Hardware Podcasts

Founder Feature: Kun Yang of Pricklee

The Startup CPG Podcast · 20 Feb 2026 · 32m · Episode 261

What this episode covers

Kun Yang, co-founder of Pricklee, explains how he and his pharmacist co-founder Mo applied a scientific approach to build Pricklee, a natural hydration drink in aluminum cans, achieving product-market fit after four years of iteration. Yang details the pivotal repositioning from 'cactus water' to 'natural hydration' to overcome the education challenge of the prickly pear ingredient, citing the Framingham Heart Study on artificial sweeteners as their catalyst. The company is now scaling with 200–400% velocity growth, a fully subscribed seed round, and new distribution through Vistar, debuting new flavors at Expo West 2026.

Most relevant to

companies scaling up

Topics

Mentioned

Companies
Sprouts, Whole Foods, H-E-B, Vistar
Products
Pricklee, Poppy, Olipop, Bloom
Also
Framingham Heart Study, Expo West

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