The water bottle that doesn't outlive you

Steven Howell used to walk the beaches in Santa Monica and see plastic everywhere. A single bottle can sit in the environment or landfill for centuries. So he decided to make one that doesn't.

He started Whatrr in Los Angeles in 2023 with a simple idea: a bottle of spring water that breaks down in a landfill instead of outliving everyone who drank from it.

It caught on fast. In its first year, Whatrr won the SoCal Startup Day pitch competition. The next year, it was on the shelves at Erewhon. Since then, it's gotten into more than 100 stores. Every case sold has helped fund something real: a turtle sanctuary and a school in Indonesia, forest recovery in India, a new home in Mexico, and beach cleanups in California.

And the next bottle is already on the way. Whatrr's new blue bottle breaks down even faster, and this one breaks down in the ocean too.

Steven isn't just selling water. He's pushing back against the million plastic bottles the world buys every minute. Here's what he has to say about building with LvlUp Ventures in his corner:

“With LvlUp, I have real operators who care about Whatrr succeeding. We have monthly calls, and I can always get time on someone's calendar for advice or an introduction. In the age of AI, relationships still matter most, and that's what LvlUp brings.”

We're proud to have Whatrr in our portfolio at LvlUp CPG Fund. If you're building something with this kind of staying power, we want to hear about it.