Open Water - The Most Sustainable Bottled Water in the World
The Story of a Brand
Ramon Vela
5 • 145 Ratings
🗓️ 11 September 2023
⏱️ 65 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This episode is brought to you by SARAL & WAIR.
“Almost every week we hear about there being plastic particles found in the deepest trenches of the ocean, on the highest mountains, in our blood, which is really, really scary. So people are more and more aware of this plastic problem and are actively looking for solutions to cut plastic out of their lives.”
In today’s episode, we interview Nicole Doucet, Co-Founder & CEO and Jess Page, Co-Founder & Chief Brand Officer of Open Water. Open Water is an ultra-purified, electrolyte-packed canned water in BPA-free aluminum packaging. Is it recyclable? Check. Climate Neutral? You bet. Plus, they encourage you to fill up at the tap whenever possible, really.
Highlights:
* Their Gratitude Story
* How did they come up with the idea and what was the motivator?
* Why is buying bottled water such a stupid idea?
* How and why did they decide to use aluminum packaging?
* Were they entrepreneurs looking for an idea or was it an idea looking for an entrepreneur to take it forward?
* How they overcame challenges such as the widespread use of plastics
* The difficulties in getting the business off the ground
* The 3 ways they tried to get ahead of the challenges
* Why they stayed away from retail in the early days
* Their advice for founders including, get a co-founder
* Their huge mistake in naming the brand and what they recommend to others
* What was it about not having a label on the can that was really important to them?
* How are they building a business with sustainable practices as well?
* What they are really proud of about the brand & business
* And so much more…
Join Ramon Vela, Nicole Doucet, and Jess Page as we break down the inside story of Open Water on The Story of a Brand.
For more on Open Water, visit: https://drinkopenwater.com/
Subscribe and listen to the podcast on all major apps. Simply search for “The Story of a Brand” on your favorite podcast player.
*
Today’s sponsors:
Sendlane - Email & SMS Tool for Brands: https://storybrandgift.com
Get a step-by-step playbook to drive more revenue and retention with email & SMS. This is typically a $500 package, but for our listeners, it’s entirely FREE when you get started with your FREE 14-day trial of Sendlane. Go to my special link.
SARAL - Your Influencer Assistant Tool for Brands): https://www.getsaral.com/champions/ramon
SARAL is offering an exclusive 14-day free trial for my listeners. They will also do a special strategy session to make sure you’re set up for success. Go to my special link.
WAIR, Tool for Apparel Brands: https://www.getwair.com/
With just a few simple questions, customers have an accurate recommendation based on their unique body shape that will support them throughout their shopping session. The stats don't lie, most brands will see an immediate increase in conversions upon installation. Want to provide this service to your shoppers, visit and request a demo.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | It certainly was a challenge, especially at the beginning. So it took a number of years to go from |
| 0:04.9 | this business idea to actually launching the product that we wanted to launch. So we ended up |
| 0:10.5 | launching with one product at the end of 2014. And we couldn't be more excited to get our first |
| 0:18.9 | cases in. Nicole and I would load up her car every morning. |
| 0:22.5 | We were living in Chicago at the time. We would go to the warehouse pack. I think it was 42 cases |
| 0:27.3 | in the car. That's like our max that we could fit and still be able to also go along for the ride. |
| 0:32.5 | And we would drive around the city and talk to people. We would talk to, you know, restaurant owners, |
| 0:37.5 | convenience store owners, cafes, hotels, a little bit of everything. And we would tell our |
| 0:43.0 | story and tell about, you know, why this was such an important change that they could implement in |
| 0:47.7 | their operations. And it was, it was hard. It was really, really hard. There was a lot of rejection in the beginning. We were asking people to do something completely unique. Many times their costs were going to go up. They weren't sure that their consumers would get it. And so it was hard. It was a huge challenge. But we kept having the conversations. |
| 1:13.7 | Things changed quite a bit in terms of the overall awareness of the plastic pollution problem. |
| 1:19.9 | More and more stories were coming out. |
| 1:22.2 | Now it's almost every week where we hear about there being plastic particles found in like the deepest trenches |
| 1:28.0 | of the ocean on the highest mountains in our blood which is really really scary and so people are |
| 1:33.6 | more and more aware of this plastic problem and are actively looking for solutions to cut plastic |
| 1:40.7 | out of their lives but Mm-hmm. But it was a process. Almost every week we hear about there being plastic particles found in the deepest trenches |
| 1:59.3 | of the ocean on the highest mountains |
| 2:01.7 | in our blood, which is really scary. So people more and more are aware of this plastic problem |
| 2:08.7 | and are actively looking for solutions to cut plastic out of their lives. In today's episode, |
| 2:14.7 | we interviewed Nicole Ducet, a co-founder and CEO, and Jess Page, co-founder |
| 2:20.2 | and chief brand officer of Open Water. Open Water is an ultra-purified electrolyte-packed |
| 2:28.5 | canned water in BPA-free aluminum packaging. Is it recyclable? Yes. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Ramon Vela, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Ramon Vela and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.