Ludwick Marishane was still in highschool when he thought of DryBath, a gel that does all the work of a bathwithout the need for water.
Within six months, the teenager haddevised the formula for the gel. Within a year, he had writtenup a 40-page business plan, applied for a patent and launched his startup,called HeadbodyIndustries.
The product idea sounds simple: Youslap on the germ-killing lotion and then you don't need to take a bath.
For people with indoor plumbing thissounds like cool camping gear. But for 2.5 billion people worldwide who do nothave access to clean water, DryBath is more of a life-saver than a tool ofconvenience.
The GlobalStudent Entrepreneur Awards Program, an international competitionthat recognizes high school, undergraduate, and graduate students who owna business, thought so, too. In 2011, four years afterMarishane hatched the idea for his ground-breaking product, he won theorganization's Global Student Entrepreneur of the Year award, along with$10,000 in cash to finance his startup.
Marishane, who was studying at theUniversity of Cape Town at the time, beat out 1,600 other student nomineesfrom around the world.
Despite its life-saving benefits,DryBath was initially inspired by Marishane's friend who was too lazy totake a bath. The story goes that one day Marishane and some buddies werelaying out in the sun when a friend turned to him and said: "Whydoesn't someone invent something that you can put on your skin and then youdon't have to bathe?". That's when the light bulb went off.
Marishane, who at the time lived inthe rural province of Limpopo, had limited resources. So he did most ofhis research on Google and Wikipedia using only his Internet-connected cellphone.
In poor communities, the gel will protect people who oftendie from easily treatable diseases caused by bacteria that thrive in stagnantwater. This water is transferred onto the skin, and get into either the gut(causing diarrhea for example), or into an orifice like the eye (causingtrachoma, an eye infection that can cause blindness). In wealthier areas, thegel can be applied in a pinch when someone doesn't have time to rinse. Thecleansing lotion conserves water in both scenarios.
Based on his knowledge from livingin poor communities, Marishane made the decision to sell DryBath inindividual packets, rather than in bulk. In Africa, a person "doesn't buya box of cigarettes, they buy one cigarette each day, even though it's moreexpensive," he explained.
DryBath packets sell for 50 cents in developing countries and can be purchased for $1.50 by corporate customers like airlines or hotels. Marishane expects economies of scale to drive down the cost for packets sold in poor communities.
DryBath™ has been sold to airlines, armies, and hotels all over the world. Other clients include music festival organisers, mining & resources companies, international charities, hospitals, and other organizations needing to provide convenient hygiene & cleanliness to their clients.
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