Nebia (YC S15), a Shower Head Start-Up, Receives Funding from Tim Cook of Apple

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/08/11/nebia-a-shower-head-start-up-gets-funded-by-apple-ceo-cook/?_r=0

by marcjones281 • 11 years ago

57 58 11 years ago

bits.blogs.nytimes.com

booop• 11 years ago

YC seems to have taken in a lot of unusual startups this year.

toomuchtodo5• 11 years ago

Perhaps its a sign that its getting harder to find ideas with huge growth potential?

With that said, it does look like Nebia is solving a real problem (their shower head uses 6 gallons of water for a shower vs the traditional 20 gallons).

It appears they have a Kickstarter as well: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1499369835/nebia-shower...

jonlucc• 11 years ago

Sure, but at $250, I can afford a lot of water before it becomes cost-effective. They look like they're aiming at making a premium shower experience.I'm skeptical that it would take the soap off my body, though.

rokhayakebe2• 11 years ago

Unsual is the only market to invest in if you want disruption, or innovation.

10 years ago: "New VC firm funds unsual startups in an unsual program, at an unsual equity."

I do not think there are two people who thought Dropbox, Reddit or Airbnb would be what they are today.

illicium• 11 years ago

Dropbox, Reddit and Airbnb are not unusual.

chaostheory3• 11 years ago

This is a lot more normal than investing in a startup that rents out inflatable mattresses. This saves a lot of water while still allowing people to continue their 30 minute washing rituals, making it somehow feel even more awesome, and it just so happens be around during the ever continuing trend of a horrible droughts.

A lot of startups profess 'to make the world a better place'... this one easily delivers.

foolfoolz• 11 years ago

anyone really think a $250 shower head is going to withstand pressure from the sub $30 knockoffs that hit the market a year later?

wtallis• 11 years ago

I'm not sure how large the market is, but they would probably have no trouble charging $800 for a version intended to be used aboard boats.

chaostheory3• 11 years ago

Does Dyson have trouble fighting knockoffs?

qq66• 11 years ago

The bestselling upright vacuum on Amazon, the Bissell Cleanview, looks quite a bit like the original Dysons.

CamperBob2• 11 years ago

It's hardware. If it's not patented out the wazoo, it would never have attracted any investment.

aresant• 11 years ago

A "shower head" start up? Atomized water? From YC?

Digging into the multiple reviews / press articles I think I figured out why investors love this and we should be compelled.

This is not a "shower head".

This is something new that has the same end-game of getting you clean like a shower head, but much more efficiently:

“It’s like walking into a humid environment that gets you super drenched,” Winter [Nebia's CEO] said, insisting that the mist is powerful enough to handle elaborate shampoo and conditioner rituals. (1)

and

“So I’m standing under it, and one of the things I realize is that it’s really hard to explain,” says Parisi-Amon [Nebia's CTO] “You tell people it’s fundamentally different and they’re like, ‘Whatever, it’s a shower.’” (2)

It's fascinating to see the press then try to get their head around it too:

NYT - "In my testing of a prototype, the multinozzle shower head produced a misty spray (the word nebbia in Italian means mist) that immersed me in water, unlike traditional shower heads that shoot pressurized streams of water. It made my hair feel flat and uncooperative, though my skin felt soft and relaxed." (3)

Buzzfeed - "Instead, at first, I felt nothing — as if there weren’t enough water to get wet, let alone shower. It felt like stepping under the nozzle that mists vegetables at the grocery store, and the mist kept recirculating — like a sauna with whatever makes saunas work on overdrive. While I didn’t think it would, the mist eventually got the job done. I still got wet. The soap still foamed, and it still came off. I felt clean. . . BuzzFeed News can confirm that this is definitely a shower."

I'd love to try one before committing to $400 (consumer price) and a plumbing project.

And I think they've covered that with the brilliant strategy of pulling in Equinox Gyms and the implication that Goog/Apple will have these installed on campus.

Cool!

- - - -

(1) http://www.sfchronicle.com/business/article/S-F-startup-clai...

(2) http://www.wired.com/2015/08/nebia/

(3) http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/08/11/nebia-a-shower-head...

(4) http://www.buzzfeed.com/brendanklinkenberg/i-tried-silicon-v...

stephengillie• 11 years ago

Thanks for the great review and drawing together all of those sources. Really great comment.

---

This sounds like the worst showerhead ever - doesn't really get you wet unless you stand under it for a while. I can only guess how long it takes to rinse off with this after lathering your body. Showering already takes long enough.

This seems like it would be a more-effective sauna device.

tlb• 11 years ago

I showered with it, and it convinced me.

It does lack the mechanical blasting action of regular showers, which is good for removing caked mud. But that doesn't come up often in my life. I found it more pleasant and just as fast for normal feel-good, smell-good showering purposes.

strictnein• 11 years ago

"It does lack the mechanical blasting action of regular showers, which is good for removing caked mud"

Hmm, I need that, just due to playing with (and having) kids and doing yard work. I could imagine redoing a bathroom and having a shower large enough for a traditional shower head on one side, and this on the other.

gozo• 11 years ago

How different is it from a normal mist shower head? I found those infuriating, but they do perform better than a normal shower head if you have low water pressure.

I personally like the idea of recycling water better. Which potentially gives you even temperature, better pressure and water savings.

http://www.amazon.com/Watersaving-Experience-7-setting-Hands...

jahabrewer• 11 years ago

With some quick back-of-the-napkin math, I get just under 4 years of daily showers to break even (with their $400 retail price, assuming a generous $0.02/gal ($15/CCF), which is the highest residential marginal seasonal rate where I am).

If I wanted to reduce my water usage, I'd just take shorter showers and alternate days when I've not yet become smelly. These cost $0 and yield immediate savings.

coryl• 11 years ago

If I wanted to reduce my water usage, I'd just take shorter showers and alternate days when I've not yet become smelly. These cost $0 and yield immediate savings.

Changing a person's behaviour, including your own, is pretty hard, its its less likely you'll actually follow through and take less showers.

Some people also live in households with multiple people, so that can affect your math as well.

dwightgunning• 11 years ago

Changing a person's ability to recognise this is even harder.

iloveyouocean• 11 years ago

Imagine the savings you would see by taking shorter showers, alternating days, and using a misting shower head.

arrrg• 11 years ago

Saving water doesn’t make sense at all in a great many places where (clean) water is abundant, population is stagnant and infrastructure already exists. In other words, in many places water supply is mostly all about fixed costs and trouble with the water supply are not in any way related to consumer use of it in showers. (Agricultural use that leaves the water harder to clean up completely and an ageing population that flushes more and more drugs down toilets are more likely to crop up as issues, both unrelated to the amount of water that is used to shower.)

In fact, disuse of water infrastructure can actually damage pipes and be very costly as opposed to just leaving the water running from time to time. (Just the logical consequence when the infrastructure – something that in the case of water can easily last half a century or more once built – is the main cost factor, not the water.)

Obviously this is not universal and there are also a great many places where water really is a scarce resource.

sachinag• 11 years ago

Why on earth would they focus on the payback period when the point is that it's a better shower? Is this because Kickstarter backers are supposedly more rational consumers than other people? I doubt that. If it's a more pleasant shower, then sell that.

roymurdock• 11 years ago

Agreed, with a price tag of $400 this is a luxury product. Early adopters aren't going to care about a payback period in the slightest - they just want to experience the cool factor of a new shower + the feel good factor of saving water.

Maybe the company foresees on some kind of government subsidy to make these more affordable in the future?

Side note: Without having tried it, I find the idea of being misted like a vegetable in a grocery store somewhat unappealing as opposed to a nice hot shower after a long day of work. Perhaps the actual feeling is a lot nicer than I'm imagining with this level of VC/investor support.

_red• 11 years ago

True, but do you think that sort of analysis has stopped people from buying a Prius?

giarc4• 11 years ago

For those surprised by the cost, I did a quick search on HomeDepot.com for the current line up of "shower head"s.

The largest category is the $50-100 group where HomeDepot lists 633 products. In the $200-250 category, where the Nebia is priced there are 95. Above $250, HomeDepot carries nearly 450 products including a $5500 shower head.

So if you think this is too much money to pay for a shower head, think again. It's the same discussion that appears every time Dyson launches a product (see LED light).

sunnynagra2• 11 years ago

I think it is important to remember that the $250 is only the Kickstarter reward price. The actual retail price is $399 ($150 higher than what you discussed).

giarc4• 11 years ago

HD has nearly 200 between $300-$500. $400 isn't a shower head only available to the 1%'ers of the world. It's not your $40 basic shower head, but that's not the market they are going after. Look at this $1000 unit that Restoration Hardware has, and they are doing alright (https://www.restorationhardware.com/catalog/product/product....)

dsr_• 11 years ago

Remember, too, that Home Depot has the advantage of not having to stock everything everywhere. If they have 450 shower heads that cost over $250, it's a good bet that most of their stores carry one or two of them at most -- and that they can all be ordered, if that's what you want.

I wouldn't be too surprised if HD actually has no warehouse where you can find a $5500 shower head -- but the manufacturer will happily ship you one when HD orders it. Or perhaps they will make one when you order it. I don't see the $5500 shower head as being in high demand or time-sensitive.

giarc4• 11 years ago

You are correct, the HD page lists 124 shower heads as "in store". And even then I'm sure it varies store to store.

My comment was more to say, $250 isn't a crazy expensive shower head. I wouldn't consider it to be in the elite category only accessible to the world's 1%. Even at $400 (the eventual retail price) it's not bad. HD has nearly 200 shower heads between $300-$500. Restoration Hardware has a similar shower head to the Nedia (minus the small droplet water) for $1000 and Restoration Hardware exists in many malls around NA (https://www.restorationhardware.com/catalog/product/product....).

danr42• 11 years ago

I slightly cringe when startups that receive funding start a kickstarter campaign just for the hype.

Nevertheless, the product looks really awesome and I would love to try it.

snake117• 11 years ago

I couldn't agree more. You would think with the funding they receive they wouldn't need to raise a 100k. I like the idea and would be definitely interested in trying it out, but there are other ways to advertise your product.

pwinter282• 11 years ago

dan and snake, thanks for your comments. We decided to launch on Kickstarter because we wanted to gauge what the interest level among consumers would be. Furthermore, KS is the best place to gather significant quantities of feedback on product features and finishing touches before going to mass production. Our decision to raise funds on KS is more about learning from our backers and gauging initial interest than anything else.

gallamine• 11 years ago

I'm curious to know how the droplet size effects the water temperature required to take, "a nice hot shower." Wouldn't the smaller droplets increase surface area and convection/radiative heat loss? There is a certain sublime feeling of having hot droplets rain down on you.

aedocw• 11 years ago

Buckminster Fuller had the same idea in the early 1930's with the fog gun shower[1]. I sometimes wonder how many of his ideas will be recycled and gain traction in the years to come.

[1] http://www.bfi.org/about-fuller/big-ideas/dymaxion-world/dym...

freefrancisco• 11 years ago

Interesting but too expensive for just a shower head, if it did something else, for example remove fluoride from the water, then I might be more inclined to buy it.

__Joker• 11 years ago

Power saving/ water saving FWIW is a social fashion, which the consumer need to show up. You need to show up your priuses and teslas. Your shower head might not make that ecological concern statement that people might be looking for.

I am not sure how much water to energy to dollars it would save against a conventional shower-head for to be positioned for budget customers, like say a energy consuming light bulbs.

May be it gives a different shower feeling and people will like it simply based on that.

Whatever the concern may be the product is worth building, if nothing else to expand our horizons, be it in our success or be it in our failures.

gkya• 11 years ago

Every time I see such startup attempt with an invention I think of this: They have made an invention, then they've patented it to prevent others from making the same product and selling it, then they'll start selling this thing and if they are somehow happen to be very successful (microsoft, apple, google, etc.) we'll accuse them of becoming trusts, as if they've not shown the intent thereof with the very action of patenting the invention, and as if when a startup comes out with the slogan "our invention will revolutionise the world," they are not willing to be the one company that sells every single instance of the product, which is, well, the very definition of a trust. So at the end of the day it is legitimate to feed the aspiring trusts until the day they become actual trusts bashing others with their patents, when we'll call them patent trolls that are killing the startup arena, market, world or whatever. Enter out two-faced deceitful and hypocritical western culture.

Then, a "shower-head startup" sounds more like a name for a comic strip than an actual business. I'm sorry, and I know that here is news dot ycombinator dot com, but yet, this startup thing is really becoming a big joke.

volaski• 11 years ago

I don't even know what you are rambling on and on about esoterically in the first paragraph, but as for your argument in the second paragraph, there are actual existing "businesses" that do sell showerheads. You bought it. I bought it. Everyone who lives in a house with a bathroom bought it. Otherwise we wouldn't have showerheads. It's not a comic strip.

zoul• 11 years ago

I wonder how it copes with calcium scaling?

wehadfun• 11 years ago

I would be surprised if anyone who would but a $250 shower head cares about saving money on their water bill.

rogerbinns• 11 years ago

The drawback to smaller droplets is that the larger surface area means they lose heat quicker, and so can consume more energy. The same problem occurs with those heads that put air into the center of each droplet.

I recommend trying out h2okinetic shower heads (now owned by delta in the US). They have channels that cause something similar to cavitation which then results in large droplets widely spread. It is like being in a rain storm. The result is feeling like more water is flowing than actually is, so flow rates can be reduced.

Their 90 second fluff piece video explains it, with the actual working (not moving) part shown at 30 seconds in: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxWeyd-pnK8

webnrrd2k• 11 years ago

Does any one know if it'll wash out shampoo or conditioner? I have trouble believing you can wash your hair with it, which makes $400 seem steep.

kilotaras• 11 years ago

Wouldn't minerals residue become a problem quite quickly in some places. I don't think it will be as easy to remove as from regular shower head.

Nebia (YC S15), a Shower Head Start-Up, Receives Funding from Tim Cook of Apple

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