Cure Hydration

0:00Welcome to the Emerging Brands Podcast with Kelly Bennett. This is the podcast to discover stories behind your new favorite CPG brands. Each episode brings you behind the scenes of the brand and founder story, learn what sets them apart in the marketplace, and their strategy going to market. We talk about plans for growth, practical advice for an emerging brand founder, and where to shop products that are making waves in food, beverage, wellness, beauty, and beyond. You'll also hear from industry experts, brand builders, investors, and operators you should absolutely have on your radar if you're building a CPG brand today.

0:44I'm your host, Kelly Bennett, a Brooklyn-based brand strategist with a front row seat of what makes an emerging CPG brand stand out. Whether you're building a brand of your own or love supporting what's next, you're in the right place. This episode was made possible by our sponsor, Hummingbirds. Hummingbirds is a platform that connects everyday small creators with brands that drive user-generated content, build buzz at specific retailers, and captures competitive market share. It's a tool that I recommend to all of my clients that you should absolutely check out. Head to hummingbirds.com for all the details.

1:27Now let's dive into the new episode. Hi everyone. Welcome back to a new episode of Emerging Brands Podcast with Kelly Bennett. Hydration is one of the hottest areas in CPG. At Expo West, I tasted a lot of hydration products, but there's one brand that's been on my radar, Cure Hydration, and Lauren Picasso, the founder and CEO, is on the show today. So Lauren, thank you so much for coming on.

1:56Lauren Picasso:Thank you so much for having me. Of course. Like I said, hydration was one of the biggest trends that I saw at Expo West this year and something I'm personally working on. I mean, I know I need to drink more water, but it just is so boring. So I love products that just make the thing we need to do a bit more exciting. And so that's why your brand has really been on my radar. And I would love to hear what is the story behind Cure Hydration? What's the brand story? Yeah. So Cure is an electrolyte drink mix that you add to water. It's a science-backed formula, but it's made with all natural ingredients.

2:34Lauren Picasso:So we use a base of coconut water and pink Himalayan salt. And that's really what's powering the formula. There's no added sugar, nothing artificial. So we really consider ourselves to be the cleanest hydration product out there while still being medically effective. But how did I start this? you know, I really had no background in CPG. I, you know, really just kind of started this as a side hustle, as a passion project when I was working at Jet.com about seven years ago now. And I was training for my first triathlon. I've been an endurance athlete my whole life and grew up running cross country and track.

3:10Lauren Picasso:And then later started getting into races and really just always struggled with my hydration. I felt like no matter how much water I drink, it was just never enough to replace all the electrolytes I was losing. But when I looked at the options, I mean, there's a lot more options now, but back then it was really just Gatorade and Pedialyte. There were not a lot of healthy options out there. Everything was loaded with added sugar, artificial colors and sweeteners. And really just didn't feel like there was anything I felt good about drinking every day. At the time I was drinking Pedialyte, but I felt like I had to kind of save it for an emergency because it had all this stuff that was really causing more harm than good.

3:49Lauren Picasso:So that's how the idea for Cure came about. We wanted to create something that was just as effective as something like medical grade, like a Pedialyte, but that used much cleaner ingredients. So yeah, we launched in 2019. So it's been about six years now. Originally, we just launched on our website and Amazon, but now we're live in about 18 ,000 retail stores as well. That's incredible. Okay. There was so much you just touched upon that I want to nerd out with you on. So what was your career prior to starting Cure? So I've always worked at early stage consumer brands. Okay. I was an early employee at Red The Runway, as well as Jet.com, and had a performance marketing background.

4:32Lauren Picasso:So I was familiar with working at startups. I knew I always wanted to start a company, but I had no background in food and beverage and really honestly went into it, you know, just super naive. I was like, oh, how hard could this be? You know, run the runway and jet. We have, you know, thousands of engineers and it's just, you know, a ton of work to get this off the ground. So I had no idea what I was getting into when I was manufacturing a product. That's a cool background though, for you to understand consumer behavior, brand, how consumers connect with brands, but also acknowledging that CPG food and beverage is just its own thing as well, right?

5:12It's a whole new industry that you also had to learn. I'm so curious, what made you want to take that leap? And as you were testing, saying like, oh, wait, this is something like I want to go all in on this.

5:28Lauren Picasso:Yeah, I mean, I had started working on it after Jet got acquired by Walmart. So had a little bit more free time. You know, I'd gone from working until like 10 o 'clock at night, every night to, you know, all of a sudden we got inquired. So things had slowed down a little bit. Um, so had some extra time. And honestly, it was just, um, you know, after, you know, doing more and more research, just becoming really passionate about the idea. I became like really obsessed with hydration and I just thought, all right, this is my chance to, to give it a shot and really work on this full time. Very cool.

5:59We know that a lot of hydration products have come to market. Something that really stood out when you were describing the brand is that it's science-backed and that it is using coconut water and pink Himalayan sea salt, right? Yep. How did you land on that? Because there's so many different theories, thoughts, innovations in this space. What made you want to focus on those two hero ingredients in particular?

6:30Lauren Picasso:Yeah. So as I did my research, I discovered this formula that's been around actually for over 50 years. It's called oral rehydration solution. It's what products like Pedialyte are based on. And it's been used in developing countries for decades. And it's really considered the gold standard of rehydration. So anything else you see in market that is claiming to hydrate you but isn't an ORS product, just not going to be as effective. So basically what that is in ORS is just this perfect balance of electrolytes and glucose or sugar. And it's actually proven to hydrate as effectively as an IV drip.

7:06Lauren Picasso:So for me, that was like a big aha moment. That's a huge aha moment. Yeah. It was like, here you have this really simple formula. It's basically sugar and salt, but it's more effective than an IV drip. It's been used for, you know, since the fifties and just has so much clinical research behind it. So kind of why would I use anything else? So, you know, we already have something that is as effective as you really can get in terms of hydration. But the problem I saw with it was that, you know, a lot of these ORS formulas, the first ingredient on the label is sugar. And that sugar is a key component.

7:40Lauren Picasso:That's what's really powering the formula and, you know, creating this force in your bloodstream. It's up to pull fluids and electrolytes into your system. And so I thought, you know, is there a way to, you know, kind of ask myself, is there a way to use a natural ingredient that has sugar. So landed on coconut water. I think I loved coconut water because it has naturally occurring sugar. So we still have no added sugar and it's naturally really high in potassium and other minerals. So we don't need to add in anything synthetic. And then I also liked it because, you know, there's been brands like Vita Coco, Zico, Harmless Harvest, like people already know what they're familiar.

8:20Yes.

8:21Lauren Picasso:And everyone already knows like coconut water is hydrating. So it kind of took out that education piece. I felt like I didn't have to educate people on like, okay, why sugar is important for hydration. I could really just focus on the ingredients and the fact that we were following the science back formula. Was that a really critical piece you think of differentiating the brand focusing on the science backed formulation? Definitely. I mean, it's definitely a key differentiator for us. And because we follow this formula, we're also one of the few brands that's FSA eligible. And that's been a really big part of our - Can you break that down?

8:58I saw that and I was so curious of how those dots connected.

9:03Lauren Picasso:Yeah. So if you're an ORS product, you can be FSA eligible. And what that means is if you have a healthcare spending plan, you can actually buy Cure pre-tax. So it's a huge savings. It really just kind of opens us up to a new acquisition channel. So we sell on websites like FSA store, Optum store. And I don't know if you've ever had an FSA plan, but your dollars actually expire at the end of the year. So you have these people at the end of the year and come December 31st, where they're like, oh my God, I have all these dollars I didn't use. And they go on websites like FSA store and try to spend it.

9:42Um, stockpiling with like, you know, super goop and cure basically.

9:48Lauren Picasso:Um, so yeah, I mean, that has been a big differentiator for us, but I will say like the number one thing we hear from customers, um, no one ever really talks about ORS. The number one thing people are really drawn to is those clean ingredients. That absolutely makes sense. And I think hydration products are interesting because consumers, especially in the U S have become almost overly hyper aware of sugar, but then not getting as nuanced of what type of sugar and sugar from coconut water or fruit. It's different than what we're talking about high processed sugar. So I like that your product stays within the context of what makes it powerful, but also innovated on what consumers would be open to, to still get to where you need to go for hydration, but using an ingredient that people already feel comfortable with consuming.

10:44Exactly.

10:45Lauren Picasso:Yeah, we felt that like, you know, not only is coconut water better for you than just plain processed white sugar, but also customers are, you know, have a more positive association with coconut water. That absolutely makes sense. So what was your strategy? Again, coming from the background that you came from, what an awesome starting point. But what was your strategy going to market, getting this hydration product in people's hands? And you said you launched in 2019, which was such a different world than we then lived through. Can you walk us through those early years of how you started getting the name and the brand and the products out there?

11:27Lauren Picasso:Yeah. So I also thought a lot about the product format. um so when I was at Jet we sold a lot of like bottled water sparkling water laundry detergent a lot of like really heavy products and I saw how expensive it was to ship and how unprofitable it was to sell those types of products online um so from the beginning I actually really wanted to do a powder and that was because I wanted to launch on e-commerce since that was the channel I was familiar with I had this background that makes sense marketing but I had no background in retail. I didn't know anything about like how to get into Whole Foods or CVS.

12:02Lauren Picasso:Um, and so I wanted to start an e-com, which is why I launched with powder. Um, and really in the early days, I think like the other big difference was I had worked at these companies that were VC backed, um, jet.com. We had raised almost$600 million before we launched. So it's a very different type of budget than I was dealing with a little bit different, very bootstrapped. Um, but I will say like, you know, having kind of that, that marketing toolkit of understanding, um, you know, how do you test and learn and, and iterate? Um, that was really helpful, even though we were doing it in a much different way, you know, very different budgets.

12:38Lauren Picasso:Um, but early days, you know, it was really just about getting the product in people's hands. Um, so I would DM, you know, dozens of influencers a day, um, reach out to them, tell them about the product and, and send them samples. Um, and then just hope they post about it, um, or, you know, eventually get them into an affiliate program where they might receive commission for the sales that they're driving. So that was kind of like the early days. It was just, you know, a little bit of word of mouth. And it wasn't really until we had raised capital that we started doing a lot of like digital marketing and really paid spend.

13:13Can I ask you a question about reaching out to influencers and then also setting up an affiliate program? What did that look like as far as timeline goes? Because I know so many emerging brand founders are curious about this, but they are just not sure how to approach people. And also, when does it make sense to launch an affiliate program? I would love to hear just from your experience, what you found the most helpful or impactful.

13:40Lauren Picasso:Yeah, I mean, for us, we really did it from the beginning. So we found, I think, the product format, because it's so small, it's not like we're sending somebody like a big, expensive product, like the product is very low. So there's kind of like no downside to just shipping out product, getting people to try it. And so that was a really just cost-effective way for us to market early on. So we were reaching out to influencers and, you know, we were finding that they were posting about the product organically. So in the early days, you know, before we had an official affiliate program, I would make discount codes for them that were unique, like, you know, it'd be like Lauren 20 or something like that.

14:19Lauren Picasso:And then would give them a commission for the sales they drive. Eventually we got, you know, a hundred of influencers. It made sense to have like a software to actually run it. And so that's now kind of morphed into the program we have today. We use a software called Impact, but there's tons of software. I've heard good things about Impact. Great. Yeah. I definitely recommend it. But it just automates everything. So they track all of the sales, do the payouts, reporting, all of that. And now today, we have actually over a thousand ambassadors that we work with. Incredible. And something else that you touched upon was fundraising.

14:56Could you share a little bit of top level what you learned from that experience and anything helpful that maybe you wish you knew prior or any lessons learned that someone who's in the really early stages could just get on their radar?

15:13Lauren Picasso:Yeah. So, you know, early days, I decided to bootstrap. And I think that was one of actually my big lessons. You know, I eventually did raise a round of funding. And I think, you know, now in hindsight, like I probably would have just raised money from the beginning. I think you can just move so much faster when you have resources. And of course, there's a trade-off, you know, you're going to have dilution, you're going to have that extra pressure from investors. but for me it just you know made so much sense to raise that capital because I was able to hire a team and I think one of my biggest lessons learned is like there's only just so much you could accomplish as a team of one and even once I made my first like three hires I saw you know just how much the company took off and improved in every way possible so I think that's just important you know to have the resources you need to get off the ground.

16:04Was there anything that really stood out to you that was capturing people's attention to want to invest in the brand? Yeah.

16:13Lauren Picasso:I mean, because I had bootstrap for so long, by the time I went out to fundraise, um, we, our sales were pretty high. We were profitable. Um, so I think the investors we were talking to were just impressed like how far I had gotten it. Um, but I think also, you know, it was interesting. We, um, had quite a bit of retail distribution also by the time I went out to fundraise and we were in about 4 ,000 stores. So I had gotten into CBS, some other smaller retailers. And I think investors, it was kind of just the right time where investors were starting to get a little bit nervous about a DTC only brand and they were starting to care more about Omnichannel.

16:54Lauren Picasso:That makes sense. Yeah. The fact that we kind of had that, I think it was interesting. That makes sense. As far as where you are today, quite a few years in, I know at moments 2019 seems like yesterday, but that is six years ago. It just sounds, just was a wild ride that we were all on, but six years in where you are today and where you want to be going next, what is that strategy look like? Yeah. I mean, I think, um, you know, we're now, we have a really good retail presence, um, and really just like wanting to focus on building the brand awareness, um, you know, making sure that, you know, we're really hitting the target consumer we're going after and really making sure that we continue to build a product and a brand that people love.

17:42Lauren Picasso:So from here, you know, just continuing to expand our distribution. There's still a lot of stores that we're not in and continue to expand the product portfolio too. So we actually just launched our kids line last year. That really caught my attention. I was like, that is so clever and totally makes sense. You mentioned you have kids. And so, yeah, We found that, you know, a lot of our customers are parents and we're all writing in asking, like, is this product safe for kids? And so we decided to just make a dedicated kids line. And what was the difference that you had to think about for a kids line?

18:19Yeah.

18:20Lauren Picasso:So really just wanting to make sure that it was kid friendly. So making sure the packaging was really for kids. So it's really just like an illustrated version of our current packaging, but really cute and still very much feels like cure. It's a similar formulation, but we really just wanted to make sure that the taste was kid-friendly as well. So we did kind of kid-friendly flavors like fruit punch. We actually have all of our new flavors, anything new we launch in kids. We do kids focus groups, which are really cute and fun. That sounds adorable. A lot of good video content comes out of that.

18:59Lauren Picasso:Yes. But yeah, everything is really kid approved. Um, we want to make sure that kids really love to drink it. And what we found is that parents really see it as like a great alternative to water. Their kids think it's like a treat, like something like juice. Um, and so it's just really like a great way for their kids to, to get excited about drinking water. Incredible. Is there any last piece of advice you would share with an emerging brand founder who's in the really early stages? Maybe they're getting their product to their friends and family. They're finalizing their formulation and they're really taking that leap into becoming a CPG founder, anything else you would share with them?

19:37Lauren Picasso:Yeah, I'd say, you know, especially if you were someone like me who didn't have experience in the industry, I think it's really important to surround yourself with advisors and whether that's, you know, just, you know, building out a network or friends or investors that do have experience will be really helpful. So some of our earliest angel investors were all CPG founders. And it just made sure that like, you know, from 2019 all the way up until now, there's still those founders I call that can help answer any questions I have depending on like what stage I'm at. So that's been really, really valuable and definitely recommend whatever industry you're going into that you do the same if you're starting a new brand.

20:16That's a great piece of advice. Okay. Last question. Most importantly, where can people shop Cure?

20:22Lauren Picasso:You can shop Cure on our website as well as Amazon and then in stores. So we sell at Whole Foods, CVS, Walgreens and a number of other stores you can find on our store locator on our website. Awesome. Well, thank you so much for taking the time and bringing us behind the scenes. I love what you're building. Really love the kids skew and I'm really excited to keep seeing your brand grow. Thanks so much for having me. You're so welcome. Thanks everyone for listening and I'll see you on the next episode. this episode of the emerging brands podcast was made possible by our sponsor hummingbirds hummingbirds is a platform that connects everyday small creators with brands to drive user-generated content build buzz at specific retailers and capture competitive market share it's a tool that i recommend to all of my clients and one you should absolutely check out head to hummingbirds.com for all the details.