Habits and Hustle - Episode 144: Jimmy DeCicco – CEO of Super Coffee (Valued at over $500M)

Episode Date: November 30, 2021

Jimmy DeCicco is the CEO of Super Coffee, which was recently valued at over $500M. Jimmy, the eldest of the 3 brothers involved in Super Coffee, has had an amazing entrepreneurial journey starting out from the college dorm to Shark Tank to raising $106 million in a Series C. Jimmy has a very impressive story to share about how he grew this empire! He discusses how to be aggressive, yet respectful and the value of culture and leading with purpose. He shares stories about how they raised $30k from their aunts, which retired them with a cash-out of $4mm. For anyone that wants to hear what it takes to really start from nothing and snowball into the fastest growing bottled-beverage company in food and beverage, this episode is for you! Youtube Link to This Episode Super Coffee’s Instagram Super Coffee’s Website ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Did you learn something from tuning in today? Please pay it forward and write us a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts. 📧If you have feedback for the show, please email [e-mail]  📙Get yourself a copy of Jennifer Cohen’s newest book from Habit Nest, Badass Body Goals Journal. ℹ️Habits & Hustle Website 📚Habit Nest Website 📱Follow Jennifer – Instagram – Facebook – Twitter – Jennifer’s Website Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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I guys is Tony Robbins you're listening to habits and hustle fresh it So guys today on habits and hustle we have JimmyCico, who is the oldest brother and also the CEO and co-founder of Super Coffee. For those of you who don't know what Super Coffee is, it is now have become the fastest growing bottled coffee company behind Starbucks. Jimmy is a former collegiate athlete who actually left his job on Wall Street six years ago to start this company with his two brothers and they started it

out of his youngest brother's dorm room. Since then he's raised hundreds of millions of dollars from celebrity investors including J. Lowe, A. Rod, Patrick Schwartzniger, Aaron Rodgers, and Liskoson. Supercoffee has now been evaluated at over $500 million and growing. And Jimmy and his brothers place a super strong emphasis on corporate culture, and Supercoffee was recently honored as one of Inc's best workplaces for the second consecutive year. They firmly believe in spreading positive energy, and the mantra they use is work hard being nice to people.

In addition to being hard at work themselves and growing their business, they are super dedicated to fitness and a healthy lifestyle. They work out at the crack of dawn, living the healthy and positive energy that they really promote at super coffee. I really enjoyed speaking to Jimmy. He's super authentic, very honest, got some really great tips and tricks and facts of what it is like to be a young entrepreneur

and build a business from scratch. Enjoy the episode. It was, I really liked it. Hope you do too. Well, thanks, Jimmy, for being on Habitson Hustle. You have quite a story for, if you guys haven't heard the intro, Jimmy is one of three brothers, and he's a co-founder of Super Coffee, which is the fastest growing coffee chain

at behind Starbucks. Is that right? Close. We are bottled coffee. So we're the second largest bottled coffee in the US right now behind Starbucks. Okay, so in my nose, I didn't say, I know you are a bottled coffee because I actually drink it.

I actually had your French vanilla creamer in my coffee today. Oh, let's go. Did you like it? Yeah, I did. I like the one that's the 15 calorie serving, better than the one that's the 40 calorie serving. Yeah, so that's the thing that's our plant-based. Yeah, you're going with the plant-based one as well.

So yeah, we're excited. Creamer's not something we dreamed about getting into, but it seems like a national natural extension for us. Absolutely. Well, your story is pretty phenomenal. So like, let's just dive right in. So you and your two brothers, you guys were called, were you guys living in a dorm? Just kind of tell me your story because as far as I know, unlike I was talking before, I just jumped right, you jumped you right in here. Um, you basically are beloved by everybody. And you're doing something right. Uh, you guys are super young. You're growing this, this coffee brand exponentially, I quit very, very quickly. And you're getting, you're getting like all these like huge names to be investors. Like, I heard you have J. Low and.Rod. And I want to know like how this like little kid is like doing this.

So please, the Flores yours, Jimmy. Yeah, no, I appreciate it, Jennifer. And thanks for giving us a chance to share our story. So I'm the oldest of three boys. And we all played sports in college. Athletics was a big part of our lifestyle is growing up. Mom and dad were both college athletes.

And teamwork and being on teams was really all we knew. In college, my youngest brother, Jordan, he played basketball and he didn't want to drink the sugary bottle coffee and energy drinks that his school store offered. His coach was old school, he had five AM practice, late nights in the library and he started brewing coffee and adding functional ingredients like protein and healthy fats and zero sugar everything was sweetened with monk fruit or stevia all for himself You know, he never I mean he was a full scholarship starting point guard like he did not want to he had no intention of Doing this but the product that he created for himself works so well Then he started selling it to his teammates and his classmates and his coaches and that's when heading into his sophomore year

He called me and my brother Jake and said, hey, fellas, I have a business opportunity here and as a full-time student athlete, I'm not going to be able to bring this to life. So, I'm dropping out of school to start a coffee company. Wow. So, wait a minute. Before you go any further, let me just kind of like make sure it's cool. So, your brother, your youngest brother created the, what was the original recipe, what was he doing, what was he putting in it that was like the secret sauce?

What was he doing? Yeah, so this was 2016. And back then, really, today, too, a coffee was just coffee with milk and sugar. You know, every bottle of coffee was, that's what was added to it, milk and sugar. And Starbucks had 46 grams of sugar and a bunch of fat from cream and milk.

So instead of adding milk and sugar to his coffee, he would take organic Colombian coffee, two cups for every bottle. He would add 10 grams of protein to make it creamy without any lactose or sugars to slow them down. Add MCT oil, which is just a healthy fat from coconuts. Our body burns that for fuel. It works with the caffeine. It's sort of a carrier for energy.

And then he would sweeten it with monk fruit, which was an all natural sweetener. It's plant-based sweetener from Southeast Asia. And that combination tasted like a Starbucks Frappuccino, but it was only 70 calories instead of 300 calories and had zero sugar instead of 46 grams. So he was like, look, this thing tastes good for me and it makes me feel good. 70 calories instead of 300 calories and had zero sugar instead of 46 grams. So he was like, look, this thing tastes good. It's good for me. And it makes me feel good.

So was it like, what kind of protein was he putting in? And also, I believe by like, you know, there's a huge, there is a huge craze. People put butter in their coffee for the MCT oil and for the fat and for all that stuff. So how, why didn't he just do that? Was he not drinking that the bulletproof coffee or did he try it? Was he not drinking the bulletproof coffee or did he try it? Did he not think it was sufficient enough? Like, what was the reason?

Yeah, no, it's a good question. And he was certainly inspired by bulletproof coffee. Back then, bulletproof was mainly just a blog and a recipe by Dave Asprey. And he would put the butter and the protein and the MCT oil on his coffee. And it gave him such energy that he was like, this is great, but he had five a.m. practice.

So he didn't wanna wake up at four and brew a pot of coffee and melt the butter and make the whole mess and stuff like that. So if you make a bulletproof coffee and then put it in the fridge for the next day, the butter congeals like it, it becomes solid so you can't really drink it. So he removed the butter, he added protein,

he kept the MCT oil and found something, found a flavor that worked for him and could stay in the fridge for the week. Oh, so you could, so yeah, so it was more, it was more, it was more available, like in terms of, you're, for like lifestyle, convenient, it was more convenient. What type of protein did he use?

He started out with way protein, all lactose-free, and now we have a line that French vanilla creamer that you try. That's a plant-based protein, mainly pea protein in there, but 50-50. We have a way protein line and a plant-based line. Okay, so then, okay, so then he has this thing. It comes to you guys. And so at the time, your brother was how old then? He was like 19, 20 years old. He was 19, yeah. 19, and how old are you got? How old are you? I was 22 at the time.

Jake was 21. So today I'm 29, Jake's 28, Jordan's 26. Wow. OK. So OK, perfect. So then he says this to you guys. And you guys are, what were you taking in school? What were you doing when he came to you?

So I had just graduated. This was actually August of 2016, sorry, August of 2015 when Jordan decided to drop out. I graduated in May of 2015. So three months earlier, I was a philosophy major, captain of the football team, liberal arts school. I didn't know what a startup was. I'd never seen a pitch deck before.

I knew nothing about entrepreneurship. Our mom worked at the YMCA. Our dad was a construction worker. And I was working. Yeah, I worked, I ended up working for a Colgate Alon right out of school. I was a financial analyst on Wall Street for three months. And then once it's toward me and said he's dropping out, I was like, damn, man, I can't let you do this by yourself. I feel like you're going to mess your life up. So I'll come supervise this situation. I thought my involvement was going to be temporary. You know, I was going to help him get started, inform the company, and get his feet off the ground.

And now six years later, I'm still stuck here. Yeah. So where did you go to college? Where did you guys all go to college? I went to Colgate University in upstate New York. My brother Jake played football at Georgetown and then Jordan played basketball at Philadelphia University.

Got it. Okay. So then you decided to leave great and then your other brother, what was at the time, what was he doing? The third one. So he was heading in, so that August he was heading

into his senior football season at Georgetown. And I give him a lot of credit. He didn't drop out of school. He was two semesters away from the Georgetown degree. He had a great senior football season. And he was like, look guys, I'm all in on this coffee thing. I got to graduate from Georgetown. I will give you every waking hour that I'm not in class or on the football field. And so he sacrificed a lot of his senior year social life to build this business with us.

Okay, so then what was the first step? So now you guys are all, now you guys are, you guys decide, okay, we're gonna like take this product and we're gonna create something. So if you had no experience with entrepreneurship and your parents obviously, as you said, were an entrepreneur, they were working moms at the YMCA. What was she doing at the YMCA?

Was she teaching class? But was she, yeah? Yeah, she would teach classes. She was like an athletic director, but she taught like, I remember as kids we'd go in and she'd be doing like an athletic director, but she taught like I remember as kids We'd go in and she'd be doing like the Nothing yoga, but you know like when the old ladies have to step up and their hands and shit

That's what my mom used to teach you. Yeah, like you mean like step-class Exactly step-class Robics you're teaching a robot. A robot is exactly in your senior citizen So I'm not I'm not being rude about old ladies. It was, it was actually senior citizens. My, my parents had three kids by the time they were 25. So my mom was like this 30 year old lady, just teaching a Robics class at the Y. Oh my god, I love that.

That's what I used to do when I was going through college, by the way. That's how I know what you're talking about. I taught a Robics. Yeah. So, okay, so then basically then walk me through this. If you guys didn't have any experience experience although you said you were a philosophy major How did you end up on Wall Street as an analyst that's kind of a different?

You know, follow wax kind of thing very different. I think It's all relationship driven, you know, so I was at Colgate I made it a point to connect with different alumni in different industries I didn't really have a passion or a dream job of what I wanted to pursue. I just knew that I needed like just relationship equity was key and I ended up building a relationship with a co-gay football alum who saw potential in me

and he was like, look, you're smart. You got to get head on your shoulders. I can teach you finance, you know, and he gave me a shot. But I think that's the beautiful, one of the beautiful things that live in America is you just need somebody to believe in you and then you can learn the rest after that. That's absolutely true. You're gonna believe in yourself number one and then have somebody, yeah, or someone else believing in you can help you believe in yourself. Love that. So, right, so then

what, so now okay, now what, so now you kind of drop out, what do you guys raise money? Walk me through. I want to know like every nuance of how you did it because I think this is very, this could be a very like inspirational and also useful podcast for people who are really have an idea and they really want to go out there and pursue it, but they don't have the courage and they don't have the, you know, they don't have the wherewithal. This is a, you know, you had no, you guys had no experience and you're like on your way,

the company now is evaluated what, 500 million, I heard, is that accurate? Yeah, those are serious, see this summer. So I mean, you guys are doing something right. So tell people how three kids who had no idea what they were doing, how they did it. Yeah, so we, I think you got to figure out what the most important metric that matters in your industry is.

And for us, it was called velocity. How many bottles per store per week could you sell? So it was a sales metric. And we didn't care about anything else. Back then, we handled everything. We made our product by hand. We made our own deliveries. We printed invoices through QuickBooks.

We did the accounting. But we realized that none of that stuff mattered. Unless we were selling a lot of bottle coffee. So we raised $30,000 from two of our aunts. And our family doesn't come from money. They never had any kids. So they're like, look, we believe in you guys. We see how passionate you are about this.

Let's give this thing a shot. Cool story is at the CREC that we just raised, that $30,000 that our aunts gave us, they just sold it for $4 million. So they both retired immediately. Yeah, how cool is that? Oh my gosh, that's such a good story. I know, super cool. And like that was one of our

proudest moments in doing this. But back then they believed in us. They never thought that it would turn into what it is today. They were super excited about it. But with that 30,000, we rented a delivery van. We bought some plastic bottles. We bought some ingredients to make the coffee. And we showed up at Whole Foods in Washington, D.C. at one store. This is before Amazon owned Whole Foods. So like you could get into the local program, kind of like a farmer's market type 5. So we get, we go into the Whole Foods store, we find the store manager and we say, hey, we're super coffee and you guys don't carry anything like this.

And the guy was like, I mean, it doesn't really look good, it doesn't taste that great, but if you guys said you go to school down the street, if you could bring your college friends into my store, I'll give you a shot. So that's kind of like, if you give us an inch, we've always taken a mile, but we've done it respectfully, you know, and like this guy, the guy who gave us that opportunity didn't think anything of it. We stayed in that store for eight hours on the first day. We broke their weekly sales record in our first day. We were just there, pouring samples. I mean, it was a busy Sunday. Everybody was grocery shopping. And that momentum that we got from one store,

we didn't leave that store pretty much for a month. We were there every day taking care of our shelf, making deliveries, pouring samples, and we were the best selling bottle coffee that store ever had. So we took that sales data to the store down the street, and we said, hey, we're super coffee. We're breaking records up the street,

get us into your store, and you'll boost your coffee sales. And same thing, we stayed at that second store until we were breaking sales records. We wouldn't move on to a new store or a new neighborhood until we were the best selling bottle of coffee. And then we just scaled that from there. We went from DC to Baltimore to Philly to New York to Boston. And we didn't move on to a new area

until we were the best selling bottle of coffee. And that sales data was what gave us confidence, and it gave investors confidence that, okay, this isn't an idea anymore. These guys actually have something. Granted, it's on a small scale, but if I invest in them and they take my money and continue to replicate this strategy, this can be pretty big. So that's how we did it. And over the first six years, I

mean up until today, we've raised I think 175 million dollars from investors to continue to fuel that growth. We're 140 full-time employees sold in 50,000 stores across the country. It's been wild to think about those first days of making deliveries. That's amazing. So that's an interesting strategy. So you really, you really did the grassroots thing. You kind of, and you didn't move on until you stayed at one store, focused on one store, and then when that was a super success, that's when you, that's when you moved on to store two, store three. But how did you, you guys, you're only three people. I mean, you don't have a lot of manpower.

Did you guys start hiring people to man the store you know so let's say you're doing the first whole foods when you kind of reach that like that precipice did you guys just not do sampling anymore and then just move on to store two or did you continue doing sampling at that store but then also do store two and store three and then did you store two and store three. And then did you have the higher people to man the demos? Yeah. It's a great question.

So, to this day, we still pour samples at those early whole foods, my brothers and I and our team. But for the first 18 months, it was just the three of us. And then we hired our first full-time employee, 18 months into the business. We taught him the DC Maryland area, where we really built up that book of business. And then my brothers and I moved to New York City to build New York City out.

And as we got traction in New York, we were able to raise money and continue to build out that team. But we probably stayed in the Northeast from DC to Boston for the first four years. We didn't expand to Texas or Chicago or LA, really until years, five and six. So then again, I mean, I'm still stuck on the sampling

because to get to that level, I know emerging brands, small little brands who are sampling, it's manpower, right? Like you need to have someone manning that booth for 10 hours a day. So then what would you do did you hire people to, to, you know, when you were moving on to New York, when you moved to New York, where did you hire students even to work these booths?

Yeah, so we had one full-time kid in DC and he would hire like part-time summer interns and people are willing to work on the weekends. And today we call it the Positive Energy Project or the PEP Squad for short. So we have over 240 people in part of this ambassador program and they're pouring samples. They're showing up at local events, Spartan races,

triathlons, marathons, things like that. So, and they work hand in hand with our full-time sales force now. So, yeah, I mean, it was manpower and there was nothing sexy about it. I always tell brands, like your job doesn't start when a place like Whole Foods says yes to take your product. Sorry, that's when your job begins. You know, a lot of people are like, yes, I got Whole Foods. Let me go focus on Target. It's like, no, you got Whole Foods. Now you gotta get that product off the shelf, right? So, I mean, we were sort of myopically focused on what we call the boring basics.

It's just fundamentals, you know, and I mean, it's repetitive, it's redundant, it's not that fun, it's not that creative, but I do not think that having a good product and a good brand is enough to be successful in this industry. You know, you still have to put in the hours to make sure that your product comes to life and stands out in a crowded category. Absolutely. I think that's a very good point. I think that people think that if you're in 50,000 stores or I should say like whatever. Would you call it not stores? I'd call it something else. Accounts? Accounts or whatever. No, no, no. I think it's like whatever it is. That your

job is done. The problem is those stores can also bankrupt you. Those accounts can bankrupt you because if you're not selling, they'll just take you off and you're done. Like they don't want your product. Like I know Costco's and stuff like that. Like, yeah, people were like, wow, I made it. I'm in Costco. Yeah, but now it's your job to get that product sold

from Costco to the person's home. Or else, they will drop you after a certain amount of time. So that's true. I think that the job doesn't even begin until you actually, that's like what the hard work becomes, you know. So then how did you do it? So did you guys all divide and conquer? Like what was your, what is your role? What's your role? What's your brother's role? How did you divide and conquer? Or do you guys just all do everything? Yeah, in the early days we all did everything. We would rock paper, scissors, shoot,

to see who had to wake up at 4 a.m. to make deliveries. And then as the business got bigger, and we got to hire folks, we each clearly defined our lanes. And it's not like we sat down one day and we said, Jordan, you're gonna work on ops, Jake, you're gonna take sales, Jimmy, you're gonna go raise money. It's that sort of naturally what happened. As the business grew,

those were the three most important things. Operationally, making the product, you know, making sure we ordered ingredients, the supply chain was sound, we could get product there on time and full selling product sales. Like I said, it was the most important metric. Jake just happens to be a great salesperson. Jordan Jordan our founder, innovator, tinkerer, he loved the operational side of the business, so he lent himself, I mean, he's our chief operating officer, Jake's our chief revenue officer, and for me, I enjoyed working with investors

and solving problems, bringing different advisors to the business, so today I oversee our finance and our marketing. So I think we got lucky in that regard that our personalities sort of lent themselves to a third of the business and if without that distinction and dividing a division of labor, we would have killed each other. You know, if we had three people trying to be the CEO, it would have been a tough, tough place. But in the early days, we said, are you go aside and we said, look, we're going to operate three people as one and do this together and we're going to communicate, we're going to be

real with each other and we're going to win. That's amazing. This episode is brought to you by Nerds Candy. Calling out the stylish, transiting nerds out there. The sneaker heads and makeup beans, the film buffs and reality TV lovers, the style icons, the pop culture geeks. When nerds come together, we live louder, celebrating our passions in our own way. So let's raise our nerds in unison.

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Vitamin water is a registered trademark of glass. So then, okay, so now you're in New York and now what? How what was the next tranche of money? You got 30,000 from your aunt. What was the next round that you raised? So for the first three years, we raised like a series of convertible notes. So we raised five million bucks and convertible notes

in a hundred thousand dollars here. Three months later, we'd raised two 50. Three months later, we'd raise five hundred all from random connections we we made well honestly pouring samples we we don't come from money so like we didn't have a network of investors we're pouring samples at one whole foods in DC my brother Jake was wearing his George Sound football shirt and this guy comes up he's like oh go ho yes I'm a George Sound alum I love what you guys are doing, how can I help?

And we're like, well, we're raising money, sir, and we don't know anybody, like, could you make some introductions? That guy happened to be a lawyer, and he got us in touch with five of his clients, and a couple of months later, those clients invested $500,000 into super coffee, and from there, we were able to grow and scale.

And then we didn't raise our first institutional round from a VC firm until December of 2018. Is it three years in? Yeah. Oh wow. That's amazing. So then how are you making all of these like amazing connections from there?

Are you just, are you also like a really good networker? Like how did you get JLo or ARAWD or all these, don't you have a ton of different celebrities who are investors besides those two? I don't know exactly who else, but. Yeah, so we work with a bunch of athletes. So we have Christian McCaffrey from the NFL, Baron Davis, former NBA player, Patrick Fortsenegger,

his family participated early on, and little things. We were not Shark Tank in 2018, and some people reached out to us from that Patrick Demdes, Patrick Schwarzenegger saw us on Shark Tank, and was like, fellas, this is great. Hold on, you were on Shark Tank? Yeah, I didn't know that. I gotta see that episode.

So who were the sharks when you were on? That was. When we went on, we had, from left to right, it was Robert, Barbara, Laurie, Mark Cuban, and Rohan Oza. And if you don't know Rohan, you should. Yeah, I know, I know Rohan. That's it.

Tell people who he is though. He has a really big, a really great fund. What's it called? Yeah, it's called Kavu. Yeah, so Rohan was the chief marketing officer at Light in the Water. And he helped sell that business to Coca-Cola for $4 billion. He was big investor in buy brands, which sold by the antioxidant juice sold to Dr. Pepper

for $1.7 billion. So Rohan, he calls himself the Hollywood brand father. He's big on like plug and celebrity's into different brands. He started a PC fund that invests in food and beverage called Kavu. And so he was our guest shark. We were super stoked to have him on the set because we thought for sure he was going to be our guy. You know, like this guy knows beverage, he's going to like us. We're focused on the right things.

And he ended up passing on us. We didn't even get an offer from any of the sharks. So we were, we left the tank disappointed, but also determined to improve and sort of win despite not getting money on the show. Can you notice I find so incredible. First of all, you know, you're not the first person that I've met like in real life or in a podcast that have gone on to like create like billion dollar brands

who've been on Shark Tank and they just, not only do they not get an offer at all, but they're like, they're poopued on the show. Like, we're not even remotely interested, like, take a hike. And like, those people are going on to actually be more successful than the ones they actually do deals with, which is I find to be so funny to me. Like, it happens all the time.

Yeah, yeah, I think, I mean, that paradox that you're talking about there, it just goes to show, I don't think the sharks have that judgment. I just don't think that the stakes are very high for them, right? There's one deal that comes on that they need to do, you know, so like Rohan probably, I mean, I'm I've stayed in touch with Rohan and he totally respects and admires what we're doing. He could have easily done that deal. But the thing about the thing about Rohan was it was his first episode,

as a guest shark. We were literally the first company that pitched him. And he tried it. He was like, oh, this is great. You guys are killing it. And then he realized that the other sharks weren't as excited. And he was like, you know what? I'm out.

Oh, my God. Because that would be like, I was going to think that you were going to say to me, oh, yeah, we're with Rohan, which would make perfect sense. Because he did. I think actually he had poppy also, the new one, but like you guys are just, I mean, it's like not even in the same category. I just think that it's so hilarious that you were on that

episode with him, which is his specialty. And like, he must, he must be like really kicking himself now. He has to be. He has to be. He has to be. I mean, I think he's doing just fine. You know, he's had a couple big, big wins under his belt. But recently, what does he have beside buy environment water? I don't know.

I was four years ago. Recently, I'm not much. I mean, he's still got some good brands that are like doing well, but haven't got it across the finish line. And neither have we. You know, like we have a lot of work to do over the next couple of years to make this thing a big success. Well, who is your big competition now anyway in the canned coffee area?

So, I mean, you definitely have niche startups like Bulletproof that are more functional and focused on biohacking and the keto diet. Then you have more craft players like BlueBottle and Lockeloam. Lockeloam is a similar grant to ours. But then you have the big guys. It's Starbucks and it's Dunkin' Donuts. And Starbucks is distributed by Pepsi, and Dunkin' is distributed by Coke.

So just this year, we finally passed Dunkin' Donuts at the number two bottle coffee in the US. That is just incredible. So I mean, that is unbelievable. past Dunkin' Donuts is the number two bottle coffee in the US. That is just incredible. So I mean, that is unbelievable. I mean, it's very, very, very difficult. I mean, people don't ever not in this particular area. I know that it's, I even know.

It's so difficult in a saturated, saturated market, especially in a product that needs to be refrigerated, right? Like, you have to, it's very competitive. You need to move stuff. Your product doesn't need to be refrigerated, right? Like you have to, it's very competitive. You need to move stuff. Your product doesn't need to be refrigerated technically, like it doesn't unless you open it, until you open it, right? That's right.

Yeah, shelf stable, which is great. That's really allowed us to build big displays and grocery stores and ship product through direct and consumer. But it's best enjoyed refrigerated. We say cold is sold. Yeah, cold is sold. Well, you know, when I go to the grocery store,

it's always in the refrigerator area. It's not in the shelf-stable area, so that's a good thing, you know? That's good. Yeah, okay, so get back to this. So then how did you get, okay, so you're on Shark Tank, I digress there. So how did you get all these big athletes and big celebrities?

What was the, like, I know how you got those lawyers through that one guy who demoed the product. Was JLo at, was JLo at Arrow one one day and I love this product. No. So we actually, we had a, our first CFO, he had a connection who worked at a private equity fund in California and they ended up investing in our series A. There's still investors today. It's called SkyView Capital. So they invested in us and we're great making introductions throughout LA and throughout

that scene. That's how we met Baron Davis and through those guys, we ended up getting introduced to one of A-Rod's business partners. Alex is one of our, I mean, we grew up in New York, so we're Yankee fans, my brother Jake used to wear number 13 because he wanted to be like Alex Rodriguez. So we were thrilled to have this opportunity. Now that he's in his post-baseball career, he's really determined to become a business billionaire. He just bought the Timberwolves. He's made some great real estate investments. Warren Buffett's one of his mentors. He's a really impressive guy. He knows that by investing in high growth startups, that's how he's been to do it. We had a Zoom call

with him in this last summer, June of 2020. We had a Zoom call with him and we see this woman's arm in the Zoom. I'm like, fellas, that's not as assisted. That's got to be Jada. And sure enough, she pops in midway through, she's like, hey boys, and we're like, hello Mrs. Lopez, nice to see you. And they ended up doing a big deal. The two of them combined invested $8.5 million

into super coffee. Today, obviously, now that they've split up, it's a little bit complicated behind the scenes because they have a joint fund that they participated in. Oh, my God. What's going to happen? How does that work? I don't know. I mean, the business is doing well, so I think they're both happy to be investors. We have more contact with him than with her since he sort of sourced this investment. First of all, I'm surprised that they put that much money in because

it doesn't matter how successful or how rich somebody is because usually it's those people who are much more modest and they'll go in with like the lowest amount and see what happens. I like to spurs a lot. The fact that they would put that much money in, I think that just says so much about your you guys and your product, really. That's a lot for one person. Totally.

No, that's a lot for everybody, for anybody. And we were excited about it. And like I said, they together, they want to make big wins. So they're not in the business of investing $100,000 to make $500,000. That so like they're not in the business of investing 100 grand to make 500 grand. You know, that's, like, move the needle for them. But if they invest eight or 10, maybe they make 50, you know, and that's a meaningful return for them

at this point in their careers. Absolutely. So then, who else are some, like, so how much, what other athletes or people did you say that you have or who are the big investors? More from our guest, but first a few words from our sponsor. Entrepreneurs are always on the lookout for effective new techniques and ideas to level up their capabilities.

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progressive casual feature, and scuff on the affiliates and other insurers. What's up, everybody? It is time to find the joy and drop the judgment and find our version of Happy and Healthy. I'm Lacey Green, and I'm inviting you to my three week program only on body, the world's first health esteem platform. Welcome to four beginners only.

I'll ease you into exercise with cardio, strength, core, and mobility workouts that are all low impact. And woo, woo, woo, now you can try four beginners only with a free trial of body. Go to body.com today, that's body with an i.com. free trial of body. Go to body.com today. That's body with an I dot com. Yeah, so, uh, Christian McCaffrey, who's the running back for the Panthers, um, Deandre Hopkins, why receiver for the Cardinals, uh, we did a small deal with Kevin Hart through his heartbeat ventures, which is cool. Um, a lot of these deals are

silent investors, you know, like, and these athletes and celebrities are smart, right? They're like, look, we'll give you our capital because we think this is a good investment for us. But if you want to use our name, image, and likeness, like there's a there's a price that you have to pay, you know, Pepsi's paying guys like LeBron James, millions of dollars a year. So they recognize that unless they own a significant chunk of the company, they're not really incentivized to promote.

So I mean, Alex is a little bit different. He's proud to be an investor in super coffee, so you'll see him posting it on his stories and talking about it on Sunday night baseball. So, we got lucky there, but we're not in the business. It doesn't make sense for us financially to pay somebody seven figures to endorse our products. No, absolutely not. Although I have a question for you because you are a brand that's doing quite well, I find that there is a trend with that. I find that a lot of these connect like tonal or hyper-ice, a lot of like fitness and wellness brands,

they are getting, most of their strategic investors are coming from athlete sense celebrities. And that's kind of been, I feel like it's a trend that people are doing that, you know, with like hyper-rise or like tonal, you have LeBron James, like he's now doing this whole thing with tonal, I'm sure you've seen it, right? Yeah, it's crazy. I saw the commercial last night I was like, how much are they paying this guy? Can you imagine? I can't even like, but I thought that I think he's an investor, but that was my point too. It's like he's making like a hundred million, you know, crazy money from like a Nike or whoever.

How is that working? How are they able to like utilize? Are they paying him or is it really just like, hey, we can do this and we'll give you a shit ton of back end. You know, you don't have to give us any money. We'll just give you, we'll practically give you the company if you just become our spokesperson. Yeah, I think it's a deal like that. We're to stock option deal. And we've done stuff like that in the past where an athlete would invest a hundred grand, and then we

would give them a hundred grand in stock options in exchange for marketing services. So there's market rates, you know. LeBron might say, yo, for one post on Instagram, that's $500,000. You know, so for us, we would never pay that, But if LeBron wanted to invest $500,000, maybe we give him an additional 500,000 in stock options in exchange for the social media and in-person appearance, some videos, things like that. And something on the total level, like that commercial is sweet, and that thing's running a lot.

That's probably, I imagine LeBron owns 20% of that business, to put it all in as involved. Absolutely. Do you not notice that? Is that becoming a bigger trend now with wellness companies to be really using a celebrity's and athletes as their, I guess, their picking investors who are strategic for that reason? Yeah, I think it's good for athletes, too.? Because I mean, if tonal sells for a billion dollars and LeBron owns a 20% of it, that's 200. That's more than he's made in the last five years of plan. Absolutely. So I think, yes, I think it's tricky because I love all

of our athletes, but I don't think athletes move the needle that much. So to make somebody full transparency transparency, my brothers and I, the three of us combined, own less than 20% of super coffee because we've raised so much money over the years. So like, and we're working on this thing seven days a week for the last six years.

So like, I don't think it's worth giving up a big chunk of equity to a celebrity who's gonna talk about you once or twice a year. But in the other thing from the celebrity perspective, the reason they tread cautiously is like, you can't pay your rent with stock options. It's not a cash deal that some of these bigger brands pay them, but they do recognize the upside. I mean, it's an investment. It's a gamble. If Tonal hits a big, LeBron is set. It's going to

be a huge investment. He's probably going to make him over a billionaire if he's not there already. But if it fails, then OK, they used just likeness for something that didn't work out. It's probably not going to change his quality of life all that much. Right. I'm really, I thank you for saying that, by the way, the full transparency, the fact that you guys

own less than 20% because I think that's a really big thing because when people raise, I was going to ask you about that. And so I'm glad you mentioned it because you've raised so much money that you have to be giving up such a lion's share of what you own. Why did you choose, did you really need to raise that much money to grow that fast? Could you have done it differently and own more of the company? Yeah, it's a good question.

So the answer is yes, I don't think we would have grown that fast, and I don't think we would be as big as we are today. So it's the classic paradox of, do I want a big piece of something small or a small piece of something big, you know, and for us, I think we saw an opportunity, right place, right time in this bottle of coffee industry, we had momentum. The industry was controlled by Starbucks, Duncan was just getting going. And then for us to be this sort of insurgent brand, it's like, yeah, let's raise some cash and double down

and make this thing as big as we can, as fast as we can. I think bottle coffee, beverage in general, and all food in beverage really is low margin, high volume. You buy a bottle of super coffee at the grocery store for $3. You know, that means we're making $1.50 on that sale and it costs us a dollar to make the bottle. So we're only coming home with $0.50. You've got to sell a lot of bottles that have that $0.50 profit to be able to pay the bills.

So I think we would not be where we're at. I probably wouldn't be talking to you today. Had we not raised the amount of money we raised. Right. And what do you think, are you using, how is social media for you in terms of sales? Like TikTok, Instagram? Are they, are you, I mean, you're obvious, I saw that you're on TikTok and obviously Instagram.

Are they converting into sales for you guys? Does it work? I'm curious about that. Yeah, so we're not the ideal direct to consumer product in that we're heavy to ship, you know, because it's a liquid. It's a low average order value. You can buy it online for $35 and yeah, the lifetime value is what we have to extend. But basically, we do, we spend a lot of money on ads on both Facebook and

Instagram. But once Apple changed those privacy settings earlier this year, the iOS 14 settings, the ads, the cost to acquire customers went from $40 to $80. So it doesn't make sense for us to spend $80 on a customer who has $150 lifetime value, or $100 lifetime value. So we are certainly exploring new channels. I think TikTok is an exciting one, getting content there. Even classic things like YouTube ads or Snapchat ads,

places that are a bit diversified from Facebook and Instagram. The other thing too, I mean, Facebook's response to Apple was, okay, Apple, you're gonna allow us to serve less ads, less efficiently. We're just gonna raise our prices on ads. And because they have such a monopoly on all of that traffic and click all those clicks, they can do it.

You know, they had a great quarter. Q3 was a great quarter for Facebook because they jacked up their ad revenue. But for us, it doesn't make sense to spend more on something that like, at one point, we were paying twice as much to acquire a customer as they were paying for the product. You know, the lifetime value of that customer better be huge or else you're not going to make money in that deal. So, I mean, so many companies must be in the same shoes as you, right? So I find that like, how is that benefit Facebook at the end, right? Because more people are just more and more people will not be doing it that way.

Because it doesn't, doesn't make sense. Yeah, I don't know the exact numbers, but I think like it's called 80% of Facebook's revenue comes from like 20% of the advertisers. So the big brands, the Nike's, the underarmers, you know, the really big brands, and then there's probably thousands, even millions of companies like us who pay smaller amounts just to make up that 20% of revenue for Facebook. So they realize that, okay, they might lose some smaller guys, but the big guys

can still afford to weather this storm. And what we're starting to see now too is like Coke and Pepsi and Docker Pepper, they're getting smart. They're pulling off a Facebook ad. So I think Facebook is going to have to respond sooner than later. I mean, they're investing a bunch in this metaverse, you know, like there's probably some new technologies coming that's going to be cool. I just saw, maybe you've seen it, but like Facebook offered live shopping. It's kind of like- Yeah, I saw that.

That's crucial. Yeah, I'd be curious to see how that performs, but they're trying to reinvent themselves too. They have to. Yeah, I know. I'm curious myself, because I mean, a lot of brands that I know, they're selling strictly on Amazon,

and they're not even in brick and mortar and they're making a lot of money by spending, they do only digital ads and then they're selling it all on Amazon. Was that, are you selling well on Amazon? I guess that's my first question. Yeah, so our online, so 80% of our revenue happens in stores. We call that retail and then 20% is direct to consumer.

Or e-commerce and of that 20% is about a 50, 50 split. Our website, drinksupercoffee.com and then Amazon. Amazon's a little bit less profitable after we pay like the seller fees and things like that. But it's efficient, the cost to acquire customers on Amazon is cheaper within their advertising platform than it is on Facebook for us. So then what is the best that you've tried so far in terms of the digital marketing spend?

Forget about Facebook. I mean, Amazon I get, that's work the best. As YouTube, you said TikTok is going to be something that you're very interested to see what happens, but has YouTube been the most the best for you in terms of YouTube ads? Yeah, I think YouTube has been the best. There's not one thing, right? And I hate this answer because I wish that there was one thing. It's like you have to be pretty good.

You have to diversify, right? So if you have a hundred dollars to spend, spend it on five different platforms, twenty dollars per platform. So put some money into Facebook, some money into TikTok, some money because they're all going to perform better than others in certain aspects. So yeah, I think we have a really well-rounded marketing mix. And it's also good for situations like this with Facebook where you don't have all of your eggs in one basket.

I mean, there's companies that I know that are strictly direct to consumer companies that are going out of business because they fully relied on Facebook driving new customer acquisition at a low cost. Right, right. So, I mean, and also now that you're, but you're like, it's, I guess you're lucky that you're in all brick and mortar like you have such a dominant, you're so visible there.

How are you moving product off of there? What's the marketing behind that? What are you doing to move product off the shelves there? Does it a different strategy? How are you doing it? Paul, in samples, baby. Is it still? But no, with a pandemic, you weren't allowed to do anything. Yeah. Yeah. Growing, what was your growth like during the pandemic?

So it's a good question. I think the marketing piece piece is in store, you want to be as visible as possible. You know, so like if that cooler that you referenced earlier, like if we only have four facings and that cooler, because it's limited space, we want to have a shipper, like a cardboard display shipper right outside in the aisle. We want to have our branded refrigerator and the self checkout lanes, you know, we want to be over in the bakery because when people smell donuts, they want to buy coffee.

And our team has to go through and make those plays happen based on their relationship with the store managers. In the pandemic, so the pandemic hurt the beverage industry because a lot of beverage is grab and go. A lot of gas stations, a lot of convenience and with people not commuting to work, there was just a lot less foot traffic. But the grocery industry stage strong,

where people were shopping grocery less, but they were buying more each time, so they'd stock up their carts. And for super coffee, we had a strong presence in grocery stores. We weren't that well distributed in convenience stores yet, so we actually protected a little bit. So we doubled our sales last year during the pandemic,

and we'll double them again this year, which is exciting. We're doing a fight in the good fight in an industry that isn't benefiting from COVID. Right, no kidding. How about your other product line? Because I know you've obviously, if got tons of skews, so you have, how about your creamers? How are they selling?

Like what do you have besides help people? Because that means you know more than I do what you have, how about your creamers? How are they selling? Like what do you have besides help people? Because I mean you know more than I do what you have. Yeah so we started out as bottle coffee. You know we wanted to be the healthy alternative to the Starbucks Frappuccino and we applied that same reasoning to the creamers set. You know we looked at creamers and it was international delight and coffee mate. It's a bigger category like bottle coffee when we started it was three billion dollars in revenue. Creamers four billion and there's only two two main players make up most of those sales international delight and it's coffee made. Uh and those those drinks are like canola oil sugar. Gross. Yeah I mean it can't be good for you. Yeah you see it and everybody's fridge you know like my my aunt who's one of our healthiest healthiest people I know

keeps her coffee made right in the fridge. Uh it's true. It's so true. It's like one of those things where no matter how healthy the person is and they're so clean, you open, they have the French vanilla coffee mate, the sugar free or whatever. Totally everybody. And I mean, that's just because those are the only options, right? If you want a coffee creamer, it's either coming from coffee made or international delight. And now you're seeing healthy dairy alternatives pop up, like caliphia farms and nut pods and brands like that. So for us, we were like, look, there's room for disruption in this category. Let's be the low sugar, zero sugar.

Let's be the zero sugar high protein low calorie coffee cream or two to an international delight or a coffee mate. So again, it wasn't as sexy as bottle of coffee, not as high velocities, not as high sales, but sales are going super well. I would say probably 60% of our revenue is bottle coffee. 30% is the creamers, and then 10% is pods and grounds. So we have cake ups and ground coffee

enhanced with vitamins and antioxidants. Oh, I never tried that part. I never tried that the ground coffee enhanced with vitamins and antioxidants. Oh, I never tried that part. I never tried that the ground coffee before. Yeah, they're good. Why don't you do cold brew? We do have a cold brew. So we have a cold brew and it can kind of looks like this. Oh, yeah, but that has cream and all that.

Like just plain black cold brew. Yeah, so we do. It's not everywhere. So like if we're presenting to a retailer like Ralph's out in Southern California, we'll give them our nine best moving flavors and they'll usually take four or five of them. So cold brew, I mean you and I love cold brew, that's what I drink in the morning. Yeah, these days. But the reality of America still wants sweet, they want flavor.

So cold brew is probably one of the last items that we get into a set when we're presenting our best selling items. That's so interesting. So what's that? So of the coffee stuff. So is your best seller the the jar of coffee, the like coffee with which one is it? You have it there. I want to show.

Yeah, so it's curious. Right. So this is a French vanilla. I don't have anything else within me. Like, you have, I know I saw it at Sprout, so it was like $4.99 and it was a glass bottle. Yeah, so we're converting the glass into this next year, so it's like a jumbo super coffee.

Oh, why are you doing that? 32 ounces because it's more recognizable to our bottle and it just looks better. So this performed a lot better, and it's all recycled PET, so it's full post-consumer recyclable. It's like a sustainable equivalent to glass. And this is actually the cold brew too.

So yeah, I mean, this sells super well, multi-serve, like something like this that has three or four servings in it, performed super well during the pandemic because people were just stocking up their fridges. Right. So, that's a big opportunity for us. This product that I just showed you doesn't come out until next year, my CMO is going to kick my ass

for showing you. Oh, I was going to say, I would actually legit buy that stuff, though, because I love, I only drink cold brew. That's the problem. Like, if someone, your stuff like you said, it's much more mass mainstream for people who are liking this, the, the flavor and all that stuff. So someone like me, what would be the best product for someone like me who's very health-oriented and health conscious and likes the cold brew?

Which one would I, which one would I drink? You would go with our super cold brew. And if you don't have it yet, I'm going to send you you a bunch of it but it's all black coffee and it's strong there's 250 milligrams of caffeine and in an 11 ounce can but we add althinine which is a green tea extract that kind of mellows you out so it's nice and smooth I'll send you some of that. Yeah I love that that's great so then how are you doing the whole I mean I know you are but how much do you spend on like the influencer world and on the social media like I want to talk a little bit more about that because I know you are, but how much do you spend on the influencer world and on the social media? I want to talk a little bit more about that because I know a lot of companies and brands and people ask me all the time because

there's like, you know, and you're in the like weeds with it. How important is influencers? Do they convert? Does it depend on who it is? I'm interested in that. Yes, the answer is yes to all of those things. They do convert, does depend on who it is. I would say 10% of our digital marketing budget goes to influencers and partnerships. It's mainly right now high-end fitness. So super-coffee performs really well in places like berries,

boot camp, and equinox and things like that. So a lot of our influencers are coaches and athletes and not super famous people like my buddy Devon has 500,000 followers and he bearcored the New York City Marathon and he's constantly like optimizing his body through food and beverages and things like that. I followed him actually and I found him through you guys because I was looking at your stuff. He's great though. I think he actually. And I found him through you guys, because I was looking at your stuff. He's great though. I think I really like him.

Like in terms of like, he's so like, he's like a great, I like him. That's sort of, he's a great fitness influencer. He does like, he's so fit and he's always doing like, like amazing shit basically. Totally. He's doing back flips. He's doing crazy stunts that people, like, so there's an entertainment value to it

But he's also saying like hey guys to keep my body in in the best possible shape I'm doing stem cell therapy. I'm doing this. I'm wearing this gear and I'm drinking this product And I mean he's been he's been super great because he'll literally post about drinking super coffee every single morning as a part of his routine That has far more of an impact for us than Jennifer Lopez, who has 180 million followers posting one time. Totally. People kind of see through those things. So yeah, where in Devon actually has a company called Creator and Co, where he takes influencers and sort of throws them into this metric where he can measure performance.

So like, for instance, if he was measuring himself, he would say, hey, I posted three times this month, it drove $100 and sales to drink supercoffee.com. You should pay me $50 based on that. Versus, like in the past, we never really had any way to track that. We might pay a yoga instructor $3,000 a month for three or four posts and some content that we could use in email, but we didn't know if it was actually driving revenue. So yeah, I think influencers are good for brand awareness and they provide that social proof.

If you follow somebody who you trust and look up to on Instagram and they're drinking something that tells you that helps them, you're probably gonna go buy it. Now, there's people are coming out with tools like Devon to figure out what that actual value is. Yeah, no, a couple of things that you just said. Number one, I don't you think that micro influencers

are better than like you're saying, like some of like a Jennifer Lopez, because I think you're absolutely like on point there. If she's posting the goalie, whatever apple cider or vinegar thing, we know she's getting paid. No one gives a shit. We know like yeah, you got a huge check for that. We're moving on.

Versus someone who has like even like 80,000 followers, 100,000 who are, and the people who follow these people are super engaged in their life and are interested and curious, you know, you're much more apt to do what they're doing because you know, you feel it's much more authentic and real, right? Do you do that then?

Are you focusing much more on the micro versus? I mean, Devon even, by the way, at 500,000, I know he's no Jennifer Lopez at 180 million, but that's still not a micro influencer anymore. I mean, you're still pretty big at that point. Yeah, agreed, agreed. And Devon, I mean, he could charge a premium to brands. He certainly does because it moves the needle. He has an impact at that engaged following. But yeah, there's folks in our network, 10,000, 30,000, even 100,000 followers that are humans. They're normal people. And I think that that's the allure of a micro influencer is there's something about them that makes us want to follow them and learn from them and do what they're doing. But they're also like not on this pedestal like J. Lowe, where J. Lowe to me doesn't even see human.

We've met her in person, we've given her hugs, we sat in her kitchen, and she's like a goddess. It's not something that we can understand versus somebody like my friend Dan Churchill, who's a chef, he's a celebrity in Australia, he's a great guy, but he's also like a normal dude too. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's something like relatable. So true. It's so fun, but Jennifer Lopez, everyone's, I mean, I would be the same way.

I don't know why, but like I meet people all the time, I could care less. She does seem like she's not a human being. She seems like not of this world. Right. That's, and when you say, why is that though? It's so stupid. Yeah, it's so stupid Yeah, it is so stupid and I think because she's been so famous for so long You know, we used to watch her like Jenny from the block. Yeah, they didn't have and like

And to actually be like she was in her sweatpants and a cammy sitting there drinking her tea I'm like that's JLo, you know, like it was it was wild and honestly to her credit She was super cool and humble and modest and like curious That's JLo. It was wild. And honestly, to her credit, she was super cool and humble and modest and like curious. She was asking us questions about the beginning of the company. But to us, it was like, yes, ma'am, I'll bow down and kiss your feet if you ask me.

It just felt different. Totally, that's so cute. I totally understand what you're saying. What else else was there? I just wanted to ask you one more thing that we were just, oh, I can't remember now. But so wait, I'll get back. I'll think about it or I'll get back to me.

So how are you, what's your, how are you evolving? Like, what's the next thing? So you've got the creamers. I saw what you're coming out with next year with the cold brew, which I'm excited about. How do you continue to grow and scale since now you've raised so much money? What do you do now?

Like what's the next move? Yeah, so today we're probably only in 50% of the potential stores that we can be in. So yeah, there's a lot of stores in the US. Yeah, I mean, think about where beverages are sold. You got Home Depot, you got a beverage cooler, every checkout land in Home Depot, dollar store, Marshalls, TJ Maxx, you know,

like random places like that that you don't really think about. So we got a long way to go in terms of building out distribution here in the US. Wait, what's your number one chain that does the best? I'm cute. I don't want to piss anybody off here, but publics down in the South East, 1200 stores, that thing cranks. And then nationally, I would say target is our best store on the national level.

Yeah, store for store. There's a target out there in Manhattan Beach that thing cranks. Really? How about arrow one? Are you not in arrow one, right? Yeah, go on. Yeah, go on. Oh, you, right? Yeah, Error 1. Error 1. It's good.

Yeah, they're great. So you know, like you go into Error 1 and you'll see like a brand that's on display on an int cap. So Error 1 does super well in those types of environments. The trouble with Error 1 is it's small. I think there's only six of them. Totally. And it's super expensive.

And it's not the real world. It's not the real world. You know what I mean? How many people can really afford to spend this shop there? Now, are you guys paying at Arrow 1? Are you guys paying for those end caps and for the displays? Yeah, typically it's a promotion, right?

So we'll get a display when we're on a deal. So like a two for five or a buy one get one for you, something like that. So they get to benefit from that. The higher gross margin on those things And it's for us. It's just a product discount But it's good. It's good for exposure. It is a high-end audience I think everyone's kind of like a tourist attraction. You know people don't really go there for their groceries

They go there to see like what's up? Yeah, you're totally right. Although there are people I live here who only shop at air What I'm like I don't understand. I don't care how much money you have. Just shop all to buy your groceries there to me. It's absurd. I don't care. I'm sorry to say that if Erwin's listening. But strawberries, that would be like $3.99 anywhere else is like $12.

It's just been common sense. Why would you do that? It doesn't make sense. Yeah, I saw it. They had a coconut yogurt. A yogurt, like a turbanese, what, five bucks for a big jug of turbanese? Coconut yogurt was like $27.

I can get a, I can get a filet for $27. I'm like, exactly. Like, I do that conversion to my head all the time. I'm like, I walk in there thinking, well, maybe I'll buy this something. And never, I always walk out with like nothing. Because I just, it's the principle of it. I couldn't, like, I can't just do it

because it's the principle. When I know down the road, I can go by, find the same thing for a little bit cheaper. DQ presents... Picture this. You're getting together with all your best friends. Now picture all your best friends are actually the delicious ingredients

of the new cake batter cookie dough blizzard. That's DQ Soft Serve, cake cake batter flavor confetti cookie dough pieces and DQ signature sprinkles. Oh hey, it sounds like you got some pretty sweet friends and that's worth queuing the confetti. Cookie dough! The flavor party isn't gonna last forever, so hurry in and get your cake batter fixed today. Only a DQ. Happy taste good. So I'm sorry, you were just saying something though about,

I didn't mean to interrupt you like where you're going with the brand and how you're going to what will you say? Build not distribution. So the, I think some people might not know this, but like when you see us in a target or a Walmart or a CVS, we don't necessarily sell to those stores. We sell to a distributor who services all of those stores. So our distributor nationally is Anheuser-Busch. We signed a deal with them last year with the exclusive coffee of AB. And the food paradigm in the US is shifting right now. People are buying less Coca-Cola and less Budweiser and Bud Light. So the big guys, Coke, Pepsi, Anheuser-Busch, they need to carry healthier items.

So AB's got a big push into non-alcoholic brands. You saw the rise of hard salzer over the last couple of years because beer sales are declining. So they're looking to diversify. They've been a great partner so far. We're definitely, there's definitely a big learning curve from their part. These are sales reps. They have 10,000 sales reps that are used to selling Bud Light and Bud Weiser to every store in the country.

And now to sell a coffee that is zero sugar with MCT oils, a little bit of a different pitch. So really working with those guys hand in hand, they're our partners to really bring this brand to the next level. We're definitely available in more and more places. You'll see it in most spots where you can buy groceries, but I think we saw a lot to focus on. And then the long term, next two to three years, I would say international. You know, we don't do anything overseas yet.

Canada, Mexico could be a good opportunity, but Japan, China, they drink a lot of bottle coffee. And then people always ask, like, will we ever launch our own cafes? I think, yeah, but it has to be in line with our brand. You know, maybe building out a cafe concept within an equinox or within the confines of like a high-end gym, rather than opening up like a standalone coffee shop.

That's, that makes sense. You're not in Canada? I'm Canadian. Oh, not in Canada yet. Oh, interesting. Where are you from? Yeah, I'm from Winnipeg and then Toronto. Okay. Yeah. You're not in Canada. That's surprising. See, you do have a long way to go, interesting. Where are you from? Yeah, I'm from well Winnipeg and then Toronto. I mean, yeah, you're not in Canada

That's surprising. See right you do have a long way to go actually. You have a long way to go. Yeah, we're still babies yet Yeah, although in Canada you're five people so it's not like it's gonna make a breaker brand, but yes Well, I think that's basically I it's everything else that I don't think I missed anything But if I did well you'll come back and we'll go in the treadmill and we can do, you know, podcast too. But yeah, that'd be great. No, I guess if anything else, I'm wondering in your opinion, what are some of the trends that you're seeing in wellness or in food and beverage and in consumer packaging? Is there any trends that you're noticing?

Or that's going to be kind of an optic? Yeah, it's, I mean, it's all stuff that you've seen before. So people are getting healthier, you know, nobody wants, it's all stuff that you've seen before. So people are getting healthier. You know, nobody wants to get sick and they're realizing that food, the wrong foods can make you sick or at least wear down your body's defenses and the right foods can enhance them. You know, so if they people are shying away from sugar

or shying away from artificial ingredients, things like vegetable oils, canola oil, stuff like that, are starting to get a bad rap. So what you're starting to see, the number one truth in food that drives purchase, purchase decision has to taste good. So people at mainstream America is not yet willing to sacrifice their flavor for something

that is good for them. So if it's gonna be good for somebody, it has to taste good too. And I think that's the challenge that we as better for you brand space is like how can we get something to taste like it has 46 grams of sugar in it by using natural sweeteners, you know, without the aspartame or the the sucralose or things like that. So I think this this push into flavor innovation is going to be key. You obviously see a big plant-based trend with brands like beyond me and impossible foods

and Oatly. Any type of functional ingredients that can be added into things that we love, college and protein, healthy fats, adaptogenic ingredients like mushrooms. It's tough because at Aero1, yeah, that works, but at Walmart, Walmart's not ready for that, you know? So for us, our story at Walmart were 70 calories and zero sugar. And we taste like a Starbucks Rapichino. We're telling people about MCT oil. We're not beating them over the heads with bile hacking.

This tastes like the stuff that you like, and it's good for you. Yeah, that's good. Do you have a different message for people that we're shopping at? I don't know, Whole Foods? Yeah, especially if I'm behind the demo table, I cater to the audience. I get super bougie.

I'm like, these are the finest medium chain checklist arrives from the best coconuts in the world. Tell me more. Like, how many key tones are in that thing? I'm like, you know, I'll play along with it. And then in Walmart, it's like, is this thing on sale? Is it sweet? I'm like, yeah, it's great.

You want to try a sample? Yeah, exactly. Oh, I didn't ask you this one last question, and then I'm going to let you go. What is your daily habits? What do you do? What's your daily routine? Which time do you wake up in the morning? What do you do for exercise? What's your thing? I know you drink super coffee. I drink super coffee, but that's not the first coffee. I'll usually drink black coffee in the morning, but...

So, honestly, full transparency. Like, I'm'm nothing no two days are the same for me. I wish I could tell you that 5 30 every day my alarm goes off. I pop out of bed. I'm reading a book. I'm meditating. I'm drinking my water. It's like it really all depends on how I feel. I think sleep has become a big priority for me. And I do wake up early. My alarm usually goes off between 5 30 and 6 30 every morning. But in order to do that, I got to be asleep by 9.30 or 10.30 at night. So shutting it down early is important for me. I want eight hours of sleep. I'll work out probably four or five days a week,

but not really any specific time. I got a cool workout group on 6.30 AM on Tuesday and Thursday, so I'll usually do that. My girlfriend's big into triathlons up and running more. I think it's super important for me to move every day. Even if it's yoga, if it's 20 minutes, that's one thing, I've given myself a little grace that I don't need to go to the gym for an hour

to consider it a workout. I could get 15 minutes in a hotel gym and feel really productive and healthy. And that wigs me up more than any coffee could. And then I think another non-negotiable for me is food. So I avoid added sugars. I don't eat that much bread or that many carbs. And I'll supplement with protein and healthy fats

and a lot of veggies. So I do that where I can, too. Are you not a vegan, are you? Not a vegan. No, I am an avid bow hunter. I like to eat what I kill. Oh, wow. Oh my gosh.

Good for you. OK. Well, then how do people, I guess everyone now heard all this. You can buy super coffee anywhere. You can go to the website, super coffee, you can go to Amazon, you can go to any major retailer, target, Walmart, Sprouts, Whole Foods,

Problix. Am I missing any? Ralph. That's it. Ralph's for sure. Yeah, if you're in Southern California, go to Ralph's, but you nailed it. That's all of them.

And how about you? Should we follow you? Or you don't really give a crap about that? You're just following the copy. Yeah, I'm not following. Yeah, no, you'll see a lot of super coffee on my page. I'm just at Jimmy DeCico 5. I'm on LinkedIn as well. If you go to Supercopy's page,

you can find me and my brothers as well. I think it's a great way you've done. I mean, you should be really, really proud. You guys are so young and you guys are just like, you know, are doing, it's just a really amazing story. And so inspiring to people who are young and want, or even young or old, who have something that they want to do, and they have to just have a little bit of like

tenacity persistence determination just a little bit of each and Just a little bit and just like go after it. So I really appreciate your time. Jamie. It was really nice talking to you And I wish you guys so much luck That's it. Thanks for coming on Habits and hustle time to get it rolling stay up on the grind don't stop keep it going Thanks for coming on. I can't spot what I have in this. Hope you enjoyed this episode. I'm Heather Monahan, host of Creating Confidence, a part of the YAP Media Network, the number one business and self-improvement podcast network. Okay, so I want to tell you a little bit about my show.

We are all about elevating your confidence to its highest level ever and taking your business right there with you. Don't believe me, I'm gonna go ahead and share some of the reviews of the show so you can believe my listeners. I've been a longtime fan of Heather's no matter what phase of life I find myself in, Heather seems to always have the perfect gems of wisdom

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