Ravi Kurani

Liquid Assets: The Business of Water

From policy to profit, Liquid Assets uncovers the business, political, and technological implications of water in a changing world.

Host

Future Communities Institute

I lead the innovative Street to Home project, integrating street medicine with supportive housing to provide holistic care for the homeless in California. Backed by $11M in state funding, we are pioneering a combined approach to healthcare and housing, addressing critical social determinants of health. Our goal is to transform the traditional philanthropic model into a sustainable and scalable solution for our most vulnerable communities.

Senior Fellow

GAIAN

Gaian is pioneering the next generation of wearable technology with energy-generating smart sneakers designed to power the digital future. Beyond just charging devices, Gaian's vision is to create a seamless XR ecosystem, where sensors and haptic feedback in our footwear open new dimensions for interactive experiences and augmented reality. Each step transforms into sustainable energy, fueling both immediate needs and future possibilities. Gaian footwear is the foundation of a world where our movements power the technology that enhances our lives.

Technical Advisor

Hampton

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.

Founding Member

Incodeks

Helped InCodeks (an Eastern European development firm) expand into the US as a business development expert. My industry relationships helped us form alliances with digital ecosystem leaders and create a powerful brand identity that connected with US consumers. Let's talk if you're looking for qualified software developers!

Advisor

PEF Community

Member

Akido Labs

Akido is a care delivery platform headquartered in Los Angeles, California with the mission to ensure our most vulnerable communities thrive.

Investor

Future Communities Capital

As an EIR for Future Communities Capital, Ravi Kurani fuses his deep expertise in water technology to innovate sustainable solutions. Ravi aims to transform legacy industries, empowering communities to flourish sustainably within the Future Communities Capital framework.

Entrepreneur in Residence

Sani Marc

Provided senior leadership with strategic counsel on product reliability, system documentation, and partner alignment. Drew on experience running the Sutro division to advise across digital initiatives and ensure continuity in key partner programs.

Executive Advisor, Product & Technology

Oversaw Sutro as a wholly owned division of Sani Marc, with GM-level accountability and direct leadership across product, manufacturing, and integrations. Expanded Sutro from a single connected device into an integrated platform for OEMs and retailers—launching Sutro Central for pool stores, integrating the LaMotte Spin Touch, driving multi-phase API rollouts with multi-billion-dollar partners, and improving Jacuzzi’s Sutro integration and fleet dashboards. Balanced hardware reliability, QA/supply chain, and cloud development with partner strategy, positioning Sutro as a platform rather than just a device.

General Manager Sutro Division (Head of Product & Integrations)

juniper

As Juniper’s Tech Advisor, I provide strategic guidance on integrating our AI-driven platform, ensuring brokers and HR teams leverage real-time data to optimize benefits and cut costs.

Technology Advisor

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).

Meet Geoff, growth at Wonderschool. A child care shortage in the U.S. pushes parents to leave the workforce, sometimes indefinitely (heavily skewed towards women). 

Wonderschool is an operating system for child care providers so it’s easy to start, manage, and grow their in-home childcare business. 

It’s like Yelp x Airbnb for childcare. 

(Also I didn’t know that New Mexico has universal / free child care)

Geoff is awesome because 
(1) he’s my grad school buddy, and it’s always great catching up.

(2) seeing his journey from running digital ads at early Sutro to IDEO and now to Wonderschool is awesome. 

(3) I always love his take on where he sees the world going from a political & social standpoint.

Great seeing you Geoff, and for those of you interested - check out Wonderschool - a16z & Goldman.

Talks about #water, #startup, #business, #hardware, and #entrepreneurship

Water x Physical AI | Founder of Sutro (acq. Sani Marc) | Founder of ImpactSpace (acq. ImpactAlpha)

A decade ago I introduced the water genome, an instruction book that tells us how water should be used, treated, and optimized. 

Ag water isn't pool water. 
Pool water isn't drinking water. 
Drinking water isn't cooling water tower water. 

Each "loop" has it's own chemistry. It's own inherent logic. It's own triggers and thresholds. 

If you can map these loops, you can build a network of sensors, quietly measuring, understanding, and fixing water before things break. 

I still believe in that vision. 

Water now, is an input for AI computer, power generation, semiconductor fabs, agriculture, and cities under heat stress. Not to compound the aging water infrastructure. 

The shared genome for water, a common language for chemistry, we're blind. 

I shared this in a TEDx a decade ago, and my thoughts haven't changed (link in comments).

“Surround yourself with people who are thoughtful in ways you are not, because they see what you can't.”
- Shane Parrish 

Bored on a plane, I was flipping through my photos. This photo of Aurélie Rodzynek combined with this quote by Shane arc’d in my mind like two live wires. 

There is *so* much to do in water, and my sabbatical is shining light on so many problems in the water space. Compounded with insightful conversations with folks like Aurelie. 

Reminds me of why I started Sutro almost a decade ago: with a vision to want to change the way that we look at water. It’s a hidden input to so much of what we cherish today, mind you it’s also just a basic human survival input.

I’m looking for some of the best and brightest in water to be on the pod, tag them below!

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