How Pool Water Monitoring Systems Could Save Lives with Ravi Kurani of Sutro - EP006

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Meeting Ravi Kurani of MySutro.com

In this episode of eCommerce Masters, host Ethan Giffin interviews Ravi Kurani, founder of Sutro, a company that creates robotic water diagnostics devices for swimming pools. Kurani shares his journey from pool boy to entrepreneur, developing a high-tech solution for pool maintenance.

Kurani emphasizes the challenges of hardware development, describing a "hardware hierarchy" from industrial design to software. He advises other founders that "perfection is the enemy of progress," encouraging them to launch products even when they are ready. The conversation highlights Sutro's innovative approach to a common problem and Kurani's strategic thinking in product development and market positioning.

Key insights include:

• Sutro's device floats in pools, measuring pH, chlorine, bromine, and alkalinity, sending data to a smartphone app.
• The product simplifies pool maintenance, eliminating manual testing and guesswork.
• Kurani's background in pool maintenance and venture capital in India inspired the product.
• The company pivoted from targeting the Indian water market to wealthy pool owners for better margins.
• Sutro uses a direct-to-consumer model via Shopify, with plans to expand into retail and OEM partnerships.

Quotes From The Show

"We basically set out to figure out how can we build a diagnostic sensor that has the accuracy of those really expensive sensors, but has the kind of idiot factor to be able to get information to the user so they can actually act upon it."

"I put my pool boy shorts back on and flipped the entire model around. And we said, 'Why don't we sell to wealthy pool owners, sell it at a margin, at a higher margin, and use that money to basically redeploy into the product so we can then go into these more altruistic markets later?'"

"A ton of blood, sweat and tears. I mean, it's like it's absolutely, you know, they don't say hardware is hard for kind of no reason."

"Once you get the bottom three correct, I can push up updates, you know, daily if I feel like it. Probably not the smartest thing, but you can change code with a much less risk than anywhere up and down that that kind of has a lot of problems."

"Everything from literally cleaning bathrooms, making sure that the office was vacuumed because we had investors coming all the way to kind of filing the patents, right? And working with our patent attorneys and filing corporate documents."

"I'd say perfection is the enemy of progress. Just hit the, just hit the publish button when you feel like you're embarrassed because if you don't, then you're going to be a little too late."

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and Welcome
00:47 Product Overview and Target Market
05:47 Ravi's Background and Inspiration
08:55 Pricing and Subscription Model
11:10 Sales Channels and Marketing Strategy
18:34 Challenges in Hardware Development
32:25 Advice for Entrepreneurs

Resources

1. Sutro - https://mysutro.com
2. Shopify - https://www.shopify.com
3. Klaviyo - https://www.klaviyo.com
4. ReCharge - https://rechargepayments.com
5. Amazon (FBA) - https://sell.amazon.com/fulfillment-by-amazon
6. Walmart Marketplace - https://marketplace.walmart.com
7. eBay - https://www.ebay.com
8. Home Depot - https://www.homedepot.com
9. Lowe's - https://www.lowes.com
10. Best Buy - https://www.bestbuy.com
11. Google (for advertising) - https://ads.google.com
12. Facebook (for advertising) - https://www.facebook.com/business
13. TikTok (for advertising) - https://www.tiktok.com/business
14. Home Assistant - https://www.home-assistant.io
15. Alexa - https://developer.amazon.com/alexa
16. Google Home - https://developers.home.google.com
17. iOS - https://www.apple.com/ios
18. Android - https://www.android.com
19. FCC (Federal Communications Commission) - https://www.fcc.gov

About our Guest, Ravi Kunari

Ravi Kurani has dedicated his career to water safety. From his early days as a pool boy for his father's pool and spa business to the founder of Sutro, Ravi has always wondered why everyone can’t have clean water. This feeling solidified when he was in India with First Light Ventures Fund and Village Capital. He holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from UC Riverside, MBA in International Finance from Middlebury College, and a Certificate from Stanford University in Renewable Energy Systems. He believes that being an entrepreneur is an honor he must earn daily since it gives him the ability to solve problems that not only makes money but help society.

About Our Host, Ethan Giffin

Ethan Giffin is the founder and CEO of Baltimore-based Groove Commerce, a premier eCommerce agency that helps mid-market brands design, build and grow their eCommerce sites.

Ethan is an industry expert in eCommerce, e-marketing, and the dynamic technologies behind them. For years, Ethan has lived and breathed conversion rates, search engine visibility, and web analytics.

When Ethan isn’t obsessing over SEO, conversion rates and eCommerce architecture at Groove Commerce, he can be found speaking as an industry authority, both nationally and internationally. In his free time, he enjoys cooking, traveling, DJing, and the pursuit of rare pocket squares.

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