The Story of Grush, America’s Greatest Maker

The team at Grush, and their smart toothbrush, has won TBS’ America’s Greatest Makers, taking home the $1 million grand prize.

Ethan and the Grush team are alumni from the inaugural labs class, in Winter of 2014. We had a watch party for the finale, gathering friends, other startups, and the Wearable IoT World team together at the Wearable IoT World headquarters.

Somehow, Ethan had managed to keep it a secret from the rest of the labs for the months leading up. When the announcement was made, the room erupted in celebration.

Ethan watches his team receive a million dollars from Wearable IoT World Labs.

Here is the story of Grush, from their launch from Wearable IoT World Labs to winning the award of America’s Greatest Makers.

Grush Launches from Wearable IoT World Labs

Ethan’s pitch hasn’t changed much in two years, but his bank statement has.

When working with the startups in our WIoTW accelerator, we dedicate whole weeks to helping entrepreneurs build a brand story that explains how their products can solve a problem.

However, the Grush team came into the labs with a clear idea what problem they were solving. Kids don’t like brushing their teeth, and parents don’t like to battle their kids to brush their teeth. “It’s very difficult for a kid to visualize why they should brush their teeth,” Ethan said at the WIoTW Labs Demo day.

Grush gave kids a good visualization of their toothbrush — it made brushing into a fun game.

Grush was one of the best-sellers at the family friendly Maker Faire.

Grush not only made it more fun for kids, they also designed their product to make life better for parents, too. Ethan and his team imagined selling anonymous user data to the cloud. They built an app that would help parents to track their kid’s brushing habits. The Grush team did extensive research into learning about how parents and dentists would like their product.

Parents took to social media to approve of Grush during the show.

Several years ago, it was less common to see an IoT startup with a clear vision. Sure, you had your FitBit or your Strava making it big. In this particular news segment, the media was still buzzing about the potential of Google Glass. Grush had a clear vision, and they stood out for it. At the Wearable IoT World demo day, Ethan and his Grush Brush even wound up being featured on a local news segment.

Ethan was in the inaugural cohort at the Wearable IoT World demo day.

“We’re beyond proud of Grush,” added WioTW’s chief labs officer and co-founder Kyle Ellicott. “Having watched their dramatic growth over the past two years, they have earned their way to a giant win with an innovative product that delivers superb value for parents and their children.”

If you watch their pitch at Wearable IoT World’s Winter 2014 demo day, you’ll see that the team was ahead of their time. They were praised for being so polished on the show. 15 weeks of practicing your pitches daily could have a positive effect.

During their time in the labs, Grush launched and ran a successful Indiegogo campaign raising 101% of their 50k goal. A year later, they were on America’s Greatest Makers.

A Brush Made for Television

Ultimately they had to convince judges who were essentially acting like investors normally would. “They asked very astute questions,” he said. The judges wondered: How much further could they take a brushing product?

Grush came back on the final show to reveal a flossing tool that they had built using complicated algorithms.

They Grushed It.

The founders got to show off their great interpersonal dynamic during the show.

Even though Grush had had the experience of going through the Wearable IoT World Labs accelerator, it wasn’t easy to win. Setting a baseline of using show sponsor Intel’s Curie module meant that projects as diverse as those found on the show, from Grush’s toothbrush to “good vibes” wearable VENN, all had a common starting line.

“Every team may have had a different project,” Schur said. “But they all have the same resources and the same time.”

Grush was clearly getting the right kind of traction. “We found out a lot of our fans were under 12 years old,” he said. Apparently, parents saw the reaction of their children when they were watching the show and took to social media to encourage America’s Greatest Makers to award Grush the winner.

The team figured out how to pitch their investors, too. “If we receive one million dollars, I can guarantee that we will sell 10,000 of your Intel Curie sensors on Black Friday”, Ethan said to the judges.

They’ve got a tall order to live up to now, but I wouldn’t bet against this team.

Moving on from round to round couldn’t be more dramatic for the team.

“We’re very excited,” said Grush co-founder Ethan Schur about the big win. “Being on the show was a fantastic experience, it gave us a chance to take our concept into American homes.”

“It’s no shocker they were crowned the winner,” said Kyle Ellicott, chief of labs at Wearable IoT World said. “It’s been amazing to witness — and be a part of their storied journey over these past two years. They’ve accomplished some great feats and delivered an industry changing product.”