Brian Sheng:
Really nice to be here and really excited for our podcast today.

Fabian Geyrhalter:
Oh, it’s so great to have you. A quick note to my listeners, you’re once again in the midst of a back-to-back mini-series. This one is of two 30 under 30 members who use technology to advance and more sustainably utilize very basic materials or compounds such as wood. And now in Brian’s case, water. So your company Brian Aquaria has in my eyes an interesting dilemma. It’s value prop is so good. It is hard to believe as you literally make water out of thin air. So for three and a half grand, I as a consumer buy a water generator that I can put anywhere in my home or roll it around my home since it is on wheels. And within 24 hours it will create water out of air and it produces 24 gallons of fresh water after that each day. And that is only one of many of your brands products that supply premium drinking water for homes, for businesses, for outdoor spaces, as well as backup water generators that are all completely independent of plumbing infrastructure pew.

So on top of that, you were crowned one of time’s best inventions of 2024, and you have secured 102 million in funding this more large scale Aquaria air water infrastructure project or project. So needless to say, many others are just as amazed as I was about aquarius’s a potential. How did this all get started? I mean, it’s such a big idea. I know there are some others that are in the space, but how did it get started and also how difficult was it of a story to tell initially? I mean the idea of generating water out of air?

Brian Sheng:
Well, first of all, thank you for teeing me up, Fabian. That’s a great introduction and beginning to Aquaria. And for me personally, I think this is a continuation of my own personal passion and my own personal purpose because I think I’ve always been a problem solver. I think that’s my attitude to life is how do I work on things that make the world better and solve some of the problems that we see and we face every single day. And so I don’t come from a water background, but I’ve always been passionate about solving problems. And so this isn’t the first company I’ve built. I’ve built many companies prior to this. But about five years ago when I exited my last company, I was thinking, well, I think I’ve done well so far and for what I want to do next, I really want to contribute all of my energy to solving something that goes beyond myself, something that really pushes the envelope on what we could accomplish. And water is what became my focus personally. And that’s how Aquaria came about.

Fabian Geyrhalter:
Just it easily, huh? I’m sure there was more to it in the beginning. So you started to focus on water. I mean, where do you begin? I mean, I think you had a partner or you have a partner too, which I believe is your brother, right? This is like a family affair.

Brian Sheng:
Yes, it’s indeed. It is indeed.

Fabian Geyrhalter:
Amazing. So the two of you decide that this is a good life’s work. This is something that’s really important to figure out. How did you start? Did you look for investment immediately? Was it bootstrapped for a long time? How did you experiment? What was your first product? Take us through the first six to 12 months because those are usually the hardest.

Brian Sheng:
So the first six to 12 months actually began years ago. So of course we just discussed, while I think this is a continuation of what I care about, of course the idea to then out of nowhere, I actually did my thesis research back in college on distributed energy and water infrastructure technologies. So essentially looking at the way that infrastructure is built for our society, more specifically how water and energy is provided to us and what are some of the problems that we face as we see more hurricanes and more extreme weather and all of that stuff that we are trying to mitigate and solve. And so that’s when I came across this technology making water from the air, which we know from watching Star Wars or other concepts like that. And my co-founder and brother also was a hardware founder of his own. He had also built a robotics startup before. And so we said, okay, well we have different skill sets that work very well together, and I think there’s a lot of potential in this technology and bringing more water to our communities. And so the first actually couple, the six to 12 months of building the business at its foundation and a lot of research that I’ve done in the past. And so what the first thing we did was really thinking and through, okay, well what is the product? What is the technology we need to build? Turning something from research into reality?

Fabian Geyrhalter:
Unbelievable. Well, it helps tremendously that your brother had a background in actual product, right? Because that’s where my question was heading. It’s like there needs to be something there in order for you to actually start working on something that big. Now tell me, for the actual product, you don’t need any plumbing, but it must rely heavily on electricity. How does that work? Walk us through a little bit about how the product works on a consumer base and then also in a bigger scale when it comes to more communities or businesses.

Brian Sheng:
We intuitively know that there’s ton of water in the air, there’s clouds, it rains. So we all know that, but I think most people don’t know that there’s actually 200 times more water in the atmosphere around this than what humans us as a society use in totality every year. I mean maybe, do you remember high school earth signs? Like the hydrologic cycle? Do you remember that concept? It’s

Fabian Geyrhalter:
Been a long time. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Brian Sheng:
Well, it’s basically like rain evaporation and just the planet’s natural cycle to replenish itself. So that’s where some of the basics come from. So what that tells us is there’s plenty of water in the sky around us. So then we have to build a technology that sucks in this air and then in an energy efficient way, produce enough volumes of water that can support our entire communities. And so that’s really the product is it could be various aside this like you mentioned at the beginning of our podcast, but really, really centrally is about building a series of systems that allows us to, after all of this air that’s just around us, and then turn the water that is in vapor form or in cloud form, however you call it, in the air, and then purify that into drinkable usable water.

Fabian Geyrhalter:
Amazing. And I mean, the way that you say it is on the nose, it makes a lot of sense. It’s all around us, but to actually figure out how on a large scale you can solve that is a whole different story. And looking at your website, you are catching quite a large net of target target customers. So direct to consumer, business to business, business to government, indoor to outdoor, small to large. Are you in the face of defining the perfect use case or is the idea to go after everyone and become the overall market leader? I know in Time Magazine you’re quoted saying, our vision is to be able to one day supply water for entire cities from the sky, so that together with your very small social media footprint for a D two C company, it makes me believe that I know the answer to my question, but tell me is that, what is that vision? Where’s the company going as far as who you are actually serving in the long term?

Brian Sheng:
Absolutely. I think you painted it perfectly. Wealthy, which is our vision at Aquaria ultimately is about unlocking a new source of water for human development. Today we think about providing water from the ground and below, whether that’s rivers, oceans, reservoirs, et cetera, et cetera. And of course we’re bringing more technology and more supplies of water, these cell, et cetera, online. But what we think is that there’s this new frontier that’s all around us, which is just the air and Aquarius’s vision is to be able to make that a realistic option and a widespread option for us to just get reliable clean water and abundantly. So when that vision, that’s what we’re trying to do at Aquaria, when we think about a long-term 10 year plus plan, then today when we look backwards, actually there is a very strong direct to consumer component as the homeowner, since fundamentally we’re providing people water.

And if we think about what is the most basic building block of our American city, then it’s the American single family home. So that’s really where it kind of breaks down is that I wouldn’t say we are specifically for B2B or B2C, and these different business model is rather we’re taking a bottoms up approach in changing what people understand is possible with providing water and then building a platform that allows any type of user of water, be it a hotel, a home, a school, it gives them the option of limitless available reliable water. I know that’s a mouthful. I don’t

Fabian Geyrhalter:
No, no, no, no. This is great. And it perfectly answers that question. And it is literally for everyone, right? And you’re talking about premium quality water wherever you are. I’m in Los Angeles, obviously our air is at best, moderate, very often not so healthy. If you take my drinking water out of the air that is surrounding my product from you here at my home, how does the air quality affect the water or does it at all?

Brian Sheng:
So the quick answer is the air quality is taken to account for, because our technology actually incorporates multiple stages of air purification into the technology itself. So when we’re making water in Los Angeles, or let’s take somewhere even worse, we’re making water in Mexico City anywhere for that matter.

Fabian Geyrhalter:
Thank you. Thank you. Making us look good here in LA. That’s right.

Brian Sheng:
LA Air, we would purify that water before we actually, sorry, purify that air before we make it into water. I see. So the quality of the water that comes out is still the highest quality exceeding the EPA standards for drinking water.

Fabian Geyrhalter:
Interesting. Because with groundwater, you’re kind of stuck at a certain level, and that seems to be different when you actually take the water out of air.

Brian Sheng:
Well, actually, I think that’s one of the basic premise, and I think lots of people understand and can think about that, which is even when the air is not perfectly desirable, it is still a lot easy to clean the air than potentially chemically and otherwise contaminated liquid bodies and water.

Fabian Geyrhalter:
And that’s what just occurred to me as you answered that. Exactly. And I mean, speaking about LA and about air quality, could Aquarius technology possibly have helped maybe prevent the spread of the recent fires, or is that overreaching as far as water availability goes?

Brian Sheng:
Yeah, so I don’t think we could have prevented the wildfires, but I do think that the availability of water and how that water is stored and utilized, I definitely think that Aquaria is able to help that because what we’re distributed, you could put water closer to anywhere that you need instead of having to build long miles of pipelines and distribution infrastructure. I definitely think that one of the possible realities that gets enabled with Aquaria is to move from a centralized model of water creation and provision to a more localized distributed model of water. We call it distributed water resources, just like in energy, they have distributed energy resources now. So I definitely think that’s one way we can help with that.

Fabian Geyrhalter:
That’s exactly where I was heading with that, because that seems to have been one of the many, many, many problems. Most of them were not controllable by humankind at this point, but that was one that would’ve been more controllable to just have more resources, more water. So on a totally different topic, I am working with a water filtration company currently, and I have worked with a water treatment company previously. So your name Aquaria is very logical, it’s very apropos, but tell us about how your product name for the Hydro Pixel came about. I’m really curious about how you guys came up with that name.

Brian Sheng:
Yeah, I think the best name I like of our product is our hydro grid. I think that’s my favorite name of all our products.

Fabian Geyrhalter:
And that’s where it starts. I see it starts from the top, from the hydro grid and then goes down product by product. That’s the naming convention.

Brian Sheng:
The way I thought about it is that it had to be something that is both, it had to be simultaneously self apparent what category of product this is thus hydro, but it should also as an analogy to concepts and products that we understand already. So the hydro grid was a nod towards a micro grid, a self-sufficient energy infrastructure, which in the same way our hydro grids can be a self-contained water infrastructure. And then we kind of bow it lower into the various sizing so that it’s very easy to imagine and also self-evident in what it would do, and hopefully that’s the effect that it can achieve.

Fabian Geyrhalter:
So yeah, just for my listeners, there’s the hydro pixel, the hydro pack, the hydro station, and now the hydro grid overarchingly. So there is an entire product architecture that goes from very large to small, and the pixel is, well, there we go, the smallest, which makes sense that it’s a pixel. And I guess because in the end, do you see yourself as a tech company, hence the name Pixel?

Brian Sheng:
Oh, absolutely. I think of ourselves as a tech company, but I don’t necessarily care that our customers think about Aquaria as a tech company. I tend to think, I want my customers to think about a query in terms of trustworthy clean water. When you think a query, you think, oh yeah, those guys, they give me water and I can depend on them. Something like that. Trusted. I think what I really care about, because I don’t know many business opportunities where I can very, very credibly claim that the more products I sell, the more impact I have
Because it’s just straight there. And so the more people use Aquaria, the more clean water is being served to the homeowners, to schools, to students. And so Aquaria was formed in the Public Benefit Corporation because from day one, I believe that there’s a rare opportunity here where we don’t have to greenwash, we don’t have to pretend that the bottom line of a business is separate from the impact we can achieve. And so why don’t we legally formalize that so that as a company, we are mission oriented, we’re still for profit, we’re not a nonprofit, we’re for profit, but legally speaking, we’re for mission, for purpose from day one.

Fabian Geyrhalter:
Yeah, yeah. No, and I love how you said that about water because in the end, that is one of the most important things we do every day is put water into our body and that amount of trust that people give a query for many a new startup, a company that they haven’t heard about technology in a way that a lot of people haven’t seen before. There’s this huge risk in people’s eyes of like, is this company trustworthy? And the way that you operate and being a public benefit corporation and having your mission, it very much instills trust.

When was a big moment where you felt like what People understand that, and we actually believe that what we’re building here, it’s not just a little startup with a big idea, but it’s actually going to turn into a brand that has enough momentum to actually get us to where our vision is. Was there a moment, was it Time Magazine or was there something that happened with a certain customer with a B2B customer, or was there something where you felt like, you know what, this is it we are actually going to make it. This is going to be big.

Brian Sheng:
I think it goes back to the naming Vivian. I think the names of the different products actually point at different points in the business life where I keep on getting these aha moments. So for example, the Hydro Pixel, right? The pixel, the original idea there is we have a huge drinking water issue. Literally we have one of the biggest problems in plastic I pollution through single use bottles, and it’s expensive and there’s microplastics and et cetera. And at that version, we would think, oh yeah, well, obviously we should use air water from Aquarius to solve this problem because it’s steeper, it’s cleaner, it’s no microplastics, and we save carbon footprint at the same time. So there you go, there’s one option. But then we have a different aha moment when we realize, oh wait, you mean homeowners are interested in spending tens of thousands of dollars for a very big hydro pixel?

Why would you do that? Why would you spend, that was our aha moment last year when we built the first home supplied with water from the sky, and we’re like, oh, wait, you mean there’s lots of people out there that are willing to spend tens of thousands of dollars for a reliable clean water source for their home? And then more recently, I’m talking to a bunch of infrastructure builders, and then I’m having thoughts around, wait, you mean there’s tons of infrastructure guys that would be willing to pay tens of millions if not hundreds of millions of dollars for an easier water infrastructure? So every once in a while I get kind of a bigger and bigger feedback that what we created is scalable beyond imagination. And so the question is how do we make it right? How do we make sure we can keep going?

Fabian Geyrhalter:
No, totally, totally. But I mean, it’s interesting because usually a lot of founders that I talk with, they say, I can my finger right on that one moment where, no, that was it. And with you, it’s really that scalability, understanding one aha moment after another that here’s a use case, here’s a use case, and they’re willing to spend the money and here’s a use case. And every time there’s a use case, it gets bigger and bigger of an opportunity, which is super, super cool. Well, with that said, let’s swing a little bit more into the brand conversation side of things, obviously. I mean, well, people don’t know that who are listening, but Brian is also an accomplished investor in a lot of companies. Your portfolio looks rather promising, I would say. So with that background of being on boards of companies and advising companies and investing in companies, and now running this startup brand, which again is in a space where not many have done it before. So brand and trust and storytelling becomes more and more important. What have you learned in the last years that you feel like defines your thinking of branding? What does branding mean to you today versus 3, 4, 5 years ago? Because branding is such a weird thing. It’s a name and a logo and it’s like, no, it’s much more than that. I mean, yes, it is that, but there’s so much more. The idea of brand building and what branding really means. What does branding mean to you, Brian, today?

Brian Sheng:
Yeah, so I don’t come from a branding or marketing background, so I apologize. The way I articulate this is the overly simplified or Oh, we

Fabian Geyrhalter:
Love that. That’s why we have people like you on.

Brian Sheng:
The way I think about it is that I think there’s a few different frameworks I think about branding for us, but in an overly simplistic way, I think about it as there’s infinite things that are capturing people’s attentions today. And the job of creating a brand is sort of planting your own flag in the ground and then hanging like, Hey everyone, you should pay attention to me. And that flag needs to be filled with, I mean different, I think for different companies, different things, but how do you make that flag stand out authentically and how do you make that flag capture attention and be memorable and making that a centerpiece of your company? I think that’s what it means to me is how do we really thoughtfully think about planting a really unique authentic flag that makes everyone stare and go, wow, that’s where that comes from. That’s kind of cool. And then I think about what are the individual pillars and pieces that will make our brand shine again, authentic, but at the same time exciting and being able to tie that between the future and the present. That’s how I think about our branding.

Fabian Geyrhalter:
I like the way that you said that quite a bit, and no one actually said it like that, which is amazing because I had Dunno, a hundred, 115, 120 guests on. So kudos to you, Brian. This is a different angle with how you actually put your flag down and what it means and how it stands out. It is fundament really exactly that. But it’s also, it allows for interpretation and it goes so much deeper, like you mentioned with what is the authenticity and does it really come through and how does it come through at quick glance? So very, very, very good. Let’s talk about something that is a little harder for the people that I interviewed to go into, but that’s why I give everyone a little heads up on that question. And if you could take your entire brand, and as we know now that’s multifaceted, very different types of audiences, different products, but one very singular mission and vision and one singular kind of brand promise. But you take all of that and you put it through a filter, no pun intended. What is that one word that could come out that could describe your entire brand? So if we think about Coca-Cola, they want us to think about happiness, we think about Everlane and it’s radical transparency. Liquid death is mischief. What is aqua in one word or in two words? I would even give you two words. I’m kind like that today.

Brian Sheng:
I’d definitely given this topic thought, but not distilled to one word. So I would say as I’ve thought about it over the past 30 seconds, it centered, it would be one of the words around either trust or reliability or dependability. I mean, they’re kind of the same words, but I think that that’s what I would focus on. I don’t care about us being thought of as a tech branding or we’re thought of as a innovation branding. I don’t even necessarily think about water as a branded. I think the branding here is You actually shouldn’t think about us. You drink water, you shower and there’s a boiled water notice and you’re like, Nope, I’m fine. I’m covered. Clearly has got us. So I think about it in terms of trust and reliability that no matter what happens, there’s still clean

Fabian Geyrhalter:
Water and dependability. I mean, that’s what you mentioned, dependability, and that’s kind of where all of this comes together, right? Because you only depend on something that you can trust and it’s always there so you don’t have to think about it. Very, very good. Do you have any piece of brand advice for our founders as a takeaway or any other entrepreneurial advice as we slowly start wrapping up this episode?

Brian Sheng:
Absolutely, and I think this particular tactical advice is more suitable towards, I wouldn’t say more suitable, but particularly suitable for founders working on really ambitious or very deep tech, just very crazy stuff. I think in today’s day and age, you have more tools than ever to do proper and nuanced storytelling and through a variety of mediums and with tools that weren’t available again even like 12 months ago. And I definitely think that doubling and tripling down on the tactical production of just brand level content and narratives driven by the founder is the people who are focused on that and really do it well is probably not 30% better, but probably 10 x better than people who don’t do that.

Fabian Geyrhalter:
I love that. I really, really love that. I think that’s such a great way to ease us out of this show because there is basically no more excuse not to do that, right? Because yeah, seriously, there’s no excuse anymore. We have the tools. It doesn’t all need to come directly from the founder, but the entire, I always call it vibe for the lack of a different word, but it’s really that atmosphere that you create, that vibe that you create as a founder for a company that people need to feel at all times. Just instilling this is so much easier today than it was ever before. And yes, no more excuse founders. There we go. What’s next for the Aquaria brand? Besides everything world domination? I mean, what are you excited about the next six months? What’s next on your agenda that you can already talk about? Because I’m sure some things are under wraps.

Brian Sheng:
Yeah, something I’m really excited about is actually in the day of ai, we’re going the opposite direction, which is we’re building up show sites first in Austin, Texas, but then very rapidly after in other cities around the country and maybe if internationally is to build what I’m calling cities of the future show sites where we’ll be placing down entire structures of many offices and mini homes and other types of small communities, and all of it will be supplied with water from the air and energy from the sun and other technology products that are here today that makes our societies more resilient, more efficient, more sustainable. And I am really excited about that so that folks can come experience in real person what the future looks like. That’s something I’m very excited about.

Fabian Geyrhalter:
That’s super cool. And I mean, it goes back to the idea, you have to see it, you have to taste it, you have to touch it, you have to actually see it in action. And like you said, in times like today where everything is digital, it’s actually a novelty to go somewhere and experience a product like that. So super exciting. And then to see it in the full cycle of other sustainable parts of the home building process and the infrastructure. Very cool. Well, hey, I’m so excited to follow Aquaria Long and see where you’re heading in the next six to 12 months and how much you’re going to impact. Well have a global impact. So thrilled about that. And talking about which, where can people follow you personally or where do you want people to go to get to know Aquaria?

Brian Sheng:
They can go and request me on LinkedIn. I’m very active on LinkedIn and I’m always reachable there, but otherwise, feel free to follow us on YouTube, Instagram for more video content, and our website is Aquaria.World.

Fabian Geyrhalter:
Aquaria.World. That should give you a pretty good idea of what’s coming up in the next years. Awesome. To have a founder who is super accessible on the show. I noted my listeners always love to take advantage of that. Brian, thank you so much for giving us 40 minutes or so of your busy day. We really appreciate your insights.

Brian Sheng:
I really appreciate you as well, Fabian. This is a lovely conversation and I hope the audience will found me interesting. So thanks for having me again,

Fabian Geyrhalter:
Brian and Aquaria, literally making water out of thin air and being on the cusp of doing really big and impactful things. It’s so neat to have founders like him talk about the brand when they’re still very early on in their journey. I hope you enjoyed the show as much as I have the conversation. And if so, please subscribe, rate, and share the show Hitting the Mark produced by my consultancy FINIEN, where we create clarity for brand transformations. This episode was edited as usual by Everett Barton and the hitting the marketing music was written and produced by the One and Only Happiness one. I’ll see you next time when we, once again, we’ll be hitting the mark.