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Startup Insights

How startups for residential water mgmt can add value, scale and grow?

Notes by Narsi

Selling to the residential segment can be challenging in any country, and even more so in countries such as India - we are looking at a massive market, but one that has so many different segments and sub-segments, and one where price sensitivity is super high for many products.

It will not be surprising to see someone in India splurge money on a high fashion garment but the very next day bargain with the local vegetable seller so heavily to leave the vendor with a thin margin.

Whether that is the way it should be is a question I will not attempt to answer, but I can state that is the way it is!

Which brings to mind some startups I met whose products are for residential water sustainability. 

I see two interesting aspects in the context of residential water solutions firms: One, the residential segment in India actually uses only about 7% of all the freshwater in the country (industry uses about 15% and agriculture uses a whopping 78%). Two, residential users are not only price sensitive, many of them are supplied by the municipality to whom they currently pay a fixed monthly price.

These two aspects bring forth the questions of impact of residential water tech and equally important. their monetizability. I will be happy to sit someday with a startup or entrepreneur in working in this domain to clarify the above aspects.

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