Uber for Water!
Launch HN: NextDrop Technologies (YC S17) – Water Marketplace for Urban India
31–40 of 57 posts
Re: Launch HN: NextDrop Technologies (YC S17) – Water Marketplace for Urban India
#321) 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, b…
Thanks for all the great answers. I wish you the best.
>>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.
Thats an innovative idea with potentially many social ramifications(positive and negative). I will be watching it closely!
Re: Launch HN: NextDrop Technologies (YC S17) – Water Marketplace for Urban India
#33Interesting. 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 ensur…
Yes- we actually started out going down the road of conservation via smart metering devices. We quickly realized that we would be facing an uphill battle if we kept trying to start there.
Also, as a point of clarification, no city in India receives 24x7 water (except Jamshedpur), although many cities have pilot projects (Nagpur is the closest to Mumbai). The Bombay Municipal Corporation (BMC) is probably the furthest ahead as far as public water utilities go, and many people think they have 24x7 water, but they just have a very reliable, but intermittent, source of water. The BMC has done a very good job of trying to reduce inconvenience to residents.
We actually think that, ironically, as water gets more expensive for the higher income groups, they will then start turning to water conservation mechanisms. That's the pull we are seeing in Bangalore, and what we think will be the pull in the future. Lower income communities already do a pretty good job of conserving water since they tend to pay a higher price. It's amazing what market forces do for water conservation.
We are also encouraging communities to introduce slab billing and try to do individual apartment metering. By raising water prices for the highest users, people are becoming more price sensitive and trying to use less.
Re: Launch HN: NextDrop Technologies (YC S17) – Water Marketplace for Urban India
#34Earlier quoted context omitted.
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, b…
Thanks for all the great answers. I wish you the best. >>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…
Most definitely- we will also be diligent, and we'd love feedback and thoughts as we progress!
Re: Launch HN: NextDrop Technologies (YC S17) – Water Marketplace for Urban India
#35Uber for Water!
haha kind of, with a slight automation twist. We use IoT devices so we automatically detect when your water is low and order it for you :) We've realized that for people who have to order water often, it's kind of a pain to do it manually every time. That's the IoT version of it.
Re: Launch HN: NextDrop Technologies (YC S17) – Water Marketplace for Urban India
#36Interesting. 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 ensur…
Yes- we actually started out going down the road of conservation via smart metering devices. We quickly realized that we would be facing an uphill battle if we kept trying to start there. Also, as a point of clarification, no city in India receives 24x7 water (except Jamshedpur), although many cities have pilot projects (Nagpur is the closest to Mumbai). The Bombay Municipal Corporation (BMC) is probably the furthest…
> many people think they have 24x7 water, but they just have a very reliable, but intermittent, source of water
This is true. A lot of complexes have larger than reasonable storage tanks. If a new complex pops up next to your apartment building, you immediately see an effect in your water supply levels. It'll be interesting get a heatmap of the disproportionate distribution, but unless some authority gets involved, this may not happen.
> encouraging communities to introduce slab billing and try to do individual apartment metering
Agreed. Price affects behavior.
Thanks and good luck!
Re: Launch HN: NextDrop Technologies (YC S17) – Water Marketplace for Urban India
#37I remember this pain point vividly from 20 years ago, growing up in Delhi. This is a massive long term problem and a great opportunity. Good luck!
Re: Launch HN: NextDrop Technologies (YC S17) – Water Marketplace for Urban India
#38Forgive 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?
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Re: Launch HN: NextDrop Technologies (YC S17) – Water Marketplace for Urban India
#39This 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 delivere…
What's to stop another truck with bad and cheaper water from coming and filling up the truck that's being tracked? I imagine if the prices are higher, there's a lot of incentive to commit fraud, especially on something as short-lived as a water supply.
Re: Launch HN: NextDrop Technologies (YC S17) – Water Marketplace for Urban India
#40Forgive 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 wil…
Interesting, it makes sense solving the first problem is metering than. Good luck!