News
We are honored to have been named a finalist in the Famae 2 Million Euro Challenge and to have been announced as a Famae Top 100 Innovator. A huge thank you to Eric Phillipon and the extended Famae family for believing in us and our vision and look forward to working with the foundation on our upcoming projects!
https://www.facebook.com/famaechallenge/videos/390736681531879/
LivingWaters Systems just wrapped up it’s involvement in the Cleantech Northeast Regional Accelerator Program! A huge thank you to Beth Zonis, Tim Hoffman, and everyone who has passed on their generous support in the summer-long incubation process.
We are elated to be featured on PBS Rewire’s American Entrepreneur series and would like to express our heartfelt thanks to Dr. Laura Dunham of the Schulze Entrepreneurship School, Clayton Stanberry, Marissa Blahnik and everyone at the Schulze Foundation, Rewire, and EIX who has supported us over these months.
We are thrilled to be named the best social impact startup at the Schulze Entrepreneurship Challenge, the largest undergraduate entrepreneurship competition in North America. Couldn’t have done it without the support of the Entrepreneur and Innovation Exchange (EIX) as well as the extended LivingWaters team and family!
Pictured from left to right: Herbert Joly (Chairman of Best Buy), Ann Winblad, TBA, Joseph Bajor, Joshua Kao, Umair Masood, TBA, Ron Sullivan
We are beyond thrilled to be honored by the Vatican’s official program for social impact companies, the Laudato Si Challenge, as a top 50 company for refugees!
Over the course of several weeks, two of our LivingWaters team members traveled to Rajasthan India to conduct trial testing of our technology and undertake extensive consumer surveys in informal settlements across the state. Our findings on the ground during the course of our pilot in Rajasthan, India corroborated several of our assumptions. Based on extensive engagements with over 200 people spread across 7 villages, we were able to conclude that:
Water is a scarce resource in the region we surveyed. Existing sources of water are either unable to meet the needs of the people or too contaminated to warrant prolonged use. As a result, there was a clear demand within the local community for an alternative that would cut down the time, effort and/or health risks associated with accessing water through pre-existing sources. Given the frequency and intensity of rainfall the region received, rainwater harvesting was viewed as a viable option to achieving water self-sufficiency. Therefore, we were able to establish a clear demand for our product among the water-stressed communities of our pilot.
To test the financial viability of our product among our target population, we presented them with the prospect of buying our rainwater harvesting unit and asked them to indicate whether they would deem paying 30 USD (or approximately, 2000 INR) for a system that lasts them 2 years, to be justified or beyond their means. 98% of our respondents said that not only was the price point justified, but that such a system would greatly improve the quality of their lives.
When we began this journey, little did we imagine that we would go on to create a brand that not only caught the attention of luminaries ranging from UNHCR officers to venture capitalists, but also propelled us to the world's largest accelerator program in England this summer, all on the back of a simple endearing philosophy: democratizing rainwater harvesting for underprivileged refugee and off-grid communities.
During the course of the past six weeks we had the privilege to gain valuable insights from some of the most talented, hard-working and inspiring individuals we have ever met. As they say- learning by doing is most effective, and that is precisely what we did at the accelerator: we would iterate on our startups, learn, and iterate again. As we move forward we hope to reciprocate the mentorship we received to bring increased recognition to Hult Prize and social entrepreneurship at large, as we strive towards our North Star objective of securing a LivingWaters system to every family tent and housing structure capable of receiving rainfall in refugee camps and informal settlements.
A big thank you to the Hult Prize CEO Ahmad Ashkar, the amazing staff (special s/o to Pilar Avendaño) and the legions of experts (Sheryl Chamberlain in particular) for putting together a successful program and providing us with a platform unlike any other! We would also like to extend our heartfelt gratitude to our family and friends for their unceasing support!
We are elated to share that our team LivingWaters won the Hult Prize Regional Final in Shanghai! We could not have been happier with our decision to take a leap into the unknown by foraying into the world of social entrepreneurship and to that end, profusely thank the Hult Prize for providing students with a platform to kickstart their ideas! Next step: the summer accelerator in a British castle to help further develop our product.
