A Start-Up Changing the Bathroom Experience

"I didn’t want to change the bathroom…
I wanted to change the experience."

Fuller Cruzado grew up in a rural area of Cajamarca, Peru, where using a bathroom was very different from what many take for granted. It was uncomfortable, unpleasant, and marked by bad odors, insects, and resignation. For years, that was "the way things were" in rural areas. Until he decided not to accept it.

"I didn’t want to change the bathroom. I wanted to change the experience," Fuller says with conviction.

That idea stayed with him when he went to college and began to question why living in the countryside had to mean different sanitation conditions than those in a city. Together with a team, he embarked on a long process of research, trial, and error. The goal was not just to improve infrastructure, but to change what it feels like to enter a rural bathroom – to make it clean, pleasant, and dignified.

Thus was born Brixsan, a local startup that develops biological solutions for sanitation. Its products help control odors, reduce insect populations, eliminate scale, and improve the performance of rural bathrooms, latrines, and septic systems, without affecting treatment processes. Over time, this same approach expanded to include solutions for wastewater treatment plants, helping ensure systems operate properly and byproducts can be reused as agricultural fertilizer.

The journey was not a solitary one. Throughout the process, Fuller was supported by Water For People, which helped connect his local innovation with a broader vision – strengthening solutions that do not rely on external projects, but can grow and sustain themselves within the community. In this approach, sanitation is not solved through infrastructure alone, but through services and products that fit the local context and last over time.  

That breakthrough was solidified when Brixsan joined the Toilet Board Coalition’s accelerator program, where the startup refined its business model, validated its product, and began to scale. What began as a response to a personal experience has grown into a company that can stand on its own and continue improving sanitation systems over time.

That change shows up in everyday life. In districts like La Asunción, those who use the products describe a clear change: "Now going to the bathroom is different – it doesn’t smell bad, and it feels clean."

Beyond the individual experience, these solutions help sanitation systems work better every day. Because they are accessible, replicable, and locally run, they improve bathroom use today and help keep systems working over time.

Brixsan’s story shows that change doesn’t always start with infrastructure.
Sometimes, it starts with how something feels. And in this case, it started with a simple idea – the bathroom experience could be different.