Electrochew: Smarter Hydration Starts Here
- KLS
- Jul 29
- 12 min read
For the 198th feature of our "Together Talks" campaign, we collaborated with Electrochew and Co-Founders, Konnor Balon and Cary Vick.
"Together Talks" feature # 198: Electrochew presented by KLS - Your Trusted Shipping Solutions In The USA
What were your concerns to transition to starting your own business? What have you learned since becoming an entrepreneur?
What aspect of entrepreneurship do you appreciate the most? Favorite story of someone trying your product?
Story of how it was created?
Cary and I, we went to school together at Florida Gulf Coast University down in Fort Myers. We were in the same fraternity and we actually lived together. We always had a mindset if one of us came up with an idea for a business, we would go to each other with it. We had some stupid ideas in college and nothing ever came out. We were washing boats, Cary has his own company. We were going to do a boat detailing job in Tampa, he got like a horrible case of food poisoning. He couldn't keep anything down, even liquids. It was a major struggle for him. He read something that said chewing gum could help soothe the stomach.
Everyone knows when you're dehydrated, you need electrolytes, you're losing a lot of water. Cary put two and two together and asked what if we put electrolytes in a gum? This was before we had the idea. From there, we were trying to learn a little bit more about the science behind it. We were reaching out to some big manufacturers and big confectionary manufacturers. But they weren't interested in anything that we had to say. We very quickly found out we needed to go in on a deeper level.
We found a manufacturer out of Maryland. We worked with them on our ingredient blend that came from our backgrounds as well. Cary was an entrepreneurship major in college, while I was a health science major and I had some clinical experience. I knew a little bit and enough to point us in the right direction. We had a preliminary ingredient blend to put together in this. That led to us ultimately developing our first prototype of Electrochew.
After a few different iterations, we landed on what is now our tropical berry flavor. In between, we actually enlisted the help of another kid in our fraternity. His father is an entrepreneur as well, with other successful businesses, and he kind of took us on as our mentor. He did a good job of directing us on our next move, the next step to accomplish. We had been working with him as our mentor for about a year. Any time we had a question, he would share his insight from all of his experience. He's always been a voice of reason and justification for us.
He told us when we started he thought our idea was crazy. He didn't believe there was a way this could work. But we kept going, step by step and eventually he started seeing it coming together, piece by piece. Since then, we partnered with our manufacturer. We have a couple different other companies that we've partnered with as well, who we're lined up to work with. We've been able to work with doctors, professional athletes, collegiate athletes, professional trainers, youth development, athletic trainers, and even an Olympic athlete. It has been eye opening the amount of connections we have developed creating this product and brand.
We have been fortunate to interact with individuals we never would have dreamed of, but that is the power of this CPG community. Areas we knew very little about, we have been able to discuss with other companies and founders to learn. Building relationships allows us to ask, discover, and learn. It is incredible how strong the community is and how many are willing to help to see others succeed. We probably wouldn't be here without all the help we have received.
What separates you from your competition?
In terms of electrolytes, everybody thinks of Gatorade, Powerade, Liquid IV. It is because of the brand, that is what is available. When we started looking into the science of it, it was actually when we met with a doctor from the University of North Carolina. We discovered the reason why the science works, but there is a bit of gray area. We know it does work, it works in the same way of caffeine or nicotine being absorbed in your mouth. When we started testing it was fascinating that our product was outperforming what is already on the market.
As we have built this, any time we had a question we would check with him to validate it with the science backing it. Proving the product works has always been our biggest initiative. We are in such a unique position because we are entering a space with an innovative product. The only way our company can be successful is if the product works considering the types of companies we are competing against.
What have been the biggest challenges?
Getting athletes most to push this. Surprisingly that hasn't been too much of a challenge so far. It has been overwhelming. A lot of them have been reaching out and asking us for samples and wanting to work with us. But we do have our ambassador program set up and we're really excited for it. But as far as the biggest struggles, trying to find cost-effective ways of packaging and shipping these out to everybody. We weren't overly worried about too many things, more just anxious to launch and get the product to market.
We've broken it down in our models to understand where we need to be when we start with samples and then transition to selling this. It is critical to constantly be evaluating all of our options to maximize our efficiency as we build our customer base. Having everything buttoned up allows us to evaluate the best way to set our margins as we expand into new markets.
Working with athletes was very important to us. But identifying different channels to begin those relationships, we decided against using a marketing agency. We didn't believe that the ROI on that would be beneficial for us in the short or long term. We thought about it a little bit differently. We really believe our ambassador program is going to play a big role. We are learning so much about entrepreneurship, not necessarily like green eyed, but we still have a lot to learn. That's what we're trying to get ahead of as far as now. There's a lot unknown, but we'll take it in stride.
Goals for upcoming year + Next phase of the company?
One of our main goals is getting into retail and becoming a mainstream product. We do plan on going direct to consumer online at first. If it obviously makes sense and we think it might benefit us, then we would move into retail. That's something we've talked about for a while. But from the very beginning, it's just been partnering with some sort of sports team or sports organization has been a big milestone for us. Having a team be officially sponsored by Electrochew and us being able to provide our product for a whole team or an organization, that's something that is definitely a big goal for us.
Cary and I have talked about this probably countless times, walking into a baseball stadium or football stadium, and seeing the logo displayed knowing we built that. It makes us smile now just thinking about it. We also see this as a product for first responders and military. Through conversations we've shared, that is another goal for us to find a contract to serve those individuals. They're overseas, they don't have the best access to whatever it is needed and to keep them going all the way. Why wouldn't we want our product, which we believe is the best, to not be in the hands of people who are defending our country?
What were your concerns to transition to starting your own business?
It was really just a matter of funding. When we received initial seed funding, we had it set up in a way that we would be able to departure from our current jobs from working full time. It is tough juggling the balance of working full time and also having a life and then doing this. The brain never shuts this off, but balancing everything has been a challenge. Being young and new in our careers, we have a duty to ourselves and our partners to make the best decision for us.
In our heads, we can't make the jump full time until we do secure that official funding. Not just enough to make it launch, but when we do get to that point, know it's going to be an exciting moment for us because that's a really big milestone for us too. We've been working on this for the past year and a half. It's not that easy. Neither of us are really chasing money out of this or wanting anything crazy, but we just want to be able to work on this full time. We get to build this business together. We love working on Electrochew and love reaching out to athletes.
What have you learned since becoming an entrepreneur?
A lot of people want to get into business and entrepreneurship to escape a 9-to-5, but honestly, I think it's a 24-hour kind of job. With a 9-to-5, you get to come home and unwind and stop working, but with this, it just seems like there's always something that we can be working on. Our mind is always going crazy. Honestly, I'd say, having to enjoy the process, if you dreaded it and treated it like a job, I don't think that it would work.
We're still pre-launch and working on it, but, I personally love doing it. I love working with athletes and reaching out and making connections. I'd say you really just have to enjoy the process if you want to go anywhere with your business. What this has really taught me is that just because one avenue closed off to you or something doesn't work out or something falls through, there's so many different ways that you can rework how you're thinking things. Figure out a different way to make it work, figure out a way to get around that and continue pushing forward.
Initially when we started, we tried reaching out to gum manufacturers and we pretty much got laughed at, nobody wanted to even hear an idea or anything. And the one manufacturer who we are partnered with now, even to try and take the jump in with them, I mean it was $5,000. For us, kind of new grads and working lower level, nine to five jobs, that's a decent amount of money for us to be shelling out. That was a big risk for us. But luckily we took the leap. We have a great relationship with them and they've been great with us.
Persistence, I would say is one of the biggest things that I've learned. Even after hours when you're tired, but there's always something to work on. And, you just got to keep pushing forward because one day, the dream is that it pays off. Cary texted one night, "boring work makes you successful." The nuances of trying to figure out how to do things or get little small projects done, that is necessary in every step of the way to continue making this thing progress.
What aspect of entrepreneurship do you appreciate the most?
Staying consistent with it is really the only way. You see all these big companies and all these products, but it stemmed from one person's idea. They didn't just create it overnight and create a business. It can be overwhelming at times, but that is why we go back to that consistency. The biggest aspect of anyone really being able to make it, we feel. The support of friends and family around you has been, for me personally, that has been something that's been a big drive. Not necessarily in, I don't want to let my friends and family down, that is obviously still there. But the overwhelming support that we've had from our friends and family who see the vision of the product working and see the idea of it coming to fruition. They also have been amazing supporting us when we get burnt out.
Everybody gets burnt out every once in a while and you break down a little bit. But hearing that you're doing great, from your friends at work or your family reaching out is special. We are lucky because support from your friends and family means everything. That has been something that I don't think I'd ever be able to say thank you enough for. Because without them, it's really easy to give up on something as soon as you hit a wall. But seeing our hard work pay off and seeing others appreciate the work that we're putting in as young guys trying to do this in our current situations, that means the world to us.
And I think many other people who are in our shoes, they would probably feel the same way as well. Even random LinkedIn connections and people reaching out, I had a marketing guy reach out and say, I love the work that you're doing. We kind of dived into it a little bit deeper and figuring out that everything that we're doing as far as social media or content or everything that we've done right now has been through our pockets. It's been just straight through us and that support, I mean, it makes a jump over the moon.
Favorite story of someone trying your product?
We worked with Jeremy Shockey. He played with the Giants. We were able to get in contact with him. This was when we were really first starting and we had our first round of samples. We sent it to him and just didn't hear back for a few weeks. And then he reached back out and was like, "Hey, I love this. This is awesome. I'd love to get my other teammates involved in it." Getting that feedback from someone that you've kind of looked up to your whole life and really admired from an athletic standpoint as an athlete, it was super cool.
Getting that feedback was very reassuring and made us want to work harder and continue doing this. And then as we got more and more of that feedback, we really haven't had anybody actually give us like bad reviews on the gum. But that was the only one. But all the feedback and everything just makes us want to continue going even more and just working harder at it because it's a great feeling knowing it's working.
Even the Olympic athlete that we've been working where the future hopeful Olympic athlete, he's with the Peruvian national lacrosse team. That's a new event that's being brought into the Olympics. I met him in my apartment building and we kind of hit it off. He's an entrepreneur as well. He texted me, he had a tournament actually this past weekend and after his string of games on Saturday, he told me he wishes how he had some Electrochew with him. He was cramping like crazy and could have really used our product. That was something that made us smile. I wish we had some to give him on the spot, but to have him give us that testimonial for a product we created, was music to our ears.
Piece of Advice
Going back to being consistent, but I think the biggest thing is taking the risk. I've always felt I was going to be an entrepreneur. I (Cary) used to detail boats even in high school and college. I had a boat detailing business that did pretty well for being 17 years old. And I feel like I was always waiting for something to kind of fall in my lap, but I think it's really understanding what to do when that time comes, when something falls in your lap. I think a lot of people will go through a lot of ideas in their head that they want to be entrepreneurs, but I think taking the risk and just not caring what people think about you and really just going for it is the biggest thing. In the beginning, I was really nervous to start posting on Instagram and making videos and things like that and seeing what my friends would think about it. And then I was like, the worst thing that can happen is I just go back to working a regular job like everybody else. It's not too crazy. I think just taking risk and staying consistent with it.
This is maybe specifically for younger people coming out of college to go out and find a job. Often, you're kind of almost entrapped in this corporate rat race where you're just trying to climb the ladder and you're continuing to push forward. When you ultimately sit back and think about is this really like what I want to be doing? What do you have a passion for? And I (Konnor) really realized that this opened up that avenue for us. I've been working three years in the medical device industry, and I've been trying to advance myself in that career. Even opening myself on LinkedIn, and I don't know if it's superficial to think about it like this, but you're trying to grow yourself in that field. You connect with people in that field. Everything you want to promote is about that field. Then all of a sudden you take a jump out to go into something different, you're kind of exposing yourself.
But once people see that passion behind what you're doing, they slowly start to support you. And for me, that's always been a big thing, I've been worried about and kind of breaking free from that work. Diving into it, full emotion and full everything, that has been something for me, find your passion. Make sure you are doing what you can to make yourself successful in that.
Community Callout
Dean Rothschild
In Closing
KLS wants to thank Electrochew and Co-Founders, Konnor Balon and Cary Vick, for today's "Together Talks" feature. Follow along for their journey with their social handles below!
Comments