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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

#21

Post by anusridharan »

ceejayoz wrote: post #17
anusridharan wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> Enabling anyone with a borewell to sell water to anyone else. What happens when the neighborhood loses its water sources due to overuse?

Yup, that's something we have to monitor carefully. That's why the backbone to our business is actually IoT devices that transmit data to monitor different aspects of water. We're starting with data around water withdrawals, and moving to using devices to monitor groundwater levels. We think we can collect enough data from our devices to model groundwater aquifer health, something that very few people are doing due to lack of data and overall costs. Once we can monitor aquifer health, we can make sure that we are not overdrawing, and recharging effectively.

Re: Launch HN: NextDrop Technologies (YC S17) – Water Marketplace for Urban India

#22

Post by skdjksjdksjdk »

1) I remember reading about you some years ago. I think you were working on telling people/govt(dont remember which one it is), when water is being released. SMS based I believe. How did that work go? Was it profitable/scalable? 2) Can you comments on how profitable it is to sell data to Indian government organizations? Is it VC-level business or Lifestyle type of business 3) I believe you have to be in Bay area for 3 months as part of YC. For a business like yours(which requires on the ground presence), how does being in Bay area help? 4) Most important, how do you expect to take on politicians who control water mafia?

Re: Launch HN: NextDrop Technologies (YC S17) – Water Marketplace for Urban India

#23

Post by anusridharan »

pfarnsworth wrote: post #14

This sounds interesting, because as someone from the West, I have no concept of what it means to "buy" water. We completely take for granted the fact that every single house has access to clean water. One thing, in SF I am also paying more for water than electricity, it comes out to about $60/month for water and $45/month for electricity. How do you protect customers from sellers who have poor quality or poisonous wa…

That's a great question. Right now we manually take water samples and get it tested in a lab. Over time, as IoT devices get cheaper, we believe the water quality testing will be done at the source, online, and in real time. This makes it much harder to game the system.

Additionally, we track the GPS location of the truck with the water to make sure clean water is filled up at the source and the same water is delivered to the consumers.

Re: Launch HN: NextDrop Technologies (YC S17) – Water Marketplace for Urban India

#24

Post by scdoshi »

anusridharan wrote: post #21
ceejayoz wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Enabling anyone with a borewell to sell water to anyone else. What happens when the neighborhood loses its water sources due to overuse?

Yup, that's something we have to monitor carefully. That's why the backbone to our business is actually IoT devices that transmit data to monitor different aspects of water. We're starting with data around water withdrawals, and moving to using devices to monitor groundwater levels. We think we can collect enough data from our devices to model groundwater aquifer health, something that very few people are doing due t…

Monitoring aquifer health seems like a good approach to start with. Great to see you have thought about the issues.

Water is an ethically challenging area to start a business in, but the status quo in India is pretty bad, so I hope you do well!

Re: Launch HN: NextDrop Technologies (YC S17) – Water Marketplace for Urban India

#25

Post by anusridharan »

skdjksjdksjdk wrote: post #22

1) I remember reading about you some years ago. I think you were working on telling people/govt(dont remember which one it is), when water is being released. SMS based I believe. How did that work go? Was it profitable/scalable? 2) Can you comments on how profitable it is to sell data to Indian government organizations? Is it VC-level business or Lifestyle type of business 3) I believe you have to be in Bay area for…

Yes- the original company NextDrop has been around since 2011, but we shut that down about a year ago and started this new version of NextDrop recently.

At a high level, you're correct. For the past 6 years we were essentially selling water data to consumers, governments, and global brands. It was actually a profitable business but we decided to shut it down, not because we didn't have enough demand for water data, but because we were crowdsourcing water data and that was not very scalable or reliable. Back in 2011 IoT devices were way too expensive. When my co-founder and I noticed that devices were pretty cheap, we decided to start a company around water data again.

YC was great about us spending time in India- we split our time between India and the US because all our users were in India and they knew that. Honestly, to go after a big opportunity, sometimes it helps to be on the ground, and then step away and get advice/feedback from people who will listen to what you're saying and help you see the best way forward. That was how we used the time in the Bay Area, and found it very valuable. It was also useful for us because we were still in the launching stages. Had we been further along in the business, it may have been much harder to do what we did.

The water mafia question is definitely a super important. The only way we can see taking on the mafia is to add more water supply on to the market. The only way we can do that is to enable micro entrepreneurs to sell water. As you probably know, about 50% of urban Indians have their own borewell, but less than 1% sell water. Phase I is to aggregate water demand using our IoT devices, and Phase II is to enable hyperlocal selling of water.

Re: Launch HN: NextDrop Technologies (YC S17) – Water Marketplace for Urban India

#26

Post by coolswan »

Forgive my ignorance but is there actually enough water in and around India to make up for the shortage, but right now it's just not distributed efficiently? Or after solving for all these inefficiencies, there'd still be a shortage? If so, what are other sources they can leverage down the road?

Re: Launch HN: NextDrop Technologies (YC S17) – Water Marketplace for Urban India

#27

Post by anusridharan »

vthallam wrote: post #20

Great idea, Anu. Congratulations on the launch. How 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?

That's a good question. Actually, we've spent time figuring out how to drop the cost of the device to sub $30, at scale.

For frequent users, we would give the device away for free. For people that are on a public water connection and only use tankers once in a while to supplement their water usage, it would probably be like you mentioned- order tankers on demand, when you need it.

Re: Launch HN: NextDrop Technologies (YC S17) – Water Marketplace for Urban India

#28

Post by anusridharan »

scdoshi wrote: post #24
anusridharan wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yup, that's something we have to monitor carefully. That's why the backbone to our business is actually IoT devices that transmit data to monitor different aspects of water. We're starting with data around water withdrawals, and moving to using devices to monitor groundwater levels. We think we can collect enough data from our devices to model groundwater aquifer health, something that very few people are doing due t…

Monitoring aquifer health seems like a good approach to start with. Great to see you have thought about the issues. Water is an ethically challenging area to start a business in, but the status quo in India is pretty bad, so I hope you do well!

Thank you so much- we really appreciate it!

Re: Launch HN: NextDrop Technologies (YC S17) – Water Marketplace for Urban India

#29

Post by sirius87 »

Interesting. I like the idea of smart metering devices. A lot of people, especially in Mumbai, don't track consumption at all. Do you see changing the mindset of people w.r.t. conservation of water particularly challenging? Some areas in Mumbai receive stable, 24x7 water supply while others barely receive a couple of buckets twice a day.

Quite a few areas and apartment complexes utilize a wide range of hacks to ensure their area receives adequate water supply. Distribution of water from the authorities is anything but uniform because of devices such powerful water pumps and larger than sanctioned storage tanks. Much of this, although illegal, is with the blessings of local political leaders.

Any insights on how these issues could be addressed? Much appreciated.

Re: Launch HN: NextDrop Technologies (YC S17) – Water Marketplace for Urban India

#30

Post by anusridharan »

coolswan wrote: post #26

Forgive my ignorance but is there actually enough water in and around India to make up for the shortage, but right now it's just not distributed efficiently? Or after solving for all these inefficiencies, there'd still be a shortage? If so, what are other sources they can leverage down the road?

That's a really good question with a not so straightforward answer. I'll start with some stats. Public water utilities lose 50% of it's water due to leakages. During monsoons, India gets enough rain to fulfill it's drinking water needs (but as you can imagine, it's hard to store that water for the year). As energy gets cheaper and cheaper, technologies like desalination will get more affordable, and pumping water will be very cheap. (Just as a reference, California currently spends 3% of it's energy on pumping water!)

Overall, with the confluence of technological interventions, we think that India (and the world for that matter) has enough water- and can harness it. But right now, we see a lack of water data in the ecosystem, and we're using IoT devices to start tracking water in different forms. We believe that humanity can solve it's own problems, but it needs the data to do it. That's what we're starting to do in the private water sector, first by tracking demand, and withdrawals, and next with using data to model aquifer health. That's how we want to contribute to making sure all 9B people on this planet get clean water- make sure humanity the data to make the right decisions.

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