Yanni Hufnagel Quotes

The four Ps that I consider paramount to winning in the beverage business are product, price, packaging, and people. We got that right early on.

It doesn’t matter how much money you make, what you look like, where you shop, where you live. Flavor knows no boundaries.

We’re going to change the way people drink water. To do that, you have to be able to play on price.

There’s nothing in the category with our flavor profile, the freshness of our flavor profile, our nutritional deck, and zero sugar. We’re bottled in 100% recycled plastic, and we’re organic. I think we’ve got magic inside the bottle. When people drink the brand, they come back in a big way, and the data suggests that.

I jumped up, and that night I googled how to start a beverage company. And what I’ll say is the skill set between coaching college basketball and recruiting at that level and building a beverage company — they’re very harmonious. And I had a fascination with consumer brands — even when I was coaching — especially those in the natural channel. And so there’s been real utility in my coaching skill set now as we’re building this business.

I have to tell you, Ray, I’ve been obsessive about protecting our IP, really from second one. So I think the registration was not that far behind, yes. And when I speak with other founders — not only in food and beverage — the first thing I always ask is, “Have you filed to trademark your IP, your name?” Because without that, generally speaking, you’re back to zero. I mean, a name change after you launch is very challenging, if not impossible. And so one of the first things I ask after, “Are you well capitalized?” and “Let me try the product. How does it taste?” would be, “Do you own your IP?”

Every day I got up and I just tried to put one foot in front of the other and get a little bit better and get closer to being able to really wake up in the morning and dream big in a realistic way.

Life is never a straight line.