Tell us about memobottle.
Memobottle is a Melbourne-based certified B-Corporation, committed to inspiring a more reusable society through the design of convenient, everyday products. memobottle was founded in 2014 by myself and childhood best mate Jonathan Byrt, in an effort to challenge how we as a society think about water consumption and to encourage a more reusable society by providing a stylish, practical reusable solution. We aim to educate the public about the environmental costs of our modern conveniences.
Memobottle has partnered with events and companies such as Spotify, and The Australian Open (tennis), our products have won multiple international design awards, and been endorsed by celebs such as the Kardashians, and Anne Hathaway. Founded in 2014 via the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter, memobottle now ships to 70+ countries, and has donated clean drinking water to over 10 million people in need through their partnership with water.org. We estimate that we’ve prevented over 100 million single-use bottles from being consumed through the use of memobottle products..
We are incredibly passionate about the fight against Single-use.
What inspired you to start memobottle.
Growing up in a small coastal town south of Melbourne and witnessing first-hand the devastating impact that single-use water bottles can have on our oceans and environment is what triggered the creation of the memobottle.
The other inspiration for the creation of the memobottle came about while studying at Swinburne University; I always struggled to fit cylindrical water bottles in my bag. I’d be left with a bulge and a lot of wasted space.
We analysed the other objects that we often carry in our bags and realized that the majority were flat… laptops, books etc.
From the skills I had learnt at Swinburne I got to work on designing a reusable water bottle that was in the shape of the international paper sizes and could seamlessly fit in your bag.
We wanted to attach the environmental mission to the unique design and convenience of the bottle, in an effort to spread the word and inspire people to move toward a more reusable society.
Tell us about your career and background.
I’ve always had a strong passion for design and have fortunately had a natural ability for math and physics. When I stumbled upon the Bachelor or Product Design Engineering at the Swinburne Open Day, I knew that I had found the perfect fit. A course that celebrated both the left and right brain.
I can attribute a large portion of my success in entrepreneurship to the skills and confidence I gained through university. PDE provided hands-on experience and significant industry exposure that in turn landed me with a foot in the door and set me on the right path for my career.
PDE was full of excitement. I underwent a 6 month placement at a design agency in China for my Industry Based Learning subject. We were involved in asynchronous projects with a Scottish University and were given multiple opportunities to make our ideas a reality and collaborate with industry.
Describe a typical workday for you.
My day to day isn’t anything like what I would have expected when I graduated from Product Design Engineering. No two days are the same in a fast paced start-up.
Being a Director and Co-Founder, my job is to wear many different hats
It might kick off with a marketing meeting about upcoming campaigns, followed by a stock forecast meeting to ensure we have enough inventory coming for the next 6 months, then a look over the finances with Jonathan, tweaking the online advertising, followed by a deep dive into the technical details of our upcoming product.
We have a team of 10 world class people at memobottle, all with different specialities and responsibilities. Working well as a team and creating an exciting and enjoyable environment is one of the key focuses every day at memobottle.
Although this isn’t a typical product design engineers day to day, the broad skills that I learnt at Swinburne created a beautiful foundation for a role as a start-up Director.
What advice do you have for those wanting to start a business.
Don’t overlook the importance of industry experience. If you are looking to pursue an entrepreneurial career, there is nothing more important while studying than to get a foot in the door within the industry. This real world experience will provide context to what you are learning in your textbooks, and only enhance your chances of success.
If you have an idea for a business or product and you think you have a good product-market fit, then give it a go, believe in yourself, and put your idea out to the world. Crowdfunding, social media and ecommerce make business and product launches so much more accessible these days with minimal capital, resources or experience.
But most of all make sure you take your idea seriously.
What’s next for you, and memobottle.
When starting memobottle our aim was to solely reduce the consumption of single-use bottles. We have now expanded our horizons and are fixated on the war against all single-use products. Unfortunately, I can’t give too much away, but we have some exciting product launches coming soon. And keep an eye out for a New Kickstarter campaign later this year.
Discount code for ONYA readers: Enter ONYA20 at the memobottle.com checkout to receive 20% off. Valid until the end of July.
