Bill Waters: We aim to massively reduce plastic waste, space waste and toxic waste with our unique interchangeable concentrate sprayer.

A quick introduction about what your company does/your values/mission.

Xtreme Eco makes the most portable, efficient and ecological cleaning system in the world. We aim to massively reduce plastic waste, space waste and toxic waste with our unique interchangeable concentrate sprayer.

Tell us about yourself?

I’ve been an Innovation Marketer for over thirty years. A number of my startup clients produced ‘ready to use’ cleaning products that I managed to attain national and sometimes international distribution for. In every case it was the same thing, a small amount of active ingredient mixed with almost all water in a big plastic bottle, with an expensive trigger sprayer, labels, and boxes. We would fill hundreds of polluting trucks and ship them all over the world……we were shipping water!!!!!! How stupid is that? I wanted to figure out how to make it better, and I did.

If you could go back in time a year or two, what piece of advice would you give yourself?

Not wasted my time on retailers. In my thirty years of working with retailers, I have never seen the industry so panicky and disloyal. The desperation is palpable. Consolidation of vendors, revolving door of buyers, driving income through vendor penalties. I spent a lot of time in online software development in the early 2000’s, knowing the traditional newspaper world would be replaced, and it was. I see the exact same thing happening to retailers today.

What problem does your business solve?

Home clutter. When dwellings are getting smaller, young families can’t afford homes and have to settle for apartments, the last thing needed are big bulky cleaners filling up the space. One Xtreme Eco Multi Sprayer with four 2 oz concentrates will replace dozens of big bottles of cleaning solutions.

What is the inspiration behind your business?

Customers inspired the business. After years of selling ‘ready to use’ cleaners, a regular complaint was the clutter. ‘I don’t need another bottle cluttering my closet.’ Cost also inspired the business. When the active ingredients for the ‘ready to use’ products represented less than 10% of the cost of the unit, a cost that is transferred to the customer, something needed to change. A third inspiration was the idiocy of shipping water and passing that cost onto customers.

I saw it externally and internally. All aspects of the traditional cleaning CPG industry are wasteful, ecologically harmful and tragically abusive.

What is your magic sauce?

We have the only interchangeable concentrate spray bottle for consumers. Our natural and powerful cleaning concentrates are made from all natural sources. The concentrates were originally developed for industrial applications as alternatives to the toxic chemicals that were destroying our earth.

What is the plan for the next 5 years? What do you want to achieve?

In five years we want to replicate the success of Sodastream, the leader in home carbonation systems with international distribution, $600 million in annual revenue and a solution that reduces the dumping of plastics throughout our world. Our mission and values are the same, and therefore our vision is too.

What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced so far?

The pandemic. We started five years ago with the concept. It took a year to formalize the legal aspects of the business, at which point we were ready to design…..and then the pandemic hit. Try being a small guy trying to get suppliers, let alone get them to answer phones. For two years we struggled to design, test and build the sprayer. Then it took a year to get tools made for the machines, then refined. What should have taken two years ended up taking five as a result.

How do people get involved/buy into your vision?

We are actively seeking affiliate selling strategies. Our faith in retail is diminishing and we think there’s a great opportunity for influencers to do quite well selling, not only our products, but products of hundreds like us. As jobs are being eliminated, pay not keeping up with inflation, living costs increasing astronomically, people need a profitable side hustle and I think selling products of emerging companies is the solution.