Key Takeaways
- Ten years ago, Fix began to consider what millennials wanted to see in their bathrooms.
- He and Reinecker officially launched their home and bath brand sproos! in 2022.
- The company is on track for $10 million in revenue this year.
About a decade ago, plumbing-industry veteran Benjamin Fix was tasked with creating a bathroom collection for the next generation of consumers — at the time, millennials.
As Fix considered what might resonate with young shoppers, a few problems became apparent. Most millennials were renters, not homeowners who could make permanent changes to their bathrooms. Additionally, the plumbing industry’s “antiquated” messaging didn’t appeal to them, and the products themselves lacked imagination.
“We had three colors, which was chrome, chrome and chrome,” Fix tells Entrepreneur. “And then there was nothing else. This next generation wants to have colors to express themselves. They want to have pink or green.”
If the plumbing industry was going to successfully cater to young consumers, its products needed to evolve. And, though Gen Z is now the newest set of shoppers on the scene, an interest in fun, colorful designs remains consistent.
Starting a business in 2022: sproos!
Fix teamed up with his former colleague, Greg Reinecker, who became a co-founder and product designer at their business: sproos!, a renter-friendly, direct-to-consumer home and bath brand.
Fix’s partner Cecile Scius also joined the effort as the company’s manager of customer success and community lead.
Sproos! officially launched in November 2022 after the co-founders raised about $250,000 from professional contacts and friends, and it has been growing since.
The business brought in $3.9 million in revenue in 2025 and is on track to cross the $10 million mark this year. It also boasts about 35,000 active subscribers receiving its shower filtration cartridges (roughly 70% of new customers opt in) and a monthly churn rate under 3%.
Entrepreneur sat down with Fix and Scius to learn more about how they’re cultivating a loyal community that helps sproos! keep leveling up.
Listening to customer feedback leads to filtration
Like most new businesses angling for adoption, sproos! tapped into social media from the start. The company sent products to lifestyle creators on Instagram, and more recently TikTok, to generate bathroom-makeover content. College students hoping to spruce up their rental spaces were a particularly strong pool.
However, unlike some brands that might consider those published posts the end goal, for sproos!, they’re only one facet of an ongoing — and invaluable — dynamic that hinges on deep consumer relationships.
Listening to customer feedback led to two critical additions at the company: a shower head filtration product and its supporting subscription model.
Sproos! holds round tables with its most loyal community members, dubbed “super fans,” four times a year, which helped develop its first filtration product.
The company learned exactly what people wanted, from pain-point removals to aesthetic preferences, so it could address them before its product ever hit the market. The development process took place over about two years.
Sproos!’s subscription model, which delivers a new filter cartridge to subscribers every three months, also emerged as a result of those discussions — and proved a boon for business.
“This was the jackpot,” Fix says. “The customers are super happy. They’re telling us how much they love our filtration. And we can create a recurring revenue model. That’s a game-changer.”
The subscription model provides helpful stability and a foundation on which to build, Scius adds.
A monthly feedback report helps solve problems quickly
In addition, every month, sproos! generates a report based on what people are calling, writing or posting on social media about. “ We extract data from all the customer communication that we have in order to see trends [so that] we can improve,” Scius says.
Sproos! can use that data to fix existing problems, develop new products or launch highly requested colors.
For example, the report once highlighted a shower head leak that led to a significant unlock.
After noting an increase in leaks month over month, the company’s engineering department drilled down on the cause: the washers on the hose. The “little donuts” were small and transparent, so if they happened to fall off, many people didn’t realize it.
Sproos! added a lip to the mold for extra security — and it became an industry standard.
“ Our customers are not just informing product betterments within our company, but when they see what we’re doing, it then spreads to all of the major brands as well,” Scius says. “Because if we’re having the problem, we’re not the only ones. We’re just really adamant about doing something about it.”
Selling on Amazon and expanding a HomeGoods partnership
Following its success with DTC, sproos! began to sell on Amazon and continues to explore brick-and-mortar expansion. “Of course, we have ambitions to grow,” Fix says, “and for us, going into retail is a good way to reach new audiences, and to bring people into our ecosystem.”
The company is adding to its shower-system product line, branching into storage, curtains, bath mats, lighting and accessories, as it focuses on an expanding HomeGoods partnership and upcoming Home Depot rollout.
And that initial HomeGoods placement? It, too, was a direct result of the company’s community, which cited HomeGoods as one of their favorite places to shop.
The company launched with a small HomeGoods placement in the U.S. last summer. It went well and brought larger second and third orders, and interest from Canada HomeGoods.
“You don’t have to go from zero to 100 in one step,” Scius says. “Growing a business is incremental. The goal is really to continuously improve, to continuously grow, to continuously learn. That’s how you’re going to get to the finish line.”
Urban Outfitters recently featured sproos! in a back-to-school curation, and the company partnered with student housing developer Greystar for on-campus pop-ups, which pushed local sales up 200% and got its products built into lease-renewal incentives.
Sproos! started on a mission to understand its target consumer, and the company continues to see success because of that ongoing commitment. The market will let you know exactly what it wants — but you have to be willing to listen, Fix notes.
“The consumers will tell you,” Fix says. “Be open to that feedback, and don’t overanalyze it. If 10 people ask for pink, just do pink. Be humble enough to have your mind changed by the people who you want to reach.”
Key Takeaways
- Ten years ago, Fix began to consider what millennials wanted to see in their bathrooms.
- He and Reinecker officially launched their home and bath brand sproos! in 2022.
- The company is on track for $10 million in revenue this year.
About a decade ago, plumbing-industry veteran Benjamin Fix was tasked with creating a bathroom collection for the next generation of consumers — at the time, millennials.
As Fix considered what might resonate with young shoppers, a few problems became apparent. Most millennials were renters, not homeowners who could make permanent changes to their bathrooms. Additionally, the plumbing industry’s “antiquated” messaging didn’t appeal to them, and the products themselves lacked imagination.
“We had three colors, which was chrome, chrome and chrome,” Fix tells Entrepreneur. “And then there was nothing else. This next generation wants to have colors to express themselves. They want to have pink or green.”