Founder's Story
Dehydration is a Massive Problem: How Two Founders Are Turning Water Into a Health Empire | Ep 219 with Yash and Smile Founders of Dr. Water
Mon, 12 May 2025
Yash (the "Water Genie") and Smile (an Ironman athlete) co-founded Dr. Water to solve what they call the world’s most overlooked health crisis: dehydration. With backgrounds in sustainability and performance science, the duo reveals how hydrogen water can transform energy, recovery, and aging—while also cutting plastic waste. They share the journey from building DTC wellness brands to going viral on TikTok and pitching billionaires via cold emails.Key Discussion PointsThe Spark of a Problem: Why 75% of Americans are dehydrated—and what that does to your body.From Ironman to Founder: How Smile’s training journey revealed major hydration myths.Hydrogen 101: The science behind hydrogen water, molecular research, and anti-aging benefits.Design Meets Wellness: Creating the first modern hydrogen tumbler with UV filtration.Go-to-Market Playbook: Why social selling (TikTok, Meta) beat Amazon for this brand—and how they got their first billionaire buyer.Founders Who Fit: Why this co-founder duo works—9 years of history, clarity of roles, and shared obsession.Educating a Market: Using MMA athletes, NFL doctors, and real stories to take hydrogen water mainstream.Key TakeawaysWater is Wellness: You can’t absorb supplements, recover well, or think clearly without proper hydration.Science Backed, Lifestyle Led: Products need to heal and be something people love showing off.Social is the New Shelf: Founder-led brands that educate and entertain will win on TikTok and YouTube.Complementary Founders Scale Faster: Visionary + executor beats any solo genius.Hydration is the First Habit: If you fix water, you unlock the foundation for every other wellness behavior.Closing ThoughtsFrom battling microplastics to unlocking cellular energy, Dr. Water isn’t just a hydration brand—it’s a movement. Tune in to learn how two first-time founders went from global agriculture and Ironman races to building a multi-country wellness company that just might reshape the water industry from the inside out.Our Sponsors:* Check out Indeed: https://indeed.com/FOUNDERSSTORY* Check out Northwest Registered Agent and use my code FOUNDERS for a great deal: https://northwestregisteredagent.com* Check out Plus500: https://plus500.com* Check out Rosetta Stone and use my code TODAY for a great deal: https://www.rosettastone.com
Chapter 1: Who are the founders of Dr. Water and what inspired them to start the company?
And then Yash is an innovator in wellness and sustainability space. So let's just let's just kick it off with what was the spark for entrepreneurship and then why this industry?
Yep, definitely. Definitely. First of all, thanks so much, Dan, for having us. Really excited to be here on the podcast. And just, you know, a quick story about us. Right. So essentially, like I've been building brands across wellness and sustainability over the last five years. I've built air purification solutions for commercial spaces.
Then I sort of went into helping farmers grow sustainable agriculture. So I spent three and a half years there raising money from the likes of USAID and sort of helping farmers.
farmers shift to sustainable agriculture so there was always that wellness component that you know whatever I do in my life I want to spend that time and my effort helping people live a healthier and better life and sometime last year we saw how the drinking water is sort of a big problem in the United States right and also US is one of the most dehydrated countries like more than 75% folks are dehydrated and
That is where we sort of saw that, you know, we want to help people hydrate well, which would, you know, have impacts across all sorts of aspects of their lives. And that's how Dr. Order came into being.
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Chapter 2: What is the problem of dehydration in the U.S. and why does it matter?
So Smile, how about you? I mean, you're an Ironman athlete. So why did you want to be an entrepreneur?
Sure. Yeah. So I think it starts way back, you know, even when I was a kid and I was, you know, inspired to do something of my own. And I have been, you know, laying the bricks down over the years for me to be leading that path. So I have only worked at startups at very early stage companies, for example, InVideo AI, which is the number one AI company revenue-wise from India.
And also I have been the founding member at a startup where we help 300 plus D2C brands. increase, help adopt video commerce solutions for them because videos were booming as we hit the pandemic and over the years. From a more personal side, when I decided that I wanted, I registered for Ironman and I went through that whole process of training myself for six months
That is when I realized that, you know, okay, I was doing dehydration wrong for all these years. And if people knew what I knew from this journey, and not everyone has to be an Ironman, but if they can, you know, take some learnings and improve their hydration, their lives will be like very different from a health perspective.
Yeah. And I mean, I didn't know that so many people are dehydrated, but I could see it, though. I'm like a big proponent of drinking water, but I have to make a mental effort to do so. I rarely see a lot of people drinking water. So this is this is obviously a big, big problem. It's a huge mission. How is the experience then of launching a company like. all the way around the world.
I imagine many people would think that, hey, I would love to enter the U.S. market. It's a big market for commerce or e-commerce. But I imagine it's not an easy feat.
Yeah, definitely, definitely. I mean, so from day one, like both of us, you know, me and Smile as founders were clear that we want to build a global brand because it also stems from our experience, right? Like I've done sales in the US, in Europe, in the past. Smile has also worked with many, many B2C brands across Canada, US, etc. And it also, you know, sort of comes from the other angle that
Water is something which is so human. It's such a basic thing. And if you look at the hydration and dehydration sort of stats, like it's a problem that any and everyone in the world faces. Right. And if you look at the from a problem and opportunity perspective, like the intensity of the problem is much higher in the US.
Like, for example, like most of the people either drink tap water or they buy plastic water bottles in bulk. Both of them are not good solutions.
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Chapter 3: What is hydrogen water and how does it benefit health and aging?
Chapter 4: How did Smile's Ironman training change his view on hydration?
I imagine many people would think that, hey, I would love to enter the U.S. market. It's a big market for commerce or e-commerce. But I imagine it's not an easy feat.
Yeah, definitely, definitely. I mean, so from day one, like both of us, you know, me and Smile as founders were clear that we want to build a global brand because it also stems from our experience, right? Like I've done sales in the US, in Europe, in the past. Smile has also worked with many, many B2C brands across Canada, US, etc. And it also, you know, sort of comes from the other angle that
Water is something which is so human. It's such a basic thing. And if you look at the hydration and dehydration sort of stats, like it's a problem that any and everyone in the world faces. Right. And if you look at the from a problem and opportunity perspective, like the intensity of the problem is much higher in the US.
Like, for example, like most of the people either drink tap water or they buy plastic water bottles in bulk. Both of them are not good solutions.
If you're drinking any of these, you need to stop and think whether you're hydrating in the right way because either you're getting tons of microplastics or you're taking tons of chemicals, viruses, you know, fluorides, chlorine, like many, many things that are there in your water. So, uh, That is something that, you know, we sort of saw and, you know, we are building a global brand, right?
Like we sell in the US, Canada, we also sell in UK, Europe as well. So helping families, you know, when we see these sort of impact stories, for example, like there's one mom in, you know, Austin, like she had pain in her legs, right? And you won't believe like just after three to four weeks of bringing hydrogen water, she could clearly see benefits in her inflammation pain, right?
Those are the sort of stories that sort of move us, motivate us to, you know, keep moving forward, keep helping people hydrate well. Because even if you look at the stats, Daniel, like you can consume all of the, any, all the supplements in the world. It's not going to work if you're not drinking water properly. If you're not hydrating well, all of the supplement literally goes to waste.
And which is why we see water as such an essential and overlooked thing, right? That if you don't hydrate well, like the entire body is not going to function well. And that's where things like hydrogen water comes in. So hydrogen water has more than 1300, 1400 researchers all across the world that backs it. It's been in the Japan since 1940s.
And what hydro molecule hydrogen does is it goes inside every cell of your body and it kills the oxidative stress, which is the number one cause of aging. Number one cause of, you know, inflammation, muscle recovery. So it has impacts across all of those facets.
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Chapter 5: What are the challenges and strategies for launching a global hydration brand?
I think people nowadays are more in tuned with wanting to be healthy. Like you said, microplastics have been talked about for a while, but they haven't at this intensity that I've ever seen that, you know, it's really being a thing that people want to try and eliminate or or at least diminish down. And I think we really want to live longer. We want to be healthier.
We we don't want to have to say, oh, I'm getting older and that means I have to have pain here. I have to be a certain way. So this it seems like a big market. So you have this incredible mission. You obviously have it very dialed in. You know exactly who you know who the consumer is. How do you look at the go to market strategy or what has worked for you so far?
So I think, you know, also adding to the point, previous question, like I, before, before Dr. Water, I did, you know, start selling in the US for one year. And I, the channels that we cracked were, you know, Meta and TikTok.
And I think going from a perspective that if you're in an industry where you already have a lot of inbound searches that are happening in your category, the most effective channels that are going to be working for you are going to be Amazon and Google. That being said, these are channels more where people are looking for solutions. But if you are trying to build a brand,
Nowadays, it's essential to be on be growing on Meta and TikTok and preferably organically. So these are some to start with. I think Meta, I think Google and Amazon are going to be the channels if you are in a category where you have a lot of.
searches in your category but if you are in a in a space where you need to educate people more and you need to you know tell people that what are the actual benefits or you will be getting from this i think it's going to be a meta and tiktok that you are going to be adopting While there are also like, you know, strategies that are like way fundamental that we don't use any of these platforms.
So one of the things that worked really well in getting, you know, billionaires to try our product was just simple emails. So I emailed one of the billionaires from India and also Silicon Valley. And in just one night, we got an order from Nitin Kamath, who bought our product. He browsed our website and was completely interested in the category.
And we also have had good conversations with him along the line.
That's amazing. I was just watching this story about a brand that Joe Rogan mentioned them once and it just changed their business. So you never know, right? Like you never know who's going to want to try it. I like the fact that you're just you're going out there and you're trying things. How do you see social selling, not just live selling, just online?
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Chapter 6: How is social selling on TikTok and Meta changing the e-commerce landscape for wellness brands?
Versus if there's a person on the other side,
telling you showing you things which you really care about for example like this is our product right like it's a hydrogen water bottle where you can see the bubbles coming in right so it makes hydrogen water and it's a reusable bottle it lasts for around two years so you won't believe as a company we have saved more than a hundred thousand single-use plastic bottles
And those are the sort of impact metrics that, you know, we really stand by. Because from day one, we were clear that, you know, what our audience, right? Like folks in New York, folks in California, they care about plastics. They care about the impact of what they use, right? And I mean, if you show that in a video, that is much more compelling for to make someone buy, right?
Compared to like, you know, just five bullet points on Amazon.
Yeah, for sure. It's more compelling when I'm watching something because we're also so used to watching like short clips now. I don't even read much. I probably read two sentences, but I would really listen and I would I consume more information when it's in a video versus when it's when it's written. So did you all create the design?
When you looked at the creation of the product, I am always very interested about this because I used to be an inventor of things that never made it. And so I really love talking to other people who have created and designed something. So when you looked at the design of it, just the phase of creation, how was that process?
Yeah, definitely. So it's actually a very nice question, Daniel. I love it. Because if you look at the hydrogen water space currently, like most of the companies are either selling very small bottles, which is around 10-15 ounces, which is just too small, right? Like you drink it once and it's finished. Or people are selling pre-filled plastic bottles or cans, right?
I mean, when we looked at, you know, how do we sort of help people hydrate well? One thing we're clear about is whatever we give them has to be a lifestyle statement. For example, this is a tumbler that we sell, right? It's something, you know, which is very easy to use, easy to carry. It fits in the cup holder. It's something that, you know, it's also inspired by Stanley.
I mean, you can clearly see because that's something that's very well, you know, sort of adopted by people in terms of design. So we were very clear that whatever product we make, it should not just be, you know, beautiful or scientific. It also needs to be something that people enjoy carrying, you know, enjoy drinking. You know, they want to show it off to other people.
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Chapter 7: Why is founder-led storytelling important for educating consumers about hydrogen water?
Folks like Gary Brekker are endorsing it. At the same time, we have actually partnered with doctors who treat NFL athletes and muscle recovery. We're partnering with MMA fighters, right? And these are folks who really love the product, right? They are seeing benefits in their own lives. And, you know...
As a country, right, like we Americans sort of see that, you know, sports is something that is much revered, right? Like Super Bowl athletes, like MMA fighters and also that's the reason why, you know, we look to partner with these kind of influencers and athletes who can sort of lead the way when, you know, you're educating it.
And at the same time, I mean, see, there are other players in the market as well. And we respect what they're doing, right? Like bringing awareness across the space. And there, you know, there's a dedicated molecular hydrogen institute that has been formed in the US in the last decade. So I am, by the way, a level one H2 expert certified from there. So, I mean, we do a bunch of stuff with them.
So, I mean, with the ecosystem sort of scaling, right, like we believe this is the right time for the industry to sort of become mainstream. For example, if you look at the life cycle of any supplement, right, like protein, creatinine, like, you know, these sort of supplements were used to treat patients earlier. But now they've become mainstream. That's the lifestyle for any supplement.
And we believe for molecular hydrogen, this is the right time for it to sort of become mainstream because of the effects of, you know, hydrogen ore. So, I mean, that's, you know, how we look at the education side of things.
Yeah, sounds like you're in the perfect place at the right time. By the way, when I used to have a men's skincare brand, we also sponsored UFC fighters. The only issue we had is we bet on all the people that lost. So nobody really became if you can if you can bet early, it can really become something huge. Right.
Like especially if you have you don't have a massive budget, but it's hard to know who is the right one to choose. But I'm very interested in this. And and I really I could tell one thing that is impressive when I talk to a lot of like hundreds of founders from, you know, billion dollar companies to startups. You know exactly what the product is.
You know how you created the product, who the product you're marketing it to. You really have dialed in the company, which I think a lot of people, if you ask them these questions, they wouldn't really know who are they serving? What does the product solve? The mission? They don't really know these things. They know maybe one, but not all. I can tell them.
I'm very impressed by the fact that you all really have it dialed in. I can see why you are the water genie, Josh. And I could see Smile here is like the marketing genius as well. So you make a great pairing of two people when it comes to co-founders. So what's a piece of advice around having a successful partnership? I think like having co-founders.
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Chapter 8: How did Yash and Smile approach the design and creation of the Dr. Water product?
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So there's this line by Ben Horowitz, the co-founder of Andreessen Horowitz, that in a founding team, in co-founders, there is one who is the entrepreneur and one who is the innovator. And there is overlap between that the innovator also knows to do the entrepreneur stuff and the entrepreneur also knows how to do the innovator stuff.
So if you have that combo and you have the personalities defined amongst yourself that and that I am responsible for this and we rely on each other that, you know, we are going to come through on the goals that we set or the expectation that we set and even overachieve that. And some of the times the other partner didn't even, you know, acknowledge that this is going to be so big.
That is where the surprise moment happens that, you know, we thought that, you know, that X is going to happen, but actually 10X happened. So one of the examples is that, you know, I was thinking that we'll be able to close our fundraise in about three months. That is how usually, you know, fundraisers take on a general timeline.
But we were able to close it within just one month, even less than that. That is the amount of, you know, trust and, you know, individual expertise that we bring to the table on entrepreneur and also on innovator side that we are able to, you know, move faster than other companies that are out there.
Yeah, and just to add to it, I mean, before I start, Daniel, thank you so much for your kind words. Really appreciate it. I hope we become the water genie and the marketing genius that you talked about. But coming to your question, I think that's one of the single most important thing you need to do as a founder to get your co-founder right, because it's going to be a bumpy ride.
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