Where it started
Co-Life is an EU co-funded programme on impact-focused entrepreneurship, run by 4 Indian and 4 European institutions. I was one of 6 students chosen from 130+ at GIM. Our team of 8, from India and Finland, worked with SaafWater, a Goa startup whose sensors monitor water quality in real time for about 1.5 million people.
Who we asked
We visited an overhead water treatment site in Goa to see the device working, interviewed SaafWater's founders, and spoke to an IAS officer who represents the kind of customer they need to win.
What we found
India's testing system leaves big gaps. Many rural areas test monthly or skip testing; lab results take 24 hours to 7 days; field kits are quick but less accurate; and public dashboards show counts, not when or where samples were taken. A NITI Aayog report says 70% of India's freshwater is contaminated, and about 200 million workdays are lost each year to waterborne illness. The problem is real, but nobody sees it.
What we built
The brief was to measure SaafWater's impact. We widened it after the research: the real blocker was awareness. So we built impact metrics (testing frequency, speed to alert, health, farm and cost effects) and used them as the backbone of a brand-awareness plan across LinkedIn, X, YouTube, billboards and a WhatsApp ambassador programme, positioning SaafWater as the market's finest, not just its first.
What I took from it
Data only changes minds when someone can repeat it. The best metric was the one that fit in a single sentence.