Looks like a really good idea. How do you plan on scaling without becoming part of the water mafia (or at least enabling them)? After all, there are only so many independent suppliers with their own water source. Would love to hear you thoughts on this.
I thought of this too. Water is a tricky thing to deal in because it isn't like any other resource. When you sell water to someone, are you also depriving water to someone else? This can easily turn into an ethical minefield if you aren't careful.
Launch HN: NextDrop Technologies (YC S17) – Water Marketplace for Urban India
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Re: Launch HN: NextDrop Technologies (YC S17) – Water Marketplace for Urban India
#12Looks interesting.. When will you guys come to Chennai?
Re: Launch HN: NextDrop Technologies (YC S17) – Water Marketplace for Urban India
#13One problem however is that big companies like Nestle or Coca Cola are putting a ton of money in marketing bottled (usually plastic) water which is a gigantic, unecological, unnecessary, and expensive money machine. While I have not been to India myself, I have seen documentations on bottled water in countries like yours. Companies advertise it as the "clean" (despite not so great quality) water, the one you buy when you have money.
Do you have any plans, ambitions, or visions to counter this trend - in particular relying on plastic bottles to ship water? I think you have the opportunity, and maybe soon the market share.
Re: Launch HN: NextDrop Technologies (YC S17) – Water Marketplace for Urban India
#14How do you protect customers from sellers who have poor quality or poisonous water who try to game your system? Do you do water testing as well?
Re: Launch HN: NextDrop Technologies (YC S17) – Water Marketplace for Urban India
#15Great stuff. Just curious do you have any background in environmental science?
Re: Launch HN: NextDrop Technologies (YC S17) – Water Marketplace for Urban India
#16Superb idea. India needs this!
Re: Launch HN: NextDrop Technologies (YC S17) – Water Marketplace for Urban India
#17Looks like a really good idea. How do you plan on scaling without becoming part of the water mafia (or at least enabling them)? After all, there are only so many independent suppliers with their own water source. Would love to hear you thoughts on this.
That's a really good point. We've had to think long and hard about this one too. There's one interesting stat that is less known. Aboout 80% of India runs on groundwater, and in cities, we have estimated that about 50% of the people have their own private water source. BUT- less than 1% sell that water. Now imagine we've used devices to aggregate all demand (phase I). Phase II would be to introduce new supply into th…
What happens when the neighborhood loses its water sources due to overuse?
Re: Launch HN: NextDrop Technologies (YC S17) – Water Marketplace for Urban India
#18It's almost unimaginable to not have access to clean water sources if you're living in Europe, and especially in Germany where tap water has the upmost quality. So I believe that any solution for this is awesome. One problem however is that big companies like Nestle or Coca Cola are putting a ton of money in marketing bottled (usually plastic) water which is a gigantic, unecological, unnecessary, and expensive money…
Re: Launch HN: NextDrop Technologies (YC S17) – Water Marketplace for Urban India
#19Congratulations on the launch! A lot of households also use water cans, and very often you cannot control the quality, are you planning to address this as well ?
Re: Launch HN: NextDrop Technologies (YC S17) – Water Marketplace for Urban India
#20How much does the devices cost? I assume since this is mostly used by apartment complexes, it should not be a problem to convince them to pay one time device cost. But independent house owners would not be willing to pay the device cost, are you also planning for a 'Uber for Water Tankers' style ordering in this scenario?