Smart water bottle company Hidrate gets huge launch from Kickstarter
The 24-ounce water bottle contains a sensor stick that communicates with FitBit, Apple Watch, Jawbone and smartphones via Bluetooth sensors.
It calculates how much water one needs to drink - taking gender, height, weight, location, temperature and elevation into consideration - then glows when it is time to drink more water, Hidrate CEO and co-founder Nadya Nguyen told BeverageDaily.
The company, started by four University of Minnesota college students, is currently selling the 24-ounce smart water bottle on pre-order for $46.95.
The beginning
Nguyen said she came up with the idea for this product in 2014 while on a bus ride home after a 10-hour shift of volunteering in which she drank no water.
“I just thought I was super tired and I had this huge headache,” she said. “I realized I was still feeling that way because I did not drink any water … I had two cups of coffee that morning and that’s about it. I find it really ironic; I’m usually pretty cognizant about hydration. When life gets busy we usually forget about things like that.”
People have been excited about the prospects of owning a HidrateMe, Nguyen said, as she believes people are now more cognizant than ever about the amount of water they must drink to be healthy. But did she ever think people would be excited to the tune of $600,000?
“To be honest with you, I think we were confident about the campaign, but I didn’t expect it to go up that much,” Nguyem said with a laugh. “It was really nice to get the validation from the market. We were totally wowed by that.”
She first knew this idea would catch on when speaking with customers.
Nguyen said the co-owners spent time interviewing and getting to know their base and realized people thought of this as more than just something that was “nice to have”.
Many customers said they thought this was something that could help improve their health.
“We spent a lot of time interacting with customers,” Nguyen said. “We did 80% of the work before the Kickstarter even started. It helped us to get everything in place and line everything up. Getting support lined up early on was key to us.”
Moving forward
Could HidrateMe eventually have other uses in the beverage industry? Nguyen said they have great ambitions for this product, but the company is trying to keep its focus on HidrateMe for now.
“I think for us, advanced technology really allows us to know more about our bodies and more about our health,” Nguyen said. “It’s really easy to take our health for granted. Once we break it down, realistically how well are we doing, how good is our health and more importantly, what can we do to improve it.”
“With the expansions of smart bottles, portables, and other tools, we can track our exercise, our diet, our sleep,” she continued. “It makes us smarter about our health.”
Nguyen said the company is still trying to figure the retail value of HidrateMe.
