Interview with Ocean Bottle: The Growing Pains of Fighting Plastic Pollution

Above: Nick Doman, COO and co-founder of Ocean Bottle.

In our mission to match businesses to offices, we meet some of London’s most exciting startups. In this series, Growing Pains, we interview the founders and CEOs of businesses that are starting out or scaling up.

In our latest episode, we speak to Nick Doman, COO and co-founder of Ocean Bottle, an insulated reusable water bottle made from stainless steel as well as upcycled, ocean-bound plastic.

Driven by environmentalism and sustainability, Doman and his co-founder, William Pearson, founded the business in 2018 after meeting at London Business School. Two years on, Ocean Bottle is a 7-person team and has raised $150,000 in pre-seed funding.

But Ocean Bottle is more than just an award-winning product; every bottle sold funds the collection of 11.4kg of plastic (equivalent to 1,000 plastic bottles) by investing in people-powered waste management.

Plastic waste is collected by locals in coastal communities who can exchange it for money, healthcare, tech products, school tuition and micro-finance at their local Plastic Bank. With plans to scale its positive impact on the environment, Ocean Bottle has no intention of slowing down.

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William Pearson and Nick Doman, co-founders of Ocean Bottle.

Every bottle sold funds the collection of 11.4kg of plastic (equivalent to 1,000 plastic bottles) by investing in people-powered waste management.

Nick Doman, COO and co-founder of Ocean Bottle, opens up about the highs and lows of founding the startup.

Tell us a little bit about why you co-founded Ocean Bottle.

I wanted to get involved in something that was purpose-over-profit. Will, my co-founder, and I decided to create the best reusable bottle on the market with the highest possible impact, while operating a fully-functioning, sustainable business.

The first thing we did was decide that for every bottle purchased, 1,000 plastic bottles would be collected. Everything worked backwards from there. I think that was definitely the right way to do it, but it wasn’t how they taught us to do it in business school.

Pretty much unanimously, our mentors told us we were contributing too much of our revenue to plastic collection. Right now, we donate 17%, and that's set to rise over the coming years. But they said: “Guys, no one's doing 100 plastic bottles, why would you jump straight to 1,000? Start small and grow if you need to”.

The conversation Will and I had after that was about five seconds long. We wanted to make the biggest difference; our goal was to push the planet-first business model.

Can you describe your startup journey so far?

It’s been a roller-coaster, but definitely the best two years of my life. When you’re founding a startup, you're always on the brink of either being overjoyed with success or feeling like everything’s crumbling beneath you – even though it might not be. That adrenaline is the driving force that pushes you towards the next step.

To give a chronology of it, Will and I met at London Business School in 2017 and incorporated the company in March 2018, then we flew out to Norway to design the product with our design partners, K8.

We then came back to the UK, got investment in January 2019 and moved to Norway to join an accelerator. In the same month, we launched on Indiegogo, crowdfunding the pre-sale site. That was a hectic month.

Since delivering the product October 2019, we’ve sold over 60,000 bottles – which means we’ve collected 60 million plastic bottles in weight from the ocean, equating to almost 700,000 kilos.

Covid-19’s hit us hard, obviously, like everyone else, but we're seeing a recovery now and we’re almost back to where we were before.

Has it felt lonely?

Not too lonely. Will and I worked together on everything. When we were living in Norway, we were literally on top of each other 24/7, working 15-hour days, sometimes longer, and at that point, every decision was so important that we would cross-check it with each other.

But then we needed to start specialising; we trusted each other to handle things. That was a bit scary – moving away like that and having to make decisions on my own.

What has been your biggest challenge as co-founder?

In general, the biggest challenge of founding a startup is that you've never done it before, but you’ve got to look like you have.

My first sales meeting is a prime example of that. I was talking to the CEO of quite a large American company, and he was shooting three-word emails in that classic way-too-busy CEO style, and then he said: “Let's jump on Zoom call”.

So, we did. And it was him on one screen, the board of directors on another screen, and then their entire marketing team. I needed to sell the bottle, but I didn’t even have the bottle in my hands, and I was wearing a hoodie.

You don’t expect stuff like that. But if you're not doing it, you're not learning how to do it.

What has been Ocean Bottle's biggest success to date?

Having a team that genuinely cares and is motivated to get stuff done because they know how much of a difference it will make to our mission. We’ve been really lucky with that.

Plastic waste is collected by locals in coastal communities who can exchange it for money, healthcare, tech products, school tuition and micro-finance at their local Plastic Bank.

Since delivering the product October 2019, Ocean Bottle has sold over 60,000 bottles – which means they've collected 60 million plastic bottles in weight from the ocean, equating to almost 700,000 kilos.

What advice would you give to other founders?

For budding founders, if you've been thinking about it for a while, or you've got a gut feeling about it, just do it.

For existing founders, the biggest value-add is finding the right team, making sure they know what they’re doing and making sure they’re motivated to do it.

You don't want to be the smartest person in the room. You want your colleagues to know and feel that you’re relying on their expertise.

Do you have any tips for securing funding or investment from VCs?

From our point of view, our mission-driven USP was incredibly helpful. Our first funding round took a week – from the initial meeting to the investors sending over the documents.

It was time-pressured on their side, but I think they felt that we were going to make it work no matter what. They bought into our passion and excitement. We didn't even have a product. We just had a business plan and what we believed in.

If you could have dinner with anyone in the world, dead or alive, who would it be? 

David Attenborough. His influence on our generation can't be understated. The Blue Planet effect is real – his storytelling powers got people to care about environmentalism.

What book has changed you the most?

Let My People Go Surfing by Yvon Chouinard, the founder of Patagonia. It’s all about work-life balance and company purpose. The title is based on the anecdote that if the surf was good near the office, people could just go.

No work would be more important than having a good time in the waves. The mission comes first, but if the surf’s up – not that I surf – you've got to enjoy it. Life’s not worth missing for the sake of emails.

What are your next steps with Ocean Bottle?

We’re now piloting an NFC smart-chip that is in the bottom of each bottle as part of our tech impact incentive platform. It’ll allow our customers to collect up to 10,000 plastic bottles in weight every year just by using it at partner locations.

Find out more at Ocean Bottle.