Elevator Talk: FUZZEE, Rise Yaupon, Släcka, Lovely Bunch, Nordic Tree Water

29:04Okay. But I think before we hopped in the mics, you said Schlaka could also be? That's how I've... I was doing a very poor imitation of a Swede. I'm going to let Sebastian, who, because it's the Swedish word for quench is how we came to the word, if anybody's interested. So it was a word that I want, the number one, we wanted to get a single word that would be through the trademark and patent office. And so that was in Slack, meaning quench, which we'll get into quench cravings, crush cravings is what it's about. So, and it's interesting and we can have a conversation around it. So that's kind of where the word came from.

29:43But I will yield the floor to Sebastian, who I think has the ultimate pronunciation. Yeah, and this is the call to all the Swedes listening to this podcast. Who does it the best, right? So with my Swedish that I know, I would say it is pronounced slecka. And slecka, the most used term is slecka lösen, which means to turn off the light as well. Quench, turn off, end kind of thing. But yeah, that's the general thing. I have a friend whose husband's Swedish and I had a Slaka t-shirt on and he immediately caught on to that very quickly. Well, I'm glad we're talking about this. This is important context because it really does, the word represent what your brand is in a nutshell.

30:30I came across Slaka. I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna use, I'm gonna go with my hard American Slaka. the pronunciation of the term. But I met you guys at the Fancy Food Show as well. And I think it was your branding that really struck my interest from the get-go. And then I learned more about it. I'm like, we got to have these guys on Elevator Talk. So tell us all about the brand, the origins of the brand and what you do. I have a history in beverage. I'm one of the founders of a company called dryfarmwines.com. And we've been doing that for 10 years. and we import naturally made sugar-free organic wines as a direct consumer wine club.

31:12So what we learned, I learned in the past 10 years, and we've talked about it, your other guests have talked about it earlier on the show, sugar. No, people are very concerned about sugar and sugar in their product, sugar in their salad dressings. You know, Mark Sisson launched, you know, Primal Kitchen around that whole premise. And so starting Dry Farm Wines, being sugar-free wine was a big, big driving point for people who are living in a healthy lifestyle, whether they're doing a paleo diet, a keto diet, buying organic produce, wild-caught salmon, et cetera. They wanted a wine product that was consistent with it.

31:51So being in the health and wellness space, because we've always marketed the wine in that area, we've never marketed the wine to wine people. I became very aware of, you know, mindless eating, snacking eating. Obviously, with COVID and people locked in, they were eating, people eating more and not necessarily better. And so we're inundated with highly palatable, low nutrient, high calorie snacks, Cheetos, Doritos, bagel bites, et cetera, et cetera. and so wanted to come up with a product that was a ready to drink so you can pop it open and say I'm at three o 'clock in the afternoon or 10 a.m. or 10 11 a.m.

32:32in the morning that between meal lull and say I want something that's going to satisfy a craving but with five calories no sugar all natural amino acids like 5-HTP and L-carnitine L-theanine etc electrolytes for hydration. And then we actually threw in perizanthine for clean energy, which is a caffeine metabolite. So it's technically caffeine free, but it's a nice clean energy burst for people who want to take control and not have to be at the mercy of a highly savory, but low nutrient food item. So again, the reason we went with ready to drink to start is I feel people have about a three second decision window at four o 'clock in the afternoon when they go to the pantry, they go to the break room and they say, am I going to grab some chips or am I going to grab a slacker that I can drink, feel satiated, feel good about myself.

33:33And part of it is you'll actually eat a little bit less at dinnertime or lunchtime because of the amino acids and the, and the, and the products that are in there. So it's really, um, about for me, I think it's about control. I think it's about making the good choices. I don't, you know, you know, Doritos are my personal kryptonite, you know, and they're scientists trying to get you to eat a whole 10 ounce bag, not too salty, not too sweet, not too savory, not too, you know, the crisp, you know, all that stuff is in there. And we're saying, hey, here's a chance for you to take control over what you put in your body and feel good about it.

34:11I don't know that anybody feels great about dumping out a bag of Cheetos. So that's kind of the ethos for me is empowerment. I have a bracelet that says empower and give people additional choices and education. One of your previous guests said her biggest issue is educating people in the certain tea plant that's here that until I heard about it, I didn't know about it either. So as Sebastian was saying, it's a new category. It's It's not energy drink. It really has energy. It's not meal replacement. It's more like snack replacement. It's hydrating, but it's not a hydration beverage in that soul aspect.

34:51I think the main point for us is to say, here's the thing to get you away from bad choices and give you feel good about the choices that you do make. Of course, a lot of question on my mind right now. and obviously a really big audacious goal that you're having here right now. We all, I think, we all, yeah, no, that's great. We all like the mission, and I think you speak to a lot of important things. And, I mean, you know, mentioning, not talking about addiction, but clearly, I mean, we under Zempic age right now, so a lot of people clearly are aware of that right now. Now, you have a lot of functional ingredients in there.

35:35Let's talk a little bit about the functionality and the proof you're having that this is actually doing what you want it to do. So, do you have one ingredient that you would highlight that you're the first one to use or that you think is going to do the majority of the heavy lifting here? And what kind of proof do you have that that is actually doing what you want it to do? Well, if I can pull on my previous experience at Dry Farm 1s, I would get the same question. They would say, is it the sugar? Is it the dry farming? Is it the low alcohol? And I would say it's all of the above. And so the amino acid 5-HTP probably comes in at the strongest if you're going to list it in rank order for satiation and mood control and getting that, I don't want to say GLP-1 exactly, but in that same vein of what that is trying to get for satiety and fullness.

36:28But you actually add in the L-theanine, the carnitine, the 12 ounces of fuzzy to give to the previous guy. It's a sparkling water, so there's also a satiation from the carbonation and the sodium and the potassium. So probably the amino acids followed by the paroxanthine energy and then followed up with the electrolytes all in a carbonated package, I think is what's going to really get people. And the experience we've had and the feedback we've gotten from people is, you know, I'm not having the sugar cravings. We had a lady who had some and she went to dinner, didn't eat all of her food, was going to get a to-go box, forgot the to-go box and said, you know, I don't really want it.

37:15And it's kind of changed the way she thinks about food. So it is, there is a big, as you said, the Ozempic and GLP-1 conversation is huge, huge, huge. And to the extent that we could be, you know, a part of that conversation, I think it could be monumental. Yeah. And did you consider adding fiber as well? We haven't gone the fiber route. You know, at some point you have to stop and figure out what will dissolve in the can. um because i know protein's a big thing right now um of course but um the short answer is no we didn't do we didn't do fiber but i think uh based on uh what our feedback has been so far i don't think we need fiber to to to add any satiation or fullness yeah and and just from a per reference i'm a big believer in amino acids um but mainly for i would say the mood portion of things right So there's studies coming out right now that you need certain amino acids just for your brain to function and to balance your mood.

38:225HTP is a little bit of a tricky one. It's very powerful, almost too powerful. So you need some disclaimer on the can for that. Pregnant women cannot have that. So as you have the conversation down the line, that's going to be, I know many brands that started with 5HTP. and that as they got to more mainstream, that they had to decide to make a little bit of a change. But again, for you right now, this is one of the important learnings that you need to do is like, what are the ingredients? Is A, gives the function and B, is resonating with people, right? I know that magnesium is another one out there that many companies are waking up to right now.

39:05L-theanine is a very powerful one that the science has proven behind it. I mean, talking about BTE, but that's one of the most active compounds in there. So I think, yeah, this is going to be one where you, it's always a mix of like, hey, what is something that people actually understand and you can call out on the front of the label, right? You cannot put all of them there. There's only limited amount of time, amount of real estate, so to speak. But the question is, what kind of mix of functionals is the one that gives you the biggest audience while doing what you wanted to do. And that's, I think, given you have so many in there and so many people will never have heard of most of them, it's going to be an interesting one how you're going to balance that one out.

39:53No, we're excited about it. And again, people, they're responding very, very well to it. And I feel honored that I'm able to honor the premise. It's like, hey, we're going to help you with craving control, with making better decisions. And people are reporting back that they are doing that. And they're having that same response. So I'm very proud of fulfilling that promise to the customer. Yeah, I imagine that's the best feeling for an entrepreneur is actually giving somebody what they want, as opposed to just trying to sell them something. And it feels like Slack is doing just that. David, thank you so much for being with us on Elevator Talk.

40:35Excited, really excited to see how the brand develops from here. If there's anything we can do or if there's any new retail authorizations, distribution that you have, please let us know. We want to talk about it. We want to write about it. Yeah, right now we're direct to consumer as well as some stores in Manhattan. But we're working with Kehi and Unify and some other stores to get, hopefully by the end of the year, wider retail. So it's small retail right now, but mainly DTC online. Well, I can't wait to hear more about what happens in the rest of the year and then in 2026 as well. So yes, definitely please stay in touch.

41:09Thank you. Thank you, David. All right. Let's keep it going on Elevator Talk with Lenny Harer and Macklin Kasanoff, who are the co-founders of Lovely Bunch. Lenny, Macklin, it's so great to see you guys again. What's up, Ray? Nice to see you. Lovely Bunch. I have a feeling that Sebastian is familiar with his brand because my first interaction with it was at a little store called Erewhon. And I came across Lovely Bunch and I'm like, it's a small can of apple juice. How good could it be? And I was like, what? This is so good. It's incredible. Okay, that's my pitch for Lovely Bunch. Let's hear yours.

41:50I'm Macklin, co-founder with Lenny of Lovely Bunch. I think a little background on myself is actually really good context for how this came about. So I'm a chef. I spent my whole career working in fine dining, two and three star restaurants. And when the pandemic hit, I was really looking for, what do I do? I wanted to work with agriculture at scale. I wanted to work with the quality of farmers we were able to work with in the types of restaurants I was cooking at. I actually, since then, own a restaurant and a wine bar in Los Angeles. So David, I appreciate your interest in wine also. So I just wanted to shout that out.

42:34But as I was going through that process, I had been spending some time in Denmark and just trying the quality of apple juice that's available in Europe and felt that there was nothing like that in the US. And it's such an iconic fruit for the US. It's such an iconic supply chain within the US. But the fact that the best quality fruit wasn't going into juice, I thought was just a shame. So we worked on creating a shelf-stable, ultra-high quality heirloom apple juice. Part of that process was realizing that, you know, pasteurization and shelf stability was created for a reason historically, at least in the culinary side of things.

43:17And we think of preservation as a way to bottle up the season for sharing with a guest or sharing with your family when it's not the middle of October and you're not standing in an apple orchard. and in doing that we are kind of introducing a specialty premium version of something to a category that's frankly somewhat commoditized but really leaning into the nostalgia of American agriculture and the legacy of apple breeding in the U.S. a lot of our varieties were bred in the U.S. in the 1800s or late 1700s and have a lot of historical importance to the way, frankly, U.S. agriculture developed from the early days.

44:09We've also been working on a new line of products which we've launched recently, which we call our Fizzes. Shout out to Fuzzy also because sparkling beverages are great. The fizzes are basically apple juice blended with another substrate. So we have a hibiscus apple fizz that's sweetened with apple juice and hibiscus tea. It's absolutely delicious, a little less sugar, a little more tart. We've done a yuzu, which we partnered with our friends at Yuzu Co. to do. And we're working on developing some more flavors in that sort of line. I'd love Lenny to dive in a little bit into some of our, you know, positioning in the market as well.

44:58He does more of the operations side of things. I'm more on the flavor and sort of product development and brand side of things. He's also German, Sebastian, so maybe you guys can connect there. Lenny here. Yeah. Born in Germany, grew up in LA, but, you know, Grew up drinking applesauft and applesauce. Sebastian, I'm sure you've had some experience with those two drinks. But yeah, originally worked in investment banking within Food & Bev M &A, and then me and Mac and where we're friends, and then decided to partner up with Lovely Bunch. But yeah, what I think a great thing about our product at the end of the day is when you talk to consumers that are above the age of 20, a lot of them will tell me, I haven't drank or purchased an apple juice since I was a child.

45:44And really just speaks, you know, we're bringing a consumer back to a forgotten category for them. So we're really incremental growth. We're driving, you know, more sales. We're not cannibalizing, no left hand, right hand. And I think that just speaks to our product and our positioning and branding. We're currently mostly in food service channel, probably 80 % of our revenue there. We are, you know, our first foray into grocery was Air One. Now a fresh market. Right now we're probably in almost 300 grocery doors. A thousand doors in total and, you know, quasi national in over 40 states. Some of those states, one or two doors, but we're, you know, growing and trying to continue doing what we're doing.

46:27Before we get to Sebastian, I know he has a lot to say. Price point. What's the price point per can? What's the size of your cans? Eight ounce can,$2.99 in grocery. Okay. I paid more at Air One, but that's Air One. So anyway. They can get pricey. I'm sure they can price it up. But hey, it was worth every penny. Sebastian, there's a lot to dive into. So please go ahead. I'm really craving apple juice right now. Oh, my God. You got me going there. So yeah, first of all, I'm from a region in Germany, which is called Frankfurt or Hesse. And this is the region where it is known in all of Germany for apple juice and apple cider.

47:10So I grew up in that region. I, you know, I did apple juice myself as a kid. And also for our company, Dollar, we are a big, big, big apple processor. So Apple is a big part of our history. And yes, so I'm really, really excited to talk about it. And yeah, I know that especially the cloudy apple juice back in Germany, I've never tasted anything like that over here. And I applaud you for bringing back, hopefully, the love for good apple juice. clearly the price point and thank you for asking that ray is going to be an interesting one right how this is an artisan play it's a high quality play how even let's start with that where in the store that's not aero on would you place that product like like how do you go but if you go would go to a retailer i know that you said you're mainly in food service if you would have to go let's say to a kroger or two galsons albertsons staying local in la what where would you have that product placed?

48:11It's a really interesting question because, frankly, there is a bit of a price cliff in the juice aisle. We tend to do higher velocity if we're in the cold grab-and-go shelf because there's a little bit more consumer price tolerance there. And the other beverages we're next to, even though we're a bit smaller on the per-fluid ounce side, we're not so far off from some of those other beverages. I think where we probably need to innovate in order to compete a little more is on format size. So introducing a larger format, we'll be able to sit in that center aisle and compete a little better against some of those legacy players like the Martinelli's and the Santa Cruz's of the world.

48:54And that's merely a packaging to volume ratio, which is a big cost hindrance to us right now. Yeah. And I think the single, I have to admit that that is an innovation for me, single serve apple juice because usually you would think of apple juice and the big packaging but it makes sense to me to go especially next to soda and say hey listen this is gonna satisfy your sweet tooth um your blood sugar for sure is gonna spike but that's that is almost like a dessert kind of situation right there and um to your point lennie apple schorle which is essentially apple juice diluted with sparkling water um that there is a company called gerolsteiner that tried to actually establish that in the US.

49:37They had it at trade shows. They had it also at Whole Foods for a long time and also at Gelson's. I know they're on shelves. I don't think it ended up there. But how do you want to educate the consumer? Let me ask you this. When you go to food service, how do you get the managers to put it on the menu and how are you going to advertise that? On the food service side, let me just hop in here for one second, which is just that we, I was really lucky to have some great chefs that championed us early on. So we're sold at the cafe at Blue Hill at Stone Barns because Dan Barber was a fan. Daniel Hum orders the product to his house from 11 Madison Park.

50:20So I was able to kind of lean on these people that I knew through the industry and use them as a little bit of a platform to start convincing bars and coffee shops to take it on. But I think Lenny can dive in a bit more on how that actually functions for our business. Yeah, I mean, I think food service is big for us. Like just for example, the coffee channel, we are in a bunch of coffee stores, we're doing in some of these stores, 40 units per store per week. For an apple juice, we think that's pretty good. And it just complements the menu really well. At the end of the day, coffee shops, a lot of kids are coming through.

50:58Adults need to buy their kid a drink. They don't always want to buy them a healthy, quasi-milkshake, let's call it, at the end of the day, with the frappuccinos of the world. So we think that adds a lot for the retailers or the operators. And that's an interesting argument here, right? And because, yeah, if I think about single-serve apple juice, I only know it as a kid's drink and in those Tetra pouches. So, So, yeah, that could be an interesting angle for you to, as many sodas do, right? Hey, something healthy for the kids and then the parents try it as well. Interesting avenue right there. But for sure, the question is, how are you going to get the word out?

51:38Because you want to convert people that are not looking for apple juice per se, right? And I think that would be my understanding that you would like to go, okay, we have all of the healthy soda pops coming out there right now. and why you're not using that trend right now to go back, right? So, you know what? Why don't we start really at the beginning and give you a really healthy and great-tasting soda alternative, right, which is Apple juice. Yeah. I mean, I think there's a lot of those right now, that space. There's a lot of new brands popping up in the healthy space. And we just thought, you know, there's this big white space on the left side of that, juice is apple juices that there's really no new entrance in.

52:20There's no innovation happening from a sourcing standpoint and branding standpoint. So it's maybe a less sexy category, let's call it, but a lot less crowded category. And it's been a lot easier to get shelf space for that reason, I think. We're not saying you just got in three new healthy sodas. This is a new apple juice to add to your offering. I will, right after this call, I will go to Erewhon and I will pick one up. And I will really be looking forward to tasting the product. I am certain that Sebastian is going to text me as soon as he has that first sip and be like, okay, this is a real deal.

52:57Because that was my reaction. And I shared a can with someone who I know in LA as well. And they're like, oh, okay, thanks for getting this from me. And then literally I got a text two seconds after they tasted it. And it really is such a differentiated product. It is apple juice, unlike you've had it before. So Lenny Macklin, thank you so much for taking the time to be with us today. I'm really excited for your brand. please let us know if you make any adjustments to the branding, if you add any new retailers, when you add those new products and release them. We want to write about it. We want to know about it.

53:34So just keep us in the loop. Thank you, Ray. And thank you for having us. Sebastian, it was a pleasure to meet you. So look forward to seeing stuff. Quick break. If this episode has you thinking about what's next in food and beverage, explore BevNet and Nosh Insider, our subscription platform with deeper insights from the BevNet team. Visit tasteradio.com slash insider to learn more.

53:58On to our final guest for this episode of Elevator Talk, we have Claudia Kainoia, who is the co-founder of Nordic Tree Water. Claudia, it's great to see you. Hi, everyone. It's great to see you. I love that you're totally on brand with your T-shirt, Nordic tree water. Well done. Every day. And, you know, the celestial water, it just my go-to all the time. It seems pretty intuitive what you do, but please tell us all about Nordic tree water. All right. I don't know if you guys know about this, but birch water is this sweet liquid. It's very crisp, very delicious. It comes from the birch tree. We actually tap the water in the springtime.

54:44It's only allowing, only the birch tree only gives us three weeks in the springtime to take it out. And when we take it out, we tested it out and it's about 200 bionutrients in it. So it has all the trace minerals. It has electrolytes. It has magnesium, manganese. I mean, it's amazing. It's a vitamin water without having to touch it. It's natural. It's a vitamin water without having to do anything to it. I love that. You know, I've encountered birch tree water in the past, and I think there's a wide variety of tree waters that we've seen come to market. But what makes yours specifically different from other birch tree waters that we've seen out there?

55:31So ours is 100 % birch sap. The majority of our, some of our competition is with filter. It doesn't necessarily be 100%. We are certified organic. We are also regenerated organic certified. So that's a big one for us because we do not harm any of our trees. And all our forest is pristine. It's from the soil of Finland. So we actually source it from there. My husband, and that's where my last name comes from, Kayanoia, is from Finland. So actually we have encountered Birchwater from before. It's just that happens that after COVID, our kids, you know, when they get sick, they wouldn't drink any water.

56:24They will drink other, you know, they will probably drink the sweet drinks that I don't like and I don't like to mention, but I'm very healthy. So I like them to be, you know, to drink organic and healthy and they loved birch water. So I thought from there, that moment, I'm like, if the kids like it, if they can keep hydrating when they cannot sip anything else because they don't like Pedialite, then we're on to something. So we've had a Swedish-named beverage brand. Now we have a Finnish concept in so many ways. So this is a really Scandi type of episode, which is cool. um sebastian as i mentioned to claudia you know i think we've seen a number of tree waters come to market i think um you know some brands have had better success than others but you know at its core what do you think about the proposition of nordic tree water i i thought the same thing that you mentioned i know and i recalling the conversations i had with the company sentiment back in the past and um i think claudia what you mentioned is the hydration piece i think is the one that seems to be the most promising for me.

57:38And we talked all episode from the get-go about what do consumers associate with it? What do they understand? What's their need state? And hydration has proven to be a very powerful category. And now the question is, I think the closest that I could compare with the product would be coconut water. And we had those conversations in the past. and now the question is how can you how would you explain to people that drink coconut water why should they switch to birch and let's start with a taste perspective because i think at the end of the day many people when they hear birch they are not like oh let's drink it but it's not the not the first thing that comes to mind coconut has a much easier transition there because coconut people associate with being delicious so how would you describe the taste and how would you compare How would you argue to get someone converted from coconut water to birch water?

58:35So the easiest way is we are low in calories. But the most, I think, essential and the most powerful answer is we actually have a lot of nutrition in our beverage. I mean, we tested 200 micrometons. So, you know, there is a lot of there is prebiotics help for your gut. There is manganese for your bones, for your skin, nails, and hair, silica. So, you know, we have so much more. But the immediate answer, and it actually helps us because how do we explain a new, it's not a water because that water really doesn't have to be certified. It's a drink that we relate it with water because it actually looks like water.

59:21and coconut water helps us because obviously it's like what everybody likes, but guess what? Coconut water just hydrates you and it's really, really high in sugar and no of them are actually certified organic either. So we are certified organic, but we are very low, low in sugar. So that makes us a quick conversion to our, and we have seen very good followers and conversion from that coconut water to our birch water. And this is, I'm going to play devil's advocate here because I totally get it. And I never remember that. That's a great argument. For me, there's sometimes, I think taste is going to be king for you that you have to nail that one and to make a strong argument.

1:00:11My favorite example is if you take that argument, soy milk would be winning everything out there, right? But for whatever reason, people like oat better than soy. If you look at the nutritional, soy will win any day, right? But there's a bad perception of it. People don't think soy sounds delicious. So I think it is really going to be key for you. How would you describe the taste? How can you make sure to win that taste argument? And I think it has to be taste first, nutrition second, for you to really take off, right? So how do you think about that? So the taste, I mean, I told you, my kids are very very picky and kids are very picky about tasting especially if it's not very sweet starting by that but the taste is a think about a um a very good water with a little uh sugar because it has a sweet no sugar it has natural xylitol great for your gum also gum health um that xylitol allows the water to be very, like a little sweet in it, and it's crispy.

1:01:19So it's very refreshing. When you come to taste, it wins. Absolutely wins compared to coconut water. Now, we have our natural version, and we actually had some feedback from our customers saying, well, you know, some of them had drink it, and they wanted more taste to it. So we created the extra strong, which makes it, which is a limited edition, this one, and it has more taste to it. And so, you know, we have for both the one that, you know, wants to the natural one and lower is three grams of sugar is really low in sugar. Or the one that wants more taste that gets a little bit more sugar, but it also has more nutrients in it.

1:02:04So it depends on the palate. But to answer your question, it's very refreshing, very crispy. It's delicious. There's no variation, very strong, and the natural one is just a little water with a sweet into it. So Ray and Claudia, I think if Claudia is very persuasive, if she would be in the store, I think she would sell all of the Nordic Tree water. I'm passionate about it because, you know, I'm an athlete and I, you know, I used to get cramps all the time and I taste a lot of water. I really do. I taste a lot of things. I'm passionate about it because it does has taken away those cramps. It gives me vitality, energy.

1:02:51So, I mean, why not? Right. Like why not tell about it? You really drink every day and it really makes a difference in my exercise, in my tennis, in my gym. um you know i like to share with everybody yeah and and so and at the end of the day i think what you need is that viral moment or this education moment or even rebranding birch right because my my where my fear would be or why i think you have to overcome is again people hear tree water it's it's not going to be the first one if so there is some there's some immediate response that you have to overcome. And maybe there is putting a spin on it, right?

1:03:32Maybe you have some TikTok people or maybe you call it, I don't know, Naughty Coconut. I don't know, right, what it is. But the challenge, like the question is, how can you get this education that you clearly know and that you feel and how to spin it into something that people gravitate towards and picking up on the shelf when you're not there in the store right next to it and convincing people one by one, right? And I think that has always been the challenge of new ingredients and new raw materials that are trying to get into a category that is as competitive as coconut water or as hydration.

1:04:10And keep in mind, I mean, coconut water, that was a hurdle in the beginning as well, right? When Vita Cocoa and Zicoa started. But that's going to be the key here. that solving that consumer education, that consumer perception. And they've got to be really creative here because the product seems to be speaking for itself, but that's going to be key. Yeah, I think you're absolutely right, Sebastian. I think giving people a reason to want to pick it up outside of curiosity is really important. I think, Cloudy, you nailed it, that this is a product that delivers on everything that an athlete might want or an active consumer might want.

1:04:50And making that clear from the package and in your branding and in your marketing is really, really important. But at the outset, I think what you've developed is really great. And I'm excited to see where it goes from here. Thank you so much for being with us on Elevator Talk. If there's anything going on with the brand that's new, exciting, again, retail distribution. There's a lot coming out. I'll tell you later. Please, please stay in touch. Let us know. I'm excited about it. We want to talk about it. We want to write about it. So please stay in touch. Thank you. Thank you, guys. And thank you for the advice.

1:05:25It's yes, absolutely. You're right. We have taken on on that from the beginning. And that's how we're able to kind of survive and go up and thrive by solving that problem, educating. And yeah. One day at a time. Yeah. Thanks again, Claudia. Thank you, guys. Sebastian, you know, it's the highlight of my week when I get to talk to early stage founders, because I feel like they just bring so much passion, enthusiasm and newness to a category in an industry that is sometimes pretty stayed and not any of those things. And so I think, you know, having folks like you who can offer that kind of feedback and advice and direction to folks is so critical.

1:06:14I can't thank you enough for being with us on Elevator Talk. I know I'm kind of coming full circle here, but for people who want to continue that conversation, for folks who are listening or watching that want to get in touch with you, what's the best way to do so? It's always a pleasure to do this, Ray, and this was an excellent group of startups to talk to. And, you know, I wish everyone the biggest success, if we invest or not. Well, the easiest is to come to San Diego next week on September 16th to the Befnet meetup. For those who cannot make it there, reach out on LinkedIn or send me an email.

1:06:50I'm sure you can provide my email address in the show notes. So, yeah, that's the easiest way to reach out to me. Outstanding. And you can also see Sebastian at BevNet Live Los Angeles, which is happening in December. For more details, just go to BevNet.com. Sebastian, thank you so, so much. I know five is your lucky number, but we got to have you back for six. So we'll just keep it at five. It's like people who turn 30. I'm not older than 30. I'm always 30. I like that. Well done. In all seriousness, you're the man. Thank you so much again. Thanks so much to all the entrepreneurs who joined us today, to everyone watching or listening and to our amazing team at BevNet Nosh and Taste Radio, the best in the business.

1:07:36Signing off for everyone. I'm Ray Latif and we'll talk to you next time.