8 ms·

FreeWater is the world's first free beverage company

6 points by FreeWater 8y ago

Our startup is FreeWater, the world’s first free beverage company. More importantly, 50% of our profits will be shared with our members and charity. That means we’re going to pay you to drink alkaline water while we ensure everyone on Earth has access to safe drinking water. Our market is worth more than a trillion dollars annually and we’re going to start building the first version of our software application soon. Our unique insight is that we will earn greater profits paying people to drink water than was ever possible while selling it. Furthermore, this process can be duplicated with any product or service that’s renewable, that collects data, or can be produced at near zero marginal cost. We have a fast-growing team that consists of entrepreneurs, software engineers, and a lobbyist. We’re looking for $8,000,000 to create our first micro-factory, 3 high volume kiosks, cashless vending machines, and our ecosystem. This will allow us to distribute 61,000,000 beverages the first year with a minimum revenue of $28,856,657. And finally, FreeWater is only the beginning. Our vision is a highly profitable universal income that will ensure everyone has access to everything that’s needed to live a fulfilled life! If you have any questions or would like to get involved please shoot me an email me at Josh@freeboxedwater.com https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zd748KfMnLY&t=3s

gus_massa 8y ago
What about the privacy of the users? How much information is shared with the advertisers? Also, 61,000,000 is a lot. Like 100 packages sold per minute, or 80,000 annuals users (that drink two packs per day).
- FreeWater 8y ago
  We're going to take extreme precautions to protect the privacy of our users. The most profitable data we're going to collect doesn't exist today. Consider this: Smart Data – Currently, our shopping experience reflects the combination of the products we want and the products we can afford. When something we want is too expensive, we replace that item for something that’s more in line with our budget. This misinformed data is sold and used to create more unwanted products that are more likely to go to waste. When every item in a marketplace is free, consumers will only choose the products they truly want. This data is currently unavailable and represents the most valuable segment of every product’s value chain. Also, it's going to be very easy to distribute 60 million beverage the first year because we aren't selling them. We going to pay our customers to drink them!
crooked-v 8y ago
...so where does the money actually come from?
- FreeWater 8y ago
  Advertising, transaction fees, and data. Please take a look at our first commercial and you will get the big picture! After we prove this concept with water, we're going to expand into just about anything you can find in any department store! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zd748KfMnLY&t=5s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zd748KfMnLY&t=5s
- NonEUCitizen 8y ago
  Venture Capital? During the dotcom days, there were business models such as: https://www.wired.com/2000/04/our-ad-on-your-car-400-a-month/ https://www.wired.com/2000/04/our-ad-on-your-car-400-a-month...
  - FreeWater 8y ago
    Yes, we are about to start the process of seeking out venture capital. The article you linked is interesting because that's along the same lines of how I came up with this idea. Initially, I wanted to launch FreeTaxi, the world's first free taxi service to take down Uber. However, it has too many moving parts for now so we changed gears and started working on FreeWater first. Please take a look at FreeTaxi if you're interested. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0uQS2UyjbVI&t=75s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0uQS2UyjbVI&t=75s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbxpGejFI_g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbxpGejFI_g
- FreeWater 8y ago
  Advertising, transaction fees, and data. Please take a look at this one-minute commercial and you'll understand the concept. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zd748KfMnLY&t=7s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zd748KfMnLY&t=7s
ethiclub 8y ago
This would be wonderful if this model was proven profitable - I would love to see the water bottle industry hit hard by this (and plastics / packaging at the moment just aren't changing quickly enough in the snack food industry). The box design being a barcode in its own right seems to be a very elegant solution too. Re: 100% Hemp box - May I ask about some of the rest of the manufacturing? - Did you have difficulty with eco-friendly bleaching processes with the containers? How about the hemp, was the supply-chain hard to set up in a responsible way (e.g. pesticides, shipping, labour, deforestation, soil degredation etc.) - What's the cap made out of? - What do you do in terms of inks? Presumably water based?
- FreeWater 8y ago
  We are very excited because FreeWater is only the beginning. My vision is a highly profitable universal income. This concept has the ability to disrupt the entire retail industry because it's more than a business model, it's a new type of economic platform too! In the beginning, our cartons will be manufactured at Tetra Pak. These cartons will be 70% renewable and are a big leap forward from plastic bottles. However, over time, our packaging is going to evolve into the world's first 100% hemp carton. This process won't be difficult because I have family who has been in the hemp industry the last 50 years. My godfather was the late Jack Heror who was the first person to legalize pot in America. The cap will also be made of hemp. You can read about the uses of hemp in my godfather's book called the Emperor Wears No Clothes. The beauty of making this out of hemp is that we will obtain CBD oil as a byproduct which will also be distibuted for free, but paid for by ads. This business model is 10X more profitable than any retail company on Earth. Once we get going we are going to go public with a one-year public security offering that will fund our cultivation and growth. My wife is Serbian and it's 100% legal to cultivate hemp in her country. Farmland and labor is cheap so it seems like the right place to farm. To be perfectly honest, I havn't considered different types of inks yet. Any suggestions?
  - ethiclub 8y ago
    Good luck. I think the business model could indeed be proven ethical - The main issue with advertising/marketing is not that it exists, but that it is not regulated enough (by the state or any other party) and is (in Western markets) biased/deceptive - So I feel that your organization will need a rigorous ethics board (and a strict 'customer fit' step in your Customer>lead process) that holds itself to a higher standard than state legislation allows for. For example, you will need a blacklist of things to advertise (e.g. won't accept hate groups buying ad space) and a level of demonstratable proof of what claims are made on the adverts (attempt to refuse hyperbolic product promises). I can't quite figure out how the business model can be proven profitable though - Are advertisers really going to be able to subsidize the full cost of the entire business operations and supply chain? I imagine the product pricing model will be a 'per unit' type - Perhaps a mix of cost-per-click/impression and traditional advertising-space hiring. But imagining arbitrary rev and costs here: Are you really going to be able to produce a unit for $1 (inc fixed costs), and sell the advertising space & data on that unit for $1.50+?. I hope it is indeed possible - The free market could massively benefit from a lower tier (i.e. your offerings) and a higher tier (paid-for offerings without advertising or data collection). Re: Inks - I cannot provide exact advice for inks to print onto hemp, but in general I believe there are three categories of eco-friendly inks that are worth investigating: UV inks, soy/vegetable based inks, and water-based inks. These seem to be the areas currently achieving the smallest ecological impact /the fewest trade-offs/externalities. Ink is, unfortunately, a horribly messy product to satisfy in terms of ethical considerations. There are so many moving parts and components in the supply chain, so many compromises, and such particular requirements to fulfill (the material to print onto etc.)

6 points by FreeWater 8y ago

gus_massa 8y ago

What about the privacy of the users? How much information is shared with the advertisers? Also, 61,000,000 is a lot. Like 100 packages sold per minute, or 80,000 annuals users (that drink two packs per day).

FreeWater 8y ago
We're going to take extreme precautions to protect the privacy of our users. The most profitable data we're going to collect doesn't exist today. Consider this: Smart Data – Currently, our shopping experience reflects the combination of the products we want and the products we can afford. When something we want is too expensive, we replace that item for something that’s more in line with our budget. This misinformed data is sold and used to create more unwanted products that are more likely to go to waste. When every item in a marketplace is free, consumers will only choose the products they truly want. This data is currently unavailable and represents the most valuable segment of every product’s value chain. Also, it's going to be very easy to distribute 60 million beverage the first year because we aren't selling them. We going to pay our customers to drink them!

crooked-v 8y ago

...so where does the money actually come from?

FreeWater 8y ago
Advertising, transaction fees, and data. Please take a look at our first commercial and you will get the big picture! After we prove this concept with water, we're going to expand into just about anything you can find in any department store! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zd748KfMnLY&t=5s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zd748KfMnLY&t=5s
NonEUCitizen 8y ago
Venture Capital? During the dotcom days, there were business models such as: https://www.wired.com/2000/04/our-ad-on-your-car-400-a-month/ https://www.wired.com/2000/04/our-ad-on-your-car-400-a-month...
- FreeWater 8y ago
  Yes, we are about to start the process of seeking out venture capital. The article you linked is interesting because that's along the same lines of how I came up with this idea. Initially, I wanted to launch FreeTaxi, the world's first free taxi service to take down Uber. However, it has too many moving parts for now so we changed gears and started working on FreeWater first. Please take a look at FreeTaxi if you're interested. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0uQS2UyjbVI&t=75s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0uQS2UyjbVI&t=75s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbxpGejFI_g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbxpGejFI_g
FreeWater 8y ago
Advertising, transaction fees, and data. Please take a look at this one-minute commercial and you'll understand the concept. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zd748KfMnLY&t=7s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zd748KfMnLY&t=7s

ethiclub 8y ago

This would be wonderful if this model was proven profitable - I would love to see the water bottle industry hit hard by this (and plastics / packaging at the moment just aren't changing quickly enough in the snack food industry). The box design being a barcode in its own right seems to be a very elegant solution too. Re: 100% Hemp box - May I ask about some of the rest of the manufacturing? - Did you have difficulty with eco-friendly bleaching processes with the containers? How about the hemp, was the supply-chain hard to set up in a responsible way (e.g. pesticides, shipping, labour, deforestation, soil degredation etc.) - What's the cap made out of? - What do you do in terms of inks? Presumably water based?

FreeWater 8y ago
We are very excited because FreeWater is only the beginning. My vision is a highly profitable universal income. This concept has the ability to disrupt the entire retail industry because it's more than a business model, it's a new type of economic platform too! In the beginning, our cartons will be manufactured at Tetra Pak. These cartons will be 70% renewable and are a big leap forward from plastic bottles. However, over time, our packaging is going to evolve into the world's first 100% hemp carton. This process won't be difficult because I have family who has been in the hemp industry the last 50 years. My godfather was the late Jack Heror who was the first person to legalize pot in America. The cap will also be made of hemp. You can read about the uses of hemp in my godfather's book called the Emperor Wears No Clothes. The beauty of making this out of hemp is that we will obtain CBD oil as a byproduct which will also be distibuted for free, but paid for by ads. This business model is 10X more profitable than any retail company on Earth. Once we get going we are going to go public with a one-year public security offering that will fund our cultivation and growth. My wife is Serbian and it's 100% legal to cultivate hemp in her country. Farmland and labor is cheap so it seems like the right place to farm. To be perfectly honest, I havn't considered different types of inks yet. Any suggestions?
- ethiclub 8y ago
  Good luck. I think the business model could indeed be proven ethical - The main issue with advertising/marketing is not that it exists, but that it is not regulated enough (by the state or any other party) and is (in Western markets) biased/deceptive - So I feel that your organization will need a rigorous ethics board (and a strict 'customer fit' step in your Customer>lead process) that holds itself to a higher standard than state legislation allows for. For example, you will need a blacklist of things to advertise (e.g. won't accept hate groups buying ad space) and a level of demonstratable proof of what claims are made on the adverts (attempt to refuse hyperbolic product promises). I can't quite figure out how the business model can be proven profitable though - Are advertisers really going to be able to subsidize the full cost of the entire business operations and supply chain? I imagine the product pricing model will be a 'per unit' type - Perhaps a mix of cost-per-click/impression and traditional advertising-space hiring. But imagining arbitrary rev and costs here: Are you really going to be able to produce a unit for $1 (inc fixed costs), and sell the advertising space & data on that unit for $1.50+?. I hope it is indeed possible - The free market could massively benefit from a lower tier (i.e. your offerings) and a higher tier (paid-for offerings without advertising or data collection). Re: Inks - I cannot provide exact advice for inks to print onto hemp, but in general I believe there are three categories of eco-friendly inks that are worth investigating: UV inks, soy/vegetable based inks, and water-based inks. These seem to be the areas currently achieving the smallest ecological impact /the fewest trade-offs/externalities. Ink is, unfortunately, a horribly messy product to satisfy in terms of ethical considerations. There are so many moving parts and components in the supply chain, so many compromises, and such particular requirements to fulfill (the material to print onto etc.)