Coffeez with Joe Shalaby - Why They Bet Everything on Clean Water | Coffeez for Closers with Joe Shalaby

Episode Date: July 25, 2025

What if the bottled water industry had a soul?In this episode of Coffeez for Closers, we sit down with the founders of Rorra—the rising water brand that’s rethinking everything from source to shel...f. No plastic. No shortcuts. Just pure purpose and discipline.These guys didn’t just chase a product—they chased a mission. We talk about building a premium CPG brand from scratch, why simplicity beats noise in today’s market, and what it really takes to lead a purpose-first company in a profit-first world.From cold plunges to cold calls, this one’s for the founders building something real.Top producers at E Mortgage Capital are earning more per deal—with faster closings, better tech, and no junk fees.👉 Learn more: https://join.emortgagecapital.comAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 The thing about microplastics as well is they find 20 times more concentration in the brain than any other organ. Took autopsies of people and they looked at the amount of microplastic and nanoplastic content in the brain. It was about the same amount of plastic that's in a credit card. This is crazy. Your kid's eczema is what sparked kind of a little bit of this mission. Yeah, she was going through, you know, I had really bad eczema. Every time we'd put her in the bath, it would flare up really bad. And so we were trying to different things.
Starting point is 00:00:31 Doctors were given us steroid cream. Didn't really want to put that on her every single day. And we got a filtered shower head. And within a couple of days of bathing earth in that water, she had perfectly clear skin. But I could always tell when, you know, the filters were getting burnt out because their skin would flare up again. And so we started looking at the industry and looking at all the different products, you know, really wanted to understand why this was happening in the first place. And, you know, the tap water infrastructure, you know, was laid back in the Victorian era almost 100 years ago.
Starting point is 00:01:03 And as they moved across the country, I mean, like Chicago, for example, was pretty much mandatory to use lead pipes. And so there's still 9.2 million lead service lines underneath the ground. And it's a huge issue when it comes to contamination. And it's going to take over a trillion dollars just to solve the crumbling infrastructure if they can get the money. And so, you know, we're looking at the, different products in the market and it was one plastic product after then next they're making a lot of bold claims that didn't have a lot of data in science to back it up and so we really wanted to build a solution and something that could be used whether you live in an apartment or you know your
Starting point is 00:01:41 own home that was out of the highest quality materials had more advanced filtration technology and it was super simple and easy to use so this is more of a personal pursuit now you're disrupting the water industry you think or is the goal to disrupt the water industry yeah I think it's it's to disrupt it, but it's also to raise the standard. I think there hasn't been a lot of innovation in the space in the last 20 or 30 years. And our water and tap water infrastructure is deteriorating much faster than the innovation. And so, you know, we really want to push for better solutions made out of higher quality materials. So that's why we use stainless steel and, you know, products that are going to be able to be used for decades. That's what we noticed, like, as consumers
Starting point is 00:02:26 too, right? We both came to this industry trying products and stuff, trying to find the right solution for our homes, our families, and how we built Aurora, all the values that we have as a brand are all the things we couldn't find. Like, we couldn't find really easy and transparently clear efficacy testing data. As a brand, we feel extremely strong about being very up front with that and sharing that for everyone to see. We didn't find a lot of products made out of stainless steel and other like sustainable materials that are non-plastic, we want to use those non-plastic materials for most of our drinking water products,
Starting point is 00:03:00 if not all of our products. And separately, just really disrupting the industry with continuous innovation. A lot of companies that exist right now have kind of had the same product suite for years or decades, and we're focused on constantly having not only existing platforms,
Starting point is 00:03:15 but continuing to innovate on the filters that go into them like their software. So we can drop a new filter every year to 18 months and improve the efficacy of products over time. That's something that intrigues me. How do you innovate in the water space? You know, like, obviously, past what you've done now? And what more innovation lies ahead?
Starting point is 00:03:37 Well, there's a lot of different things we're going to be focusing on either kind of in different aspects. So we'll be focusing on things for people who specifically rent an apartment that are maybe smaller in format and work better for them. And also the other way as well. when we look at the commercial industry and whole homes and things like that. Commercial buildings, exactly. Multi-family. So it can go all the way up, but there's a lot of different types of materials and different technologies that can be used, different materials.
Starting point is 00:04:06 However, when you also are dealing in water, you know, you've got to test all of that, and that takes time and that takes money. So for every single one of these different contaminant reduction tests, it can be three to four months and, you know, tens of thousands of dollars just to run a single test. So it was something that we felt strongly about and we made sure that we went out and raised money initially so that we had that money set aside to make sure that we can have all that transparent testing data right out of the gate. So yeah, I'm envisioning like Rora for filtered waterheads, you know, for mitigating microplastics as you shower, right? So we did just come out with a filtered shower head. You did?
Starting point is 00:04:43 Yeah, we did. Perfect, because my son's got a guy to go. Let's give it a shot. Yeah, there you go. So we had our shower head in our house is probably like the last two years, testing out multiple different iterations and formulations. And you have everything down from the hole size, you know, figuring out exactly how much water is going to come through,
Starting point is 00:05:02 how many millimeters those holes should be, how the flow should be so that the coverage was the best. So we really did a lot of testing and ourselves. But, you know, we just had a new baby daughter. She doesn't have any eczema. And so that's exciting. see if you're using our products that's amazing count me in on one of those absolutely to add it to the order yeah add it to my order please um yeah that that's great stuff so you and
Starting point is 00:05:28 you know i asked you guys about you know version four's coming you're on version one for the you know like as a homeowner you would want one in your property you know you want even like the building we just purchased you know we'd want that in our water for our coffee machines and all the stuff totally you know I mean, I know it's a fad now to talk about microplastics, you know, like, it's like, but it worked out perfectly for your timing, right? It's just like the demand to mitigate microplastics in your water. And you guys basically, from what I read, like 98% omission. Yeah, 97.3%.
Starting point is 00:06:09 But the thing about microplastics as well is they find 20 times more concentration in the brain than any other organ. and so, you know, it can have a big detriment to our health. And they did, you know, they took autopsies of people and they looked at the amount of microplastic and nanoplastic content in the brain. And it was about the same amount of plastic that's in a credit card. And they also saw a strong correlation between people that had Alzheimer's and dementia that they had even higher, significantly higher concentrations of micro nanoplastics in the brain. This is crazy.
Starting point is 00:06:44 The fact that our water could be causing dementia? Yeah, it's the first thing that they've ever been able to have some sort of correlation to Alzheimer's and dementia because, you know, currently there's no known cause. So let's talk about gravity filter technology. You know, they say it feels old school in a high-tech world. Why go analog when you can go digital? I think there's a number of reasons why. I mean, when we were first doing our design exercise for the,
Starting point is 00:07:14 this product, we asked ourselves the question, do we want another stupid notification on our phone? Or do we want another screen to look at? And the conclusion that we came to as consumers was no. We wanted to create something that had integrated technology, but it was built in a timeless way that wasn't just another distraction to be adding to this modern, like digital, nonstop. Right. Exactly. Maybe one day we'll integrate IoT. Maybe one day we'll do something that's like, you know, more sensor-based and interesting. But for product one, for something that we were really trying to make work for everybody, whether you're a homeowner or renter or whatever, we're like, okay, this thing should work standalone. It should be able to work on a kitchen island without being
Starting point is 00:07:51 plugged in or under a countertop without being plugged in. We don't require any like 12 volt plug-in power to use the countertop system. But we've taken this kind of timeless format of gravity-fed filtration and added some smart features, made it be designed in a really beautiful, effective way, and put in a filter that we've tested incredibly rigorously with the best labs in the world that performs ostensibly better than a lot of other options on the market. So that's like to answer the question in a hopefully not too long winded of a way. That was a thought process. I mean, you had me at No More Apps.
Starting point is 00:08:26 Just because it's free and doesn't mean it's better. Yeah, because like you've got to download an app for everything now. And all the apps on your front, you don't even know what app you have. And you're never going to go back to that app. Right. Because you've got so many apps and you only use five anyway. Exactly. So adding another app like is.
Starting point is 00:08:42 the most annoying thing I had a scale I had an app for like yeah dude I don't even know what the app's called now I never really just do its job yeah just tell you what you know yeah and and BMI whatever it is you know like I'm like I'm not gonna ever find that app totally so it's it is a frustrating dilemma that we face with all these apps for everything I love that answer by the way so it's medical grade materials and nanofibyl fiber filtration and that costs more. What pushed you to refuse, like, cutting corners even at the expensive margin?
Starting point is 00:09:19 You know, like, everybody's looking to cut corners. You guys are like, nope, we're going to go the most expensive. Yeah, I mean, we just wanted to build a product that we would want to buy. And, you know, as consumers, I think that it's important to deliver somebody a very high-quality good. And, you know, we could have used 304 stainless steel or we could use 316L stainless steel, which is a medical grade stainless steel. And for us, if we were going to create a filter that could really filter the water much more effectively than other solutions, we wanted also that to be housed in the best quality materials.
Starting point is 00:09:55 So anything that touches water is 316-out stainless steel. And we also wanted to build a product that, you know, as we continue to innovate the filter, we could update it kind of like software where, you know, the outer shell and everything else is going to be good and last for 20, you know, 20, 30 years. and we can keep innovating on that. So people don't have to pay more out of their pocket to get a better product. And that was something that's what we would want to have. Exactly. And so it's kind of why we intentionally made that decision.
Starting point is 00:10:26 And our theory was that there was other people out there like us that would want, you know, not only the best filtration, but also really great design, something that was going to look nice in their kitchen and also fit right in and be super simple and easy to use. Awesome. Now, you guys describe tap water contamination as a crisis. What's the hardest truth about our water systems that nobody really wants to face, you guys think? I think the toughest part is educating the consumer because it's tough, I think, for a lot of people to understand that our tap water might be contaminated and thinking, how is that legal? It looks like it's contaminated based on the pictures I saw on your website.
Starting point is 00:11:09 Yeah, and, you know, biggest problems are, A, there's 95% of U.S. water systems tested have at least one carcinogen that's over the health and safety limits. Only 10% of our treatment plants actually use any form of modern filtration. And 50% of the groundwater treatment plants only add disinfectants into the water. And so if that's truly the water that you're starting with, and then it's going to run through all those pipes to get into your home where you're going to consume it, it's pretty scary. And the amount of now disinfectants that they have to put into it creates more disinfectant byproducts. And those disinfectant byproducts can have all sorts of harmful effects on the body.
Starting point is 00:11:53 I will say too, to add to the infrastructure point is you think about U.S. infrastructure in general, like power grid, bridges, water, sewage lines, natural gas lines. Water and sewage lines are uniquely difficult to replace, particularly in big cities because to get at them and access them, you have to tear up a crazy amount of property and land and streets and sidewalks and everything. Whereas with, you know, power lines is a little bit easier to get access to, relatively speaking, in terms of, like, impact. What most people don't realize is that this problem with water infrastructure in the United States and how badly it is breaking down, particularly in cities, is that it's going to take two to three to four to five decades to
Starting point is 00:12:32 fix, depending on where you live, just to get the funding to do it. Like a lot of cities with lead service lines. I mentioned Chicago earlier. I live in Denver. We have a lead service lot problem in Denver. It's going to take so much time and so much money. This is a trillion dollar issue to fix. And so that's one thing that I don't think enough people, that we don't think enough people really understand as consumers, just how long term of a problem, water quality is going to be. I don't even think, I mean, there's no way we could fix the water issues. Like how we're going to just tear up cities for, and the downtime to repair the them. Exactly. It's just not, I don't even think, we just got to deal with it. We just got to deal
Starting point is 00:13:11 with contaminated water. People just have to filter their water. And that's, that's our, like, thesis on this whole space, is that more and more consumers in America and globally are going to look at the water coming out of their tap as more like crude oil than gasoline. They're going to need to take that and refine it to create really high quality drinking water as opposed to just trusting what's coming out of the tap. While you already see it in countries like Mexico and traveling around Europe and other countries, like you already have, it's very common to have water filtration because there is obvious problems with contamination in the water, but we think more and more Americans are going to be really focused on filtering their own water
Starting point is 00:13:47 at the point of consumption to make sure that it's clean and make sure that it's safe and really trusted. Do you think for animals, like the water that comes out of a tap is a big issue? Do you got to filter the water for animals? I mean, you should if you have access to it. Do you filter your dog's water? Yeah, at least for, like most of the time. If we're out and about on a hike and he's going to get into a river, I can't control that. But when we're at home eating meals and stuff, yeah, he's getting filtered water. And mostly, like for animals, big risk, like they have bioaccumulation of heavy metals and microplastics just like we do, right?
Starting point is 00:14:21 It's the same kind of, like, tissue bonding that you see for some of those substances. But also, like, Brian is mentioning earlier, disinfectant byproducts, chlorine. The thing that's in everyone's water, right? Adding those things to water keeps it biologically safe, kills microbes and ecoli and those things that would make you sick right away. But over time, when you're digesting a lot of chlorine and other byproducts from the chlorination process, it'll wear down on your kidneys and liver and other kind of your own body's filtration systems. And so for dogs, you know, one thing that is super unfortunate that I think people are experiencing more and more. And I've experienced this kind of with animals close to me is there's any.
Starting point is 00:15:02 increased rates of bladder and kidney cancer, in some cases, liver cancer. And, you know, it's not, you can ever say it's a perfect one-to-one correlation causality, but the cleaner the water is, the less of those byproducts and chemicals are in the water, the easier those systems will work, right? Like they're not constantly trying to filter out chlorine and other things that are coming in at high volume. So I know that's kind of a long-winded answer, but the short answer is... No, I asked for myself because I haven't been filtering my dogs, but I just, just go and fill, you know. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:15:30 but now then I'm going to get Rora. Yeah. You know. And you have plenty of water available. Yeah. We have a lot of our partners that work with the brand that they love their dogs so much. And there's enough water, two and a half gallons at any time to be able to fill their dogs bowl and not worry about their, you know, if you had a different product, oh, I'm going to run out of water. I'm not going to be able to fill my own water bottle.
Starting point is 00:15:50 There's plenty there for you. Yeah. Two and a half gallons is a good sustainable amount. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And also for what you're cooking with, right? Because you don't want to take pasta, rice, things like that and cook it in, you know,
Starting point is 00:16:00 just the regular water coming out of the tap. Which we also do. We all do that. We think about the water we drink. We don't think about the water that we cook with. But you're going to take, you know, you can't, boiling water is not going to get out microplastics forever chemicals and lead. So you're effectively taking that.
Starting point is 00:16:15 You're concentrating your great organic pasta with it that you get from whole foods is now not so, you know, healthy anymore. Healthy anymore. Man, this is eye-opening. And sad, I'm sad a little bit. Like, I've been doing this the whole time. I probably got, you know, two visa cards in my brain. Well, let's hope not.
Starting point is 00:16:36 Yeah. You always start working getting it out today. Yeah. Now, you guys are building trust in, like, already very skeptical market. Like, what's the most brutal objection you guys had to overcome about home water filtration? Yeah, I think it's, it comes down to just educating the consumer. Because people don't really understand or they, you know, they think, okay, well, You know, like myself, originally, I was like, you know, I grew up drinking out of the hose. I'm totally fine. Like, what's the big issue? But our infrastructure is broken down so much over the last 30 years that it's continuing to get worse and worse. And we're not seeing the direct correlative health effects happening to us right away. And these things take time to wear and tear down on the body. And so I think communicating to people that they should, you know, filter their water is sometimes tough for them to understand.
Starting point is 00:17:30 And then I think on the other side of it, you know, the other objection originally when we were building the product was like, oh, was anybody going to spend $450 for that? But in our thesis, it was like people are going to be willing to pay for it once they, A, start to get educated and be really start to look at the different options on the market more closely and realize that, you know, if they want something for themselves, definitely want to get out the forever chemicals, the microplastics and the things that are really going to be harmful to the body. and so, you know, we offer it on our website, you can go type in your zip code, you can find out what's in your water, it'll break down all the different contaminants and how they might be affecting your health. And then obviously we have the solution as well that you can purchase right there to take care of it for yourself. I will say to, like, the classic example for this question is New York City. New York City spent decades and millions of dollars trying to convince New York City residents that New York tap water is the best tap water in the world. It's like the got mill.
Starting point is 00:18:30 campaign. Yeah, it's very much like a got milk campaign. And it is, one could say, true, for water before it starts to hit New York City service lines. But as soon as that water goes from the treatment plant from the Catskills into pipes and into New York City, you're dealing with broken service lines, groundwater getting contaminated and mixed with fluent tap water. And then also, a lot of buildings have these really big water towers on top of the buildings in New York to maintain pressure throughout the day, so they fill them up at night, and during the days, people are showering and other things, that water is servicing the building and staying up high. But the problem is that all of that water in all of those rooftop tanks, a lot of the time will declorinate
Starting point is 00:19:15 because it's sitting for a long time. So if you let water sit, chlorine will come onto the water and basically vaporize out. But then also those tanks don't get replaced very often. So they're leaching in a lot of rust content, metal, Lockside content and other kind of gross stuff that lurks in those tanks when they don't get changed or clean for a really long time. So you end up with, anyways, back to the original questions like these people are drinking water in New York City that they are being told is like so safe and the best in the world. But the reality of that water's journey from the beginning of service lines in the city to your cup is something that is definitely not clean. And honestly,
Starting point is 00:19:56 like we've seen some filters coming out of Manhattan and Brooklyn from customers when they go to change it. Sometimes we'll get a photo and be like, oh my God, I can't believe my filter looks like this. This is disgusting. I'm so happy that like I'm no longer drinking this stuff. But it's really, it's changing consumers' perception because I think our, you know, the baby boomer generation and perhaps generations after them like really trusted the government and really trusted that everything they were telling them is the truth and honest. Whereas now, I think we're starting to wake up as a United States culture and as a global society that we need to take responsibility for our own health. And what we were being told might not be the total truth. Makes a lot of sense.
Starting point is 00:20:37 I mean, we're all starting to be a little bit more contrarian now, especially with what the government is, especially what we're seeing every day. Totally. Now, you guys have got the filtered shower head. You got the countertop system. Now, what's your next moon shoe? Like, what's next in the ecosystem? Yeah, you know, we're keeping it a little bit close to the chest, but like I said earlier, you know, we're going to go kind of both routes, you know, different formats and different types of products that are going to be better for like an apartment and also, you know, going up the pipe all the way to commercial and whole home. But, you know, we want to really be intentional with every type of product that we come out with.
Starting point is 00:21:19 And but we're really excited about it. there's a couple really really interesting ones that we're working on right now that we think would be game changers love to hear that love to hear that i'm excited to see yeah and just honestly too combining different technologies like right now we have certain technology that works really really well for gravity fed but as we go into different applications we can go and you know bring in some other interesting filtration technologies to create better and better water um and that's something that like when we were building the first product the countertop system i i interviewed the top 40 filter over OEMs around the world. So from Europe through like Korea, Japan, China, United States, Canada,
Starting point is 00:21:59 anywhere that they were making any sort of water filters, I was doing a partner search trying to find the right people. And so as we've released new and different products in the market, we're going to be able to increase our innovative partner network on putting really, really unique and dynamic filter methodologies together. Amazing. Now, Transparent Brands. brands are trendy. What behind the scenes reality at Rora do people assume is nicer than it really is? I would say we mentioned this earlier, right? Like we feel extremely strongly as a brand about continuous innovation. Like we want to constantly be not only working on like product related issues
Starting point is 00:22:41 that we want to optimize designs for, but also treating our individual filter elements like software. So within that, you have to be constantly behind the scenes thinking about gen 2, gen 3, gen 4, of individual filters for existing platforms and platforms still at come. I think that Brian mentioned this earlier briefly, but for testing water products, it's extremely expensive and time-consuming to validate performance gains. Like if we wanted to say that we can get, you know, 400 gallons of performance or 800 gallons of performance or 1,000 plus
Starting point is 00:23:13 for any given contaminant, it takes a lot of time and money. So I would say something behind the scenes that's, you know, extremely challenging but also extremely fun is this constant iterative process to try and create new and optimized products. Yeah, and I think too, you know, we're going up against companies that have been in the market for 30, 40 years. And so for us to come out and compete with them, you know, we not only have to have good marketing and look good and all these other different kind of table stakes, but we also have to have, you know, it costs a lot of money to do all these different tests. And so, you know, even though we know our filter can get out a significant
Starting point is 00:23:53 more amount of contaminants than we currently claim to be, we don't want to say any of those things until we've gone and done all the testing. So we're always continuing to do more testing, but it just takes time. So who are some of the biggest competitors? Is like Britta, is that even a competitor? I mean, I don't really know the space at all. I mean, I would say, you can't say it's not a competitor because if people are going to go and buy a water filter, Right? That's definitely one that they see. That's all they know. Yeah, massive distribution.
Starting point is 00:24:23 Yeah. And so, but I think you've got a lot of different, the competition is everything from Colligan delivery. Oh, Coligan. I mean, I, yeah, because I use them for, they're a soft water company though. I mean, they do pretty much everything. They've got a wide spectrum of different products in water. But, you know, if somebody's going to make the decision for filtered water, they could get
Starting point is 00:24:44 water delivered to their house. They could get a reverse osmosis system. a whole home system they could get you know a multitude of different types of products in between and so they're all built-ins though but like from the you know the standalone products like the only ones I've ever heard of is brittar that's the ones that go on I mean if you're on Amazon right now yeah are you guys on Amazon like can you buy it not yet yeah so like that's all I know all I know when I bought one right you know I mean there's there's a product called the burkey that a lot of people probably know which is a really
Starting point is 00:25:18 tall stainless steel system. And there's a couple different other like an offshoot off of that one. Stay on your countertop? Yeah, it would sit on your countertop. It's significantly taller. So if you're going to put it, you know, effectively you can't really use the cabinet behind it. You can't go underneath.
Starting point is 00:25:36 Also like the spout is right on the bottom. So if you're going to use it, you also have to hang it off the countertop. And it takes a lot of, it takes a long time. It takes about an hour to filter a gallon of water. So, you know, we looked at all the different products on the markets, all the different things that we felt we really wanted to solve and do better, and then everything down to, like, the nice big tap handle that we have on it so that it's easy for kids to use. It's easy for, you know, even older people that have lost some of their dexterity.
Starting point is 00:26:05 And also, it feels really nice. It's a great user experience for people to have that, the big handle of the pull. Looks like a keg. Yeah. Yeah. It's not happy when they're pulling a keg handle. Yeah. Yeah, that's cool user experience for sure. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:26:22 Now, if a competitor match your tech tomorrow, what would you pivot to and how quickly would you pivot? We don't really see it as an issue. I think you'll definitely start to see some copycats for sure. But, you know, we're just going to start shipping out the showerheads to customers either later this week or early next week. And we're already working on the second version. So I think we've already got a lot of different innovation happening for new products, but we're always continuing to develop better versions of the ones that we have. And usually we've already got different ideas that have been sparked through the finishing steps of finally getting a product to market that we're already starting to work on the next one.
Starting point is 00:27:05 So if somebody wants to come try to rip us off, fine. You're going to get that. For sure. As soon as you hit Amazon. Totally. You're trying to rip-offs immediately. Yeah. Trying to undercut margin, et cetera.
Starting point is 00:27:19 So how many patents are on the product now? For a countertop system, we have a utility patent in process that we applied for before we started selling it last fall. That really is relegated to its sensor system. So one of the unique things we did in this product compared to a lot of other products and competitors on the market is that we have integrated standalone battery powered electronics that use like weight-based sensor system to derive, A, how much water is currently in the system, and then B, how much water has flown through the system, so you can tell basically how much filter life you have remaining
Starting point is 00:27:55 for any given filter. So how we did that calculation, how we made those electronics, and how we built that is distinctly unique in our space. So that's the one patent. But the thing that kind of protects us in general, compared to a lot of products that currently exist, they're already gravity-fed and used stainless steel is that making the complex shaping and how we actually assemble this thing and put together is pretty hard to do. I spent about a third of my year last year on site at our factory trying to get everything dialed and working on our production run because it's a complicated thing to build. We're building really complex shapes out of really high-grade stainless steel. And from a design perspective, agnostic of having formal IP in the form of
Starting point is 00:28:41 patents, like there's a lot of, there's a lot of unique things that we do just in terms of putting it together. Now, your guys' business is built all on the fear of contamination. Now, how do you hold hope at the center of a brand that profits from fear? I think you have to walk a really thin line between, you know, we don't fearmonger, but we will state the facts. And so we don't use hyperbole. We make sure in all of our marketing that, you know, we say it's significantly reduced.
Starting point is 00:29:11 reduces instead of saying it removes it. Or we don't say we can get up to 99.9% of this out. We'll tell you the exact amount of reduction we can get over the average duration of the entire filter. And so we want to be as transparent with customers as we can from the very beginning all the way through the user experience. Same reason why we didn't put a timer on this thing for 90 days when it was time to change the filter is you're going to know exactly when to change the filter based on your
Starting point is 00:29:39 exact usage. so that if you go out of town for a month and you come back, it shouldn't tell you that your filter needs to be changed. Right? And so I think that was a big, yeah, it's a big aspect of... So how long does it filter last then? It's 200 gallons. So it's ready for 200 gallons of use,
Starting point is 00:29:56 and it's tracking that against, like, the net weight differential of water flowing through the system over time. Yeah. But also I want to build on that response a little bit for kind of responding to, like, the fear-mongery marketing claim piece of our business. I think ultimately, Brian and I's vision with this company is to propose solutions, like utopian-style solutions of easy to implement seamless things that people can integrate
Starting point is 00:30:21 into their lives and ultimately, hopefully, live healthier, longer lives. And so as much as there is this reality that we have to accept and we have to talk about in some ways market, that what we're building at Aurora, and we're just starting right now, what you see is just the beginning. This is just the surface. But over time, as you see us continue to evolve over the next five years, you're going to see not only additional products and other things that are bringing to market to serve a wide range of people, but also products that really matter and products really help people and take these concerns and these boogeymen that would otherwise keep you up at night and tackle them head on and provide products that do that. Yeah, I think as well we really focus on education on our website as well and giving someone the really great easier experience for that because even if someone comes to our site and they don't buy a product, they at least now are educousiness. educated and now they might go by you know something that's maybe it's more
Starting point is 00:31:14 affordable for them or whatever it is but as long as somebody is starting to filter their water we're ultimately gonna all be healthier people and so you know people just need to be talking about it more and raise more awareness for it you mean ultimately you guys right now in the longevity space you know and that's kind of the hottest market there is currently everybody drinks water it's the one thing we all consume the most of so you know people will spend hundreds of dollars on their different supplement stack and this and that but really when it comes down to it it's your sleep
Starting point is 00:31:44 your air and your water that are going to have the largest impact on your overall longevity and health and so it's like we got to think about the simplest things and the things that we do every single day because that's what makes the difference which is the thing that we don't think about the most but now there's a big push to make sure that you get the right amount of sleep now I wonder if your ring is going to track your water it probably will one day yeah I mean you have those bottles that attract like your water consumption, right? Yeah. But it's not just about drinking water. It's about drinking the right water.
Starting point is 00:32:14 Yeah. Right? Because if you're drinking reverse osmosis water and you're not remineralizing that water, you're effectively drinking chemically inert water. And so, you know, you need those healthy minerals in your water to be able to hydrate and, you know, your calcium, your salt. And so if you don't, you know, yeah, don't have that. You can end up with a lot of headaches and things like that. You don't even realize it because you feel like you're getting hydrated from the water. So we did a big, you know, have a big effort on that as well to make sure we're retaining those healthy minerals with the products that we have.
Starting point is 00:32:47 Love that. Now, I got a couple last questions for you guys. What's a personal goal that you have for yourselves? Family goal that you have for the family and a goal that you have for Rora. You're going to go first? Oh, sure. Let me think about that. Personal goal for myself.
Starting point is 00:33:05 This summer, I want to spend more time camping in Colorado. I live in Denver and a lot of other summers previously. I had lots of weddings and other social engagements going on just in kind of this season of life. And this summer, my goal is definitely to be outdoors a lot and as many, as much as I can on the weekends. I just got a Starlink Mini so I can be a little bit further from my home base more frequently and not be fully disconnected. But I would say spending more time under the stars and outside is my like personal goal. Family goal, obviously I don't have children yet. But between, you know, my girlfriend, my dog, and then my parents and my sister and her husband and baby, I think this year is spending a lot of present time.
Starting point is 00:33:47 I think this past, you know, basically launching Roar as a business, as everyone knows who's been there. It's really hard. Launching new business is hard and can kind of take you away from being able to do certain family events and stuff like that. So I would say similarly with the goal being outside is to. spend more time with my family over the next year and beyond, especially my parents who are getting older and I feel like a duty to be there. And then with Rora, we didn't really talk about this yet, but I really do think that a goal of mine for the business is to be synonymous or recognized with being a Dyson-level company in water filtration, being a company that's so
Starting point is 00:34:31 focused on well-engineered product that delight customers, that people are excited to to use and pay for and feel like that that really do bring solutions and progress and positivity to their life but I would say like my overall goal with the business is to be held in that regard if we can come anywhere close to to a disson level company I think we've done and we would have done an amazing job for as stewards of Aurora so those are my three love it yeah it's a personal goal I mean to optimize my own health between health and or between you know water I feel like now we've gotten taken care of but in in fitness and sleep finding the right
Starting point is 00:35:21 balance so I can say sharp mentally as possible to be the best you know for the business and for my family family goal yeah I mean it's kind of on on Charlie's but being really present with the kids not making them feel like dad's always working all the time. And also teach them more about the business. And so, yeah, I mean, that's kind of like the family goal, but for everyone to be able to be very happy and the kids to be continuing to grow up,
Starting point is 00:35:59 knowing that both of their parents are right there for them and not working all the time. And for the business, I mean for the business, I would say finding the right couple people to come in as employees. So make our first two, three really solid hires. From previously running a business, the difference between an A player and a B player for how much further the company can get and be able to take some of those different responsibilities off of ourselves because we're in a lot of hats right now. But to really
Starting point is 00:36:45 to focus on the further vision and be able to do what we do best in the business, I think would be a big goal of mine. So take some of ourselves out of some of the different aspects so we can continue to push the business forward. Final question. When you're in front of Pearly Gates, what do you think God's going to tell you? I'd hope you'd be proud. I think that, you know, it's like, At the end of the day, we're just trying to make people's lives a little bit better, and for them to live longer and healthier lives. And in everything that we've done in business, it's really been a big focus on that.
Starting point is 00:37:22 So I hope that you're going to be. Your story is amazing. Appreciate it. That's a really good question. Hopefully a high five, and that was one hell of a ride. Hopefully I get in. That would be my greatest guest. But no, similar to Brian.
Starting point is 00:37:41 I mean, like, ultimately, I'm spending my life building products alongside Brian to improve people's lives and ultimately make them live better, healthier lives. And I think that hopefully that carries some weight with the big man. Right, we're just here, sir, we're just stewards. Exactly. Guys, I'm like really, I admire your story. I love what you did with your last company, what you exited. I think it's, you know, it's a story that needs to be told as part of the catalyst for building this company because it's high. in as being stewards and servants and it's incredible I love what your your
Starting point is 00:38:15 product I love what you guys are doing I love the vision if people want to connect with you how do they find you they can check us out on any of our social media at Rora water Rora water or our website at rora.com perfect thanks guys thank you guys

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