THE FIRST 90 DAYS
HydraNu, our all-natural hydration and cognitive enhancer—and the first supplement we have released as a company—launched on May 7th.
It’s surreal when something that was just an idea for so long finally takes shape. The countless hours spent agonizing over the tiniest details: the color scheme of the label, ingredients and ratios, taste, and most importantly, what problem the product solves.
It’s funny—even after over a year of testing and iterating, I was still so nervous when we finally received the first shipment of the product, and even more so when the people in my life started to try it.
Months later, with hundreds of people using and trying HydraNu, it has been some of the most rewarding and confidence-boosting months we’ve had in the business. I can’t describe how good it feels to see people try it and love the taste, and even better, to hear back from customers that our product has made a real difference in their training.
We started this company because we wanted to help give people the information and fuel to better reach their fitness goals with all-natural and clean products they can feel good about using.
Hearing that our first product has done just that has made all of the long hours, early mornings, and uncertainty worth it. But it’s only the first step—we can and plan to keep improving, making it and future products better and better.
So, what have we learned in the first 90 days?
Feedback from customers is by far the most important information we can get.
We have been a vendor at Eastern Market, a farmers market in DC, pretty much every Sunday since the launch of HydraNu, and every weekend we bring free samples for everyone who is interested to try.
The best part of doing so much in-person product sales? You get consumers’ feedback almost instantly and right in front of you. We quite literally have had hundreds of people try the product right in front of us for months.
Feedback on the taste, consistency, how it mixes with water, and what’s the perfect ratio of water to a scoop—we have gotten so much good information from real customers, and that’s exactly what we will use to continue making this product, and all future products, better.
Listening to our customers—how can we constantly make the product and process better? What problems are they facing? How can we help solve them?
The responsibility and feeling of gratitude we have for people spending their hard-earned money on our products is something we will never take for granted.
It’s a responsibility to never stop working to make it better for our customers, and we can best do that by listening to them.
The supplement market is changing.
We have been in the fitness industry for over a decade—years before we started GTY. Over the years, we’ve had the fortune (or misfortune) to try more supplements and supplement companies than I can count.
I remember taking pre-workouts in college, and when I would look at the supplement label, you would see ingredients you couldn’t even pronounce, along with “proprietary blends,” which is just another way of saying, we don’t need to tell you exactly what you’re using.
But the world, and the supplement market, has changed. Gone are the days of artificial sugars made in a lab, Red 40, Blue 5, and proprietary blends. Consumers want to know exactly what’s in their supplements. They want real ingredients not made in a lab, and simple labels.
HydraNu is 100% all-natural, with no proprietary blends, and is 3rd-party tested. We are committed to making every product this way, and we’ve seen how customers appreciate this fact.
People are more conscious of what they put in their bodies than ever before. An all-natural product that delivers on its promises isn’t just a nicety—it’s a necessity.
Building trust takes time.
We didn’t know it at the time, but the in-person farmers market has been one of the best decisions we’ve made for the business since launching HydraNu. As a brand-new supplement company, we needed to give people the opportunity to try the product before buying it.
Think about your own buying process—how often would you buy a supplement online if you’ve never tried it, or anything else from the company, before? Supplements are a product built on trust. Trust to know that the company is providing the highest quality possible, that what you’re using is safe, effective, and actually works.
We have had multiple people turn into customers—not the first time we met them at the farmers market, but the third or fourth. Every weekend they would come by the booth, try some, take a business card, and learn more about us—then finally actually buy the product once we’d built some trust.
Even better, we’ve had customers who found out about us at the farmers market become repeat buyers, either in person or online. This relationship and trust is built over time through multiple in-person conversations, learning who we are and what we stand for.
It takes time, but it’s what makes it valuable.
The last 90 days have been such a short amount of time in the grand scheme of things, but we’ve learned more than in the last year combined—and it’s just going to keep speeding up.
We’ve come such a long way from the small conference room in an apartment in DC, but even so, we have so much farther to go.
We’re just getting started.
Thank you all for the support so far—it means more than you know.
GTY
