"I'm Katya, and I'm sick of plastic bottles...": Cleandrops creator on a startup during a pandemic

The Russian business community is facing serious challenges today. One of the main issues for entrepreneurs to solve will be adapting their goods and production to the "green" trend that is gaining momentum around the world.

We talked to the creator of the eco-brand "Cleandrops" Ekaterina Schegoleva to find out how she decided in the midst of the coronavirus epidemic to open a new production facility and what inspired her.

- It is good to see that more and more new interesting startups are appearing in Russia. Please tell our readers what you do, what are Cleandrops?

- Cleandrops is a concentrate of environmentally friendly household chemicals in tablets without water and without plastic. Since I sort my own trash, I know that everyone who does it has to wash it, peel off labels, and look for collection points. The result is a huge waste of time, overpaying for water and plastic. And it's also harming the planet.

For several years I worked at the university and was engaged in commercialization of scientific developments, so I knew that 90% of household chemicals consists of water, plus disposable plastic bottles. So we came up with concentrate in tablets - you dissolve it in water and you get a whole bottle of detergent.

- And how did you come up with this idea?

- I've been doing separate garbage collection for a few years now, trying to lead a conscious lifestyle and reduce my ecological footprint.

During the pandemic, I went to study at the Skolkovo Startup Academy, but at the time we were producing retroreflective materials for road markings.

At the Academy, I was asked a question: "Katya, why are you making reflective technologies for the road? Are you used to doing this, or is this really important to you?".

I started digging around in myself, looking for answers. And I saw exactly the aspect of my life that had to do with the environment. It was on the surface.

I decided to dedicate the next few years to this big goal of making eco-friendly products more accessible and caring for nature easier. So that you don't have to throw away those disposable plastic bottles, because they just don't form.

- It turns out that the Skolkovo School helped you in implementation?

- They helped me see the things that are really important to me. In entrepreneurship, you always go through a lot of stages: super success, then you fail - something happens and it seems like everything is going wrong. And you have to be resilient enough to go through those stages.

And that resilience and resilience to stress comes when you know why you're doing it. Let's say my raw materials didn't arrive on time right now, the delivery cheated me. You can give up because it's difficult, but I see people whose lives I'm changing. I see customer feedback when they tell me: "Katya, you made a very cool thing, I use it and can't imagine my life without these pills, it's super convenient!".

I can see how our product brings real change - we sold the first three hundred boxes and saved 600 plastic bottles. And Skolkovo has helped build that entrepreneurial identity. You look at your strengths, you know what you are good at, and what you need to bring in additional people to the team - this is what is called entrepreneurial thinking. It is the coolest thing. I started the project after I graduated from the academy, in September.

- It's a very inspiring story. Probably one of the most important qualities for an entrepreneur is flexibility in thinking and the ability to change the route. It turns out that you created the product from scratch. Tell us, what is the best way to start, when starting production?

- I think the most important thing is to gather a team. I have a technologist with whom I have been working for several years, so I was a little less worried about the physical side of the product. But it took time to find contract production facilities. We hoped that somewhere in Russia we would be able to make it under contract. There are quite a few companies which produce finished chemicals. But we could not find anyone who could make us tablets in dry form, so that they would have an environmentally friendly composition, controlled dissolution time, and would meet all of these qualities. So we had to make our own production.

When you organize your own production, you face with a lot of questions - how you choose the space, what equipment you have, how you buy raw materials. This takes time.

In terms of implementation everything turned out quite easy. I know people who need these pills, I'm part of it myself. Plus, before the launch of sales I created a group and placed an ad there: "Hi everyone, I'm Katya, I'm fed up with plastic bottles, I make concentrates in the form of pills, so you can dissolve them. If you're interested in getting a sample, answer the questionnaire".

They would answer and I would find out what kind of household chemicals people were using at home, what was important to them, how they made their choices. It really helped me get to know my customers - they told me what they needed on their own.

We sent the first samples we got, we sent them in January this year, we got feedback. Only when I understood that we had an average efficiency and environmental score of 8.5 out of 10, and that the tablets wash practically everything, except rust and very old grease in the oven, did we launch the product.

- What are your plans for the future? Are there any thoughts about expanding your brand?

- Right now we have one product, a 5-in-1 all-purpose cleaner. It can be used on any surface in the house: kitchen, bath, floor, glass and other surfaces. As my testers say, "perfect for regular maintenance cleaning." But we've run into the need for an additional cleaner for rust, lime scale and stale grease in the oven. We are now making bath and kitchen remedies and are planning to replace our whole line of household cleaners with concentrate in tablets.

Made in Russia // Made in Russia

Author: Maria Buzanakova