Move over coconut water - Pricklee cactus water brings health, happiness, & hydration

The Startup CPG Podcast · 11 Oct 2021 · 26m · Episode 3

What this episode covers

Kun Yang, CEO of Pricklee, and his four pharmacist co-founders explain how they launched Pricklee, a prickly pear cactus water brand, by leveraging a family recipe from Lebanon and targeting health-conscious consumers with a product that has half the sugar and calories of coconut water. Yang details their scrappy, hands-on marketing strategy, including wearing cactus suits in New York and Boston for 'gorilla marketing,' and their strategic positioning as 'cactus is the new coconut' to anchor consumer understanding. The episode highlights their recent feature on the Today Show, which drove their highest single day of sales, and outlines their plan to raise a seed round to transition the founders from part-time pharmacy jobs to full-time entrepreneurship while expanding distribution in the Northeast.

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