2 founders, 2 years, and 20 prototypes show that creating ‘hardware is hard’

Creators of Gentlewasher Kathak Mehta and Coen Vermeer.

Like most women, Kathak Mehta has an emotional attachment with her clothes. Her wardrobe speaks of her fixation with fabrics, texture, prints, and colors. But most of these clothes need to be hand-washed.

Frustrated by this, she decided to create Gentlewasher, a washing machine specifically for hand-washing clothes. Two years and 20 prototypes later, here’s her story.

The idea 

While pursuing her Master’s degree in Technology and Innovations Management from CEPT University in Ahmedabad, and having worked in technology and innovations with organizations such as the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A), Mehta realized that India has a huge innovation potential.

However, the innovations that see the light of day are meager. This compelled her to build an innovative product-based business.

Mehta met her co-founder, Coen Vermeer, through a common friend. Vermeer, a Dutch national, came to India after completing his post-graduate from Erasmus University in Rotterdam, where he saw women struggling to wash their clothes.

The two brainstormed together over numerous cups of chai and came up with the idea of Gentlewasher.

Prototyping

The founders talked with more than 500 women to understand the problem in more detail. They found that delicate clothes were being hand-washed in most households. These fabrics include cotton, silk, chiffon, georgette, cashmere, spandex, linen, fur, and more.

The duo started observing women’s washing behavior across various income segments and in urban and rural areas.

Using one of the prototypes.

Based on their insights and observations, they started prototyping the product. While designing, they studied fluid mechanics, the tumbling movement of clothes, ergonomics, and material science.

The first functional prototype was a basic drum made of wrought iron and fiberglass weighing 20 kg. Each day, the duo would carry the prototype around to people’s homes or at laundromats in Ahmedabad to have people test it.

Manufacturing

Marketing 

Lessons learned

The highs and lows