This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Jason Kelly on Bloomberg Radio. Well, our next guest understands both the private and public sector. She's a former executive at a O Well during the Obama administration, she worked to create jobs and stimulate the economy, and today she is the CEO of Hint. It's a non alcoholic flavored water
brand that grew out of really a personal mission. I love the story behind this sites John legend as an investor, sold across major retailers including Amazon, Whole Foods, Target, and more. Joining us right now is Kara Golden. She's the CEO of Hint, and she joins us on the phone from Main. Kara, delighted to meet you virtually, Um, and have you joined us here on Bloomberg Radio. How are you? I'm good, I'm good. Nice to meet you. Well, tell us a little bit about your story. Um, you have a great
website and it's fun to read. But for our listeners, give us a little bit a quick kind of uh snippet of how you came to create your company. Yeah. So, as you mentioned, I was a tech executive prior to starting hands. I I never you know, thought I was going to be starting a beverage company, and and honestly, I didn't even think about being an entrepreneur or or
starting my own company. But I was trying to solve a problem for myself around health a few years back and realized that I was drinking a ton of diet soda and that I wasn't getting as healthy as I wanted to be. I had some various health issues, including weight issues and skin issues and some other things. And after seeing a bunch of doctors and nobody could kind of come up with a conclusion, I just decided to really look at what I was putting inside my body
and and the what really surprised me the most. As I went through kind of an elimination process of trying to eliminate things and see what would happen, I recognized that the diet soda was the thing that was really kind of stopping me from as healthy as I wanted And and uh, you know, the once I actually swapped out Diatesota for plain water, I also realized that I knew that water was was, you know, better for me, but I really just never liked the taste or was
kind of bored with the taste. So I started throwing fruit and water and and looking for this product. And you know, what I really realized was that sugar was not the issue for me. It was these diet sweeteners that were actually causing me, you know, all kinds of issues. So that that was really the beginning of it. And um, you know, and and again when I decided to just go ahead and figure out how to do this product,
I got it into my local Whole Foods. I live in San Francisco, um normally and uh, and you know, really realized that that there were a lot of other people like me who were really looking for a water and things that were calling themselves water and kind of healthier for you that just didn't have all the sweeteners
in it. And you know that was gosh, almost fifteen years ago now, um and uh and you know, but it really stemmed out of, like frankly, a lot of other brands that stick desire to not only get myself healthy, but also, um, you know, help other people as well. So what's the biggest thing that you've learned in those fifteen years? Because I know you you've been very generous in giving advice to other entrepreneurs, and I wonder and
I know that they're legions of things. Are many things that you could say, reads and stuff, um, but like, what's one thing that you just sort of distill it down to uh that you tell folks as they're trying
to start companies. You know, I have no matter what industry, if you have a story in your own personal story too, or you know, could be your family story to to um, you know, sort of back up why you did something, then I think it's it's very relatable, maybe not to everybody, but to you know, many many people, and it's just a way to kind of get the message out there
about why you ultimately did something. And you know, I think today you drinks need to taste good, right, you can't just go and launch a product that that doesn't taste good. I mean that's sort of a given. But beyond that, actually talking to people about what your story is is a competitive advantage for any entrepreneur in any industry because you know, there's these large UH companies typically public companies and every sector that are Nobody knows who
started these companies anymore. You know, it's way long ago, so they don't have a founder story of sort of why they did something, and so I think like that that's a real key thing that I've learned. And then and then also I think it's just look, there's a
lot easier ways to make money. I always share with entrepreneurs that you know, the ones that you know hit it out of the ballpark and you know, have the multi billion dollar sales of the company are few and far between, and so you really have to have a passion for wanting to do something. And so tell us what business life has been like in the pandemic? Director consumer is your main business model, but I wonder like, have there been supply chain issues? Have there been sourcing
like what's been going on? How have you felt it in your business? Yeah? So actually we're nationwide and lots of stores, but also direct to consumers is now over fifty percent of our overall business. I mean I think business for us, Yeah, I mean that business for us, you know has grown significantly almost tripled um since really March fifteen, UM, so it's been absolutely crazy. I mean we had started that business about five years ago at um, you know, on our own website as as well as Amazon,
but primarily our own website. And you know what we decided again on March fifteenth, as the world was changing, was let's just go out to our customer base and let them know, hey, you know, we're still available in stores, but if there are supply issues, just go to drink
king dot com. And having a database of over a million customers in that database on March fifteen was just you know, a godsend in many many ways because it really helped the consumer to you know, make it easier for them to actually get product right right rather than rather than going to stores and trying to find our product.
And and so I mean that was really really helpful. Yeah, I agree with you, you know, and and I know just from our own shopping, like we went you know to places where we knew we could get stuff and stuck with those brands that we know that we like and that we could easily access. You know. I do also wonder though about you know, your business going forward, and I'm curious about, you know, leveraging the model I
think you guys are doing sunscreen. My understanding as you're looking into maybe deodorant, like you have kind of a thinking about how you the kind of products you want to create. It's different from what a lot of other folks are doing. UM, tell us a little bit about how you grow the brand and expansion. Yeah. So, I mean the brand started with health right and just trying
to get me to drink water. And and as we a couple of years ago, I started looking at the sunscreen market again for myself and my family, and there just wasn't a great experience with the sunscreen that I could find that smelled great other than coconut. Um it was either you know, uncent unscented or coconut that was on the market. So um, So we came out with a sunscreen using our you know, real fruit actances from the water to scent the sunscreen. So we have it
in pear and pineapple and grape fruit. It's amazing. And then we actually did come out with a deodorants this year, um in in January and actually was just in U L magazine as actually today as as one of the best deodorants in the market. UM. I was really looking for a deodorant that didn't have a luminum in it and uh, and you know it's not easy to find that. And again that smells great and actually works and so um that you know, that's really the halo for the brand,
and it was from day one was just health. And so you know, while it might be confusing to people initially thinking Okay, this is a beverage company, what are they doing watching a sunscreen or a deodorant, I think you know, once people actually see what we're doing around health, and today, you know, more than ever. I mean, every single day I run into people who are like, you know, just trying to stay healthy. Right. I mean you talked
about the oreos and some of the other stuff. I mean, I think you know, there's definitely a little bit of that, but I think more than more than ever, I mean, it's the question of the hour for people as how do I stay healthy? Yeah, and have to put you know, you have to exercise and do all of that stuff,
but you have to put this stuff in your body. Well, what has come out because of the virus is that you know, if you have underlying health problems, and some of them sometimes are genetic and you can't control, but things like weight, uh and some other issues, we know it made you more vulnerable, certainly to the virus. And you're right, I think Jason and I and I've had a lot of conversations with folks in the wellness and fitness world about how this has been front and center
for people, uh as they've been dealing with the pandemic. Absolutely, yeah, and and you know you talked about supply chain as well. I mean that for us. You know, again, we had no sort of crystal ball to say, okay when the pandemic comes. But you know, we we were very well prepared in that we do everything that we do in the US. We weren't you know, taking taking packaging from another country in order to produce us our product. We produced everything here. All of our bottles are here, all
of our labels are here. And then in addition to that, UM, not all water bottle water is actually FDA regulated. Ours is because we used fruit in our product. UM, but we don't have that. We actually use a clean room when we're bottling the products, so there's no people in the room, which has been sort of a huge conversation around the food industry in particular, especially with coronavirus UM. So we were very well prepared to not have any
interruption and our production and supply chain. And we actually got a phone call late March from Costco and they said, hey, you know we're having some supply issues. We have some uh companies that we work with that are trying to get cans from Asia and some of the other places, and uh, we were just curious, can you guys go national with Costco? So we just rolled into Costco wide. Um. Yeah, So you know that was the last thing months for us. Right,
it's pretty big deal for for us. In addition to you know, tripling that direct to consumer business very exciting. So care before we let you go. I gotta ask you, especially given some of the work you did with the government. You know, everyone is talking about job retention, job creation, the changing workforce, a workforce that is very much on the sidelines right now. You know all the figures like we do as you think about this as a CEO,
what do we do as a country? I know it's a big picture question and I only am going to give you about a minute to answer it. But what's one thing we should be thinking about as we try and make our way through this? Well? I think, first of all, if you are in a situation where you need to go find a job, I think now versus waiting, um, is there's no better time to go out and find
a job. Especially when people think like, you can't get a job right now right, it's it's now is the time to go out and because if you wait until um, you know, the government is no longer issuing checks, and then you know you're gonna have that many more people out there. And and you know, I also think I was at an event a couple of weeks ago with my senior in high school hearing a bunch of parents talking about how, oh, it's too bad you know, new
college grads can't get a job. I'm like, don't help them that. And that's the worst thing that you can found it. I mean, look, there's always going to be a job out there, right, and and get out there and try and find it. So I think, you know, we need to keep going and there will be you might have to look under a few more rocks, right, but you you've got to get out there and go do it. Yeah, that's a good optimistic tone to end on. Carol, Thank you so much, and hopefully we can check back
with you again, uh in the future. Carrot Golden, she's the CEO of HINT, joining us on the phone from Main