Rorra founders Brian Keller and Charlie Carlisle just launched a plastic-free water pitcher. The first batch already sold out.

A basic water filter pitcher typically costs around $20 to $40. Rorra, a startup water filtration company known for its stainless-steel countertop system, is asking $249 for its new version.

That’s a lot of money for a water pitcher. So what makes founders Brian Keller and Charlie Carlisle think people will pay a premium for it?

Part of their pitch is that this isn’t your typical plastic pitcher. Rorra’s version is made from borosilicate glass and stainless steel, and uses the same proprietary technology as the company’s larger countertop system. 

Keller and Carlisle recently joined the One Day with Jon Bier podcast to talk about the new product and what they’re doing differently the second time around as founders.

Keller and Carlisle had one advantage when they started Rorra. They’d done this before. The two previously worked together at Love Your Melon, the apparel brand known for donating hats to children battling cancer, so they had already been through the process of building and exiting a company.

But Rorra required a different kind of sacrifice. They didn’t have a finished product. They didn’t have sales. What they had was enough early research to convince themselves there was a business worth pursuing.

Then came nearly two years of working full-time without making a sale.

There were plenty of moments when the plan looked shaky. One early prototype of Rorra’s countertop filtration system was roughly one-and-a-half times the size of the final product.

Source link