#93 Shadi Bakour: Tackling a Social Issue with the World’s 1st Purified Water in a Refillable Bottle

#93 Shadi Bakour: Tackling a Social Issue with the World’s 1st Purified Water in a Refillable Bottle

Recently, Rahul interviewed Mr. Shadi Bakour, the Co-Founder and CEO of PathWater, an organization looking to save the planet through the world’s first purified water refillable bottle. PathWater has partnered with 1 Hotels, Empire, been featured on the New York Times, Forbes, Business Insider, and has even been sponsored by SalesForce and Guy Fieri. Mr. Bakour has also been deemed a Forbes 30 Under 30 Social Entrepreneur in 2020.

Rahul started off by asking the usual regarding Mr. Bakour’s roots and how they helped shape him and his company. Bakour answers that most people go into business to make money as their primary incentive. Bakour, however, prides his evolution, pivots in his mission and his ambition. Although he didn’t have much money or material growing up, he always had an entrepreneurial spirit ingrained within him. He credits his current success to this spirit.

Rahul’s next question regards possible mentors of Mr. Bakour, who started his entrepreneurial journey very young. After a meeting with over a hundred people, Mr. Bakour finally reached out to one, boldly asking him to be his mentor. Fortunately, he accepted. However, this mentorship never came to fruition after limited communication. Learning from this experience, Bakour now believes that mentorship should be informal. Formal mentorship programs may stymie individualism, a possible reason why Mr. Bakour prefers a more laissez-faire approach. He suggests that a mentor doesn’t have to be the most successful person in the business world, but simply someone to bounce ideas off of. The key is to “talk to as many people as you can.” After all, these are future customers. Mr. Bakour strongly advocates experiences and relations as the two non-negotiables in the business world.

When asked about his mission, Mr. Bakour describes the initial stages of his life in the Middle East, a place where it was okay to throw plastic out on the sidewalk. He was always aware of plastics’ negative impact on the environment and physical wellbeing, but not to what extent. He realized, however, through research and analogies. One discovery, he states, is that humans eat two credit cards worth of plastic every month just through food systems. By eliminating plastic we’re not just saving fish or turtles, but ourselves. Mr. Bakour is glad that this awareness regarding plastic’s implications is being spread across the world. Aside from reducing plastic intake, Mr. Bakour’s mission remains motivated by the fact that only 9% of plastic is recycled, a substance that requires 700 years to decompose.

Next, Rahul asks about Mr. Bakour’s business development process from ideation to marketing. He explains the initial investment process is full of negotiation and therefore quite difficult. However, their investors are now very pleased with the deal they made. This allowed them to produce initial bottles, planning to later redesign while taking branding into account. To increase cost effectiveness when branding, they outsourced to a cheaper company, taking over 50 into consideration first. Apart from designing the bottles, which took over 7 iterations, they also had to pull teeth to fill the bottles with the right water at a reasonable price. To the outside world, these tasks may seem simple, but in actuality are quite daunting when taking them head-on.

To young environmentalists, Mr. Bakour urges them to persevere and keep pushing their mission forward. He also advises them to not lose sight of the business, since both making money and being sustainable are necessary to make an outsized impact on the outside world. On the topic of giving advice, Mr. Bakour credits his and PathWater’s accolades to having a story, being relatable, and remaining genuine and authentic.

Furthermore, Mr. Bakour describes his team as having a growth mindset. Many of them were willing to leave their secure, yet menial and repetitive, high-paying jobs for PathWater, a place they had the chance to innovate and create something new.

Finally, Rahul asks about advice for current high school and college students who want to make a positive impact on society. Mr. Bakour begins by stating that variation from student to student gives way to situational tendencies, since there are no right or wrong answers. Nonetheless, he advises being able to balance pragmatism and being able to contemplate whether or not a concept works well with idealism, whether it be believing in themselves or their team.

You can watch the full interview here.

Interviewer: Rahul Kavuru

Author: Srikar Parsi

Editor: Afia Lateef

Graphic: Sraavya Penumudi

Video Editing: Chinmay Korapati