2008 Woodie Awards
Senior Pursues Entrepeneur Career in Water Industry
Garrett Green
Issue date: 2/28/08 Section: News
I am a fourth year Rollins student at A&S. I entered Rollins from well-known international sports academy in Bradenton Sarasota called IMG Academies, where I trained and competed in high-level amateur golf tours throughout the US.
I entered Rollins with the attention of playing golf, but decided to pursue a more secure path by being a student and preparing for a more realistic future, though at the time I had no idea what would be.
Confused and frustrated, like most students in college, I set out to do something unique.
I knew if I wanted to be truly successful and wealthy, business was where it was going to happen. But I had no idea where to start, and knew practically nothing about business at the beginning of my second semester of freshman year.
In a brief philosophical discussion about life and the future I had with my best friend during this semester--who at the time was attending Duquesne University studying to become a pharmacist--we talked about how the bottled water industry was exploding, particularly with brands such a Vitamin Water and Propel, and how interesting it would be to start a company like that.
But like any new company, it was important to identify (or create) a competitive advantage… something that would make a brand be distinctly different and better.
Very quickly we discovered that many beverage companies struggle to maintain ingredient value in their products because sunlight, moisture, and oxygen play damaging roles on nutrient value if exposed for extended periods, which pretty much damns the whole industry if you think about it.
So we decided to put a spin on the 'delivery' or formulation method by placing the active ingredients in a specially engineered bottle cap with fastens onto any purified bottle water (F?i, Smartwater, Aquafina, and Dasani to name a few), and dispenses its ingredients through an interactive releasing action the cap provides once fastened to the bottle.
It's a very unique concept that guarantees freshness and efficacy, and we feel it has a real niche market. We like to think of ourselves as an evolved 'on-the-go' concept, similar to crystal light, only better nutrition with more sophisticated packaging.
You can expect to see powercaps in our signature point ofsale dispenser cartons located in places like cooler doors, check out counters and in bulk in the aisles so consumers can stock up at home, too.
It took 2 1/2 years to essentially teach myself how to put this company together, including finding and being licensed the technology, finding reliable suppliers, and raising the capital.
Just last week we did a conference call with F?i Water for a possible M&A co-op, and we have been in dialog with companies like 7/11, Publix, Target, and GNC for weeks.
If we manage the start-up stages the way they have been planned, we have the opportunity to do over 20 million in sales the first fiscal year.
I entered Rollins with the attention of playing golf, but decided to pursue a more secure path by being a student and preparing for a more realistic future, though at the time I had no idea what would be.
Confused and frustrated, like most students in college, I set out to do something unique.
I knew if I wanted to be truly successful and wealthy, business was where it was going to happen. But I had no idea where to start, and knew practically nothing about business at the beginning of my second semester of freshman year.
In a brief philosophical discussion about life and the future I had with my best friend during this semester--who at the time was attending Duquesne University studying to become a pharmacist--we talked about how the bottled water industry was exploding, particularly with brands such a Vitamin Water and Propel, and how interesting it would be to start a company like that.
But like any new company, it was important to identify (or create) a competitive advantage… something that would make a brand be distinctly different and better.
Very quickly we discovered that many beverage companies struggle to maintain ingredient value in their products because sunlight, moisture, and oxygen play damaging roles on nutrient value if exposed for extended periods, which pretty much damns the whole industry if you think about it.
So we decided to put a spin on the 'delivery' or formulation method by placing the active ingredients in a specially engineered bottle cap with fastens onto any purified bottle water (F?i, Smartwater, Aquafina, and Dasani to name a few), and dispenses its ingredients through an interactive releasing action the cap provides once fastened to the bottle.
It's a very unique concept that guarantees freshness and efficacy, and we feel it has a real niche market. We like to think of ourselves as an evolved 'on-the-go' concept, similar to crystal light, only better nutrition with more sophisticated packaging.
You can expect to see powercaps in our signature point ofsale dispenser cartons located in places like cooler doors, check out counters and in bulk in the aisles so consumers can stock up at home, too.
It took 2 1/2 years to essentially teach myself how to put this company together, including finding and being licensed the technology, finding reliable suppliers, and raising the capital.
Just last week we did a conference call with F?i Water for a possible M&A co-op, and we have been in dialog with companies like 7/11, Publix, Target, and GNC for weeks.
If we manage the start-up stages the way they have been planned, we have the opportunity to do over 20 million in sales the first fiscal year.
Be the first to comment on this story