Drinkfill/Soapstand

Drinkfill is a zero-waste tech startup. I was brought in to lead the development of the mechanical, electrical and fluidic systems but moved into the Head of Product/Engineering role after a year. The machine holds up to nine drinks and allows customers to purchase drinks to refill their own reusable bottles. Our goal was to provide infrastructure to help people live more sustainable lifestyles.

After 9 months of development and market validation on the Drinkfill concept, the Covid-19 pandemic began. Within weeks, reusable bottles were perceived as unsafe, and we needed to pivot in order to keep the company afloat.

We repurposed the tech we had built for a more pandemic-friendly liquid - soap! After some analysis of the market, the concept, price target, and initial shell design were all done within a week. The image above shows our first render, alongside the final product. The Soapstand is designed to sit within a grocery store aisle, or in an apartment building lobby. These are markets that don't have much excess cash, so we had to be extremely agressive on cost, without compromising features. Soapstand is now the global leader in price, aesthetics and features.