Meet Throne Labs, the Company Making Public Bathrooms a Better Place to Go

After a year of major growth, Jessica Heinzelman’s smart, modular public bathrooms are in 20 cities and counting.

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. 

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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. 

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