Superpumped

Inspiration

The rainwater and stormwater management industry is stagnant, constrained by high CAPEX requirements, severe market fragmentation, and a critical "data desert" regarding building-specific ROI calculations. While cities like Dallas, Austin, Phoenix, and Las Vegas face increasing water scarcity, rising utility surcharges, and aging infrastructure strain, commercial and industrial businesses continue to overlook the tremendous "Possibility in Every Drop" falling on their roofs—literally millions of gallons of untapped resource annually.

Traditional water reuse systems suffer from a fundamental chicken-and-egg problem: facility managers won't invest without clear ROI data, but vendors can't provide accurate ROI without expensive site assessments. This creates a massive market inefficiency where environmentally beneficial projects never get off the ground.

We were inspired to build Superpumped to break this deadlock by turning environmental risks into quantifiable financial rewards. Our vision is to create a standardized, AI-driven bridge between satellite imagery, real-world industrial water solutions, and the sales infrastructure needed to actually deploy these systems at scale.

What it does

Superpumped is an end-to-end "Truth Engine" for water resilience that transforms how industrial water reuse systems are identified, evaluated, and sold. The platform operates across four integrated layers:

1. Discovery & Identification

Uses advanced Computer Vision to scan entire metropolitan areas via satellite imagery
Identifies high-value buildings with cooling towers (indicating high water consumption) and large roof catchment areas
Flags buildings in water-stressed regions with high stormwater fees and sustainability mandates
Generates a prioritized pipeline of buildings ranked by viability score (0-100)

2. Financial Intelligence

Calculates precise, building-specific ROI based on:
- Local rainfall patterns (e.g., 34" average annual for DFW)
- Municipal water utility rates and tiered pricing structures
- Stormwater management fees ("Rain Taxes")
- Available tax incentives and rebate programs
- Cooling tower water consumption estimates based on building size and type
Provides multi-year payback analysis and NPV calculations
Factors in regional water scarcity indices and ESG scoring for corporate sustainability goals

3. Lead Qualification & Verification

Automated Verification Calls: An AI-driven voice agent (powered by ElevenLabs) calls building applicants to:
- Verify business urgency and timeline
- Confirm decision-maker contact information
- Collect technical specifications about existing water systems
- Assess sustainability initiative priorities
Extracts structured data from conversations (confirmed interest, contact name, phone number)
Ensures sales reps receive only "ready-to-close" leads with verified intent

4. Sales Enablement

Interactive map interface showing all qualified buildings in a region
Detailed building profiles with satellite imagery, ROI breakdowns, and risk factors
Automated lead routing based on geographic territory and deal size
Integration-ready API for CRM systems

The result is a platform that compresses a 6-month sales cycle into 48 hours by providing instant, data-backed answers to the question: "Is this building worth pursuing?"

How we built it

Computer Vision Pipeline

Trained a custom YOLOv26 object detection model on a curated dataset of 2,000+ annotated satellite images
Achieved 87% precision in detecting cooling towers and distinguishing them from similar rooftop structures (HVAC units, solar panels, vents)
Implemented roof segmentation to calculate precise catchment area in square feet
Deployed the model to process entire city blocks in under 2 minutes

Geospatial & Data Stack

ESRI ArcGIS: Robust GIS processing for spatial analysis and building footprint extraction
Overture Maps API: Visualized building data, environmental risk factors, and municipal boundaries in an interactive map
NOAA Climate Data: Integrated historical rainfall data and drought severity indices
Custom Water Rate Database: Compiled utility rate data for 50+ major US cities

Backend Logic Layer (Flask + Python)

Real-time viability scoring engine combining:
- Financial score (35% weight): Water rates, tax incentives, payback period
- Environmental score (30% weight): Water scarcity index, stormwater fees
- Corporate score (20% weight): ESG focus, sustainability mandates
- Physical score (15% weight): Roof area, cooling tower confidence
Asynchronous processing for batch building analysis
RESTful API endpoints for frontend integration

AI Voice Communication

ElevenLabs Conversational AI: Created a natural-sounding voice agent with custom prompts for the water industry
Twilio Integration: Managed outbound calling infrastructure and phone number provisioning
Data Collection Workflow: Configured the agent to extract three key fields (confirmed status, contact name, phone number) and return structured JSON
Webhook Processing: Built Flask endpoint to receive call transcripts and parse extracted data

Frontend (Next.js + React)

Interactive map workspace with real-time building scanning
ROI calculator with dynamic inputs for custom scenarios
Responsive design with dark mode support
Tailwind CSS for modern, professional UI

Challenges we ran into

Data Standardization Nightmare

Every municipality has different stormwater fee structures, water rate tiers, and incentive programs. We had to manually compile data from 50+ utility providers, each with different billing formats and terminology. Creating a normalized database that could handle this fragmentation was a massive undertaking.

Computer Vision Precision

Training YOLOv26 to distinguish between cooling towers and other rooftop HVAC units required an extremely curated dataset. Many rooftop structures look similar from satellite view, and false positives would destroy trust in our platform. We spent significant time on data augmentation and model fine-tuning to achieve production-ready accuracy.

Voice AI Integration Complexity

Working with ElevenLabs agents to create a seamless workflow was challenging:

Designing conversation flows that felt natural while extracting specific data points
Configuring data collection attributes with the correct schema (we initially had an enum on the "name" field that prevented extraction)
Integrating Twilio's webhook system with our Flask backend
Handling edge cases in transcript parsing (different phone number formats, name variations)

Real-Time Performance

Processing satellite imagery for entire city blocks while maintaining sub-3-second response times required careful optimization of our CV pipeline and database queries.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Organizational Mapping Feature

In industrial sales, the biggest bottleneck isn't finding buildings—it's finding the right person. Our AI voice agent successfully bridges the gap between a "website applicant" and the "Lead Facility Engineer" or decision-maker. This single feature can save sales teams weeks of phone tag and LinkedIn stalking.

High-Fidelity Data Integration

We achieved seamless integration where Computer Vision data (detected roof area, cooling tower count) flows directly into the viability scoring engine, which then informs the AI voice conversation. This creates a "wow" moment of technical continuity that demonstrates the platform's sophistication.

Actionable Viability Scoring

Our scoring algorithm doesn't just rank buildings—it provides actionable recommendations ("Immediate outreach," "Schedule follow-up," "Monitor for triggers") that sales teams can act on immediately.

Production-Ready Voice AI

Successfully deployed an AI voice agent that can handle real phone conversations, extract structured data, and integrate with existing sales workflows. This isn't a demo—it's a functional system that could be deployed tomorrow.

What we learned

Data + Verification > Raw Leads

In B2B sales, a lead is worthless if it's "garbage data." We learned that combining satellite "ground truth" with human "intent verification" via AI calls creates a fundamentally different quality of lead. By automating the first 48 hours of a traditional sales cycle (research, qualification, initial contact), we can deliver leads that are 10x more likely to close.

The Water-Energy Nexus is Undervalued

Most facility managers think about water and energy as separate line items. We learned that cooling towers create a powerful nexus where water savings directly translate to energy savings (less pumping, less treatment). Framing ROI in terms of this combined impact dramatically increases perceived value.

Regional Context is Everything

A building in Phoenix has 5x the viability score of an identical building in Seattle, purely due to water scarcity and utility rates. We learned that geographic context isn't just a filter—it's the primary driver of ROI.

AI Voice Agents are Ready for Prime Time

We were skeptical about using AI for actual sales calls, but ElevenLabs' technology is genuinely impressive. The voice quality, conversation flow, and data extraction capabilities are production-ready today.

What's next for Superpumped

Predictive Maintenance Layer

Integrate real-time weather forecasts to notify facility managers via our AI assistant before major storm events. The system would:

Advise on storage tank capacity adjustments
Recommend cooling tower load reductions to maximize rainwater capture
Send automated alerts when optimal harvesting conditions are detected
Track actual vs. predicted water savings over time

Greywater Expansion

Extend our YOLO model to identify greywater recycling opportunities in residential high-rises, hotels, and multi-family buildings. This would standardize water stewardship across every building type, not just industrial facilities.

Utility Partnership Program

Partner with municipal water utilities to offer Superpumped as a white-label tool for identifying buildings eligible for stormwater fee reductions or rebate programs. This creates a win-win where utilities reduce infrastructure strain and building owners reduce costs.

Carbon Credit Integration

Connect water savings to carbon offset markets by calculating the embodied energy in saved water (treatment, pumping, heating). This creates an additional revenue stream for building owners.

National Expansion

Scale our database to cover all 100+ major US metros, then expand internationally to water-stressed regions like Australia, Middle East, and Southern Europe.

Our ultimate vision: Make water resilience as standardized and accessible as solar panels—turning every commercial roof into a strategic water asset.