from
bowell, we are pulling all thatwater, right?
The groundwater is going, so nowwho will take the responsibility
of putting back the groundwater?
Now point is consider asituation where you don't have
input to water.
Then what will you do about thepurification and everything,
(45:18):
right?
So that's where the idea camein.
If you don't have input towater, then how to do it, right?
So that's where we startedsaying that for the next
generations we have to startgenerating input water.
So the way to input water is youneed to start conserving water.
You need to start making, makingsure the water tables are back
to the, uh, original situationwhere when we were kids, right,
(45:41):
whatever the situation was, wehave to get the water tables to
that right?
So it means that we have to getback the lake.
Uh, basically they used to saythat Bangalore used to have more
than 200, 300 lakes.
But they're, they're, I thinkvery down, came to double digits
and, all right, so we startedsaying that, okay, let's put J
because lakes are the very goodpieces where, which will add
(46:02):
water to the groundwater.
And then if you see thetraditional, uh, uh, world or
something, the ancestors, rightlakes, they say again, in Cara,
at least right, lakes areinterconnected, is what they
say.
When you fill one lake, itautomatically starts filling
another lake, right?
They're somewhere connected inthe ground is what, uh, people
(46:22):
kind of say.
I mean, I don't have data forthat, but people say that all
the lakes of Bangalore and the,the places are all connected.
So we start that lake's, add ge,regenerate the lakes back,
right?
So that the next generation havesome input water, which will be
purified and consumed.
Right?
These were the two thoughtprocesses because I mean, we
fundamental believe that ifwater are already the reason
(46:43):
where.
I think states are fighting,countries are fighting.
Now the point is, if someonedoesn't take the action and
start doing things right, thenthe world will start fighting
as, as someone told, right?
The World War three will happenmajorly on water.
And that is what we, uh, webelieve that we want to stop
that.
Sid (47:04):
That's very inspiring, Vijay.
I think, uh, that concept, I, Ilove the concept of donating,
uh, the water, sort of, youknow, to government schools
because it is so frictionless.
I'm going to be recharging.
I can see there's an option, um,or whatever is left at the end
of the month.
I, I can just donate thatfrictionless donation.
Um, I is, is fantastic and, andas you said, um, if there's no
input water, then there is noconcept of purification.
(47:27):
So, um, both, both those thingsare very inspiring.
Vijay, one last question beforewe go.
I know you're present right nowin Bangalore, Heba, and Delhi.
So for the people there, youshould obviously be subscribing
to drink Prime.
But for the people who are notin these cities, if somebody's
out there trying to figure outwhat water purify to buy, how
should they even evaluate whatneeds to be bought?
(47:49):
And you know what, what, what'sthe process that somebody needs
to go through to get the rightperiod water purified for their
home?
VJ - DrinkPrime (47:55):
Right.
So, uh, Sid, uh, I mean, firstof all, uh, what we wanted to
say is we are expanding tomultiple cities.
So in the next, uh, I would sayat least in the next 12 to 15
months, we will be there in thetop 10 cities.
That's what, uh, our growthplans are where we want to grow
aggressively because now we havenailed down everything.
(48:16):
Right?
It is how much access we cangive it to the consumers, right?
That's where, that's where weare heading to.
We will be soon coming to yourcity.
I mean, if you, if you kind of.
Want to wait.
Also, we will be able to solveyour problem in the, in the
next, at least in the top 10cities.
If you are considering your, youhave a buying decision, maybe
stick with your current solutionbecause we are coming soon to
(48:36):
kind of help you there.
Right?
So that's, uh, being said that,but also, let me give you the
insights.
Uh, how do you take a decision,right?
So what I would, uh, recommendis first thing, start
understanding.
What is your input?
Water quality?
Right?
So it is not just about waterpurifier.
The important inside is thewater, is also the water which
(48:56):
you are using for shower.
The water means you are alsousing that water for utensils.
The water means that you arealso using it for washing
clothes, washing your home.
See, water is everywhere.
It's not, just don't think aboutdrinking water, right?
So what is the first thing isstart?
Understanding water in a bitway, right?
(49:17):
Start understanding that whatyou are drinking, start
questioning yourself.
Key.
What is that?
What I'm drinking right point oftime, right?
With that thought process kindof, you will evolve in yourself
automatically whenever you arethere, right?
So, Start understanding thewater better.
And then for that first attemptis at least you buy something
called a tedious meter.
(49:38):
There's something where, whichyou'll be getting in an online
where 300 rupees may, you willgo get it, uh, um, in, in easily
from Amazon or even.
You can go to any, anysupermarkets or any electrical
stores where you get a tediousmeter, you can easily buy it at
somewhere 300 bucks, right?
So wherever you are, you canjust check what is your water?
Make sure that you drink thewater, which is anywhere 50 to
(50:01):
one 50.
I mean, 50 to one 50 is the, thenumber, the tedious meter says
that.
What is the reading?
That is the measure.
Right now, when you are buyingthe water purifier, you kind of
keep a small, I'll give you asimple table, right when you are
thinking about right.
Anything.
If you are input to what a TedDs is, less than 500, less than
300, 300 in your home.
(50:22):
When you put the meter and whenyou check what is less than 300,
try to see whether you can buysomething, a UV based water
purifier, right?
You don't need to have a hightechnology based r r water
purifies, right?
So anything post 500, if you seeit's advisable to kind of do.
Uh, I mean, uh, by an narrowbased water purifier.
Because the reason why I telllike that is when you consider
(50:45):
500 and all right, as the waterquality is changing seasonably,
right?
You need to take into that, uh,consideration also, right?
So that's where anything above500 is what you need to do.
But I advise you to check yourwater quality every, every, I
mean biweekly or monthly ones,right?
Put the check and check,understand.
(51:05):
Make, make a map of water.
What is the water, right?
I mean, what is happening withyour water?
And then accordingly, if youhave subscribed to amc, reach
out to your service provider andsay that the water has changed,
right?
The input water has changed, theoutput water has changed.
Please help me and come and dothe service, right?
Because in the A M C, theyshould cover you.
That is the point of a emc,right?
(51:26):
I mean, you are paying 5,000rupees or 6,000 rupees getting
an authority that whateverhappens, I'll come to you.
Right?
Start calling them, start askingthem, saying that, okay, this
water quality has changed,please come and do something
about it.
Right?
Because that's where you havepaid and you have every right to
ask the AMC supply, right?
I mean, that's where you shouldstart understanding.
When you understand water only,you can do all those things.
(51:49):
So that is the right way tomaintain a water purer before we
are there.
Till then you can manage withthat.
We will come and replace yourexisting water purifiers and
make sure that we remove yourheadaches, uh, out, uh, from
you.
Vijay,
Sid (52:03):
thank you so much for taking the time out and being so
candid throughout the entirediscussion about how you've
disrupted this, you know, legacyindustry that probably hasn't
changed in any way in the last20, 30 years.
There, as you said, there hasbeen product innovation, uh, but
how this was being sold, how wasthis was being taken to market.
(52:23):
Um, The way you've disruptedthat is very inspiring.
Um, you've told me to notdisclose the numbers, but I've,
I've kept a track on how youguys have grown over the last
few years.
It's phenomenal.
The fact that you're a bittapositive, you've built the
company in the right way, um,funded by, you know, tier one
investors across the globe.
All those, you know, sleeplessnights in those journeys of
(52:44):
should we continue building thisor not has, has come to
fruition.
So, uh, really, you know, reallyinspirational and thank you so
much for taking the time out.
VJ - DrinkPrime (52:53):
Thank, thank you so much Si for having me.
It was a pleasure, uh, I mean,having a proper discussion.
Thank you so much.
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