This entrepreneur gives the bidet up to date
This summer, the evening edition invites you to meet women who are shaking up society. Today, heading to the United States, to discover Miki Agrawal. This "serial entrepreneur" born in Canada, wants to democratize the bidet for the good of the planet and the rear of the Americans.
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In Western countries, the golden age of the bidet is over. Invented in the eighteenth century, this piece of bathroom designed to clean the intimate parts after a visit to the toilet has fallen into oblivion, driven by toilet paper. On the other side of the Atlantic, Miki Agrawal set out on a cheeky challenge: to democratize the bidet in American homes.
Since 2016, his company Tushy sells a modern, discreet bidet that installs under the toilet bowl and sends a jet of water on the intimate parts with a button located on the side. In a word, it is much less invasive than the bidet of our ancestors, which was a piece of furniture in its own right, and just as practical as toilet paper.
Eco-friendly, hygienic and less expensive
Unlike the majority of her fellow citizens, this Canadian living in New York always knew what a bidet looked like and served. "My mother is Japanese and my Indian father is part of their respective culture," she says on the phone. But the idea of marketing it really came in 2012, thanks to a gift ... to say the least original. "For our first Valentine's Day, my fiance gave me a bidet ... I was so happy! She recalls.
Its modernized version of the bidet costs between $ 69 and $ 84, and the 39-year-old entrepreneur claims to have already sold "several thousand". "More and more Americans, especially young people, are sensitive to environmental issues and realize that we can not continue to destroy the planet as well," she says.
The advocates of the bidet - Miki Agrawal first - highlight the disastrous consequences of the generalization of toilet paper. About 270,000 trees would be destroyed and turned into PQ every day according to World Watch magazine. According to The World Counts, we have used more than 6,816,000,000 kilometers of toilet paper since the beginning of the year, and we are only in July.
In addition to branding the ecological argument, the entrepreneur recalls that the toilet paper is not at all hygienic and promotes the appearance of urinary tract infections or hemorrhoids. Third reason to adopt the bidet: the cost. "It pays in three months," she says, while Americans put between $ 40 and $ 70 each year in the PQ rolls.
"Serial entrepreneur"
Described as a "serial entrepreneur", Miki Agrawal is not her first bold innovation. Employed in an investment bank after graduation, she dropped finance after the attacks of September 11, 2001 and at the age of 25, she launched the Gluten-Free Pizzeria Wild, at a time when this alternative was not not yet fashionable.
Then, his "menstrual panties" called Thinx, which avoids leaks during menstruation, has earned him a certain notoriety in the world of entrepreneurship. Accused of sexual harassment by a former employee, she resigned from her business - while denying the facts - to devote herself to Tushy. She also created Icon, a line of underwear designed to contain the small urine leaks that many women experience, especially after pregnancy.
While these initiatives are "inherently feminist," Miki Agrawal's focus is on tackling day-to-day issues such as going to the bathroom, which in 2018 "still makes people feel uncomfortable when they talk about it."
Free from taboos
In parallel with his business creations, Miki Agrawal has released a first book Do Cool Sh * t, which could be translated as "Do what you love", built as a guide for young entrepreneurs. She is currently working on a second book, Disrupt Her (play on words with "disrupter", "disrupter" and "her", "her"), planned for January 2019, in which she speaks about "injunctions that society imposes upon us and what to do to get rid of it.
Miki Agrawal will release a second book in January 2019. (Photo: Daniel Johnson)
Moving the lines is the common point of all Miki Agrawal projects. After breaking the rules taboo, the entrepreneur hopes to change the mentality of Americans, "indoctrinated" according to her, accustomed to roll out PQ rolls for decades. And if the revolution started in the corner?