Vital Energy™ Guys

The Reality of a Startup

2010-11-01T13:47:00.005-04:00

So we have passed our 1 year sales anniversary, grown to over 400 stores and are talking to major retail chains in the hopes to expand from Erie to Syracuse/Watertown by March of 2011. I am amazed at what we have accomplished, but even more shocked by what we still have to do in the coming year(s).

Since the last post we have been pulling a lot of stunts around college campuses and the city of Rochester and Buffalo. In case you missed it, we have been building snowmen as a way to get people talking about Vital Energy. What does that have to do with Vital? Absolutely nothing and that is the whole point. I wanted something that would get people talking to their co-workers and friends while taking the initiative to come approach us.
Without fail we always got the same questions:
-Where did you get the snow?
-Is it real?
-What is Vital Energy?
-Why a snowman?
-Can I touch it?

In the business districts people would see the snowman on their way to work and come down asking all these questions or mention seeing him outside of their office window. It was a really good feeling having all these people be so curious and to take the time to come down and check it all out. We even had local news and radio stations talk about it and ask us what was going on.

The best part of it all was after we left for the day. The snowman was still there chilling out and doing his job... getting people to talk.

In order to set everything up meant getting up at 2am or earlier.
This was hard manual labor.
We had to borrow a pickup truck, shovel thousands of pounds of snow into it, drive to the location with the back end sitting low, empty it out, fill and empty it 4,5,6 more times, return the truck, setup banners, and of course build the snowman by 8am for the morning rush.

The hardest part of the past month has been the fact that my body never knows if it should be awake or asleep on a given day. We have given up trying to hold a normal sleep schedule in order to take advantage of the last few 70 degree days. During the whole process it really got me thinking about what we have invested into this company.

The reality of the whole startup is that I am constantly surprised by how much work and sacrifice it takes and even more than that is the fact that it never stops, even for personal problems. Mike's computer was recently destroyed (run over) but replaced (yay warranties!). My wallet was stolen along with my ID resulting in a shopping spree of $2200 at a sneaker store and Walmart. We have been sick and injured along the way at various times. After a year we are still all living with our parents and eating all of their food and taking no salary.

This isn't meant to be negative in the least, but just a realization of how much there is to this thing. It is a borderline obsession and I know that we are all loving it. Seeing the progress that we have made is extremely satisfying. Running into people who have seen our efforts, heard about it from a friend, tried it out for the first time on a whim, seen the videos is always a great feeling. Even looking back on our failures is often hilarious when we compare the idea to the result. It usually makes sense why it 'could' have worked and why it did not in reality.

No matter how this turns out, I think it will be hard to work at a desk after I spent hours before dawn trying to sculpt a melting pile of snow into a snowman in front of city hall.

-Jake

Happy Anniversary, baby.

2010-09-19T12:34:00.006-04:00

So we survived one full year of being for sale. Holla!

August 26th is Mike's birthday as well as the day we received our first 18 wheeler of delicious drinks for all the little boys and girls to enjoy. Since then we have grown to about 350 stores across 14 counties and had our highest selling 2 weeks in a row recently.

Our first day of sales Mike and I managed to approach 20 stores and only got into 1 because we knew the owner. We also managed to get into a accident in the parking lot to add a little sweetness to our day. Compared to then I would say we are doing alright.

As for day to day operations we had to switch gears for the fall since cool weather came crashing in and schools are all now back in session. We have started up our ambassador program in the colleges we are for sale in and will use them as our eyes and ears on the campuses. It also is the next step for us in growth to learn some basic management skills. We need to start learning to handle other people other than ourselves if we want to eventually take Vital out of the state.

Of note, we have been hitting the colleges really hard and managed to pull of a winter wonderland @ St. John Fisher. For us we are always trying to do sampling a little bit different so we don't just give people bottles. So I figured that since school is just starting and people are not loving it at all why not give them some presents early!?

We contacted a local ice skating rink and sent Patrick and Scott to shovel it into the back of a pickup truck a few times and then drop it off on campus. They finished around 2am.

At 3am Mike and I showed up to finish everything and set up. Of course the weather was supposed to be light misting til 3am and not obnoxious rain caused by a hurricane in Canada til 530.

Mike and I set up a tree with decorations, some presents underneath (tshirts and bottles too), a table with decorations, a Vital Energy banner and of course Frosty with a big pile of ice cold Vital next to him.

I think people were a little surprised/confused so early in the morning but slowly people began coming in waves and even leaving their classes to see what it was all about. After all the drinks were gone, Mike and I cleaned up and left Frosty to chill for the afternoon. I got a few text messages saying that some snowball fights had broken out as well!

By about 3pm when Mike showed up, all that was left of the guy was a blob. :(
Rest in peace Frosty, we will see you again soon.

We also just spoke at University of Buffalo and Geneseo's business fraternity. It is kind of weird still that we are becoming more legitimate and people don't view us as just a bunch of ragtag hooligans. A year ago at this time we were delivering out of our cars, had no tshirts, and stored our drinks in the basement. By no means is it easier but its kind of cool to slowly have people start to recognize the drink or hear about our exploits.

Now that there is a break between big holidays we are focusing on getting more stores, approaching chain accounts (Walgreens, Tops, Wegmans etc), making a big presence on colleges, and getting ready to approach the mountains for winter.

Peace out yo,
-J

Oh... we have a meeting with Tops in mid-october!!!

High Beamin for the Fall

2010-08-16T11:53:00.008-04:00

August so far has been amazing, huge press and huge samplings.

Mike was on the air with brother Wease 95.1 right at the beginning of August.
This was followed by Scott getting his pretty mug into the insider for 20 questions. We have had at least 4 or 5 people asking where he works out because he is so diesel. Hahaha.

Scott high beamin in his office.

The following week we graced the Democrat and Chronicle thanks to Emily Shearing!
Online version HERE.

The timing of this was impeccable to put it lightly. The article dropped on Thursday and on Saturday/Sunday was Park Ave Fest 2010! Over the few days we sampled thousands of people and had countless people mention the article, the insider or brother Wease!

The calm before.

Behind the scenes during.

I also wanted to mention that the prank we pulled in February was aired on TruTV's Top 20 Most Shocking: Practical Jokers Gone Wild 2.
We came out in the #1 position! As soon as they post the episode online we will link to it... now we are just waiting to hear back from MTV. :D

Now we are heading into the Fall semester for colleges and starting to look into various chains in the area. We should be in about 7 or 8 colleges as well as 2 or 3 mountains for the winter. Of note is Geneseo. We will be in all the cafes, bookstores and 40+ vending machines! If there is anywhere we have missed, ask them to carry Vital Energy.

Along with the colleges we have started out ambassador program. Initially we will be trying it out in only a few schools to work out the kinks and continue to expand it as we learn from this first semester.

Bottoms up,
-Jake

Hot, Wet, Rochester Summer Part III

2010-08-04T14:38:00.006-04:00

Finale!

So to start this one off someone who is a power user on break.com decided to take our video and post it up HERE, and for that we have to say thank you so much. Not only did you help spread the word of Vital, MTV saw the video because of the 600k+ views it received in just about a week! They might use the video and even if they don't... WHO CARES. Another national network saw the video and for those counting, that is almost a milli in views between all the websites.

We also got in a new review from Caffeine critic describing how Vital might help save the world and all of humanity. Check out all the hot energy action! REVIEW

Since warped tour was in town and we had some backstage passes, Scottie and I figured it was worth going and scoping things out. Although we couldn't get any Vitals inside we did rock the Vital T-Shirts around the venue and actually had a few people ask if we had a tent set up anywhere... so we must be doing something right if people are starting to recognize us. We also scoped out the Monster truck to see how they did things and surprisingly they were not happy with us wearing Vital shirts in, on or around their setup. :P

On a lighter note though, we got to party hard with Andrew W.K.

And yes I made it on stage to party.

Recently we have been gearing up to approach Weggies and friends. Hopefully we have made a big enough stink and built up the brand enough for them to consider us. If anyone has a few moments and nothing better to do besides creeping on fbook we would love if you decided to send in a product suggestion... they do love to hear of any new and amazing products in the area!
WEGMANS

The most recent breakthrough that we have had though has been with samplings. For us it has been one of the most important ways to get people to try and be aware of the brand. As we have been growing though it is getting harder and harder to commit to small venues. With over 300+ stores and growing between 14 counties we have had to start looking at places with high foot traffic and population density. A few of these are Thursdays in the Square in Buffalo... yes TITS and yes tits are fun, Party in the park and of course 10 Ugly Men.

Tits was/is amazing because of the farmers market there, the free music @ Chase across the street, downtown during the day, 2 stores with product nearby, and no one bothering us about sampling on the street! Oh and of course the free concerts @ 6pm.

In the span of 8 hours we literally hit thousands of people and even gained some fans who helped lure more people to our little sample shop.

Scott and I also decided to set up during the 5k for 10 Ugly Men as well as using the main avenue through Genese Valley Park to set up a table and refresh people on the home stretch to the festival. Public property is loverly and the law enforcement definitely was thirsty and tired after dealing with so many drunk people! Luckily there was a pedestrian crosswalk sign to use as a banner anchor for not only our promotion but to keep the pedestrians safe as they venture into the street.

Sample count... 800+.

So I am finally caught up with the summer recap. We recently have started up a press campaign to get some lime light leading up to the fall months. Tune in next time.

Stay thirsty my friends,
-J

Hot, Wet, Rochester Summer Part II

2010-07-27T10:02:00.010-04:00

Soooooo...

For the rest of June we got into as many venues as possible and really focused on sampling everywhere we could.

Ludachrist show @ Pearle. Great DJ duo that does mash-ups out of California. Tons of exposure and great placement during Rochester Jazz-fest.
Thanks to Patrick Gafney and RIPROC for the opportunity!

The last weekend in June was the Rock the Cans event @ Genese Brewing off St. Paul downtown. Soul Asylum, Gin Blossoms, Genny, and Vital. Thousands of people and a lot of fun. Thanks to Genese for letting set up shop.

And of course there was the LPGA @ Locust Hill.

A little haggling and we got to set up right on Jefferson Ave. With the boat, flags, van and samples.

and of course... autographed bottles for an obsessed fan. Someone felt that it would be vital for Pat and Scott to get into VIP with our drinks.

Thank fully the 4th of July was great weather. 90+ degree days and not an ounce of shade. We sampled all over Canandaigua and on the lakes.

Me after standing in the scorching sun for about 4 hours with no shade. Yay heat stroke!

We had a few more shows @ Waterstreet including Minus the Bear and Feul... unfortunately my camera decided to eat all of my photos with Fuel. :(

July 9th we got to hit up the beach @ Angola with the Shore Club and Mickey Rats... amazing weather!

Gotta stay protected while peddling our wares on the beach. There was a lot less wind inside CVS.

For the next update I will finish out July to get up to date.
We had a break through, a great review, warped tour, weggies fun, tits in Buffalo and more.

What you sippin on?
-Jake

Hot, Wet, Rochester Summer Part I

2010-07-12T16:02:00.010-04:00

And....
We're back.

Totally my bad for not blogging in almost 2 months (Jake). We have been running around abusing this hot weather. Due to back log, this post will come in a few parts to make your brain not overload from all the hot, sweaty Vital action you are about to read!

This part covers from mid May - mid June.

After the last post we hosted our first NFL special teams clinic. Adam Podlesh of the Jacksonville Jaguars came into town with Tony Yelk and did an outstanding job offering insight and training in how to become a better kicker/punter. After the success of this year we are definitely going to host it again, hopefully we can make it into an actual camp for the players in the area! If you got to be a part of the first year, spread the word!

On memorial day weekend we launched the Vital Vessel. A 22ft pontoon boat and paraded around Canandaigua Lake the whole time. We stopped other boats and visited people on their docks in order to let them try an ice cold Vital. More than one person said that we were "very patriotic" due to the dual American flags prominently on display at the bow of our boat.

The rest of May/June consisted of losing our colleges and starting to hammer our samplings around the Rochester/Buffalo area. Unfortunately April showers were really May showers and made sure to be a real pain in the ass for our outdoor sampling, but we made it work.

On a few side notes, we have the first official Vital pooch, Bob.

We got to see a Saleen S7 (super duper sweet car).

Got the RPD on our side.

Got to watch some sweet free shows at Waterstreet (a perk of being a vendor there).

More sweaty action in a few days that will make you want to touch your toes.
mmmmmmmmm,
Jake

Soon to be on a boat.

2010-05-12T14:59:00.004-04:00

This week has been attacking colleges and prepping for summer.

We officially have a 22 ft pontoon party boat and are going to be pimping on the water. All we need now is a helicoptor for air promotions! That should be arriving in 2011.

Last week we rocked Brock the Port at SUNY Brockport. It was a little suspect at first because of the weather but turned out to be a great event. Also, with college finals being in session we have been invading the libraries and letting people know about the product and having them check out the website and video. We are a perfect excuse to not study and talk to some devilishly good looking guys for 5 minutes!

Otherwise we have continued building our relationship with Wright Wisner and riding along with the sales reps to grab some new stores. We are hoping once they adjust to their new software to update our store locator with over 100 new stores!

We are always on the lookout for some new stores and outdoor events and festivals this summer. If anyone has an idea please let us know! If we have a free day we are always trying to get the word out about Vital!

-Jake

PS: Thanks to Scott we have 2 new HUGE coolers on wheels. This means even more mobile sampling on the fly! Next we obviously need this: Cruzin Cooler

Getting to know Wright

2010-05-02T23:21:00.003-04:00

Ride alongs. This week we have been getting to know some of the sales reps and riding with them in order to learn what they do. It also allows us to teach them what our product is about and tell them our story. Personalize Vital Energy kiddos. Imagine my face every time you take a sip...

There were some more kick off meetings at another branch and we are spreading the gospel of Vital Energy to the masses. It is working in some places and we still have a lot of ground to cover in others. Now we need to get more POS (point of sales) materials so that we can tattoo the stores we are for sale in and have a commanding presence.

I also chose through careful planning and immense luck to take a vacation to visit family and attend a wedding this past week. Of course at this point, every week from here until eternity is going to be important and have many things going on.

Otherwise, colleges are tipping into summer and we are gearing up for high school sports teams and our May 22 special teams clinic with some 2 members of the Jacksonville Jaguars. Should be a doozy.

Quick and painless,
Jake

Welcome to Running a Business 201

2010-04-22T01:23:00.002-04:00

Welcome to your sophomore year of business management.

So unless you are under a rock, we have launched our first YouTube video and it was well received (opinions may vary). We also posted shortly after, a follow up interview with Mike's mom about the whole ordeal.

Video and Interview

Within a little over a week it has received over 150,000 views all around the world and made it to the top of most popular for the day. It has garnered attention on various radio shows including:
Opie and Anthony XM
The Break Room on WCMF 96.5 in Rochester
WDDD in Southern Illinois (interview later today over the phone)

Two national tv shows (cannot name them yet, 2 months out)
And one tv interview over in England (interview in about 2 months).

We never could have imagined it would have played out this way and are so grateful to our friends and fans who helped push it through. Although some of the press is outside our sales region, it will be helpful in the future for expansion. People will recognize the brand and know what it is before we even get there. Locally people have started to be more aware of it, and seem to be buying it more. We aim to build our online and physical presence over the summer. Hot weather = cold drinks!

It is becoming very apparent that traditional media in its current form is dying. Advertisements will always exist, but like the music industry 5 years ago, the internet and social mediums are forcing the industry to adapt. With social internet you are able to extend your brand globally with little more than some time and an internet connection. For us, being a start up and with limited working capital that is HUGE.

We are planning over the summer to start having micro contests and mini giveaways. This means short contests in the range of hours or even minutes for small gifts more often, with larger ones occurring less frequently. We hope to encourage all of you to participate as well. Share photos of you drinking a Vital or doing something fun and original with the bottle. Show us your VITAL-ITY! Durrrr. So please join our facebook and twitter (@vitalenergy) to keep up with the most recent goings on.

We want YouTube to also be a means of us to communicate directly with everyone as a start-up. Video blogs that will parallel our standard blogs 'hopefully' will let people grow with us personally instead of just the brand of Vital Energy. We want to hear your ideas, complaints, and what we can do better, faster, harder, stronger. Daft Punk, great song btw.

While they are in session we are going to hammer colleges and soon after high schools. We only have a few weeks until summer and want everyone possible to try this delicious mystery beverage invading your brains. It wants to be in your mouth.

As for Wright Wisner, we are in their system and in the sales reps hands. Now we are starting the learning process. For the next few weeks we are going to have our kick off meeting where we tell the story of our brand, the idea and concept of the product and why it basically is going to rule the world with a plastic flexing bicep. We are also going to start riding with the sales reps so that new stores can put a face to the brand.

I can't stress it enough, we want you to know who we are. See what it takes to run a business and learn as we go. Get your hand out of your pants and go roadhouse a garbage can to show it who is the boss. No, not Tony Danza.

Sorry its so long, but its so good.
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh so excited after a long crazy week.
-Vital Boys

Thanks Mom ♥

2010-04-14T15:03:00.003-04:00

To anyone who has met my mother, you know she is the BEST MOM in the world :) and I sincerely mean that. What other mother would stick my their son after he leaves graduate school at Michigan and begins to fill her house with drinks and watches them get lugged up and downstairs for over a year, all the while supporting me with free housing, meals, and defending me to people that question why I am still living at home when I have a great graduate engineering degree. And on top of all that continues to support me after we post a video of her having a legit anxiety attack.

That’s love ladies and gents <3

What makes this video so great to me is that I have never seen my mom lose her marbles. When we planned this I thought we’d get the best freakout reaction from my dad. I figured we had to do something huge to get my mom to even budge, thus we took her china down.

So to anyone who knows my mom, please take a moment to share your love and admiration and let everyone know that this is not the Mary you all know and loveeee :) And let her know that she's great for supporting us and letting us post this phenomenal video (in my opinion of course).

-Michael

PS. Keep spreading this video, through facebook, email lists, work lists etc! It’s taken a lot of work, and certainly a lot of emotional stress, to get this thing posted!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=as7jgdh9rPA

Going going back back to Cali...

2010-04-10T18:20:00.007-04:00

So it is time to give everyone a little update on my trip to California. I went with my girlfriend Casey to visit my little sister Rebecca. I must say that the trip started off great. My flight from Rochester was delayed and somehow I got switched to a different flight in first class. Free food, drinks, and unlimited hot towel’s was a very nice surprise (Plus it gave me some extra brownie points with Casey). THANKS DELTA!!!!!!!! I arrived safe and sound and was very happy to see my little sis. But the real journey began the next morning.

My first stop was San Francisco and wow what a cool city. Never in my life have I seen so many happy hippies; not even at a Phish show!! Our day was spent exploring the city, its people and its landmarks. I remember staring at the Golden Gate Bridge and thinking to myself, there is only one thing missing in this picture, and that is VITAL! I reached into my bag and grabbed the greatest stuff on earth. Check it out, nothing better than a little Golden Gate Bridge and some VITAL!

My next stop was Yosemite National Park. I suggest to anyone that has not been there, to make it a priority to get there. It was truly incredible. Our first day was spent exploring the Yosemite Valley and checking out some of the waterfalls. Let me tell you, those falls are just like a Vital Energy. They are beautiful, powerful, refreshing, and something that I could just not get enough of.

We then explored the giant sequoia trees at Yosemite. Some of these trees are over 2,000 years old and are just enormous. Although it is hard to spot a Vital Energy next to a tree 350 feet tall, with a 30 foot diameter trunk, check out these pictures, I am sure you can do it.

All and all it was an amazing trip that took Vital across the country. When I returned home I was greeted with a facelift to my vehicle. Our Spring and Summer season has officially begun, and we are looking forward to introducing VITAL to everyone!!!!! Until next time, remember a Vital Will Fix You Right Up!!!!!

-Patrick

The College Tour Has Begun.

2010-04-06T12:41:00.004-04:00

The past few weeks have been busy with being brought into the Wright Wisner fold. Pat took a little vaca last week so Mike and I ended up hammering out a stressful week due to an email mix up.

After a few 12+ hour days we collected all of our drinks from our various warehouses and managed to make the delivery of 27 pallets to Wright Wisner (~2700 cases). This week they are starting to disperse us around their territory.

To make sure we use the end of the semester to our advantage we are going to be hitting a different college everyday (assuming not cold and rainy) to hand out drinks and flyers. After that will come High Schools and their sports teams. Then we are fully into the summer time.

We are one of the smallest brands that WW has ever carried and we are going to have to hit the streets hard to make sure you people know about it. With the expansion comes higher costs and the need for further investment. Over the next year we will be focusing on building our brand in the new territory and building up our reputation.

I am a amazed at how much traditional media fails to faze me anymore. With DVRs to fast forward and the pop-up ads making me actively hate a brand for being annoying it has become a total shot in the dark in order to hit your target consumer.

Over the next few weeks we will begin to start rolling out YouTube videos and really starting to focus on starting conversations with our fans and friends. So please let us know what is and is not working out there. What we should do different/better faster stronger etc.

Til then Pat should be posting about his adventures in the sunshine state.
-J

This blog has moved

2010-03-16T14:20:00.001-04:00

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It's official. We are coming to a store near you...

2010-03-16T10:45:00.002-04:00

So this is going to be quick because I have another meeting to go to in a little bit. Of course.

We are officially 1 year old as a company.
We have gone through hell and high water to get here and now year 2 is really going to test us as a team. We have spent the last few weeks pushing our new flavor Raspberry Apple, and getting ready for another meeting with the distributor. We met with them yesterday.

The new label and flavor have proven to be a great success. People like the label, the flavor, we had a record month in sales and even just launched a NCAA bracket contest on facebook with cash and drink prizes! We owe it to all of you for helping get us to this point (ham moment).

Regarding the distributor we smashed the presentation. They loved our story, our product and our ideas. As of 9am this morning we are officially part of the Wright Wisner distribution network!

Could we have asked for a better birthday present? It is such a weird feeling to know that we are going into the next level of operation as a company and expanding to 14 counties. We have one shot at this and are going to have to work even harder this year.

I will be posting another blog in a few days that kind of reflects more on the past year. But, for now, lets savor the flavor of Vital Energy and all of its goodness.

Ohhhhhhhhh, time to run around for a minute.
-Jake

musically inclined

2010-03-01T10:59:00.016-05:00

We sponsored our first non-guerilla style events this weekend. First was the Ugly Disco where we set up a sampling table. Jake rocked an afro and put on some dance moves before the psychedelic citizens arrived. Disco Fevers ran high and most people needed a non-alcoholic refreshment to go along with their fun. By midnight beer had taken over as the drink of choice, so we packed up and got ready for an early brunch at the Next Door Bar and Grill.

Lesson Learned – buy a very large waterproof Vital Energy banner for all future events.

We were a Gold Sponsor of the Sweet Dreams Brunch hosted by The Cupcake Dreamery for The Hillside organization. Brunch was held at the Next Door Bar and Grill; the food was delicious, and the cupcakes were orgasmic (props on the warm cinnamon bun mini cupcakes!).

Nota from NBC's Sing Off performed at the brunch and wooed all the ladies.

Tonight we will officially welcome our first employee to the company, Patrick Henderson. WOHOOO! This is a big step for us and we look forward to gearing up for the spring and summer!

-Mike

PS. Check out the Vital Super Snowman we built after the Nor'eastern Blizzard that forced us to take a day off

Dropped a bomb on em.

2010-02-25T16:58:00.004-05:00

We released our third flavor Apple Raspberry this week. All night Saturday was dedicated to unpacking and problem after problem. The truck showed up 3 hours late, our pallet jack was to big for the lift gate to unload at our house, the warehouse closed an hour after the delivery, and we had to break down 14 pallets (1428 cases) by hand from truck to house to stacking.

Otherwise it went pretty well.

We have hit almost all of our stores with the new flavor and are waiting to see the response. Next week is getting new stores and preparing for another distribution meeting (#4). They haven't said no, and they are still inviting us back. Its still completely up in the air though.

In other news we finally hit 500 fans on facebook! The 1000th fan will get a case of each flavor! So get your friends to join up. :P

The Ugly Disco is this Saturday and we will be there sampling for the first few hours.

On Sunday is the Cupcake Dreamery's Sweet Dreams Sunday Brunch which will feature some give aways and delicious catered food. Vital Energy will be in all the gift baskets!

To emphasize my point: Starting at 1:00 in.

Enjoy,

-J

That Patrick character

2010-02-19T10:30:00.006-05:00

So it is now official!!!!! Scott has made his first blog and I am now doing the same. I gotta start by introducing myself to the Vital community. My name is Patrick Henderson and this is my story.

I have known Mike, Scott and Jake starting as early as 1^st grade. We grew up with each other until our parting days from Pittsford Sutherland High School. (I did not shed any tears, I promise) Since then I have attended St. Bonaventure University and have graduated with a degree in marketing. I have recently reconnected with Mike, Scott, and Jake. (Still the same knuckleheads I knew in highschool) I have joined the vital team and we are ready and excited to introduce our product to the community throughout the spring and summer months.

So you still may have the question of who is this Patrick character and how is he going to be tied to the beverage that I love so much? Well here is my answer. As a former energy drink and coffee consumer, I have switched my drink of choice to Vital. We have introduced a completely new segment to the energy drink market and I have made it my personal duty to expose this segment to you. Be ready because Vital is coming to you. Until next time remember that a Vital will fix u right up.

P.S. Sorry Scott but the sandman thing does not do it for me either.

Where is April 15th?

2010-02-15T20:27:00.005-05:00

As stated by one Michael Joseph, I’ve been very elusive when it comes to writing blogs. Let’s just say that writing is not my cup of tea… or coffee for that matter. That’s why I drink Vital Energy and focus on the accounting aspects of the business.

Since the first of the year things have become very hectic. Busy season at the accounting firm began as soon as I could get over the New Years Eve festivities. I have been busy performing audits as well as doing taxes for our clients. Although this can be very tedious, it is really good practice and I am gaining a lot of experience working for the accounting firm. These experiences help me to correctly maintain the financial aspects of Enertia.

This past month has marked, yet, another milestone in Enertia’s history (besides my first blog). We filed our first tax return. This return proved to be an interesting one and took a lot of time and effort to make certain that everything was entered correctly. The accounting firm has multiple level reviews which eliminates the chance of errors on a tax return. But, it is much more nerve-racking filing your own tax return because you do not have as many eyes looking over your work and you want to make sure everything that needs to be entered, has been entered. Next, will be our personal tax returns, which may prove to be just as interesting.

Always remember that “A Vital-a-day keeps the Sandman away.” (Jake and Mike in no way endorse this quote...)

- Scott

We're now Bi...weekly blogging

2010-02-12T00:54:00.013-05:00

For starters, we've agreed on a schedule to blog regularly. We'll be blogging roughly every Monday and Thursday and you'll now hear from all of us, including the elusive Scott and Patrick.

We made the news at a local campus a couple weeks ago when someone placed our stickers in a bathroom. This was almost certainly in there since last October, so we hope people enjoyed what they read!Jake mentioned we had a meeting with a distributor in the area. We had Adam Podlesh, a 4th round draft pick veteran punter from the Jacksonville Jaguars join us for the meeting. He'll be helping us out with marketing and promotional events throughout the spring and summer - Major Beverage Season kiddos.

So a little about our new label and flavor (coming to a store near you NEXT WEEK...sorry for the delay). Raspberry apple is by far my favorite Vital Energy flavor and I can't wait to pound a few cases down.

Our new label has been up and running on our website for the better part of 3 weeks. We felt we needed a new label to more clearly get across just how much caffeine it contains, as well as the abundance of B Vitamins, and lower sugar to help prevent a caffeine crash. We also had to make sure our label didn't 'look like a generic Vitamin Water product'.

The background of our new label looks like a texture from far away, but in reality it has almost 7 single spaced pages of text large enough so you can read it when you're holding the bottle. It should provide some long and intense reading sessions when you are bored in class or waiting for your boyfriend/girlfriend to meet you for lunch. Every other line on the background says that Vital Energy has as much caffeine as 2 cups of coffee or 2 energy drinks (red bulls). We made them nice and vibrant so that they smack your brain from the cooler door.

We've decided to keep our muscle man bottle at least for the time being because we know people recognize it at this point. Let us know what you think of our label, muscle man, etc...Patrick left us this weekend to go see his girlfriend in West Virginia. Which reminds me, I better start prepping for Valentine's Day, something tells me it's coming soon!

Until next time...
-Mikey J...heyyy

On a Superbowl Roll

2010-02-08T01:47:00.004-05:00

Great Sunday today and always keeping busy.

It is amazing when I stop and think about how far we have come from almost a year ago. Having almost no knowledge of the industry other than the things we read in the paper and on the bottle to now talking with distributors and starting to host events and bringing on our first full time employee.

The blog has been an easy and effective way for us not only to communicate with all of you but act as a record of everything that has happened so far. While most of it was painfully annoying and frustrating at the time, a lot of them are just funny to see our reasoning and naivety of some of our choices.

We finally got our 2nd product run completed with the new label and the new flavor (Raspberry Apple). That has caused a series of headaches, which we have come to expect but we made it and just need to deal with the lovely blizzard in Pittsburgh.

We just had our 3rd meeting with a distributor and it went as well as it could with a 4th meeting being set up. I guess I would look at it kind of like a 4th round job interview.

There are a few events coming up this month which should be a lot of fun... namely the Ugly Disco on the 27th, a sampling at Hegedorns in Webster, and hopefully the 24 Teddy Dance at St. John Fisher!

On a side note was thoroughly entertained by the 2nd half of the superbowl. Ballsy move to start it off with an on side kick... and it worked. HA!

Favorite ads:
Snickers
Doritos
Budlight

-J

Welcome back and all of that

2010-01-20T22:57:00.002-05:00

So its been about a month and we are back after holidays, the flu, travel and being fat idiots with all the holiday food.

The past month has been almost exclusively trying to get our new label design finished and making sure our new order is on track. Looks like we should be having a new flavor joining us mid February with its new ink.

Right now we are overhauling our business plan and getting ready to meet with a distributor and start planning for the spring and summer.

We have decided to focus ourselves in the Rochester as we approach our 1 year anniversary and really try to secure the area before we continue any further expansion outside of the ROC.

If you haven't come to see us at a sampling its an easy way to get to know us and enjoy some delicious beverage!

Whooha

-J

2009-12-22T08:33:00.002-05:00

We are in the final stretches of Holiday season and for me it is a triple threat with Xmas, my birday and then new years. During this time we are also trying to get a new label redesign and gear up for our next order.

This next year is going to really determine the state of this company. I don't mean that as a bad thing, but year 2 is where some expansion happens and really begins to test our ability to adapt to things going very wrong and very right. It should be interesting.

We have been sampling like madmen and its really starting to pay off around the area. The past month saw us at the mall every weekend for 8 hours stints to meet and greet as many holiday shoppers as possible. The next one will be all the new gym goers trying to shed off those holiday pounds. So look for us at your neighborhood gyms and other indoor athletic facilities during January!

Something I noticed with the sampling is I feel like we are doing some arts and crafts projects whenever we set up. We have our little easel and poster board, a pretty table cloth, a video for the table, a nice polo, a cooler of cold drinks and a mountain of Dixie cups sporting daisies and lady bugs; neither of which seem aware of the fact that old man frost is chillin' outside.

It always brings a smile to my face when I catch myself tripping over my words trying to explain this sweet sweet new beverage to people for the unteen thousandth time and forgetting if I told this person all of the important information yet.

I get to see people light up over the new local start up, love the tangerine, hate the tangerine, pick apart any detail imaginable, ask about low calorie, if we are getting new flavors, are we in wegmans/tops, drop names and locations we should contact and just as quickly disappear back to what they were doing.

Mike just got back from a brief trip in Florida. Scottie is keeping us from going bankrupt while still juggling his other job. The new guy Pat is working his butt off, and I am signing off on this post... unfortunately I have work to do.

So for now good morning world. If I don't see you again, good afternoon and goodnight.

-J

Picture Blog: Dirty faces, Sparkling clutch

2009-12-17T11:54:00.001-05:00

A few weeks ago we had a minor setback. The speedy delivery mobile (RX7) couldn't deliver any more cases without a new clutch. Being a startup, we like to save money were we can, so Scott and I gathered some tools and about 30hours of time and got to work...

This note is mainly pictures. Long story short, we had to put the car up on blocks and remove the transmission and drive shaft just to get to the clutch! Those chimney cleaner good looking guys are me and Scottie.

The job was not easy, luckily the car ran great after we finished!

No drinks were harmed in the production of this blog
-Mike

PS. The circular thing with gear teeth around it is called the flywheel. The engine is connected to the flywheel, the flywheel is connected to the clutch, and the clutch is connected to the transmission, which drives the wheels! (in case you're interested :) ). If you look hard on the second to last picture you can see the turbo to the top right of the flywheel.

Athlete tested, Santa approved

2009-12-10T13:23:00.003-05:00

So its snowing up here, FINALLY. I love the winter and don't want to hear any complaints, you can move to Florida. I am so pumped about some snowboarding and flying around like a baboon on the mountain. Since we are talking about that, we just landed a sale at Bristol a few days ago! So now you can feel refreshed, hydrated and mentally perky all day long while you fly down the bunny hill indiscriminately crushing those in your way (we are not held liable for any damages). We are pursuing the other mountains as well so you won't be limited to where you can get Vital Energy on the slopes.

We have been talking to a few local companies to get some cross promotions going including a clothing line and a local skiing/snowboarding company. We are having to really branch out during the winter due to slower cold drink sales. Most people don't want to be enjoying an ice cold Vital Energy while they are pumping gas in -20 degree winds... doesn't work that well. Although you can serve up a hot tangerine Vital Energy with a slice of orange in a mug and see how that goes.

With winter break coming up our big sellers are going to be out of commission for a few weeks. I am referring to colleges of course. To compensate we have been focusing hard on gyms and indoor athletics. We are still sampling at any store where space is available for us to do so and people are starting to recognize us... its kind of a nice feeling. Definitely makes sales easier and when we are sampling people are more open to talking with us about it.

On sampling, we killed it at Marketplace Mall. We set up 2 tables, one near the food court and one near Santa's photo booth where there is high traffic. We sampled hundreds of people and talked to even more... we couldn't have asked for better promotion. After a while I decided I needed to get a photo with Santa and see if he enjoyed our beverage.

I guess christmas came early for Santa!

-J

Pour the Holiday Spirit all over your face

2009-11-24T11:13:00.009-05:00

First things First, it's almost Thanksgiving...WOOOHOO.

Now that we have that taken care of, let's get on with some business. About a week ago we provided drinks for a 10k held at FLCC in Canandaigua. I won't bore you with too many details, but I will share one story. After the race, a runner came over to our table. While gasping for air, he grabs one of our drinks and says he thought our drink was water before the race and poured it over his head. I guess it got in his eyes. Who pours an orange drink on their face!? He had good spirits though and drank the Vital Energy the second time around. This taught us our lesson of the week - always have a video camera at the Vital Energy booth because this needed to be on youtube.

Last Friday we co-sponsored a fashion show with another start-up called FanShoes. The show was great, the models were fabulous, the shoes were hot, and the band rocked the house (The Blackened Blues). We sampled Vital energy to the fashion show guests and made our presence known. We had some help from a friend named Chrissy, who put a nice touch on our display, took amazing pictures, and helped us out big time!Our big sale of the week was to SUNY Brockport's Union Square! We are now available next to the Red Bull, check out the pictures below!

Jake and I also made a visit to our High School alma mater, Pittsford Sutherland, and spoke to students about our experiences starting Vital Energy. We brought over 100 cold drinks to pass out to students, but unfortunately we weren't allowed to hand them out because of the caffeine content. It was pretty cool being back there and the students were amazing.This week is officially the beginning of the Holiday Season :) I'm craving me some Turkey, Stuffing, and Mashed Potatoes! Hope everyone has a wonderful thanksgiving filled with Vital Energy and Holiday Spirit.

Happy T-Giving
-Mike