An Interview With The Founders of The Stylish Memobottle

It’s been a big year for memobottle. Co-founders Jesse Leeworthy and Jonathan Byrt launched the product on Kickstarter on 29th August 2014, requiring a funding goal of $15k to send the bottles into production. This goal was achieved just 36 hours into the 45-day campaign. Read our exclusive interview with the founders behind this stylish round water bottle.

Where did the idea for the Memobottle come from?
There was a specific day that we decided to make memobottle a reality – but for us the triggers had started long before. The memobottle was born from two main frustrations that we had encountered within society while growing up together. Being two primary school friends from a coastal town in Australia, we were constantly spending time at the beach and outdoors. We noticed an increase in the number of plastic water bottles that would wash ashore at our local beach, and decided to look into it a little bit further. We had no idea how large this problem was initially and we were completely shocked at how in a country that provides clean and accessible drinking water, people could buy single-use bottled water and pay over 1400 time more that what it costs from the tap. We had also experienced the frustrations of trying to fit round water bottles into our bags. All of the bottles out there were all designed around ease of manufacture. Because of this, car holders, bike holders and accessories followed suit. We decided to flip the equation and create a product that was optimised for transportation but still held the functionality of traditional water bottles. Jesse went to work on the design that soon became the memobottle. We knew from that point that not only could memobottle be a beautiful product, but it had the ability to become a vehicle to change people’s mentality around how water can be consumed.

How did you validate the idea?
We had exposed the concept and prototypes to friends and family but the true validation came when we launched the memobottle on Kickstarter. We were exposed, the idea was out in the world and the people were going to decide. We quickly realised the potential of memobottle and the impact the core aim could have when we surpassed our funding goal of $15K within 36 hours. 45 days later the Kickstarter campaign finished, society had backed our concept and it has been full steam ahead ever since.

Who are memobottles designed for?
The memobottle is designed for the people who drink water and have an environmental conscience. It boasts a transparent and convenient design. We don’t want people to buy this bottle who aren’t going to use it – that goes against everything that we stand for. We aim to create useful and beautiful products that can assist in bringing us back to more reusable society.

How would you describe your Kickstarter experience?
The Kickstarter experience has been overall positive for us. It was certainly a learning curve for us on many fronts but the good and the challenging parts combined have helped shape what memobottle is today. Crowdfunding is such a beautiful and powerful tool; it allows an idea to be presented to the world, and it is society that decides whether they want/need it in their life. Not that long ago you had to put your house on the line, or use life savings to back your idea to reality, before knowing whether it is an ideal solution in the customer’s eyes. It’s market feedback at it’s finest.

What didn’t you expect to encounter?
Where do we start. We created the Kickstarter campaign to produce a product while having a positive impact on the planet. We never anticipated the sheer amount of work that goes into setting up and maintaining a functioning business. We quickly learnt that we needed to upskill in worlds of logistics, domain management, trademarks, patents, accounting/finance and inventory management, customer service and marketing. Fortunately we both have a large expanse of skills, Jonathan is not your typical chartered accountant, and Jesse has a rare ability to bring creativity to practicality.

What were your biggest challenges along the way?
There have been many challenges over the past 12 months, some good and some bad, but all have helped to form the business that we run today. We understand that problems arise on a daily basis and that their is no point getting down about it, there is always a solution to a problem. During the Kickstarter campaign we experienced several production delays, logistics hurdles, refinements and in hindsight we could have communicated to our backers on Kickstarter in more detail than we did. Every step of this journey has been a wonderful learning curve. The main challenge has been workload. Initially we were both working full time jobs and while ensuring that at least one of us was completely on top of all aspects of the business.

Do you think enough designers are focusing on creating products which could be beneficial for the environment?
It seems more and more designers are now integrating solutions to social and environmental issues into their design projects. We believe it is becoming inherent in young designers to naturally seek the ethical route. Obviously more education is required around alternative materials and environmentally considered manufacturing processes but this shift in thinking is the beginning of something special. Currently there are only a few places in the world where designers are really celebrated for their abilities; saying this we can see designers are now beginning to understand the positive influence and role that they can play within society and the corporate world. When the memobottle journey begun we knew that in order to effectively communicate the issue of single-use bottles we had to provide a product that was not only addressing the problem but it had to be a convenient solution. Without convenience the path to unforced change is a slow one.

Where do you see yourselves in 5 years time? Any new products in the pipeline…?
We have some great ideas that we are currently implementing for memobottle. The underlying aim of memobottle is to assist in reducing the number of single-use bottles going into landfill and our environment; the one bottle movement has been set up to create a community of like minded people who wish to move towards a more reusable society. Personally we are committed to introducing products that provide environmental benefit whilst improving life convenience and make people think differently about the way they approach the world.

What advice do you have for someone with an original idea that they’d like to make a reality?
Give it a shot! The best thing about crowdfunding and social media platforms is that we now have the ability to put an idea out to the world and receive some accurate and informative feedback. Once upon a time inventors and entrepreneurs alike were forced to place their life savings or their house on the line. These days, with platforms like kickstarter, pozible and indiegogo we are able to let the people decide first. Our advice is to work hard and work fast, put your idea out there to the world and use the feedback that you obtain whether it be good or bad, to refine and improve your idea. Good luck!

Melanie Stockman

Click here to visit the memobottle website.