For founder Benjamin Kander, Welly started out of a tragedy.
During his senior year of college, his mother was diagnosed with liver cancer. Soon after he graduated, Kander moved to New York City and started a 9-to-5 job, but his mother’s illness proved to be a reminder to live intentionally.
“I realized how fragile life was,” Kander said. “I am an entrepreneur at heart, and I wanted to start something that would make a difference to the world, the environment and people.”
So, Kander started thinking of ways he could make a difference. What stuck out was the amount of plastic water bottles he found himself using. With a little inspiration from Toms Shoes founder Blake Mycoskie’s book, “Start Something That Matters,” Kander researched and discovered that 785 million people live without access to clean water daily.
Kander said he thought about how it would impact his daily routine if he had to walk for hours to get dirty water from some central source every day, a problem he said disproportionately impacts women.
So, in 2015, he came up with Welly LLC. It’s a reusable water bottle company that gets its name from a combination of the clean water wells the company funds and Kander’s mother’s name – Ellen.
Welly creates insulated water bottles, made in part with bamboo. Kander, who has a background in sustainable business, said he chose bamboo because it is a naturally renewable resource that grows four to five times faster than trees. However, he also said bamboo just looks and feels beautiful.
And it was also that bamboo that helped Welly stand out among the many plastic and stainless steel water bottles on the market.
“If you make a reusable bottle, not everyone is going to buy it,” Kander said. “It has to stand out through design. We do that through our materials.”
Welly had its first full year of sales in 2018, and it has since grown into a six-person team that works out of the XFactory in Point Breeze North.
The company donates 1% or more of its annual sales to Charity: water, an organization which provides drinking water to people in developing countries. Kander said it’s the part of his job that makes him the most proud. Eventually, Kander said he hopes to be able to travel to all the places the wells are being funded and share the stories of the people impacted by that access to clean water.
The Welly bottles attracted several large retailers, and the company sold its products to places including Target, Nordstrom, Anthropologie, Free People and Urban Outfitters. Kander said the company is currently in talks with Starbucks.
In 2020, Welly totaled about $1.7 million in sales.
The company has donated more than $31,000 to water projects.
Kander first started the company in New York City, but in 2019 made the transition back to his hometown.
“New York is great for attracting top-tier talent that is highly educated and needs a lot of money, and as a startup, you don’t have all that cash,” Kander said. “My wife also went to high school with me here in Pittsburgh. We met in New York City and started a family, and I realized we can still attract really incredible talent in Pittsburgh, and we don’t have to pay New York salaries. We get the same quality in a place that is much better for living.”
The idea to make bamboo water bottles was not actually the first water bottle startup idea Kander had. At first, he wanted to create a collapsible water bottle that would fit into the back pockets of pants. That idea never made it far, but Kander said it paved the way for what Welly became.
“Entrepreneurship is really just a game of pivots,” Kander said.
Q+A:
What are the pros and cons of being a young entrepreneur? The cons: You don’t have the security that you do from a regular 9-to-5 job. If you don’t have a good year or you run out of cash, you could be out of business and let down a lot of people. There is a lot of pressure when it comes to being a young entrepreneur. Late hours. There is no such thing as 9 to 5. We work in manufacturing overseas. Their morning is our night, so a lot of times I am on calls late into the night. It can really affect your family life and your ... life.
The pros: I’ve heard a quote one time that salary is what someone pays you to forget your dreams. I’ve had a salary most of my life, so I don’t fully agree with that, but what I love about entrepreneurship is that if you have something exciting that you want to pursue, you can just go for it. You control your destiny versus having a role where you are stuck doing things that you might not want to do. … And there is a lot of flexibility that comes with it in terms of setting up your work hours and your vacation and the people you work with.
What advice would you give to another young entrepreneur? Fail fast. I think a lot of people who have an idea take a long time to getting it tested. Test the idea and see if people want it. Create a product and get out to the marketplace. It does not have to be perfect. … Tell people about your plans. A lot of people are afraid and want to keep it a secret. Ideas are great, but they are not worth anything unless you execute them. When you tell someone, it creates some accountability, and that can propel you.
Bio Box:
Benjamin Kander
Age: 31
Title: Founder and CEO, Welly LLC
Company description: Creates reusable bottles
Dream job: Professional golfer
If you could have a conversation with anyone, dead or alive, who would it be? My mom
Timeline:
Personal:
2012
Graduated from Emory University with a bachelor’s degree in finance, management and sustainable business and moved to New York City
2019
Moved back to Pittsburgh
Professional:
2015
Founded Welly
2018
Welly completed its first full year of sales
2020
Welly had $1.7 million in sales
