How Two Beverage Industry Veterans Karishma & Tekla Are Reinventing Energy Drinks with KEY Energy

Welcome to Shelf Talks, the podcast where we go behind the shelf and into the stories of the founders building brands you know, love and aspire to become. I'm Roberta, a retail buyer with more than 15 years of experience, helping brands navigate what it really takes to when it retail. I really started Shelf Talks because I saw so many incredible founders searching for practical guidance, real world insights and honest conversations about building a product based business. Each week, I sit down with founders who have successfully landed on retail shelves along with industry experts who share the lessons, strategies and experiences that can help you grow your brand with confidence. My goal is simple to help bridge the gap between having a great product and building a retail ready business. If you're enjoying Shelf Talks, make sure to click follow so you never miss an episode. And if something you hear today sparks a new idea, inspires your next move or helps you grow your brand, I'd be grateful if you'd leave a review. Your support helps us reach more founders and continue bringing these valuable stories and insights to the community. Now, let's get into today's episode. Hello, hello and welcome back to Shelf Talks, the podcast where we dive deep into the journeys of female founders bringing their product based businesses to retail shelves. I'm your host Roberta and today we're sitting down with two powerhouse founders, Tecla and Karishma, co-founders of key energy. They are building a brand in one of the most real, really competitive spaces out there, energy and doing it with a fresh approach that's focused on creating something consumers actually want and definitely need. Welcome both of you to Shelf Talks. Thank you for having us. We're excited to be here and share our story. I'm excited to hear the journey, so let's just dive in. So you both have had really successful careers in some really powerhouse rival, rival beverage brands. Can each of you kind of give some background as to where you were in your life prior to coming together to start key? Yeah, I can go first. So I've always been in the consumer product space and truly the reason why I asked Tecla that we should do this is because key comes from a real personal need. So the reason why I left the corporate world is because of a medical bill. So I started my career at Coca-Cola. I was living like the dream career on paper. I then worked at Apple. I helped them launch the Apple Watch and I was traveling to Asia all the time and I was drinking three to four cups of coffee a day. The only way I knew how to survive the jet lag and the amount of work and everything was by drinking coffee. By my late 20s, I was actually diagnosed with PMOS, which used to be called PCOS and thyroid and I then had a caffeine-induced anxiety attack at my desk. So when I went to see the doctors, they told me you need to stop drinking coffee and I said, I don't understand what that means and how does one function live their full life where they're working for, you know, 12 hour days or 8 hour days and then also seeing their friends or doing something with their family. And so I actually gave up on that dream career and I went down this path where I decided my health is absolutely non-negotiable and I wanted to build something that was truly good for you. So I joked that Apple taught me how to build but my body taught me what to build. And while I was on that path exploring, I went to business school. I kind of took a pause in my career along the way at a startup. I met Tecla and I'll let Tecla tell a little bit but she's really the science behind key and she explained what key tones are and how you can use key tones for energy and it's the first time something actually worked. So that's kind of how I decided to jump on this but I'll let Tecla introduce herself. Okay, I'm Tecla. I started off life as a scientist but I spent probably about as much time as I was doing my doctorate in physics from the enough, very much focused on energy all the way back. I spent about as much time on the river coxing crew and that crew was lightweight crew so they were always trying to perform at their best whilst always trying to lose weight. So I got super fascinated by human health and how do you really use nutrition to improve your performance. And when I was younger my mom had also been very sick and hence health has been like this constant threads through my life. So from there I got pulled into consulting like so many of that time. I spent 10 years at McKinsey and specialised in grocery stores so I spent a long time in the world of retail and then when I was leaving there PepsiGo got a new CEO who was very focused on health and I was like hold on I get to go make a huge difference in human health. America's largest food and beverage company. So when then I had burst strategy and marketing jobs and then during the last couple of years there I met a dude a burning man who was super fit and I was like hold on. He's not the user right and he's the one who introduced me to the keto diet and I literally thought everything I'd ever known about nutrition was just blown out of the window. I didn't believe and I thought it was completely wrong and this guy was a physicist like me to connect the dots and he literally won me over with signs I spent nine months going through a bunch of paperwork popped out on the other side. I certainly convinced that sugar isn't that great for us and it's tough to reconcile that with a crew and PepsiGo. So jumped over to the other side and I was actually working on a keto snack bar product during freelance consulting and that's that's how I met Kreshman and then she had this fabulous idea that we should do something together. So you had known each other prior to really coming together to start. It's my favorite part. We hadn't met. You hadn't met. We weren't so fun. Well we were together at we were working at a startup in the food technology space which actually comes full circle because we learned a lot about the science there as well but it was during COVID so we had always been on Zoom calls working at that startup and then post COVID the two of us met Teclas laughing because she looked at me and she was surprised how short I am. And so it's always deceiving on camera. Yeah I don't know if it's the angle of my chair. So we had worked together for I would say a year before we decided to work together on key. Got it. And Kreshman were you at a startup because you had envisioned starting something but wanted to get that learning from another company prior to to starting. So when I quit my career at Apple I went to business school to take a pause and I knew I wanted to start something in the food and beverage space but I graduated during COVID which was not the best time to start a CBG brand. I had that itch and then joining a startup early stage I was employing number five in the food and beverage space. So I had a lot of learnings on fundraising how do you do testing early on consumer research and that's where I met Teclas. She was leading their marketing and strategy efforts. What from the both of you what was that draw that that made it feel right to partner together? Yes we come from rival beverage world like beverage but that rivalry kind of goes out of the door when we're not talking in the industry right it doesn't matter the Coke and Pepsi we've learned a lot over there. I think it's our complimentary skill sets. I think we both work together really well Teclas is a real visionary she's the one who brings the vision for the brand she dreams big she pushes pushes us our agencies to dream really big and I'm kind of like the hustler where I need to know where the product is moving what shelf it's sitting on when other trucks leaving the warehouse and who's going to be sitting on the sampling so I think it's that perfect pairing the two of us bring and we both share this vision of building something that's not just healthy but it's also fun it's truly adding something to people's everyday lives to live their better life Teclas anything you want to add now I just joke that I'm constantly dreaming it and by the time I mention it crush must done it keeps happening constantly we're very complimentary and then like we were the two people would always work a little harder and really produce something always stimulating and then even on a Monday we would come in and both of us would have stories to share from the weekend as so as this like we both worked worked out and then we also went out so as let's fall life thing that both of us were really trying to create so you be in the creative had you had any thoughts about entrepreneurship throughout your career I was actually working on a keto snack bar product beforehand and one of the reasons I got so excited about E and the ketos in here is we make it so much easier to enjoy the benefits of keto and it's just you look at what happened to the craze you went up any crash down because it was so hard and one of the big things I learned at PepsiCo is it's hard to sell health like most of us know what you should do for health they you've got to make it fun and cool and affordable and we can do all of those things here so in some ways whilst of course we're building a company we're building something much bigger than that like underneath it all but you heard it like both of us came from a health mission and that's really the underlying thread yeah but it doesn't have to be right yeah so after you guys came together and decided to start something and create this brand what were first steps what did that look like so we actually kind of started like somewhere between a big company and a startup we did a consumer research while in In parallel, we were both testing ketones on our selfie. We both started using it in our homes, and as you know, ketones taste very bitter, but we were mixing it and trying a formulation ourselves. We did a consumer research among energy drink users, and we tried to understand what would make the perfect energy drink and what were the gaps in the energy drink category today. That kind of helps us really put the product together, the branding together and how we wanted to position key while in parallel formulating. If you want to share a little bit more about the consumer research, we did it in three stages. Step one was literally ketones, are they too niche? Is now the time to take them from the gym and bring them to the mainstream and we went, whoa, actually, there's already a meaningful market. The second one was exactly, as Krishma said, it was very much west of the gap in the market. It was the set of product attributes that you got to deliver on, and we pride ourselves on not being a ketone drink. We're a product, we're a triple stack of three different benefits. We have a little bit of caffeine for a little kick initially, then we have the ketones that give you a smooth ride, and El Thien, so you can really lock in and focus. It's not just a ketone ingredient, and then finally, it's the brand, which I hate to. I think that's the core of what it is. We extend above and beyond just a product, and we tested how biohacker do we go, how natural crunchy do we go, and really tried to hone in on that optimal space of who's our consumer, what do they want, which looks a lot like us, unsurprisingly. Was there anything that was surprising from the data that you were gathering? We'll be right back. Hey, guys, it's Roberta. Your product deserves to be on shelves, and shelf talk will get you there. As a retail buyer with over 18 years' experience, I've seen what works and what gets passed over. So, a shelf talk, a step-by-step guide to getting your product in retail stores gives you the exact roadmap to pitch, win, and, of course, succeed in stores. Get shelf talk today on Amazon, and make it happen. Shoot me a message on IG, Facebook, or LinkedIn, and let me know how it helped you. I think one of the initial ones was just the size of the market, and the shape of me was like, it's that. I was surprised. It was a double digits. Because people already knew about ketones, like they may not have known the full science, but people had already heard about ketones and how ketones can be used as a fuel source for energy. Because I hadn't heard it until Tecla told me about it. And these were, like, GenPop energy drink users, so I was surprised how many people knew about it. Can you give a brief summary of exactly what ketones are? Because for anybody that's listening, that really may have heard of it, but really hasn't gotten a full understanding that it's exactly what it is and what it does. Yeah. So, simplistically, our body actually runs on two sources of energy. Glucose and ketones. Glucose comes from carbs and sugar. When you consume carbs or sugar, your body converts into glucose, which gives you energy. But the energy that you get from glucose, you have that spike, and then you crash. Now when you don't consume carbs, say when you're fasting or when you're working out for many hours, and your body depletes the glucose in it, your body starts to burn fat into ketones for energy. And the energy that you get from ketones, it's sustained without a crash. It's the most natural way your body actually uses energy, but we just don't get to burn our fat to actually convert it into ketones because we're constantly consuming carbs. You know, we have to go through our system. Thank you for that. And so once you got into that consumer data and gathered who your customer is, the size of the market and the opportunity, and balancing it sounds like at the same time, the formulation. Right? How long did it take for you to actually get the formula that you guys both said? This is the one that we want to take to market. We're both smiling because we're still tinkering with the formula. You know, taste is number one. Every consumer research we have done in, you know, CPG and food and beverage, you have to taste the taste. We spent over two years on the formulation that was like 100 rounds of formulation, different flavors before we decided on the three flavors that paired the best with the ketones. I would say there were many rounds in the beginning when we tried formulation and teclan I would look at each other and we would say, no way we can launch this. It took us a while for both of us to agree, we're now at the point where the functionality and the benefits and the taste go balance each other well that we're ready for a launch. But I would say we're still playing with the flavor. We're very hard on ourselves and we're going to continue working on the formulation. I tasted key two years ago. It's different, right? Yes. Yes. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, we made a really big change in our formulation last summer and which was honestly again, big consumer research, listening to the consumer, the two of us have spent since launch a lot of time in retail stores sampling and really listening to consumer feedback. When we launched key, the sweetener that we used was stevia and we're actually surprised the amount of pushback and the perception people have of stevia is still very negative. Even though we were using natural stevia and stevia does have a pretty long aftertaste. So we went back and changed the formulation and we added alulose which adds a mouthfeel and it really helps with the mouthfeel and the flavor. So that was the big change that we did last year, which is probably like a secret but it's on our cat. But you know, listening to the consumer and you know, I'll say as founders, it's pretty hard to listen to negative feedback and flavor is so subjective like I love the grapefruit. Tecla loves the ginger lime. So when someone says the grapefruit peach is not good, I'm always like, well, you must not like sour easy because you get so defensive, but it's not like we launched and we immediately said, let's reformulate. We waited, we got enough data. We went to different consumer sets and we said, look, we do, we do need to go back and change the formulation and it made a huge difference. And the fact that you guys were open to making that change and not just sticking to what you guys left out saying that these are the three that we want to go with. Absolutely. I think that's also because we both come from big beverage where they're still changing the formula a little bit all the times. And since the beginning actually we did our formulation and our sample taste testing in a pretty scientific way where we wrote down like the different factors we wanted to evaluate and score cards and everything and that's still how we do our taste testing even today. What made you initially decide to launch three skis? A balance of enough presence on the shelf, divisible by 12, so it could have been full. And then just cost because every skew cost money to develop probably those three things. And we found three that we really liked, there were three clear winners. Is that also from consumer feedback as you were trialing them during that time period? Yeah. And also the three flavors are distinct enough that they don't cannibalize like the grapefruit peach is your sour one, the pineapple passion fruit. You kind of need the tropical it's people who like sweeter taste like that one. And then the ginger lime is like a spicy kick. So we always knew we wanted a citrus spice and then a sweeter one. So once we had those three were like we're ready to go as these three are going to be our main skis. And then where was that you were going? Did you initially launch D to C? Did you always have the mindset that retail was going to be on your roadmap? And stay one we're always in to be a retail business that's that's what we know that's where the bigger opportunity is. We were actually crazy lucky are initial launch was with Erwan. We got incredibly lucky and we actually got into stores even for relaunch. And how did that happen? Systems. Emails. We jailed everyone. We knew some recent meeting. It's also Erwan. They're very supportive to new emerging brands and they really like to hear the story behind the why and the founder story which which helped us a lot they were very supportive. They kind of taught us a little bit to I mean Teclan knows a lot about launching in retail but they were a very supportive retailer to launch with. They loved our story and then we launched in New York here up and down the street and in some of the natural premium stores in New York and we kind of kept our retail footprint in the beginning just focused in the northeast. So we can really drive momentum and velocity here. And how did you do that will work some things that really worked for you in order to drive that momentum and velocity in those stores. So three things number one demos. We are super old school. We do and we actually we've now kind of figured out that you need to do demos like at least three times to see the product move and the founder needs to show up in the demos. I know it's like tough because it's like time away from the desk but I think it is the most meaningful learning experience listening to the consumer and different types of consumers depending on which retailer. So demos number one the second thing we launched the April 2024 and we started the whole offline community building which I know now everyone's talking about it because we're tired of AI and we've all gone offline but it's the only way we knew how to launch a product because the two of us don't come from direct to consumer land right. And what we've we've kind of continued with it is like every store every market that we launched we kind of flood the workout studios around that area. I'll start with New York we've partnered with every run club from the dating run club to the more marathon marathon shakeout run clubs with hookah on and bigger brands. work out studios all the way from the Pilates to the Rumble and then recovery studios now because sauna has become really big in New York, so we also partner with them. So building our own community where we want to launch where we get people to try the product, we tell them to go to the store, sometimes we hand out coupons, that's number two, and then promos. And I think launching in a smaller subset of stores kind of helped us think through how many times promos do we need to do in a year. What is the right promo? Is it two for six, two for five, one off, and how we were able to test that because we were focused in a small region. That's great. And I see on your social, I mean, I'm like, are you ever home? Because I juicy you out at all of the studios and run clubs and stores. I've become very fit since I launched key, but you know, it's what I love doing. It's what the two of us actually love doing. We love music. And we've done a lot of partnerships in the music industry as well because we love that and we love working out. So it's kind of like a dream come true or your work is your job. I mean, your work is your life, your life is your work just coming offline and finding these opportunities to partner with one clubs and music venues and things like that. How did you even compile a list of that? Was it just thinking about what's your customers full life look like and where are they at and and not only where they shop, but how do they live their life and noting those types of places? Yes. Absolutely. And this was pre-chat GBD and pre-clawed. Oh, no. So it took some time. So I'm not joking. We had like an old school spreadsheet, Google maps. And also I think because, you know, as founders, we were showing up to these gyms. I do want to give a lot of credit like the New York community when it comes to health and wellness. Every instructor has been so helpful when we told our story and you know, why we launched key, they were like, Oh, you should go to this gym and words were like willing to make those introductions. A lot of like gym instructors were posting about us and it's a bit by bit that counts. When we started, we used to do one event a week and I think now we do three to four. It's honestly been incredible because we used to be the ones reaching out and now, you know, we have studios reaching out to us because we really started from the ground. We did not know any better, I guess. We were like, we went to each and every studio. I think too. This is something that consumers do want to like taste and experience versus having it on social and not having the true connection, right? So you have to kind of get face to face with them. I mean, there are so many energy drinks out there and we actually think of ourselves as so much different than any other energy drink. We're not your typical high-caffing chaotic chaos, leaving you with jitters and that's why showing up and explaining why key is different and how it makes you feel and the key tones is so much more important. How was that? I know you mentioned that people are starting to understand what key tones are but understanding the functionality within the drink, the additional like theaning that you have added and the benefits of it all. How was it getting consumers to taste it but also having to educate them on what it is because it's so different? We always lead with the benefit. We actually don't lead with the key tones. So we always explain it that it's actually an energy drink that doesn't give you jitters. It's sustained energy with mental focus that comes with the Eltonine combined with the green tea and then we get into the next layer of explaining what key tones are. It's kind of how Apple when they launch a new product, they don't really tell you that we're using a new M2 chip. That's why your Excel is going to be faster. I always think about like Steve Jobs when he launched even the iPhone. It's like you can now call someone listen to music and that's because of this reason. It's kind of the same approach we've done on our can. You can see it stays clean energy but then the key tones is the secondary thing. So we've always led with the benefit. I also think because we've been to so many events that have been different depending on the consumer. We lead with the benefit slightly differently. I'll give you an example. We just started doing sampling and events with corporates. So we were recently at Morgan Stanley in Evercore where energy drinks typically have a bad rap. You know, people don't even want to say out loud that they have Red Bull. So in those instances when we're sampling at corporates, we say this helps you focus at your desk for four hours. It helps you lock in. And then we say it's because it has key tones that pass your blood brain barrier. So we've learned how to tweak the messaging and the leading benefit depending on the target consumer. Yeah, tailoring it to what really is most impactful to them. And from all of that sampling, was there any feedback from consumers that were different than what you had heard or you know, gotten before prior to actually getting on to those retail source? I'd say the stevia wine, I was shocked how negative the perception is around a lot of people are sensitive to the stevia taste. They're extremely sensitive. So they would even have a little bit of sip and they're like, no, I can't drink that. I think that was the biggest one in terms of taste. And then some weird ones like someone suddenly says, is it carbonated? And you're so used to like, it's an account. It's carbonated. But I think it's changing. You're like, yes. You never know what's like a consumer's thinking. We've had some other learnings as well because of how afraid people are of energy drinks. People wouldn't even try a little bit of a sample after 2 p.m. Oh, yes, yes. That's I would be that person. I can't drink energy drinks pretty much after 1230 or I'll be up on that. Like even a taste, right? So like all our samplings now are in the morning. And you know, sometimes that mean we have to really work with the retinar and tell them, trust us. The sampling is more effective if we do it before 2 p.m. So that's been a big learning. So like small things like that have been helpful. I will say the one thing about key is you can drink it in the afternoon. And you still are able to sleep versus those other energy drinks that kind of give you that high and you're you're still floating at chemical. And you got to sleep. Yeah, floating. You're like shaking. Yeah, that's the better. Yeah, definitely shaking shaking. So what were early sales once you started to get into those retail stores? What did that look like for you? I mean, we stepped up our retail footprint of pretty decent pace. We kicked off with arrow one and then we added New York distribution and then we're fortunate to actually do an in market test with market district that was almost a year ago now and literally based on those velocities we then earned to spot in the market district stores. I think that's been very helpful for us because then we've more recently expanded to central market, hormones and other natural channel retailers. It's been nice because it's been evidence-based growth and we've sort of really grown our footprint based on performance. Has your pitch changed at all from your initial pitch to Air One versus how you're pitching to retail stores today? Absolutely. And I think this market district test has been, you know, natural channel is one but in some ways market district is more of your conventional channel where we learned that he is not just for that, you know, natural premium elevated but it is for the everyday energy drink user as well which we can now show using data and actual sales velocity numbers. So based on that we just pitched to shop right and now we're going to be launching at shop right in about a few weeks which is another massive test for us right because how you drive and central market is very different than how you then launch hundreds of shop right stores which is going to be a much bigger test for us starting in a few weeks. Yeah. Are you going to use that same kind of three-step strategy that you talked about in those New York markets as you expand? Absolutely. Demo's we are such demo people so we will be doing demos Teclas excellent at promo planning so we'll be doing promos and then going out there and you know doing events with workout studios around and driving them to the store. You're continuing to expand it in such a strong way. How are you making sure from an inventory perspective that you are prepared not only for the initial launch in these retailers but to continue replenishment to support them? I should give credit to our big beverage experience. We've learned a lot about working with bigger suppliers and that how helpful that can be so we actually when we started we did set up our supply chain from the get go with bigger suppliers. The co-packer we've partnered with is someone who can like scale help us scale quickly and we partnered with them initially as well which which did mean they had higher minimum order quantities in the beginning for a small brand but we went with that because we wanted to build a relationship and then we can use them as you know they have more leverage in buying larger quantities because they you know they're bigger clients so we could get cost benefits that way as well so we've been managing it kind of like a slightly bigger company from the beginning. The other thing I'll just throw in this we've very early on I to also get debt and try and get really smart about how we turn inventory not just through equity financing. Can we talk a little bit about that you guys raised about four million dollars right early one what was the strategy around that and and was that something even from the one set of you creating key that you knew you wanted to do. We were actually very stringent on when we were about to go into the market because we knew beverages are tough and they require bigger budgets so we were very conscious about if we couldn't persuade the investors to come and join the journey with us, then we're gonna do it right. - I think it's also the vision that key, we always wanted to be a retail brand and we knew that would also require like more capital. So we were like, we're gonna go with that direction and broaden the right investors who believed in that mission. - And then how did you connect with investors and be able to pitch even? Was that something you guys were educated on or was it something that you learned as you went? - This is a space where big beverage experience gives you nothing. (laughing) - Money, have the money, they have a fun money. - I think that was a big learning for us in terms of like not having the big beverage brand, you know, that leverage even when you're talking to suppliers and pitching to investors was new for the both of us. Like we'd worked in the startup world, but pitching your vision, your brand is a lot different than even when you're at an early stage starter. Finding your investor is like dating. You need to like go around, you need to talk to a lot of investors and then you have to find investors who truly believe in the founders. Early stage, that is so much more important. Like even for the two of us, we came back from investor meetings and we would say like, would you have dinner with this human? Like would you want to grab drinks with your partner at the fund? Because your product will change. I don't all early stage brands, your product changes, your positioning may change. The founders are not going to change, hopefully. So they need to truly believe in us. You need to make sure they understand your why, where you're coming from, where you want to take the brand. So we spoke to quite a few investors in the beginning and actually our lead investor AgFunder, which is one of times top 100 VCs. I actually met Quinton from AgFunder at a tech party at the bar and I told him I'm a founder and I knew the fund. So I knew who I was talking to and at the bar he said, well, why don't you pitch me? And I pitched key to him at the bar right there. And we actually, we have a very nice video that we need to post on our social media and he was like, you know what, I will give this a try and took it to his partner and then we were on a Zoom call and we had a term sheet a few weeks later. I think that's profound what you said too in regards to like, I'm sure that a lot of founders, if they get the yes for funding, they jump in. But what you're saying is it also has to be right from your side of it. You also have to make sure that they're the right partner for you and gonna really lean into the vision and goals and dreams that you have for your brand, right? - Yeah. And the value they can add with changes at every stage, like early on it's maybe more leaning that you want them to believe in the founders and later stage it's how can they add more value in terms of industry networks if that's what the founders need. You kind of need to figure what do you need and what value can your investors add when you're looking for the right set of investors? - Yeah. - And how is that different in regards to how you pitch to investors versus how you pitch to a retail store? - Very different. There's obviously some similarity in how we describe the product. I think the theme is the same for both. Do you have to pitch them what they are looking for? So an investor is obviously looking for returns and extraordinary returns and confidence that you will deliver those retailers. You have to understand what a category manager wants. They're much less focused on a product. So you know this particularly well, but at a green from mentality, whether it's category growth, whether it's category sales, whether it's category productivity, you are bringing something new to them and preferably it's new customers or new occasions or a higher price product, but you have to bring something that grows their business. It doesn't grow your business. You have to make their pie bigger versus slicing their pie differently. - Yeah. - And then what advice would you give founders trying to disrupt in really an established category like you guys are doing? - No, you have to have something truly differentiated like something that stands out from others. And I think one realization, we had in the space of energy drinks is all zero sugar energy drinks and in how they package the still the same product. There had been no innovation in what the product was in decades at this point. And even a lot of the branding was same, same. Either super hyper masculine or very pretty girl. They hadn't been in the salon. - Very much truly functional beverages that matter growth men and women. - Yeah, I think true differentiation is like number one. And I think also how can you reach your consumer and communicate your product with limited budget? And you know for us it was partnerships and you know for some brands it's maybe pushing more on TikTok or more on influencers. Like different brands take different routes. But how are you going to get to your consumer with limited budget in a category that's crowded? It's also important, yeah. - And being able to stand out and be differentiated amongst so many brands that to your point have a lot of money to do a lot of things. So you talked a bit about the difference in regards to how you guys support the brands and your strengths. Is there anyone else that is part of the team? And if so what were kind of the first hires in growing your brand? - We have one hire, Katie Jones. Shout out to Katie. - Shout out to Katie. - We love Katie. Obviously when you're early stage and Tecla and I spoke about this a lot but the two of us you know we knew we get along really well and we were like this is a big decision for us. So Katie worked with us. She actually started as our part of our sampling team. So she was still at NYU and she was helping us doing sampling events. And then after spending a few months and she really we got to like see her on the job in action and like the force she is. She started organizing all our partnerships and events and she's like the force behind it. Now she's done it in New York. She does it in all our new markets. So that's our only hire. Right now we're small, all female. - Yeah, I love that. - What is next for key? What's on your growth map? Not only the balance of this year or what you look forward to for the future. - We need to drive those velocity than the natural channel. Make sure shop right as our first conventional banner. We get that playbook right and then want to start expanding. We're still very focused on the Northeast and we're starting to eye up some other areas and our next expansion market and looking for some bigger potential retail partners that are in the works. So some new things in the wings. So I can't mention that yet. And as you're thinking about like other areas to explore, are those areas chosen by customers from D to C or from customer feedback? How are you kind of thinking about your strategy in regards to expansion? - Exactly what you said. We're literally going to where our customers are. Actually the other lens I just had in there is both where our customers are and then geography, just in the US because the Northeast is very cold and beverages, cold beverages sell better in the summer. So the other thing we're just trying to balance is temperature and geography, which is a beverage specific issue for us. - Yeah it makes sense. - And so where can our listeners follow key support and most importantly buy? - Well you can follow us on drinky.life on Instagram. We love all the love and support on our Instagram and then you can buy us on drinky.com and you can get 15% off using code key15, keyy15 for your first order on our website and you can also buy us on Amazon. - Love it and I'll make sure that I put that in the show notes. I appreciate both of you coming on and telling your story, your journey. And I of course as I've already told you and definitely a consumer. So I will continue to buy and support. So thank you so much. - Thank you. - Thank you. - Thank you so much for having us. - That's a wrap for this episode of Chef Talks. If you love today's conversation, the best way to support the show is by subscribing, leaving a review and of course sharing it with your fellow founders. And if you're not already, follow the show so you can never miss an episode. Thanks for tuning in and until next time, keep pushing forward. Your spot on the shelf is waiting.