Ravi Kurani

Solving Water at MySutro.com | Forbes 30 Under 30 | TEDx

Water is an underinvested market, yet it’s one of the most crucial resources we have. But I believe that through better storytelling and innovation, we can shine a light on the water industry’s challenges and opportunities. 

In 2014, I founded Sutro, a robotic water diagnostics platform designed to improve water chemistry and safety. I sold Sutro to Sani Marc in 2019 and am currently leading day-to-day operations.

Today, as President of Sutro (a subsidiary of Sani Marc), I oversee the development, marketing, and sales of smart water monitoring devices. Our technology is trusted by some of the biggest brands in the industry, and we are the only NSF-certified autonomous device for water safety. 

I’m proud to lead our team in revolutionizing how people interact with water, ensuring it's clean, safe, and accessible. 

🌊 Host of “Liquid Assets: The Business of Water,” a podcast about water through the lens of business, technology, and policy. 
➡️ https://www.liquidassets.cc/

🌊 Co-author of “Story-Driven Smart Products,” a practical guide to launching smart hardware products. 
➡️ https://a.co/d/1Bbd11r

🌊 Delivered a TEDx Talk on leveraging technology to improve water safety.
➡️ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwuJnr-iWcY

Other Ventures:
⚙️ Leading the “Street to Home” project to address working capital gaps for the Future Communities Institute.

⚙️ Founded ImpactSpace, later sold to ImpactAlpha (the TechCrunch for impact investing).

⚙️ Advisor to various startups, including a software development agency (Incodeks) and a health navigation company (Juniper).

⚙️ Engineer in Residence at Future Communities VC, focused on tools to track climate solutions through the IRA (Inflation Redux Act).

Founding Member

Hampton is a dedicated group of digital-first founders, entrepreneurs, and CEOs of fast-growing startups who just get it – and make the crazy world of startup life a little easier to navigate.

I love Hampton dinners. Why? Because you meet some of the coolest people. It’s casual, it’s a dinner… we all need to eat dinner. 

I was sitting across Jeremy Johnson CEO of BoxHouse Co, who has sat in court for 86 federal indictements (an episode on this in the comments) to running a super successful prefab housing company. 

Many folks in the U.S. rent and don’t have the capacity to own a house, Jeremy is changing that. 

Making housing ownership accessible to all. 

To chatting with Tom Stefaniuk founder of SmallScreen, who understands YouTube and video to the tee. 

He’s built a successful influencer platform, and gave me some of the best advice for my water podcast, Liquid Assets: The Business of Water. 

Always good to see the rest of the crew, and thanks so much for hosting Elizabeth! 

I continue to say this. If you’re a founder. And you’re not getting out there. 

Do it. 

Meet folks in person, grab coffee, grab a beer.  Go for a walk, a run, whatever. 

Meeting over a table, in person, entirely changes the dynamic of connection. 

Humans are social creatures. 

Video conferencing is great for hacking out limited conversations but meeting IRL is a world in its own (it’s the one our ancestors used to live in).

President of Standard Water Corp | COO @ Poolify | Founder of Sutro (sold to Sani Marc) & ImpactSpace (sold to ImpactAlpha)

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We’ve been running a swimming pool route for more than a year. It’s had its “growing pains”, but we’ve learned a ton. 

2 things: 

(1) Pool owners are simple (we knew this from Sutro). They want to know that you’ve come, the work that you’ve done, and that the pool is clean (which for them, many times, means clear). Our motto: just do good work. 

(2) You need to build with the times. With agenticAI, how can we utilize clawdbot or other tools to increase our service level and take work off the hard working guys that are cleaning the pools. We’re coming at the business from a different lens. As product folks, just building a better experience. 

At the end of the day, we know it’s not rocket science. You’re cleaning a swimming pool, measuring and treating the chemistry, but how do you take an age old buisness - see it through a different light, and make the service better? 

We’re raising a small debt round with friends and family. If you’re interested shoot me a DM! 

Couldn’t be more excited to build Poolify  alongside Anthony, Rahul, and Partin.

Why was it so hard to get a lab test for your tap water? The business model was the barrier. 

I sat down with the CEO of SimpleLab, Inc., Johnny H. Pujol, to discuss why water data has been so inaccessible for so long.

Why?

Because labs were built to service government contracts & city scale developments. 

They didn't have the infra to sell to people at home.

Thats changing. We are witnessing the democratization of environmental testing, and supported by folks like Johnny! 

Dug this episode out of the archives, and it's a must listen, check it out. 

https://lnkd.in/e5vpc8ew

I sat down with Rich Sloan, a guy who went from Flint, Michigan to the Las Vegas desert to build a company that pulls drinking water out of thin air. New episode of Liquid Assets drops tomorrow. 

Rich is the CEO of WAVR Technologies, and what he's building is crazy. Inspired by the skin of an Australian tree frog, he's developed a membrane that  a wicks water vapor out of the atmosphere. 

No fans, no coils. 

Just biomimicry. Lina - you may want to check this out. :) 

Here's what stuck with me: Las Vegas grew its population by 50% and actually decreased total water consumption. 

But even that isn't enough. 

A semiconductor company recently wanted to set up shop in Vegas and was told no... they'd use too much water. 

Real jobs lost, because infra can't keep up. 

The next decade is going to be the Decade of Water. Full episode tomorrow, subscribe at liquidassets.cc

Most international water projects fail because they’re designed for donors, not the people using them. James Leitner and I sit down to talk about his work at MissionCleanWater. 

We talked about why we need to treat rural water like a professional utility and not volunteer side projects. 

Mission Clean Water shifts the focus from just building wells to managing them like professional utilities to ensure they actually stay running.

They provide clean water access in rural Uganda by rehabilitating broken infrastructure and training local communities on long-term maintenance and financial sustainability.

We also talk about: 
- Why "quantity over quality" is killing sustainability.
- Using mobile payments (the Venmo of Africa) for water fees.
- Moving from iron pipes to stainless steel to stop the rust.

Liquid Assets: The Business of Water episode isn't live yet, but hit the link below to subscribe so you catch it the second it drops.

Are you buying premium water, or just a cool bottle? I got to sit down with Clara Sieg from Loonen, and she pointed a glaring truth about the water aisle: 

for years, we’ve paid "premium" prices for great marketing and plastic packaging, not better water.

"You don't necessarily get a premium product for the price... I don't think anybody ever set out to fill the world with plastic... but now that we know better, we can do better."

In the latest recording of Liquid Assets: The Business of Water we sit down to talk about how water is not organic, how the beverage industry is just catching up, and what really is in your water. 

Subscribe at liquidassets.cc to get the episodes right in your email.

Founding GTM at Actively AI

I am a high-energy, self motivated, and goal oriented sales leader with extensive experience in AI technology sales & SaaS sales leadership across companies at all different stages of growth. I specialize in attracting, hiring, coaching, and empowering top talent within sales & business development teams. I love building teams and a sales culture that is both demanding and supportive. I have a passion for collaborating with marketing, recruiting, and product teams, while also unifying departments across the revenue organization to drive ARR and customer success. Always optimistic and determined, I approach challenges with vigor, positivity, and a dash of humor. When I am not working, I am spending time with friends and family, traveling, trying new restaurants, and most importantly spending time with my dog!

👉 Actively AI (Seed➡️A) (Bain Capital Ventures + FirstRound)
👉 Ironclad (Series C➡️E)
👉 TrueDialog (Seed) 
👉 Reonomy (Series B➡️D & Acquired for $200M)
👉 Marcus & Millichap (Public)

Jordan Karr

Roses are red, 🌹
Violets are blue, 🪻
Stop spraying and praying, 🙏
Let agents 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐨𝐧 it through. 🤖

Most GTM “AI” today is a tack-on layer: still if/then logic, tons of backend maintenance, and minimal lift in conversion rates.

Sure, it can write the email, score the lead, label an account “hot,” summarize the call…

💥 Newsflash: that’s not intelligence. That's not real AI. 🚨 
More tools → more signals → less synthesis → more decisions for reps. That’s how the funnel gets noisier, not better. 🔊 

At Actively AI, we built Per-Account Agents (PAA): one agent per account in your TAM - designed to own outcomes, not tasks. Operating 24/7, each agent replicates how your best rep strategizes and thinks through how to move an account further down the funnel, determining the 'next best action'.

▪️ 𝐏𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐌𝐞𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐲 🧠 
 A living context layer that continuously updates as each PAA ingests CRM data, call transcripts, product usage, competitive signals, buying group dynamics, and web data — forming a real POV + strategy per account.

▪️ 𝐃𝐞𝐞𝐩 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 📈 
 Synthesis across structured and unstructured internal/external data to determine the highest-leverage next best action that moves revenue forward.

▪️ 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐮𝐨𝐮𝐬 𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐋𝐨𝐨𝐩 ♻️ 
 Outcomes feed the system — wins, losses, expansions, emails, calls — so intelligence compounds across the org over time.

More activity/signals doesn’t win.
Better architecture does. ❤️

Founding Sales & GTM I Superintelligence for Revenue Teams

When I was in my first job out of college, I got advice I’ll never forget:
"𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐟𝐥𝐚𝐠."

It sounds almost too simple.
But it requires a true ownership mindset. 🧠 

The advice was this: "𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧 𝘴𝘰 𝘷𝘢𝘭𝘶𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘳𝘨𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘻𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘭𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘨𝘰 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘭𝘴 𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘣𝘭𝘦."

🚫 Not by being loud.
🚫 Not by playing politics.
🚫 Not by bouncing every 12 months.

But by owning something that matters.
• Take responsibility for outcomes, not just tasks
• Become the go-to person for a wide array of issues
• Be the person that everyone goes to for when they have questions
• Create context no one else has
• Care about the business like it’s yours

“Plant your flag” isn’t about ego.

It’s about deciding:

This is mine. I will make this better. 📈 
Most people want autonomy before they’ve proven ownership.

The reality is: ownership is what earns autonomy.
It’s simple advice.

But very few people actually live it.

Still one of the most powerful career lessons I’ve ever received and try to practice everyday. 🔁

People already don’t feel safe at work.
They shouldn’t.

AI is not just augmenting jobs.
It’s starting to replace them.

I’m watching CROs run the numbers:
If AI can produce the output of 3-5 employees…

Why carry the 3-5 reps?
If AI can research accounts, prioritize pipeline, generate messaging, analyze calls, and coach in real time, code, build process, generate demand, identify trends…

Why hire another as much?
If AI can compress internal roadmaps by years, eliminating layers of analysts, ops, and engineering overhead…

Why keep the layers?
This is happening in boardrooms right now.

AI doesn’t:
 • Miss quota
 • Burn out
 • Ask for raises
 • Churn to a competitor

It quietly runs 24/7 at a fraction of the cost.

White-collar work isn’t protected.
Sales. Marketing. RevOps. Engineering. Ops. etc.

The biggest lie we’re telling ourselves:
“AI just makes me more productive.”
No.

It makes companies need fewer of you.
The middle layer of knowledge work is compressing.

Top operators get leveraged.
Everyone else gets squeezed.

You don’t have to like that.
But displacement isn’t coming.

It’s already here. The slow burn of it has started.
What's unclear is how quickly it will accelerate.

Most teams treat QBRs like a reporting exercise. 
The best teams treat them like a decision making forum. 🧠 

A Quarterly Business Review should not be a highlight reel.
It should not be a blame session.
And it definitely should not be a deck no one reads.

If you want QBRs to actually drive results, here’s how strong organizations run them:

1. 𝐀𝐧𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐫 𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐬, 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐭𝐲. 💯 
 Revenue. Pipeline coverage. Conversion rates. Customer retention.
 Start with: Did we win or lose the quarter? Why?

2. 𝐒𝐞𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐬𝐢𝐠𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐧𝐨𝐢𝐬𝐞. 🔊 
 Everyone can list 20 initiatives.
High performing teams isolate the 3 to 5 variables that actually moved performance.

3. 𝐂𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐰𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐬 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐚𝐫𝐞. 𝐍𝐨 𝐞𝐠𝐨. 🌬️ 
 Inconsistent cross functional alignment.
 Competitive positioning not landing.
 No spin. No defensiveness. Just truth.
 Clarity beats comfort.

4. 𝐅𝐨𝐜𝐮𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐝. ⏩ 
 The past quarter is data.
 The next quarter is a bet.
 A good QBR ends with 3 to 5 concrete decisions that change how the org or business unit operates.

5. 𝐀𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐧 𝐨𝐰𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐨𝐨𝐦. 🤝 
If a takeaway does not have a name next to it, it will not happen.

At Actively AI, as we have scaled from early days to real revenue velocity, the biggest unlock was not better slides.

It was making the time for better conversations.

The best QBRs create tension, clarity, and commitment.
Without ego.

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