.

Fast Company calls Portland startup Goodwell’s toothbrush a “World Changing Idea”

What if you could have the convenience of an electric toothbrush, without filling landfills with tons of batteries and plastic and the like? Patrick Triato took that challenge as inspiration to create Goodwell. And now, Fast Company has named Goodwell’s Be. Brush, the winner of the wellness category of Fast Company’s 2021 World Changing Idea Awards.

“I had some wacky ideas at first, I tried an air pressure motor and a solar motor,” Triato says. “And then I came upon watch mechanics, and saw how a spring could drive a motor and the motor could drive the head.” The resulting product is a sturdy, analog brush that uses a familiar mechanism: Simply wind it up like a watch or tin toy, and it will buzz with the same efficiency as its electric counterparts—and can be taken anywhere.

For more information, visit Fast Company.

[Full disclosure: Goodwell is an alum of the PIE Consumer accelerator run in collaboration with Built Oregon. I am the cofounder and general manager of PIE and the cofounder of Built.]