Spinnaker Design and Throne Labs
Creating Smart Public Bathrooms from Scratch
In big cities, finding a public bathroom that's open to everyone — not just customers of a business — can be a real headache. Throne Labs decided to tackle this everyday problem head-on. They had a simple yet groundbreaking idea: create smart, super-clean public bathrooms that could be placed anywhere. To turn this concept into reality, they teamed up with the experts at Spinnaker Design.
Step 1: From Idea to Prototype
At the outset, all Throne had was a concept. Spinnaker Design rolled up their sleeves and got to work, helping Throne iterate on several early prototypes. The goal was clear: to prove that the concept wasn't just cool but truly valuable and feasible. Through a process of trial and error, with a dash of innovation and a lot of teamwork, a prototype that embodied Throne's vision gradually took shape.
Step 2: Winning Trust and Investment
With a promising prototype in hand, Throne Labs managed to secure a whopping $6 million in Series A funding. This wasn't just a win for Throne; it was a testament to the collaborative spirit and technical know-how that Spinnaker Design brought to the table.
Step 3: Fine-Tuning the Product
But securing funding was just the beginning. Over the next two years, Throne and Spinnaker Design continued to work closely, refining the product to include features like remote monitoring and autonomous operation. They also added advanced fleet management capabilities, ensuring that the smart bathrooms could be efficiently managed no matter how many units were deployed.
Step 4: Hitting the Streets
Finally, after years of hard work and collaboration, Throne was ready to launch in Washington D.C. and beyond. The smart bathrooms weren't just a convenient solution to an everyday problem; they were a testament to what can be achieved with a great idea, the right expertise, and a lot of hard work.
The collaboration between Throne Labs and Spinnaker Design is more than just a success story; it's a blueprint for how to bring a brilliant idea from concept to reality. It shows that with the right partnership, even the most straightforward solutions can become revolutionary innovations. Today, thanks to the hard work and expertise of both teams, finding a clean, accessible public bathroom in the city is no longer a pipe dream — it's a reality.
“Spinnaker Design was instrumental in helping our tiny startup team turn an idea into reality. They helped select the appropriate hardware and wrote all the firmware to prove feasibility of initial concepts, then continued to develop more complex firmware architecture, event handling, and fleet management as we grew. I would be happy to work with them again!”
— Ben Clark, CTO, Throne Labs