Home Filtration. “People weren’t aware that the water they drink, cook with, and shower in every day could be improved in such meaningful ways.” Dodds didn’t start with a boardroom or a product on shelves. She began with a box of filters in her garage, a homemade brochure, and a bold idea: that Australian households deserved more than chlorine-heavy tap water and one-size-fits-all solutions. What followed was a grassroots movement built on transparency, science-based advocacy, and empowering consumers to make informed choices about their water. Her first venture, co-founding a commercial water cooler rental company in 2007, mainly catered to businesses, but customers kept asking for something more. “People were coming to us wanting water coolers for their homes because they weren’t happy with the quality of their tap water,” she explains. “They didn’t like the taste and didn’t know there were other options.” A MARKET GAP BECOMES A MISSION Dodds realized that the Australian residential market was underserved. The only widely available options were cheap under-sink filters or shower attachments. What was missing were whole-house filtration systems, solutions that treat water at the point of entry, before it flows through the entire home. Globally, these systems were not uncommon. In Australia, they were virtually unheard of. “Nobody knew about them here,” Dodds says. “But globally, they were slightly more of a recognized solution than in Australia.” She began testing these systems back in 2014. However, licensing constraints from her previous business meant she couldn’t sell competing products in her territory. She experimented with installations in Sydney and even partnered with a friend’s home services business in Auckland. Despite her efforts, the project stalled. Fifty unsold units had been collecting dust in her garage for years. “It was like that scene from ‘The Pursuit of Happiness’ where he has all those machines he can’t sell. That was me,” she laughs. ACCELERATING GROWTH WITH STRATEGIC INVESTMENT When her licensing restriction expired in 2018 with IAPMO, Dodds made a bold move. She quit her corporate role—a brief detour with PwC after completing her MBA—and returned to entrepreneurship. 77 BUSINESS VIEW OCEANIA VOLUME 07, ISSUE 07 COMPLETE HOME FILTRATION
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