FreeWater, The World's First Free Beverage Company, Launches With A Foundation And Focus In Philanthropy

FreeWater is a paradigm-shifting, philanthropic marketing startup that is implementing an innovative, eco-friendly, BPA-free product as a new type of advertising medium; 10 cents from each beverage will be donated to charity to build water wells for people in need

FreeWater Inc., a philanthropic marketing channel that is implementing an innovative, paradigm-changing product as a new type of advertising medium, launches with a foundation and focus in philanthropy. The product is eco-friendly and BPA-free, and is paid for by the ads printed directly onto the aluminum bottles and cartons. Advertisers have the option to distribute the water for free or sell the beverage for profit. For more information on FreeWater, go to www.freewater.io.

Founder Josh Cliffords created FreeWater after volunteering with refugees who had revealed the water scarcity issues they had faced. At present, 800 million people lack access to safe drinking water while slightly less than one half of the global population, 3.6 billion people or 47%, live in areas that suffer water scarcity at least one month each year. Cliffords sought out a for profit solution to provide free, clean water and build infrastructure for communities to obtain water.

“When you do the math, we only need 10% of Americans to choose our free product so we can solve the global water crisis permanently,” said Josh Cliffords, Founder + CEO. “That’s water wells or systems put in place for 800 million people in need. And each time we introduce a new product it will donate to a different charitable cause.”

FreeWater is paid for by ads that are printed directly onto paper cartons and aluminum bottles. With their B-to-B model, some advertisers may choose to distribute the product for free while others may choose to sell it. With their B-to-C model, the water is always free. Part of the company’s mission is to pay its members to consume free products in the future. FreeWater is currently granting all its donations to a variety of nonprofits that are building water wells and systems in Africa.

“I wanted to change the experience of giving to charity and giving back to society and make it as simple as drinking a free bottle of water or eating a free slice of pizza,” said Cliffords. “Because if saving a life or the environment was that simple, everyone would do it.”

Advertisers can make use of FreeWater’s physical packaging by connecting QR codes for consumers to scan in order to collect coupons, watch videos and breaking news, order food, take surveys, register to vote, download music, movies, tv shows, video games, and software, Augmented Reality and more.

FreeWater aims to be a positive and prominent advertising channel that doesn’t annoy or harass its audience. Instead, they want to make people happy by saving them money, saving lives and helping the environment. Additionally, FreeWater advertisers get 10 times the impressions of direct mail; the company’s potential profit margins are also much higher than traditional food and beverage companies, being a media and e-commerce platform.

Now based in Austin, Texas, the company has created a paradigm-shifting marketing concept aimed to evolve into the world’s first free supermarket and to disrupt the food and beverage industry. Water is just the first of many products that Josh plans to make free and supported by advertising.

“We are leveraging the most advanced innovation in technology, media, entertainment, and shopping and have used them to transform an extremely traditional industry (the beverage industry),” said Cliffords. “We’ve created new types of distribution models that are only possible with free products and new types of manufacturing methods that we will utilize in the future.”

FreeWater will also construct special partnerships for other 501(c)(3) organizations or any other positive community outlets such as church groups, sports programs, and schools. Partners who are using FreeWater as a fundraiser must be able to sell all the ad space themselves and FreeWater will grant between 10 and 25 cents per beverage to the partner depending on the quantity and the price at which the ad space is sold.

About Josh Cliffords:
Josh’s vision to create this company comes after what might be considered an atypical “founder path.” Born and raised in Los Angeles, he started investing his own money in the stock market at the age of ten when he turned a free lemonade stand into a $30,000 investment in Microsoft. As a young adult, he spent a lot of his time traveling across the country in a motorhome, and in the year 2012, he joined the Army as an airborne infantryman. After the military, Josh took a trip around the world for his 30th birthday where he planned to visit 100 countries in four years. During the trip, he met two Nigerian refugees in Rome and after hearing the story of them fleeing their country due to lack of basic necessities like food and water and the threat of death, he decided to cancel the rest of his trip and dedicate his time to volunteering. He then started an NGO called “Save The Refugees” in Belgrade, Serbia which distributed food, water, clothing, and toys to more than 10,000 people in need. Talking with the migrants, Josh realized that a large number of them were on the move because they came from places that lacked access to basic human necessities. Josh was compelled to change that and he started to envision the idea behind FreeWater. In September of 2017, he had an epiphany and realized that one could make nearly everything in the world free via a number of different processes.

By the year 2019, Josh decided to move to Silicon Valley to learn the ins and outs of the technology needed to make this idea come to life. “That time in Silicon Valley was very important for my development because I was able to refine my inventions, was introduced to all types of tech and innovations ranging from self-driving cars to watching computer hackers at work, and I got to see what everyone else was working on,” said Josh. “I quickly realized that no one was working on anything that was even closely similar to what I was doing. It helped me to confirm that I was 100% on the right path and my wife and I moved to Austin in the summer of 2019.”

Cliffords currently resides in Austin, where FreeWater Inc. is headquartered. For more information, visit freewater.io.