Episode 169: Sutro - The Future of Pool Water Chemistry Controlled by an App & Professional Reagents with Jim Conti
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Episode Summary
Jim Conti is the Head of Sales at Sutro. The brainchild of founder Ravi Kurani, Sutro began with a focus on ORP technology before the company made the pivot to reagent-based testing with photometry, resulting in Sutro’s flagship product, the Sutro Smart Monitor.
Jim explains the limitations of ORP and what led the team at Sutro to home in on incorporating Reagent Cartridges by LaMotte into their current technology.
He compares the evolution of Sutro to that of the iPhone and that the future of the product will see the addition of even more features that add to convenience such as one-tap remote chlorine checks.
“We’re an absolute extension of smart home technology,” says Jim. He goes on to share the many exciting plans the company has to make Sutro an indispensable tool for pool service professionals of any size.
While he accepts that some service pros will always prefer old-school, analog systems over what’s cutting edge, he hopes that Sutro will change the game by looking at the product’s development as a “two-way street”, where customers have a say in how the technology will continue to evolve.
Jim Conti is the Head of Sales at Sutro
Topics Discussed
00:55 - An introduction to Jim and Sutro
07:47 - Why reagents are a better choice over ORP
15:56 - How the Sutro Smart Monitor works
26:28 - The evolution of Sutro’s technology
35:18 - How to set up the Sutro Smart Monitor
37:58 - Why it’s important for pool service professionals to embrace new technologies
46:26 - How to introduce Sutro to business owners with hundreds of pools on their route
52:47 - What the future holds for Sutro
1:00:14 - How to get more information on Sutro
Connect with Sutro
Key Quotes From Episode
When you talk to most people, test strips are good, reagent-based testing is better, reagent-based with photometry is best—it takes out the human element and you don’t have to guess what colors you’re looking at.
If you look at where we are today, we’re the iPhone 3. Now look where the iPhone 13 is with all the features they have added over time. That’s the evolution Sutro will follow.
We want to partner with the service techs and the pool guys—not cannibalize their business. In fact, we’re trying to make them more profitable and try to make them more efficient. It’s a partnership. This gadget does not solve all.
I don’t think everybody is going to adopt [new technologies] but the folks that will achieve the most success and profitability will embrace technology to be more efficient, more profitable, and to do more than less.
We look at technology as a two-way street. What we’re showing you is not the Holy Grail. We’re not saying, “Hey, it’s over. Take it as it is.” We’re saying, “Here’s what we have, Mr. Service Guy. What do you think it should be, and what would you like it to be?”