Wave Bar™ Reflects on the Ride – 6 months in!

Six months ago, the 1st Wave Bars hit the market (this update is a follow-up to Jen Burden’s blog on August 4th).

It was a huge relief after a long / tedious / exciting / scary development process spanning over 14 months.  The anticipation of seeing our product on the shelves for the 1st time at Dearborn Market was so exciting and at that moment, we truly felt an incredible sense of relief and accomplishment.  We knew launching a new product would be a wild ride, but like the oceans, it sure can be unpredictable!  Fortunately, the ups and the downs have all been positive experiences that we continue to learn from. 

So, here’s how the ride has gone so far:

Riding High (the positive stuff):

• Every day we strive to run this like a true, caring family-owned business, building it 1 fan at a time. Your feedback daily makes us really feel we’re checking this box.

• We do a lot of product demos / sampling – it’s really the only way for customers to experience our product…and we get to include our daughters in that process.  They’ve become an important part of who we are as a company and they really do enjoy it.

• Seeing kids of all ages hover around our sampling table, then disappear, then come back for more is great….even better when their parents buy some (which usually happens).

• We are further along than we thought we’d be but we still want to be moving faster; helping change the way kids and adults snack each and every day.

• The residents of our town (Holmdel) and county (Monmouth) are incredible.  So many people continue to go out of their way to help promote our product and brand.  We are so blessed and thankful for those efforts and if we are lucky enough to become a larger brand someday, we’ll always be a Jersey company at heart.  We want to make our area proud of us and what Wave Bar is all about.

• Hearing 25 students at a school presentation chant “Wave Bar, Wave Bar!” really makes all the crazy hours and head scratching phone calls worth it; even better is them chanting that AFTER they find out there’s kale and broccoli in them..!

• Other small brands rock (thanks Pocket Frenz, Sneaky Pete’s Beverage, and Element!) – we have a completely new appreciation for any company who makes a go of it.  If you have an idea you think is great – go for it.  There is nothing as satisfying as seeing people excited about something you poured your heart and soul into.

• Seeing Wave Bar boxes get emptied daily in our house by our kids and their friends is a constant joy.

• A very similar product with masked veggies (but in Popsicle form) got bid on by every “Shark” on the show Shark Tank recently – concept validation??

• Seeing the Wave Bar on the Kelly & Michael show also has to be mentioned as well as the NJ12 news story (both are on our website, fyi).

• Speaking of which, we launched a cool Wave Bar website that we’re really proud of, complete with product info, great FAQs, and a fun happy customer gallery.

Wipeouts (the not so good):

• Hearing the word “no” happens a lot more than we thought it would, and we’re getting pretty numb to it…but we always move forward and try to learn from the reasons.

• As husband & wife Co-founders who are also running a family, making all the pieces fit and creating time for the important stuff remains a challenge, but we take comfort in that we’re not alone.

• Our goal to combine a fun branding experience with a super healthy snack seemed risky and scary during our early development stages.  Most of the “fun” brands tended to offer snacks loaded with tons of sugar and little or no health benefits.  As a start-up with a tight marketing budget, breaking that mold will continue to require super creative use of resources, and a lot of patience / perseverance.

• We think we have gotten pretty good at using Facebook to communicate with and engage our fans, but capitalizing on the opportunities with Twitter remain foreign to us.  We hope to crack that code soon (suggestions welcome..!)

Rogue Waves (the surprising stuff):

• Standing and talking about the same thing for anywhere between 2 -10 hours at a time is surprisingly a lot of fun, especially if you’re as passionate about something as we are with the Wave Bar.  Of course, we come across some less than pleasant people, but fortunately, they are few and far between, but whoa, they sure can drag you down for a bit. 

• Our eyes, blood shot, and possibly bleeding, at crazy hours in front of the laptop still doesn’t feel painful or like work at all; we hope it always feels that way.

• Building a new brand from scratch, even with a unique / delicious / buzz-worthy product takes a TON of patience and grit, and apparently there’s no road map!

Where the Winds Will Blow Us (next phase):

• We want to become more relevant in NYC (process just started).

• We want to become more relevant in the schools.

• We would love to see healthy vending machines replacing the ones filled with junk food – there’s some great companies popping up and we want to be a big part of making that happen!

• Roll-out flavor #3 (contest on going) – we want a nice compliment to the baked apple and mixed berry.

• Modifications to the packaging are in progress to make the flavors and the veggie serving concept “pop” more

• The West coast has always been healthier than the East coast – as a regional brand, we hope this puts us into a position of strength over time

• HIRE!  Interns? Marketing guru? Sales head?  Operations specialist?  Form a Board? All are on the table (again, suggestions welcome…!)

• As we grow, we want to continue to pass along better pricing to our customers.  We have started to hit decent volumes to allow for that, and we have a roadmap that is achievable to keep doing it.

• To get there, we will likely need to raise some capital.  A friends and family capital raise is starting to be discussed.

Well, if you made it this far, then chances are, you’ve already helped us out in some (or many) ways and we can’t thank you enough!  We hope the 1 year recap has just as many (or more) highs!