Ep. 52 Ravi Kurani - Swimming in Your Customer's Shoes
As you may have noticed, I really like unusual routes into entrepreneurship, where someone with an unfair advantage in and around some area of the world decides to solve something dumb within it. Ravi Kurani is ground zero for that paradigm - the scion of the pool monarchy of Southern California. He will explain. He went from shop assistant to pool boy to impact investor to founder to exited founder, and is now bringing his considerable talents to the roll-up game as well as the streets of New York. He's also the host of the podcast Liquid Assets, which is excellent. So this is me shamelessly trying to steal his tricks. One of my favorite things about Ravi is his insistence on understanding the reality of markets and his commitment to the work it takes to get there. He's awesome. Please enjoy my conversation with Ravi Kurani.
Listen now on:
Subscribe to The Fundamental Molecule here.
Full show notes and links to mentioned content below.
-----------
Ravi Kurani is the President of Standard Water Corp, a company digitizing the world’s most critical asset. A mechanical engineer who started as a pool boy, he founded Sutro, a robotic water diagnostics platform, which was acquired in 2019. He is a Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree, holds three patents in water monitoring, co-authored a book on hardware development, and hosts the Liquid Assets podcast. Ravi is passionate about building products that help society and the environment.
00:00 - Ravi Kurani’s Journey From Pool Boy to Water Tech Founder
02:57 - Building Sutro and the Case for Affordable Water Sensors
05:04 - Why Storytelling Drives Startup Funding and Distribution
13:13 - Pivoting Into the Pool Industry to Validate Water Technology
15:59 - Designing Human-Centered Hardware for Pool Owners
18:12 - Scaling a Hardware Startup From Prototype to Global Shipping
22:21 - Rolling Up Pool Service Companies With AI and Field Tech Tools
28:37 - Why Wastewater Reuse Is the Next Big Water Opportunity
29:53 - Private Equity vs Venture Capital in Water Innovation
31:18 - Liquid Assets: Explaining Water to a Broader Audience
39:36 - The Most Important Lesson for Water Entrepreneurs: Know Your Customer
Links:
