I witnessed the most extraordinary pitch last week — possibly the most compelling pitch I’ve ever seen.
It was delivered by a team of students in the St. Mary’s University Masters of Technology, Entrepreneurship and Innovation program. The team’s name is Dou It Fresh, and they have prototyped a product that will enhance something most of us don’t discuss, unless it’s in jokes.
They’re out to revolutionize douching.
“The subject we’re talking about is very sensitive for some people, but we have to talk about it,” said Anindita Gupta in leading off her team’s presentation.
Douche has two definitions. One’s an insult that can be found in the Urban Dictionary and the other, more conventional, definition is “a jet or current of liquid (as a cleansing solution) directed against or into a bodily part or cavity.”
Gupta and her teammates, Eli Chen and Michael Thompson-Hall, say more people use douching products for cleanliness and hygiene than you’d expect — one in four women and half of gay men.
They are proposing a new device that would make it easier for people to douche.
They’re applying for a patent, so they don’t want the details public. But their device would be portable, easy to use and could control the flow of water. They believe they can produce and sell the product at a price that would be affordable for consumers and still allow them to grow a profitable business.
It’s difficult to get a read on how big their total accessible market is. They say the global market for similar products is $21 billion. It seems that figure includes other so-called “adult” products. But even if their estimate is out by 90 per cent, they’re looking at a billion-dollar market. (When I went into journalism all those years ago, I never thought I’d be debating the size of the global douche market.)
Dou It Fresh presented their business plans at the New Product Competition staged last week by The Spark Zone and SMU’s David Sobey Centre for Innovation in Retailing and Services. Dou It Fresh didn’t win the $10,000 first prize — it went to a team called Blue Shell, whose product gives consumers information on their phones about products they see in a store. The competitors were tasked with devising a product that enhanced the retail sector, and the Dou It Fresh missed the mark slightly.
But the judges (I was one of them) were impressed enough with the Dou It Fresh pitch that The Spark Zone — an entrepreneurship group comprised of several Halifax post-secondary institutions — came up with a special $5,000 second prize for the group.
With that money, the team will likely continue with its product. They have a problem and an opportunity: a problem in that people don’t like discussing the market they’re targeting, an opportunity because Dou It Fresh can break ground in this market. Gupta correctly pointed out that 20 years ago, condoms were rarely discussed publicly but they’re now advertised and promoted around the world.
Aside from the novelty of their product, Gupta, Chen and Thompson-Hall have plotted a clear path to market, targeting established retailers in the U.S. and China.
