This week's edition of our January New Year's Resolutions issue is dedicated to that most perennial of personal promises: getting back in shape, getting healthy, getting fit, whatever your phrase of choice.
For me, that's meant going back to the rink a few days a week (I was a competitive figure skater in a former version of this life) and getting ready to commit the time, money, and energy to a version of my old training regimen. Luckily enough, the rink in my neighborhood is an absolute bargain (I even guest blogged at BostonMamas.com, my friend Christine's site, about frugal figure skating last week), but it's pretty hard to find the time or the energy to work out as hard as I used to while running a brand new magazine.
That's where this cool new product comes in. PepPod, a new company launched by Zach Zeldner, a fellow UNH grad and student athlete now living in Boulder, Colorodo, and his business partner, Skip Meador, makes these grapefruit-flavored fizzy energy tabs, which are just $1.49 a piece—sort of the fitness supplement equivalent of an Alka-Seltzer. They're individually wrapped in foil pouches and stay fresh up to three years; all you need is a bottle of water—bought from the gym vending machine or brought from home in your Nalgene—and voila! Drop the tab into 8 to 16 ounces, to taste, for an instant pick-me-up.
I had the opportunity to catch up with and learn more about PepPod from Zach and Skip this afternoon. Here's what they had to say about their passion product:
Shoestring: When and why did you decide to start PepPod?
Zach: We launched in the middle of 2005, seeing that there was a need for an alternative to all the energy drinks that was healthy and also portable. For hikers and students, it's pretty hard to carry three or four cans around. We're pretty active, so it's something we saw a need for in the market firsthand. I was in sales and marketing, but on the real estate side of things, and we've now been plugging away on this for a few years now. Being out here in Colorodo, being up in the mountains, it was important not to have a syrupy drink for our active lifestyle.
Shoestring: How does your product work?
Zach: The best way to summarize it is that it's an energy tablet that you just dissolve in water. Drop it in water, and you've got an instant energy drink to take with you wherever you go. We don't want to overcomplicate things, what we think the product can do for somebody, and just wanted to keep it simple. One thing in testing was getting all the active ingredients dialed in
and getting the right flavor. When you're producing a tablet, you've
got to worry about dissolution time, that it dissolves cleanly.
Skip: There's
really nothing out there like it in its attitude. We tried to keep it really gender neutral on purpose--I don't know any
girls who are doing three backflips on a dirt bike. Neither Zach or I are like that, anyway, so we
wanted to create a brand that was kind of inclusive. Something they both could use
and relate to a little better. That was the impetus for the branding.
You'll never see the extreme sports themes on our website or our packaging, it's more
about the individual.
Shoestring: Who are your competitors, and what makes PepPod different?
Skip: One of the bigger ones that people don't know about is HerbalLife Liftoff. It's a good product, and they've done a good job with it, but the differences that we made with ours are in the flavor and the different ingredients. Our tablet size also fits into the top of a water bottle, whether you buy one or bring one with you. Liftoff is scored so you can break it in half, and we didn't like that. We wanted ours to just be really clean and simple. Another one, called ZipFizz, comes in a test tube-like vial, and it's a powder rather than a tablet. Then you have a test tube leftover [to recycle], rather than just a little paper pouch. The test tubes aren't that airtight, either, and since it's effervescent, it can turn gooey and clumpy in more humid places like Florida. Since PepPod is in an individual, sealed pouch, it's a little more stable and fresh. People wouldn't necessarily know that until testing them out for themselves.
Zach: On the sales side, you can also buy a single serving pouch right next to the register. Compared to a shot or a can size [energy drink], which can be up to $3.50 to $5 a piece for the Monsters and the Rockstars and what not, ours is just $1.49 a serving. So, on price, we're competitive and different in that way, as well.
Shoestring: Who is your target customer for PepPod?
Zach: Right now, it's 16 to 40ish, healthy people who are looking for something to drink on the go, active people but also office workers who need a little pickup around 2pm. We also think that women, seeing as it's a 1 calorie, 1 carb, 0 sugar product, will find appeal in it, as well.
Skip: People who don't drink energy dinrks, because they're too syrupy and strong and overloaded with ingredients, like my parents, who are in their 60s and will take PepPod with them motorcycling for a few weeks, also love it. My brother who's a diabetic and in the Coast Guard, got hooked on it as a replacement for his Diet Dr. Pepper. He now drinks PepPod instead, and he's feeling better than ever.
Shoestring: How is PepPod easier on the wallet and the planet than traditional energy drinks?
Zach: First of all, we're not asking people to buy a can, and we're encouraging people to use their own water bottle, like a Nalgene, etc. You're not buying bottles of water over and over again. You look at our tiny little boxes, too, each with 10 servings in there, and compare it to a pack of energy drinks, and we can ship, store, and serve more PepPod than a traditional beverage company. We don't rely on the resources that other products do, so it's a pretty light footprint. We don't have nearly the packaging or bottling that goes with a bottle or a can.
Skip: And, outside of volume wise, it doesn't cost practically anything to ship. If you think of buying locally, our customers get their water locally, so we beat [our competition] 10 to one in that area. The box is also recyclable. There's some debate with our manufacturer over whether or not the foil pouches that package the tabs are recyclable or not, but we're working with them on that, as well.
Shoestring: How are you currently distributing and marketing PepPod?
Zach: We've got a great distributor out here in Denver called New Age Beverage. They do Go Fast and others, there pretty big out here, and they're doing great with [the distribution and marketing] for us. They service everything from gas stations to 7-11's, convenience stores, gyms, grocery stores, the entire run of the mill. We're also for sale on PepPod.com, and Amazon
. We offer a free sample [on our website], and if you plug in 5 of your friends
email addresses, we'll send them a sample, as well. There have been a
lot of free sample requests. [laughs]
Skip: People like it, so we're not afraid to put it out there for free. We've
done tastings at gyms, liquor stores, and others, and we have sampling
teams going out this weekend pretty much full-time from now on,
everywhere from college bookstores to the Air Force bases. It's pretty
versatile, since it doesn't have to be refrigerated, so we can sell it
anywhere that has a countertop.
Shoestring: About how many customers do you currently have? (Or, approximately how many boxes of PepPod have been sold since you launched?)
Zach: We're in about 200 stores so far, and that's just in the past 45 days. We're selling boxes online, and the product is pretty well received. It's early in the game, so it's hard to say, but the reaction has been really positive. You can get a healthy, portable energy drink for less than people are paying for a can of soda, and it's environmentally friendly.
Shoestring: Have you sent any samples yet to Obama, our Baller in Chief, for his hoops team?
[Both, laughing] Oh, yeah, he was just hanging out in our office last week. We have not sent him any yet. I texted his Blackberry, but apparently they're monitoring it pretty closely. We told him that if he had taken our product before his speech, he wouldn't have flubbed his lines.
Shoestring: What were your New Year's Resolutions?
Skip: I want our business to be successful, to have more time doing this above ground, and to have more time for diving, being underwater.
Zach: My resolution was to get [PepPod] out there, and to spend as much time as possible with my wife and little one.
