From Leaving Dyson to The Washing Machine Project | Navjot Sawhney

What Washing Machines Teach Us About Leadership | Navjot Sooni & The Washing Machine Project

This time Hayaatun is joined by Navjot Sawhney, founder of The Washing Machine Project, about how engineering and leadership intersect through a mission to reduce the unpaid labor of hand-washing clothes.

Nav describes being raised by his mother and sisters after his father died when he was eight, early leadership roles encouraged by his mother, and values of Sikh seva and Jugaad problem-solving.

After working at Dyson, he quit to work with Engineers Without Borders in India, where he met Divya, whose lack of electricity and running water inspired him to create a manual washing machine. The patented flat-pack Divya machine saves 75% of time and 50% of water, has impacted over 100,000 lives, won Time Invention of the Year, and is scaling with partners like Whirlpool and JCDecaux, aiming to reach 1 million people by 2030.

00:00 Intro

00:27 Meet Nav

02:45 Founder Life Today

03:52 Curious Childhood Roots

05:24 Loss and Raised by Women

07:12 Responsibility as Leadership

10:13 Seva Scouts and Service

11:26 Engineering and Jugaad