After a year of major growth, Jessica Heinzelman’s smart, modular public bathrooms are in 20 cities and counting.
BY BRYCE COVERT
MAR 10, 2026
Although she lives in the Bay Area, Jessica Heinzelman was thrilled as she watched a press conference held by Zohran Mamdani, the new mayor of New York City, near a parkway overpass in January. Mamdani announced that he was committing $4 million to install roughly 20 to 30 new modular public bathrooms across all five boroughs. The city ranks poorly for public restroom access; there is just one bathroom for every 8,500 residents, putting it behind places like San Francisco and Madison, Wisconsin. “In a city that has everything, the one thing that is often impossible to find is a public bathroom,” he said.
That was music to Heinzelman’s ears, as co-founder and chief operating officer at Throne Labs. Her company produces free-to-use, self-contained bathrooms that can be delivered and set up the same day. The focus on the issue felt like validation, as would be snagging a contract with the administration. “New York City is the poster child for poor bathroom access,” she says. “We’re super excited about the potential opportunity there.”
It would top off a period of explosive growth for the six-year-old startup. Throne Labs’s revenue grew 176 percent year over year in 2025, and it raised $15 million in venture funding. It now operates in more than 20 cities, and Heinzelman says that metro areas set to host major events like the World Cup and Olympics have reached out about toilet solutions for attending crowds that would then stay put for local residents, as “many cities and transit agencies are using the events as a catalyst to invest in expansion of restrooms long term.”
Bathrooms weren’t always top of mind for Heinzelman, but they were for her co-founder, CEO Fletcher Wilson, whom she met through mutual friends in 2020. She was searching for her next career move while working for an AI-powered chatbot company that helped women in developing countries find reproductive health information.
Wilson, whose background is in biotech and medical devices, often quips that his gastrointestinal tract is his “worst system,” which means he’s keenly aware of whether there are any nearby restrooms he can use. Heinzelman didn’t immediately register the potential of his pitch, thanks to a strong bladder, as well as what she describes as her privilege as a White woman to talk her way into most restaurant or cafe bathrooms. But when she asked her friends about their experiences, she found many of them related to Wilson’s struggles, whether it was because they cared for small children, or experienced conditions like incontinence or irritable bowel syndrome. She was sold. She let Fletcher know, signing off her email to him, “I heart toilets.”
When Throne Labs launched later that year, it had to confront the two major challenges that new public restrooms face: The difficulty of connecting a new unit to water and sewer lines, which Heinzelman says can cost $1 million, and the operational headache of keeping public restrooms cleaned and well-maintained. The barrier for port-a-potties and luxury restroom trailer companies can be lower, but they require generators to run, often aren’t ADA compliant, and usually deal with vandalism and need frequent upkeep.
Throne bathrooms overcome these challenges. They’re self-contained—using fresh water tanks to fill the toilets and sinks and collecting the waste in another tank—and outfitted with sensors to alert Throne’s service teams on the ground when units need to be emptied or filled. Thrones are also powered by solar energy wherever there’s enough sunlight; in harsh winters or shady spots, they plug into a standard, 120-volt outlet and are “incredibly power efficient,” Heinzelman said. The company partners with Satellite Industries to build the units, which then go to Throne’s facility to get technology add-ons and quality testing. After a Throne is delivered off a flatbed truck, it can be operational in two hours.
Another challenge for public bathrooms: They require constant maintenance to keep clean, functional, and welcoming. For this, Heinzelman drew on the data and behavioral science she gleaned from being “born and raised in Silicon Valley,” she says. Her team figured that, if people enter a neglected, vandalized bathroom, they would be more likely to treat it poorly; a well-maintained one would prompt people to keep it tidy. Thrones are cleaned by the company’s operations team after every 12 uses, on average. The units are modular, so if something gets damaged, it can be replaced without removing the whole structure. Everything is wrapped in vinyl, making it easy to wipe off paint or pen; anything worse than that can be covered with patterned stickers; and the acrylic mirror surface is layered, so the top one can be removed to reveal a fresh one.
Every Throne is also ADA accessible, has features to help those with vision loss navigate, and includes baby changing stations and free menstrual products.
Only about 0.7 percent of users are “misusing” Thrones, according to the company, which it defines as doing things like smoking or overstaying its 10-minute limit. Thrones have smoke detectors and must be opened with a code obtained either by downloading an app, scanning a QR code, getting a text, or using a card to tap in. For people without phones, entry cards can be obtained at places like local libraries and municipal offices. Users are sent warnings that they will be blocked from using Thrones if they break the rules.
Throne Labs is “basically bathroom as a service,” Heinzelman says. The company’s customers are primarily municipal governments or transit agencies that install units for the public to use. There is no upfront price, only a monthly flat fee that covers the cost of the unit and what it takes for Throne’s team to keep it maintained. They offer pricing tiers depending on how much vandalism and upkeep it expects in a given area, but most units cost less than $100,000 a year, a fraction of the cost of a new bathroom install, to say nothing of its maintenance. Cities can also move Thrones around based on data showing where and whether they’re most used. For example, says Heinzelman, Ann Arbor, Michigan, rotates Thrones in and out of the parks seasonally.
So far, its high-tech lavs have been used over one million times. There are more than 100 units deployed across cities in Michigan, Virginia, Maryland, and California, and in Washington, D.C. Cities typically sign on for a year, but the company is seeing more multiyear contracts, and it’s lost only a single client since it started selling units commercially in March 2023. There’s a lot of potential to grow: In the U.S., there are just eight public bathrooms per 100,000 residents. (Compare that with Iceland’s 56, or Switzerland’s 46.)
Heinzelman spearheaded a relationship with Los Angeles Metro, the city’s transit system, when Throne set up a restroom near an encampment of unhoused people by the Westlake/MacArthur Park station. Users are loving it, appreciative of a place to use the bathroom, change clothes, and have some dignity, says. In 2024, L.A. Metro approved scaling up to 64 Thrones, meaning approximately a third of metro stops would have restrooms. “We want to be the restroom that everyone wants to use,” says Heinzelman.
Heinzelman oversees human resources and growth, but also works on accounts, partnerships, and sales and marketing capabilities. She values her role as the female voice on the three-person founding team. (She’s the one who suggested Thrones carry free menstrual products.)
Over the next year, the company plans to enter two to three new markets and expand within its current ones, and it hopes to more than double its revenue.
Ultimately, the goal is for local governments to see Thrones as “essential city services,” and for the company to become a household name, like Band-Aid or Uber. “We’ll be the next noun,” Heinzelman says. “’I’m going to find a Throne’—meaning you’re going to go find a trusted, clean toilet.”
Meet Throne Labs, the Company Making Public Bathrooms a Better Place to Go