Founder's Story - Over 1 Billion Beverages Sold: Chris Hunter's Beverage Success Story | S2: E35

Episode Date: June 10, 2024

This is brought to you by BiOptimizers, whom I LOVE their MAGNESIUM BREAKTHROUGH product has helped me sleep better, stay focused, and feel all-around healthier.Check out their products at http://bioptimizers.com/danrobbins use promo code FOUNDERS for 10% off any order.In the latest captivating episode of "Founder Story," host Daniel Robbins sits down with Chris Hunter, co-founder of the beverage brand Four Loko and now the visionary behind Koia, a flourishing health drink company. Hunter, also an author, discusses his recently published memoir, "Blackout Punch," which dives deep into his personal and professional life, from his early entrepreneurial ventures to the rollercoaster successes of his businesses.Hunter's entrepreneurial spirit was ignited early, selling candy on buses as a child and later founding a promotions company in college. His journey took a pivotal turn when he co-founded Four Loko, a drink that became synonymous with energetic nightlife. Despite its massive success, Hunter faced significant challenges that taught him the importance of a solid team and keeping life in perspective.APPLY TO BE ON PODCAST: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScae1KS6UZRjdG2FjGI-HYNKT-VIdflxbO2YYe62ofAFgDKmA/viewform?usp=pp_urlOur Sponsors:* Check out PrizePicks and use my code FOUNDERS for a great deal: www.prizepicks.com* Check out Rosetta Stone and use my code TODAY for a great deal: www.rosettastone.comAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Hey everyone, welcome back to Founders Story. Have you ever heard of Four Locos? I'm sure you not only have heard of it, but you've had a story previously. I know I have. That's why today we have Chris Hunter. He is one of the original co-founders of Four Locos. We'll dive into that later. But now he has started a new company.

He's the co-founder and CEO of Koya, which is incredible, and the author of a new book, Blackout Punch. Do you have it, Chris? I have it. I have it. Let's see that book. There you go, Blackout Punch. I can't wait to read that. I mean, look at that title.

I mean, that's like, wow. Did you have something to do with that book? Like that, like this? I had everything to do with it. I wrote it. It's really a memoir. You know, it's not only about Four Loko or Koya or the business stories. It's really like a memoir about life, right?

Who I am, where I grew up, things I've gone through, wins I've had, setbacks I've had, failures, business stories. And my intention in writing it, because I hesitated in doing so, it took me four years to do it, was just literally that one person might find value in a story that I share and it helps them. And so we've already accomplished that. So I'm excited to have it out in the world. Well, I can't wait. We're going to get into all that. But first, since it's founder story, we really like to dig into the spark in your life that made you say, I want to be an entrepreneur. What was that for you? Man, I can't even trace back to when that happened. I don't remember a time that I didn't have an entrepreneurial bug even before I could identify that word. And so, you know, I was the kid who sold coloring book pictures in the

neighborhood or candy on the bus or whatever it was. I think, look, I was always a good kid and got good grades and all that good stuff, but there's definitely a rebellious side of me. And I think that rebellious side of anyone is the entrepreneurial spirit at heart, right? And so I guess my first true venture would have been in college. I started a promotions company and did nightlife promotion all over the city, paid my way through college and started a magazine. And so those would have been the first like real leaps into it. It's always great hearing people's not only the first thing they sold, but then moving into like their first business venture so let's go to move forward to four locos how did you get into that and what was the inspiration behind it yeah so um i only had one

you know real job after college and it was selling vodka for a startup vodka company and the bulk of that vodka was flavored it was cherry flavor and we were selling it mixed in with Red Bull. So it's cherry bombs, much like Jager bombs. And I was 23, 24 at this time. So I was drinking plenty of those as well. And so caffeine and alcohol just made sense to me. I was in a position to actually do it in the meaning that I had, you know, vodka samples that I presented every day. I had energy drink samples I presented every day. And I had an understanding of, at least surface level understanding, of how the alcohol industry works. So that's what gave me enough confidence to say, I'm going to do this.

And there are plenty of other stories that motivated me along. But I think that was what gave me the confidence. And luckily, it was just enough that I didn't know all the shit I was about to get myself into. And so there was a little bit of naivete as well. Let's dive into that. What is something that happened to you that you can talk about that gave you an incredible life lesson, but I'm sure going through it was really challenging? Well, man, I mean, there are so many. I'll stay on for local for a minute. I mean, when we got sued by every government agency under the sun, attorney generals and,

and the FDA and things like that, you really learn the value of, um, of a team around you, right? We had a great legal team. We had a great PR team. That was a really tough fight. And, um, and I think the, the, one of of the main lessons I would take away from that is like, this was as close to the world ending as possible for me and from a business perspective. And it's still, in retrospect, wasn't that big of a deal. It was a huge deal. But I mean, in comparison to the rest of your life, and I now have three kids and, you know, all that kind of stuff stuff it wasn't that big of a deal

and so I think keeping things in perspective is a is a lesson I learned relatively quickly in my business you know venture. So at the height of revenues that is there is there something that you can talk about in terms of like revenues that you were able to create or drive I don't know long-term short-term? Yeah mean, I can I can summarize all the ventures and say that the beverages that I've created have generated over a billion dollars in sales. And so it's a it's pretty fun to think of it in that way. I actually heard this story today talking about the difference between a million and a billion and people throw out the, you know, those terms almost as if they're interchangeable, but the difference is, is massive. Uh, they used it in terms of times at time. And I think it was like a million seconds

is like 11 minutes and a billion is like years, you know, 11, 12, 14, I don't know years. And so when you think of that in terms of the number of beverages that I've sold and most of what I've done have been single serve, you know, you buy Four Loko one at a time in a 24 ounce can, you buy Koya one at a time in 12 ounce bottles. So yeah, it's been over a billion dollars. So what, when it comes to, let's say I want to create a company and I want to get to a billion dollars in sales. Nowadays, what do you think it takes for me to get there? Well, the first thing is that creating a beverage is easier now than it's ever been. There are flavor houses and formulators that can make it for you, co-manufacturers so you don't have to build your own facility.

So that's a good and bad thing. Easy to get into, but low barrier of entry, so lots of competition. So ultimately it comes down to strength in brand. And that doesn't always mean going out with big budgets and big marketing at the beginning. I think what really is key in beverage is believing in the liquid in the bottle or can. And so, you know, there's a saying in beverage, which is liquid to lips. If you try the product and you don't either feel something or love the taste, you're dead in the water. Doesn't matter what else you do.

And I say that because like as an example, Red Bull or 5-Hour Energy or, you know, some of these things, they don't taste that great, but you feel the effect. Whereas others like Koya, they taste delicious and then you find out that they're healthy. We will return to our show shortly. But first, let's talk about today's sponsor, Magnesium Breakthrough by BioOptimizers. Did you know four out of five Americans don't get enough magnesium? Crucial for over 300 biochemical reactions in your body. Here are signs of magnesium deficiency, irritability, anxiety, insomnia, muscle cramps, high blood pressure, and even constipation. I know I suffer

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And make sure you use the code FOUNDERS, F-O-U-N-D-E-R-S, FOUNDERS, and you get your 10% off. So check out biooptimizers.com to learn more. And back to the show. And so I think what you have to do is make sure you nail the liquid everything else i feel like is is kind of up for grabs you can you can figure it out i love how you've really gone you've gone the spectrum from like for locos was be like the spectrum all the way in the left to moving to koya now it's the spectrum on the other end with healthy i mean i'm just saying left or right but it's like you

know one is like alcohol review of energy the other one is like healthy so what's the inspiration behind koya yeah yeah no political affiliation with left or right just extremes of this spectrum right um look i think uh i think what i've realized is i do best when i'm working on something i'm aligned with and so again i was 25 when we started Fusion Projects. Caffeine and alcohol made sense, you know, the way we were the core consumer. As I grew, you know, we did different products under Fusion Projects. One was called Not Your Father Drew Beer that started the hard soda movement. And at that time, I was a little older. I was married. I was into craft beer and that's how we positioned that brand. And then as, you know, as I got Koya going, I was on a different, a different place in life and on my health journey. Right. And so our second son was born, my wife's a nutritionalist,

what we ate and drank in our house became very different than the way we grew up and what we drank and ate then. We became a dairy-free household because my son was lactose intolerant. And so plant-based. So the last few months, I've been practicing how to learn Spanish because it is really a passion of mine. I've been using Rosetta Stone. Why?

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to what I'm building. I've heard from many founders say that money is a bad way to be inspired to do business. Like you really have to solve a problem. But if that problem is really have to solve a problem. But if that problem is really tied to something personal with you, you're going to stick through it. As we know, there's a lot of ups.

There's probably more downs in business. So you need a reason to keep going. I love Koya because I'm also lactose intolerant. So, you know, and I feel like not most of the plant-based stuff doesn't taste good. So finally to have something that is both flavorful and delicious, but not your father's. I mean, what another great example. Out of the three things that you mentioned here, you are really good at branding.

You're really good at branding. And I think that is a huge differentiator. So what's your strategies around how you figure out the brand, the name? Like it seems like there's a lot that goes into that. Yeah. Sometimes it's, it's a art, not a science. And sometimes you fall into it. So the example I'll use with, uh, with four is that was the first name of our product. It was four and it was the name of my magazine in college that failed. And we were trying to get names approved by the government and they were very strict on alcohol and caffeine

names, right? And so ultimately after hitting roadblock after roadblock, we came up with this idea of four because there were four main ingredients. And my partner said, you can't have a business or a product with the same name that fails twice. Very unscientific, right? We said, okay, great. We just went with that. When we evolved that to 4Loco, that was not, in my opinion, a cool name. It became a cool name when the product became cool, when consumers adopted it, when they built their own stories about it, and then 4Loco became what it is and what it's synonymous with now, right? So with Koya, as an example, we hired a branding agency. They're called Interact out of Austin. They're great. They came up with what they call empty vessels, which were essentially no real

meaning. You won't find Koya in the dictionary. Not yet. If I do my job well, you will. But, you know, the idea was that it'll be easily trademarked. And then we built meaning around it. And so now Koya is synonymous with delicious plant-based protein. It didn't have some inherent meaning coming into it. I would say from a branding perspective, at least in my world, meaning beverages, the most important thing is on that packaging. You speak to the top one, two, three attributes of that product because you have such limited time. First of all all you have to grab a consumer's attention i'm talking about retail sales now when they're walking those shelves second of all when you get

their attention you have to keep it what do they what do they learn about the product for loco it's 12 alcohol to add caffeine you know koya it's 18 grams of plant protein and only four grams of sugar what are those one or two or three key call-outs that are right on the front of the package that get people interested in trying it? Yeah, I love the packaging of Koya. It really stands out. I could see that. I mean, if you're among many drinks, you really have to stand out. And it always boggles my mind when I see companies that don't do a good job of the packaging. Let's talk about the marketing side. I imagine going back almost 20 years ago, marketing was different, yet almost similar. So what are you looking at in terms of the marketing changes around, obviously now,

more emphasis on social media and other ways, you know, TikTok, and there's all these new platforms and stuff. But what are you looking at or what has stayed the same when it comes to marketing? Yeah. So the core of it, I think is still the same. And, and, and what I think of is, is this product easily translated or communicated by a consumer, right? Because we can't do all the work or we don't want to do all the work. And so with Four Loko, people were able to, they almost discovered it. It almost became theirs. And then they were the ones telling other people about it. And that created that word of mouth, not only breached trust, but it breached trial.

If I tell them as a company, there's some skepticism around it. That same thing happens in the current day with Koya, just in a different platform. So word of mouth now is social media, you know, buzz and credibility. And of course course we use influencers and we do all this stuff that everyone else does, but I'll tell you what the most inspiring and surprising thing is, is the number of people that organically share

our product on their social media platforms. And many of which they've spent a lot of time and money building up and they do it because they love the product, not because we pay them. Now, I'm not going to tell you we don't pay some people to promote the product, but it has that attachment from a lifestyle perspective where people love it. And I think part of that is also listening to the consumers, right? I'll give you an example. Our most common request right now for Koya, we sell over 2 million bottles a month at retail. That's one bottle at a time.

There's a lot of consumer loyalty and trial there. Our number one request is how do we buy it in bulk? Our number two request is how do we get it delivered? Well Koya in its original format is a perishable product that has to be refrigerated all the time. So it makes that very difficult. We're now launching our first shelf stable Tetra Pak version of Koya. Same flavors that everyone loves, same high protein, low sugar, but we listen to the consumer and

we're giving them what they want. And I think that just breeds more support and therefore more word of mouth. Something I've learned today from you, and I'm really going to take this away and I hope others do too, is it's one bottle at a time. You listen to the customer and you look at how can I sell one bottle at a time. I think if you do that, you'll put a lot of emphasis around the product as a whole versus like, I'm just focused on selling a million bottles to Walmart or wherever it is. I really taken that. I can see the passion that you are really all about one bottle, every customer and how that customer is going to be your lifelong customer. Let's talk about the book. So if somebody picks up this book or they see this book on the bookshelf and they're thinking

about reading it, if you could pop out of the book and tell them, this is something you're going to learn from this book. This is why you need to read it. What would you say? What you're going to learn and discover is that a lot, everything isn't as it seems. And, and, you know, Four Loko has had a meteoric rise, had a ton of attention, you know, positive and negative. And, and understanding that that one wasn't an overnight success. We were on the verge of going out of business for a while. And then two, you could look at me or my other co-founders and go, oh, they've done it or made it or whatever. You'll learn that my backstory, who I am, where I come from, it probably isn't what you think. And then also maybe my life as it sits today or during that time wasn't all roses,

right? And so I think we can glamorize entrepreneurs, especially when their brand becomes well-known or in Four Loko's case, ubiquitous. And there's always an underlying story. So you're gonna learn the wins and the things I like to talk about. You're also gonna learn all those things that I don't like to talk about

or that I may even be embarrassed about, but most likely you'll be able to relate. How was that rehashing and thinking back to all these things to talk about or that I may even be embarrassed about, but most likely you'll be able to relate. How was that rehashing and thinking back to all these things that maybe you didn't want to think about? And how was the feeling of, okay, not only do I not want to think about these things, or maybe I don't want to remember them, but now everyone else is going to hear them. Yeah. What I've found is that every time I allow myself to be vulnerable and lead with something that's maybe a little bit taboo or unexpected, it gives other people permission to do the same. And so, you know, this was a four year process that I had ups and downs with. It was

very therapeutic. I consider not putting the book out multiple times. I did. Once it was out, it was out. Great. And like I said, my mission was to help at least I did. Once it was out, it was out. Great. And like I said, my mission was to help at least one person. Within a week, I got a text from somebody who said, that story you shared really helped me in a personal way. And I'm going to reevaluate how I address it. So it was tough. It was therapeutic. I think it put a period on a time of my life.

And then also now it's becoming rewarding because I'm hearing stories like that. Yeah, I think everyone needs to read it. It's an incredible book. So pick it up. Where can they get the book? Where can they learn more information about you? Sounds like now they can buy Koya and they don't have to worry about refrigeration. How can they do all these things?

Yeah, so the book is available on Amazon.com or BarnesandNobles.com. For Koya, you can pretty much find it in any retail location across the country, going from Starbucks to Whole Foods to 7-Elevens and now on Amazon with the Tetra Packs. For me personally, you can find me on Instagram, double underscore Christopher Hunter. On LinkedIn, I'm a little more active, so Christopher Hunter. And there's a website, chrishunter.life as well. Well, Chris, thank you so much for being here. I can tell that you are now in the point of your life of impact, inspiration. We are all about that here. So thank you so much for all you do. And I can't wait for you to impact millions of people. Thanks for having me, man. Appreciate it. Thank you for tuning in to Founders Story.'s story keep exploring keep dreaming and join us next time for more inspiring entrepreneurial journeys