A Personalized ​Water ​Filter Made Specifically for Your Water

Published on by in Technology

A Personalized ​Water ​Filter Made Specifically for Your Water

Eric Roy, a chemist, started Hydroviv in 2015, when he noticed, inspired by Flint water crisis, that traditional water filtration systems aren't good enough for water with high levels of lead.

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A Hydroviv filter.

He created a filter personalized for the water quality of different locations. That’s Hydroviv. The company’s drinking water filter is built using off-the-shelf casing, but comes with a filter cartridge that is made specifically for   your water.

But how does Roy know what’s going on in your water? Data.

Using Environmental Protection Agency, state and city data sets for a given zip code, Roy has built some proprietary software that translates nutrient and chemical quantities in water into filter requirements and, eventually, into an actual filter. That’s his “secret sauce,” if you will.

Unlike "one-size-fits-all" systems, our Tailored Tapwater™ System is optimized to match YOUR city's water.

All Hydroviv water filtration systems meet NSF Standard 53 filtration performance specifications for lead, chromium 6, VOCs, Mercury, Cysts.  In addition to this, filtration cartridges are optimized for other attributes in your water, which means that Hydroviv systems operate at faster flow rates and has higher contaminant removal capacities than  "one-size-fits-all" systems.  

Hydroviv's filtration system connects to the underside of your existing lead-free faucet in about 20 minutes using simple screw-on connections that do not damage plumbing.  No plumbing experience necessary.  

Roy is running his bootstrapped company out of some space in his apartment building that he was able to rent for commercial purposes. It’s a three-person team, but he does work with manufacturing and marketing partners.

And he’s proudly bringing in revenue — for every system he sells, Roy says, the customer refers an average of three people. It’s a growing (if slowly growing) business.

So here’s Roy’s big question: lifestyle business or quickly scaling startup?

Hydroviv, attractive as it is in the current climate, is garnering some attention. Both from TechCrunch (Roy won the tech publication’s recent D.C. pitch competition, and will now go on to TechCrunch Disrupt NY) and from would-be investors.

And Roy sees the value of bringing in investors for the purpose of scaling his marketing efforts — selling an ecommerce product direct to consumers is no small challenge and (for a chemist) not his strong suit. But of course bringing on investors also means giving up some control, and changing how things are done.

It’s a big choice. And that, as it happens, is part of what being an entrepreneur is all about.

Read more at: Techical.ly and Hydroviv

 

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