Jun 25, 2024
In this week's episode, I am joined by Yanni Hufnagel!
Yanni transitioned from a successful career as a men's college basketball coach to creating a health-focused drink and a mission to offer healthy hydration accessible to all.
And so, Lemon Perfect was born, bottled water infused with organic lemons, electrolytes, and vitamin C.
Creating a new company in the food and beverage space was no small feat. While it’s relatively easy to get started, securing shelf space, managing margins, and outmaneuvering extremely large and resourced products creates considerable barriers to entry.
Yanni Hufnagel, a first time founder, former division I college basketball coach with no background in the CPG space was able to raise over $37M and achieve national distribution in 5 short years with Lemon Perfect.
Key Points
• Balance is a myth in entrepreneurship
• High stakes of building a beverage brand
• The art of talent evaluation
• Strategy behind beverage innovation
• Aiming for a billion-dollar business
Best Quotes
03:24 - 03:40
• "It's not realistic. It's not realistic. We have 91 incredible people. Many of decorators have families. I have over 300 investors. We've raised $99 million."
04:54 - 05:10
• "I think I'm crazy enough, I wanna do this one more time. And so winning, winning, winning and being acquired or, or finding our way to liquidity, very, very important."
08:10 - 08:28
• "My psychology, it is what it is. It's not
for everyone, but that's how I'm wired. And I'm not gonna change
because maybe the world says, oh, you have to have great balance.
Yes, I want our people to have great ba I want most of our
people."
10:19 - 10:30
• "And I would imagine that if you look at the most successful entrepreneurs, they're out of balance."
12:29 - 12:39
• "You can't have great freedom and balance and, you know, it just, it's, I just don't think you can have it all."
46:32 - 46:45
• "I've gotta have, you know, certainly a longer term lens, I think in this environment right now where you have, you know, some, some pricing headwinds or you know, where, where the consumer's slowing down a little bit."