Latest / The Growth Class with Phil Masiello / Brand Positioning in CPG: Creating a Better-For-You Hydration Movement with Kun Yang

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Brand Positioning in CPG: Creating a Better-For-You Hydration Movement with Kun Yang · The Growth Class with Phil Masiello

• 0:18
  SPEAKER_01: Hey everybody, and welcome back to the Growth Class, the show where we skip the fluff, dig into what's actually working, and leave you with moves you can apply before your next cup of coffee gets cold.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_01: And today's guest is Quan Yang, co-founder and CEO of Prickly, a natural hydration beverage powered by prickly well, originally it was powered by prickly pear cactus fruit.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_01: I think they've evolved it, but we'll hear from Kwan.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_01: But built for people who want real benefits without the usual ingredient label horror story.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, we all know what's in soda and what's in half the beverages we drink, but Kwan's story is especially fun because it's not let's make another drink band brand situation.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_01: He and his co-founder Mo Hassoon both came from healthcare, and they built prickly to help families build better hydration habits and not just chase a trend.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_01: You might have seen them on Shark Tank, where they walked in bold, pitched hard, ultimately landed a deal with Barbara Corcoran, if I'm not mistaken, which is never a casual Tuesday.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_01: So since then, they kept scaling, man.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_01: These guys are on a roll.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_01: They they are showing up in retailers like Whole Foods, Sprouts, HEB, Amazon, Gelson.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_01: I think they have over a million cans sold from from what I've I've understood.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_01: So today we're getting into the real story, product market fit, rebranding, distribution, what it takes to win in one of the toughest categories on earth, beverages.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_01: So let's jump in.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_01: Kwan, welcome to the cr the the growth class.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_01: And I really appreciate you taking the time.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_01: I know you're busy scaling, which we love to hear.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_01: So I appreciate you taking the time.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's such a pleasure to be here, Phil.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks so much for having me.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, my pleasure.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_01: So let's take a step back and why don't you give us a little bit of history of you, yourself, your your your partner, and and what got you to where where you are today.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: I I think you did such a a great job kind of you know summarizing our story, um, Phil.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: And and you know, prickly, as you mentioned, our our mission is really simple.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: We want to help families build healthier hydration habits naturally.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: You know, as you said, we we started our career in healthcare.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um and when we kind of a lot of the lessons that we learned in there, the most important lesson we learned was actually that the best medicines in life were actually the the health habits that you build uh from a pretty young age.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um and so as we started to think about building our own families and we kind of looked around, we noticed that a lot of the drinks, especially the hydration drinks that were uh dominating our grocery aisles still were the same legacy options that we had grown up with, right?
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: They were loaded with you know artificial sugars, neon dyes, they were packaged in plastic bottles.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and we just kind of felt that there could be a better option.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: So we we set out to create something that we would probably share with our own family and friends.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and so prickly was born um, you know, initially as a a cactus water in 2021.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but prickly is a natural hydration drink.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: It's meant to challenge the status quo.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: Uh it's packed with antioxidants, electrolytes, and vitamin C, and it's powered by some of the most delicious prickly pears you can find in in the world, really.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_01: And so that is still the foundation.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_01: I wasn't wrong, right?
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_01: The foundation of prickly pears.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we we we uh we have incredible relationships with our farmers and our suppliers.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: We're really proud to to champion them and we learned in the process too, like the the most important responsibility we have in the supply chain ultimately is to realize as much of our mission as possible, help as many families families as possible, but really reach as many households as possible, because that in itself is going to be the big the best way that we could support our own farmers and suppliers as well in the supply chain.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_01: And and where are most of your where where are most of your uh raw materials coming from?
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: Well, the the fruit itself, the prickly pear fruit itself, um, a billion pounds of it are grown every single year.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: 80% of it comes from Mexico.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: Central Mexico is where we source, um, and in the highlands, right, where there's actually it doesn't require a lot of water, and there's a big reason why it grows there is because again, it it takes about 80% less irrigation than uh traditional crops.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so we source um from that region, right?
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's pureeed, and then we, and the you know, prickly pear puree is in every single one of our cans of prickly.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_01: Wow, that's fantastic.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_01: So, so uh so you started out where were things smooth, rough, hit some but you hit some bumps along the way?
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, every single one, right?
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um we always joke that uh building prickly, you know, a lot of it has felt like kind of the Greek legend of Sisyphus, push pushing a boulder uphill, right?
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: And and learning how do we kind of rethink that boulder and push it downhill.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: And that's exactly this inflection point that we're at with prickly natural hydration and this repositioning that we're seeing is what's led to so much momentum.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um but when we launched in 2021, and I guess this is kind of on brand for pharmacists, but we took a very scientific method approach to our strategy.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, we wanted to just test and learn our way into achieving product market fit before we really, you know, started to raise institutional capital and hit that acceleration uh button as it pertained to like getting chasing distribution doors, scaling brand awareness and investing in that marketing spend.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: We just wanted to make sure that by the time we did that, that we were offering a product that was really meeting the consumer zeitgeist, right?
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: The timing of that zeitgeist in that moment, it was solving a real problem.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and and that we were already seeing that really strong organic lift where consumers are coming back again and again and again and again and sharing this with their own friends and families because that's when we knew that we would be able to really kind of uh push forward.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: And again, that's really where that sort of mentality of pushing bowl downhill was.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um and so even though starting out as a cactus water positioning was great, it it actually gave us a differentiation.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: We needed to get into all these key accounts, like you mentioned, Sprouts, Whole Foods, and HEB, uh, that's really where our testing grounds were, right?
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: And we just kept improving formulation, adjusting product positioning, and ultimately realizing that the greatest potential for our brand uh and the best way for us to help as many families as possible wasn't necessarily to lead with ingredient education, but to really help people understand what the functionality of the product is, which is natural hydration and help people move away from the artificial hydration products that, again, uh still dominate our shelves and and the status quo of is, you know, just a one degree of separation.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: Like, do you want to, you know, provide a uh, you know, a plastic bottle of artificially dyed and artificial sugared product, or do you want to give them a can of prickly?
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that one degree of separation uh was a really, really key learning for us uh in that process to get to this product market fit moment.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_01: I I tell you, it the the it's an important concept.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_01: And I uh this is what I I coach it, I teach it, I I I live it.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_01: We try and get this across to the brands we work with.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you're pushing that boulder up a hill and you get to the top, and when you start rolling down, when you have pee when you have customers coming back, when you have the pull of the product, no longer pushing, but you have the pull of the product, that's when you know you have product market fit.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_01: And that's when you know it's time to scale.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_01: That's when you know you're gonna be successful at scaling.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_01: Too many times even companies that are doing brands that we that we've worked with that that are doing 10 million, 15 million a year, that just sort of bought their way into that.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_01: They they spent heavy to get there.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_01: They just don't have product market fit yet.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_01: And they spent too early, and that always leads to problems.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_01: And I just did a whole video series on product market fit and um and I talked to entrepreneurs about it.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_01: We actually I did a speech about it not two weeks ago at uh University of Maryland entrepreneurship school.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_01: Because of pr too many entrepreneurs misinterpret minimum viable product with product market fit.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_01: They're two entirely different concepts to to achieve two entirely different things.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_01: So it sounds to me like when you first started out, right?
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_01: You started out with your minimum viable product, you were testing the water, figuring out what customers wanted, nailed it, you know, then you got product market fit because now you've got customers coming back pulling that product from you.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I think we always knew that there was a demand for it, right?
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: I think you saw this with coconut water too.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: Like people want natural hydration.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: That was always an obvious uh uh uh point of this.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: And it's and I think that they established that look, like there's a there could be a good, good alternative to artificial hydration products.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um but you know, to your point, a lot of the the work, at least I guess this is our interpretation of it, at least in in in from a beverage standpoint, CPG standpoint, but creating a product that is formulated to really deliver uh in a way that to your point consumers are coming back and again and again for because taste is king at the end of the day, it's the most important thing.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but that also resonates on shelf, right?
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: That people can understand immediately.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: And um, that positioning work, that formulation work, that communication work, and just finding that clear uh identity where it makes it super, super easy for consumers to understand in as many markets as possible.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: You know, doing that before a lot of times where uh institutional capital tends to come in because it's such an integral part of this business uh environment, um, it's all about growth at that point, right?
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: And so coming back and fixing those really core foundational problems, you oftentimes don't really have the uh maybe the appetite for that, right?
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: Uh there's also an aspect of it where there's also validation that comes sometimes with institutional capital and funding where it's like, well, it must have you must be funded because, you know, like you're doing something right, right?
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: But it's like if you haven't, at the end of the day, only you will know.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: And nobody's gonna sit there and say, I told you so, right?
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: So you got to figure that out pretty early on.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: And for us, that's where we obsessed before we move to this stage.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_00: And we're so glad that it happened the way that it did because we're just so much more confident in the foundation of what we're offering.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we know who our customers are.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: Like it just we solved all these really, really core problems for us to move fast because we're we just fully understand why we're making every decision.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and and we're blessed to be in that position, honestly.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_01: Aaron Powell Yeah.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's an important position to be in, and and I I think it's an important position to be in before you take institutional capital, because um, you know, once again, I think founders uh view taking into institutional capital as a as a badge of honor, a badge of validation.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_01: Well, we we raised money, so it must be we must be on the right track, but not always, because there's smart money out there and there's dumb money out there.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_01: And so, you know, when you have and and the other thing is when you take that money, you you want you want to m make use of that money.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_01: You you're not trying to raise money so that you can continue to uh test and validate.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_01: You want to start scaling with that money because that's the only way it works.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_01: Most uh institutional capital want a 35% IRR annually.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, you you have to be careful about taking that money.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_01: But I had a conversation.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_01: In fact, we're we're ha we're actually helping a client uh uh raise capital now, and uh you know we presented to a PE firm and they said, Look, you know, we don't invest in products.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_01: We invest in a scaling engine.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_01: And if we the product is is sort of the byproduct of the scaling engine.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_01: So if you don't have product market fit and you don't have all those pieces, i taking money is is not going to solve your problem.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: I think the other and and to to piggyback on top of that, typically um, you know, capital comes in to solve very tactical issues, right?
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: And so it's like growth engines are typically driven by tactical execution, right?
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_00: Like how do we do XYZ things?
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: And most of that isn't necessarily like new, it's the same playbook.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_00: If you just really kind of look at it, it's like whether whatever channel it is, whether it's D to C retail, it's not like this stuff is reinventing the wheel, even though there's more and more technology solutions to maybe make it more efficient.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: But what we saw and what we realized is that we over-indexed on tactical solutions as the root uh as the root way to solve our way through these problems, these growth problems.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: And that that can't be the case because it goes exactly to what you're saying.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_00: Like every time you invest in tactical solutions and you haven't created that product market fit foundation where there is this organic growth engine that's already happening, this flywheel that consumers and the flywheel around CPG and and you know, beverage is just a really beloved product that solves a real problem.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_00: Like it, I know I'm oversimplifying it, but it's like it's food and beverage, right?
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_00: Like that's what this is all about.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes we maybe get past that early on and know we lost our way early on in that process, but we found it again.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_00: And and in that in that initial phase where you think you can, you know, tactic tactical, tactically execute your way out of that, you can't because you haven't solved a core problem and tactical execution, all it does and it might drive drive traffic, but that traffic is churning.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_00: And if you can't find a way to build that in an organic flywheel initially, you're you're gonna look at and point your fingers as at at execution and tactical strategy, but really it's not tactical stuff.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: It's actually just comes back down to product market fit, right?
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_01: You just said, you know, I I don't want to oversimplify it, but but the reality is it it it's it's simple in concept.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_01: It's difficult in execution.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: Oh difficult in execution.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_01: It's simple in concept.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_01: It's always the same concept, right?
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_01: You you there's a there's a pain point for the consumer, you're solving that pain point, and uh and then you get the message out.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_01: They love they try your product, they love your product, they buy it again and again and again.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_01: Because returning purchases is one of the key indicators of of health.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_01: And that's what that that's one of the indicators that that that says you have product market fit.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_01: So Yeah, it's a it's it's a simple, it's a simple problem, difficult solution.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, for sure, 100%.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_00: And um, you know, I I think it's it it does take learning.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, a lot of times too, uh products that that tend to take off right off out of the gate, I mean, they need learning too.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and sometimes they may be piggybacking off of core trends in that moment.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I think for us, like a lot of the the the the trends and tailwinds that prickly's benefited from really have nothing to do with us, and they're actually part of mega macro trends, right?
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_00: Like the first is people are moving away from artificial ingredients.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_00: Like that is because of prickly, that just naturally was happening, right?
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um second is people are moving away from plastics, and that's not just an environmental reason.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_00: You see that with everything that's being discussed with uh microplastics.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, my wife, we have two girls at home.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, she she won't let us buy a plastic water bottle.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, and so you see that, and then you look at the fact that consumers are reducing sugar intake.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_00: We've always been doing that.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but just again, without artificial ingredients is uh is I would say a much heavier movement in the last couple of years.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_00: You look at the banning of dyes.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of these macro trends and mega trends that I think have been shaped in the last 10 years and will remain consistent for the next 10 years, you know, I think are really laying this groundwork of like this is where the consumer zeitgeist has really kind of come together.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and then from a timing standpoint for us, like this hydration category is emerging right now in a really loud way, uh, mostly because the better for you soda movement already happened and then the better for you energy movement already happened.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_00: And those two categories have always been massive, right?
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: Like the Coke and Pepsi's of the world own the Gatorade Powder Rates and Body Armors, right?
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_00: Not the other way around.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_00: So when when the the Better For You Soda movement was happening with the prebiotic sodas, if you will, there was no oxygen in the room for any of these other uh categories to merge.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: And then it was energy, right?
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_00: But now it's like as those winners have established themselves, hydration is having a moment because you have now this consumer that's drinking these better modernized versions of soda and energy that are looking for modern hydration products, and we happen to fit the same exact consumer zeitgeist as these other brands did, just as a at a timing where, you know, there's now space, there's now oxygen for this category of hydration to really emerge, you know?
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I would agree.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_01: And also, you know, you have people that are uh uh more athletic than they have been in the past.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_01: Runners, swimmers, cyclists, et cetera, and they're always looking for hydration, but they're looking for natural hydration.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_01: They don't want uh garbage.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_01: They don't want the little powders in that they're dumping into their water bottle that's not natural.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_01: So uh I agree.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_01: There's there's a whole there's a whole emphasis around better uh better hydration, uh uh better for you beverages, etc.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_01: Uh you know, Gatorade, Power Aid, all that is just essentially sugar water with some potassium in it.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_00: Well it's interesting because those products too, like they didn't always look like that.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_01: No.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_00: No, no, no.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_00: And and I don't really know where where that moment happened.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but even if you go to other countries, they don't look like that.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_00: And so I remember, you know, when we first started producing prickly and we called the Kopacker in Arizona because we were sourcing prickly pears and we just wanted to reduce the the freight uh lane, shipping lanes.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_00: And they picked up and they're like, oh yeah, we love prickly pears.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: Like, what can you tell us what your ingredients are, right?
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_00: Because they want to understand if they can put in their fill lines.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_00: And we were like, Yeah, we use real prickly pear puree.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_00: And they're like, hold on, like, did you just say real fruit?
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_00: Like, we don't do that here, you know, we just make artificial products.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: And again, I was kind of just really flabbergasted because I was like, I was so surprised that somebody could say that on the other line with a straight face.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_00: And then and then I realized, you know, like that was a status quo.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_00: It is the status quo.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_00: It still is the status quo.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_00: Like you go to you talk about hydration, it's like, what is everyone still drinking?
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_00: It's still a plastic bottle of artificial dyes and artificial sugars.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_00: You you we don't need to move the needle very far to to say like we're gonna get people to a better place here, and at least give people an option that people want to drink uh that isn't that, right?
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that that's really where we are as a society.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_00: We're glad that we can play a small part in it.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we um back in the early 2000s, we built a uh raw skincare, a beauty line uh based on the principles of raw, it's all natural.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_01: And uh to your point, I mean it's it's very similar because we were running into the same problems.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_01: You can't find a manufacturer in this country that doesn't want to use um artif uh artificial ingredients or chemicals.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_01: Uh and we were trying to do it in a different way, and we found one manufacturer in Florida that could do what we wanted to do.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_01: And but it's it was very similar to food.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_01: Uh you you couldn't um when you go to you said you know it doesn't exist that way in other in other places.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_01: I I can remember, I mean, Europe has banned dyes, you know, I think decades ago.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_01: Canada, same thing.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_01: When you go and see some of the brands that you see here, but you see them in Europe and you see them in Canada, it's totally different ingredients.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_01: And brands too.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_00: Like the biggest brands that we're talking about, too.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_01: Ketchup, you know, it was always a chocolate, it's always a big one.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_01: Beverages.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_01: Um and and it always amazed me because um you know, you think, my God, why wouldn't they just cre make one recipe and just do it?
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_01: It's gotta be much more uh much simpler.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_01: But then you you have to understand that culturally the United States has always had um the cheapest food.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_01: And we are um we overbuy.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_01: And we're used to that.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_01: I mean you you look at any dumpster in any supermarket at the end of the day in the United States, and I mean it's disgusting how much uh stuff we throw away.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_01: And we're used to that.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_01: We we want to see full shelves as uh culturally as as we're and so the the manufacturers are sort of forced to use artificial ingredients to keep the cost down so that they can sell more and sell uh because people don't want inflation in their food.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_01: They don't want expensive.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_00: So there's also like just a I think a core tenant of like American maximalism that drives a lot of our culture, right?
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_00: Like you think about um I think fed into some of that stuff too, whether it was like just like the saturation of colors in our drinks, but also you think about the sugars, right?
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_00: And the zero sugar movement.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, that was predicated off of just this obsession with going from omitting sugar in our diet because of diabetes and obesity as like the core enemy.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_00: And so we go to zero sugar overnight, right?
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_00: Mind you.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_00: Not it wasn't like, hey, we have, you know, a soda or a Gatorade bottle or something like that.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_00: It's got like 40 grams of sugar, but now it's like let's maybe not do that, and maybe not 40, but no, let's go to zero, right?
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_00: And well, how do you get to zero, right?
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_00: You're using these artificial sweeteners.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_00: Well, what's the impact of an artificial sweetener?
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_00: It's like, oh, who cares?
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_00: We don't, it doesn't matter.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_00: We're zero, zero sugar, right?
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_00: So now you look at this stuff and the Framingham Heart study that really kind of inspired a lot of our action to this too, was it published in 2019 and they looked at consuming one artificially sweetened beverage a day versus full sugar.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_00: And they found this is like a cross-sectional study, but they looked at you know 2,000 uh uh patients over 10 years and they found that the group that consumed artificially sweetened beverages over sugar had a three times increased risk of stroke and dementia.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_00: Now it's not the head-to-head, but I mean that data no matter what is compelling.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_00: You look at the data behind artificial dyes, and fundamentally it's like if you had to decide would I knowing this stuff, if even if it's even if it's directionally correct, right?
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_00: Even if it's just directionally correct, would I want to give this to my kid?
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_00: Would I want to give this to my parent?
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_00: Would I want to give this to my loved one?
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_00: And if the option is you don't have to, that to us was a clear call to action of like, well, like you don't have to.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_00: That doesn't have to be the only option.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_00: You can if that's what you choose.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_00: But there's that shouldn't be the status quo by any means.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, uh understood.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_01: Um so tell us about tell us about the Shark Tank experience.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean, like, you know, it it was it was kind of interesting because we launched in 2021 uh and we put up a Facebook ad uh before this was like before I was 14 and all that stuff.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_00: And uh we got an email from Shark Tank like that Friday to apply.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_00: And we thought this was like this was our first week of launch, and we thought this was like a spam email.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_00: You know, like there's no way this is real, and it turned out to be real because it was the longest application of our life.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_00: But we ended up uh uh filming um and you know it was like the longest process, you know, from from start to finish.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um probably to this date, still probably the most impactful PR that moment that we've ever had.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_00: Three airs and stuff, we'll walk around airports and somebody's like, weren't you on TV last night?
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_00: That happened to my co-founder the other day the other day, it was so funny.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um but you know, it was it was it was an incredible experience.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um it was like one moment in our careers, not all, but it was an important one.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I think uh yeah, I mean, you know, at one point uh you know, we we'll we'll be telling that story for the rest of our lives, I'll say.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_01: It's uh it's it's a great PR piece.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_01: And because you can't get you you couldn't buy that amount of PR.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_01: Um it's it It's great when you can get it, uh, and then it depends on how you use it.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_01: And it doesn't really matter whether you get the investment or not.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_01: What because because people uh you you got instant brand recognition, right?
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_01: And um I love it personally.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_01: And then and then it exists because the shows exist on uh on uh uh connected TV channels and it also on OTT channels and it also exists on YouTube.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_01: So people can constantly look at it, which they do.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_01: And you can always use that content in your advertising, you can always use that content in your social media.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_01: So it's a great tool.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, I think I I almost wish that we would be able to go on today, right, and talk about natural hydration and all that we learn and contextualize so much of these learnings in a way that uh helps people understand even more of how we got here and what we are.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_00: But you know, maybe we wouldn't be here today without that moment, right?
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_00: And and that discovery really helped us to your point.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_00: So uh again, a a really cool moment in our story, um, one of many things, but definitely one that we'll we'll cherish and we'll remember for the rest of our lives.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_01: I like Cuban the best.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_01: I I think uh Cuban is great.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_01: You know, he um uh he invested in dude wipes long, long time ago.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_01: And um, you know, we know we we we know those guys and uh brilliant pardon?
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_00: Brilliant founders, brilliant operators.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, they're great guys and um really funny.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_01: And um And so we met him and and I like I I like him.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_01: I like the way he thinks, I like the way he acts, I like his approach, I like his positivity.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_01: Uh you know, he's just an he's just a good all-around guy.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, agreed.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_00: Super versatile too, and his understanding of I think consumerism in the midst of all this stuff.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I mean he's got a good perspective for sure.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_01: Well, he came from advertising.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_00: So I mean he's uh That I didn't know.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_00: I actually didn't know that.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's how he made his money, started an advertising, digital advertising.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_01: And um but he uh yeah, he's uh so he understands consumers, he understands how how to motivate.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_01: But I just like his uh I like his approach.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_01: I always like the fact that he's positive, he's uh he's always smiling, he's generally doesn't have anything negative to say.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_01: Even even when he owned uh uh Dallas Mavericks, he was always you know a really good owner.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_01: Um and the and the players loved him.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, it's a it's a really cool thing.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_01: So what's on the horizon now?
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_01: What's next for you guys?
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_01: Where are you heading now?
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we're gonna see you a year from now.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_01: Are we gonna see you in every single supermarket?
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, exactly.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, I it kind of kind of goes a little bit full circle, but um, you know, now that we product market fit, it's time to press go, right?
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_00: We're we're actually debuting it at the trade shows uh this year, Expo West, we're headed to next week.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, you know, and um so a lot of the momentum kind of leading into this moment was just the right timing, right?
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_00: And so step one, it's like as we start to lay out the foundation, we know that at the end of the day, velocity is the most important thing.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_00: So we're gonna focus on all the accounts that believed in us from day one, right?
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_00: The whole foods, sprouts, HEBs, um, and just focus on getting you know 2.0 natural hydration onto shelves, um, really building that extremely strong uh data story that we're already starting to see, right, with all of our channels, we're seeing about a 200,000, 400,000 or 400% lift, a 200 to 400% lift across varying channels, right, already.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_00: And so we're just excited to kind of take that data and and and really kind of prove it out across all of our accounts, um showing the you know, the just the the the partners that believed in us from day one what this rebrand can do for their velocities, then kind of building it out from there against the core retailers that service our core demographic of families, right?
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um we're already in Unify and Kahy, and a lot of their accounts and independents and specialty markets really do so.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but we're gonna kind of start to saturate our core demographics um in the regions that we already have really strong distribution.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um and on top of that, we just got code into Vistart for food service expansion as well.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_00: So there's there's just a lot of great distribution channels that have now opened uh at a time where we've had we had the best product we've ever had, the the most approachable positioning we've ever had, and ultimately the best margins we've ever had, right?
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_00: And the most experienced team that we've ever had.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_00: So I think all those combined uh positioned us to be able to press go in a in a way that we've never had before.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um as we get into 2027, I think the foundation we lay in 2026 is gonna serve that extremely, uh, extremely well.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_00: Um and then this year, too, we're launching two new flavors for the very first time a mixed wildberry and a juicy watermelon, both of which are debuting uh at Expo West.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_00: And um, yeah, so we're just excited about 2026 and where we're headed.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um and you know, in many may in many ways, I feel like we've been kind of training for this marathon.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_00: People say it's a marathon, it really is, but I feel like we've actually been training for this marathon and now we get to run in the race.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_01: That's a great way to put it.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_01: Uh because you it's true.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_01: Laying the foundation is is the training part.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but it's a it's a great growth story.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's a great scaling story, not not one that you hear too too often.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, and uh and and it sounds fantastic, and I wish you a lot of luck.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_01: Um and so, you know, Quant, thanks for coming on.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_01: I really appreciate it.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_01: And and you know, if you're building anything, I don't care if you're in CPG, I don't care if you're in e comm, I don't care what you're doing, you know when you listen to the story and you listen to the steps, this is a this is a classic story of of finding your product market fit and then ha setting up your foundation to scale.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_01: You know, clarity wins, iteration wins, and obviously distribution wins, but also distribution becomes a full contact sport.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_01: So um enjoy if you enjoyed the episode, follow, subscribe to us.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_01: Uh and if you want to check out Prickly for yourself, you can find them at Whole Foods, Sprouts, Hibutt, Gelson's, Amazon.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_01: So take a look at it, check the product out, and um again, go back and listen to the lessons because if you're a founder in growth mode and you want to help tighten your strategy, fix the bottlenecks, build a plan that actually holds up in the real world, uh, then feel free to reach out to us uh because that's what we do, that's what we help people do.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_01: So uh I love the story, I'd love to hear it, and uh good luck to you.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much, Phil.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for having me today.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, my pleasure.