Cure Hydration - How One Brand Made Hydration Cool (and Clean)

Ramon Vela (00:02.316)
Welcome back everyone. This is Ramon Vela. And again, I just have this amazing entrepreneur and founders that we're going to feature on today's show. So let's get right down to it. Please welcome.

Lauren Picasso, who is CEO and founder of Cure Hydration. Welcome to the show.

Lauren Picasso (00:36.828)
Thank you so much for having me.

Ramon Vela (00:38.702)
Well, I appreciate you making time for me. know you're busy and so thank you so much. I really want to learn everything about the brand, including your journey and why you do what you do. before we, excuse me, two, three. But before we begin, I always like to start off with a question of gratitude. And so for those listeners out there who are new to the show, I asked this question of,

everyone who's on the show, I personally am a big believer in gratitude for releasing anxiety and stress and putting things in context, whether you meditate, which I do, or you pray or you journal, whatever it is, it's just an amazing tool at your disposal. But I also want to make sure that you, the listener, know that there's real people behind the brands that we feature on this show. It's just so easy to just see a product on the shelf or online.

and just think it's some faceless corporation, but I want you to know that there's real people who care deeply about the product, about the quality, about their community and their customers. And this is a great way to get to know the person that we're interviewing. So Lauren, if you don't mind, can you share a moment or a memory when someone did something for you that just made you feel grateful because it meant that they believed in you, your vision or your potential.

Lauren Picasso (02:00.078)
Yeah, absolutely. So going back to 2018 when I was first working on the idea for Cure, I presented my pitch deck to a mentor of mine just looking to get feedback on the idea. And he immediately said, when you raise money, I'll be the first person to invest. And for me, that just really gave me the confidence that I needed to actually launch the product, go out and eventually raise a round of financing.

and really just made me feel grateful that somebody had that kind of belief in me.

Ramon Vela (02:33.912)
Well, and you know, that goes to the heart of the question because when someone invests in you, of course they want to invest in the idea that you have your business plan and they want to see that you've thought it through and all of that. But at the heart of it, really an investor invest in you. They're betting on you, Lauren, to execute the idea and make it happen. And so it's really a belief that

You can do what you say you're going to do. And, and that's really at the heart of an investment, especially early on. They see that, you know, is Lauren capable of doing this? And obviously this person was just like, wow, yes, I'm going to, I'm, I'm, you don't even have to sell me. I'm going to do it once you start raising money. So, I like to kind of like to step back sometimes and just think about that. And, know, kind of, I can hear your voice. There's a validation, not only to the idea, but to yourself. And so that.

That in itself can give you a little bit of a boost of confidence, right?

Lauren Picasso (03:34.854)
Yeah, definitely. Yeah, in the early days, there's really no numbers, there's no product. So getting that vote to potentially invest was just a huge vouch of confidence.

Ramon Vela (03:47.458)
Well, I think this is a good segue to talk a little bit about how things started and also a little bit more about the journey. And I'm curious, know, hydration is very popular nowadays and I'm wondering, was the idea of hydration something you thought of? Was it a personal issue that you might've had? Was it an opportunity you saw on the market? Walk us a little bit.

kind of maybe just a little, a few steps before you actually started.

Lauren Picasso (04:21.168)
Yeah, so really was a personal issue for me. I had no background in food and beverage whatsoever, but I've been an endurance athlete my whole life. So grew up running cross country and track. I was a competitive swimmer. And then later in life, started doing races like half marathons and triathlons. And really just honestly always struggled with my hydration. I would come back from a long workout and...

really feel like I almost had the flu. I'd be out of commission for 24 hours. I'd feel nauseous. And what I realized was happening is even though I was drinking plenty of water, I just wasn't replacing all those electrolytes I was losing. And at the time, I really couldn't find any hydration product on the market that wasn't full of added sugar. I you think of sort of the average sports drink. It's got 36 grams of added sugar, a ton of artificial ingredients.

And so I really tried to find a good option out there that was clean but effective and really couldn't find anything. So I started making my own sports drink at home. It was a mix of coconut water, which I really liked because it had some naturally occurring sugars that you need for hydration, very high in minerals like potassium. And then I added a little bit of salt for that sodium component.

So I was making that at home and it was really the only thing that worked for me.

Ramon Vela (05:46.422)
And I'm kind of curious, was your initial idea about creating a product that athletes used? And if so, have you seen that it's kind of crossed the athletes sort of demographic and now become more of a product that, you know, more widely used, you know, for consumers?

Lauren Picasso (06:07.858)
Yeah, so yeah, I initially really did think it was gonna be a product for endurance athletes. And then I also, at the time, saw brands like Pedialyte all of a sudden taking off for adults, was definitely seeing a lot of hydration products used for hangovers. And I thought, okay, it's either gonna be endurance athletes or it's gonna be a hangover audience. And I was really wrong, honestly. I mean, we initially launched Cure.

The product definitely resonated with endurance athletes, but what I was really surprised by is that the number one use case for drinking cure was really just for general hydration. So it's customers who are looking to drink more water. They felt that drinking water on its own is boring and we're really just trying to find a way for their water to work harder for them. So wanted something that was more effective than water on its own while also encouraging them to drink more because it tasted better.

So our demographic, while we do have lot of athletes and a lot of people who are using the product pre and post workout, it's a lot of people who are just using it as a replacement to water and using it throughout the day for general wellness.

Ramon Vela (07:16.404)
And what do you think is the issue with hydration? Like why is it, you know, why is your product speaking so much to so many people? Cause you think, well yeah, you can drink water or you can, you know, or you should be drinking water. But what do you think is the main issue? I mean, I think it's, I think it may just be as simple as people are just not hydrating, right? They're just, we're just not hydrating, but what, what is, why is that a problem or why is,

you know, why do people have trouble hydrating?

Lauren Picasso (07:48.326)
Yeah, I think it's a couple of things. mean, I think, you know, first of all, people aren't drinking enough water. Generally, the status that 75 % of Americans are chronically dehydrated. So I think, you know, a lot of people do find it to be a chore to drink the water that they need in a day. So you're seeing a lot of people just looking for water additives to help them enjoy water more and drink more. But then I think the other big issue is that

You know, people are just drinking water on its own often and they, know, while that's a great beverage, we should be drinking water most of the time. There are certain use cases where you really do need to replace electrolytes. So water on its own, of course, doesn't have electrolytes, even like the mineral waters you see out there, it's really trace them out. So it's not gonna replace what you're losing in a workout. And so as we see people

you know, working out more, being more health conscious, using saunas, all of these things, these activities are making us, you know, sweat and need electrolytes more. Not to mention sort of like all the different health conditions that are coming out, chronic illnesses on the rise with autoimmune conditions like IBS and Crohn's disease, all of these things lead to electrolyte imbalances. And that's something that water on its own just can't solve.

So I think one of the reasons we're seeing success is that we are providing customers an electrolyte product, but with really clean ingredients so that they can feel good about drinking every day. So it's a functional product, but meeting that function with really healthy ingredients that people don't need to feel like they need to ration, they can really drink it throughout the day.

Ramon Vela (09:34.126)
Yeah, and you know, I wonder too, if it is a matter of also the foods that we eat, you know, like there's so much sodium in the foods and many of the foods we eat and you know, that's why we like, you know, the things like chips and snacks and things like that, that have so much sodium. And then, you know, we have a tendency of washing them down with like soda or

I don't know, with other sugary drinks, and we think we're hydrating or we think we're quenching our thirst, but correct me if I'm wrong, but we're not, right?

Lauren Picasso (10:09.316)
No, that's correct. mean, a lot of the drinks that people are consuming are not hydrating. So something like a sports drink is actually so concentrated with sugar that it's dehydrating. So it's all really about balance. So finding products that are mirroring what you're losing and really replacing what you're losing effectively. So yeah, something like a soda, coffee, sports drink.

All of those drinks are really gonna do more harm than good.

Ramon Vela (10:39.982)
You know, I, and I read somewhere or maybe I heard it someplace, but I heard that when you sometimes are, when you're hungry, like if you're in between meals and you're hungry, you think, I, I, you know, I should eat a snack or I should, maybe I should eat my lunch a little earlier or my dinner a little earlier or whatnot. I read though that sometimes it's our bodies telling us that we need hydration.

And we are, and our bodies are looking for hydration and our brain is telling us like maybe food because there is, you know, hydration within foods that we eat depending on what they are, but some, in some foods, but it's not so much to food, you know, it's not so much to snack. It's that our bodies are wanting us to hydrate, which is one reason why I now, like if I'm feeling a little hungry,

I first have like a glass of water first. And then I think, okay, am I still hungry? Is it really food that I'm having? I don't even know if that's the right thing for me to do, but I just kind of felt like, you know, if, if my, if, if I'm craving food and, what I'm, what my body's really craving is hydration, maybe that's, should try that first and then do that. I mean, is that a good strategy for people? Have you heard that?

Lauren Picasso (11:57.776)
Yeah, definitely. And I would say, you know, it's always really important to drink water, drink something hydrating when you're eating a meal as well for the same reason to help, you know, with satiety. And, you know, I think, you know, aside from just food, I hear the same sort of thing with caffeine. Sometimes, you know, in the middle of afternoon, you start to feel that afternoon slump. A lot of people reach for a coffee, which is going to impact your, you know, your sleep later, eventually lead to a crash.

Often you're just dehydrated, so really important to stay hydrated throughout the day. Drink water with your meals and in those kind of natural periods throughout the day where your energy might crash.

Ramon Vela (12:42.37)
Yeah, and you you mentioned something that I've heard a lot on this show, which is a lot of founders have tell me, and it's in different industries and different product categories, but they always say that phrase, like, I didn't know anything before I got into this. Like, I didn't know anything about textiles before I started making t-shirts or I didn't know about this. And I always really appreciate that. I appreciate that straightforwardness because to me, that's a really, that's a

It's a great example for people out there who have ideas and think, this would be a really great product. but I don't really know anything about it. And then they stop. And I'm always interested in what is that difference? What is that characteristic within that individual that says, I have this really great idea and I'm going to try creating it.

and then, ooh, and then maybe I'm gonna try selling it. And I'm wondering, for you, it started off as a personal mission for you and creating something on your own, but I'm wondering, making that push to then say, okay, now how can I scale this up? How can I create this on a larger scale? What were some of those first things that you did? Because for someone out there who's listening who, you know,

kind of living that quiet life of desperation and kind of has that idea but just doesn't know how to start. Where, how did you start?

Lauren Picasso (14:11.622)
Yeah, so initially it was just, I'd say curiosity that really drove me. I started just becoming fascinated with hydration and the science behind it. I started doing a lot of research and I was really curious, you know, to see how medical grade products like a Pedialyte, for example, how they actually work. And I really didn't have a good understanding of that before. And what I discovered, and this was kind of my big aha moment, is a formula that was originally developed by the World Health Organization.

That formula is called oral rehydration solution and it's what any like medical grade hydration product like a Pedialyte is gonna be based on. But this formula has been around for decades. It's got dozens of clinical studies behind it. It's considered to be one of the greatest medical advances of all time. And it's quite simple. It's just this perfect balance of sugar and salt, but it's proven to hydrate as effectively as an IV drip.

which you can imagine, like the reason why it's had such a big impact is because it's a lot cheaper than an IV chip, it's a lot more scalable. And so it's a product that has really helped with dehydration in developing countries and is considered an essential medicine. For me, that was the aha moment really because I had never heard of it before. And I thought, okay, you know, here you have this amazing formula that's helped millions of people all over the world.

but no one really in the US knows about it at all. And so I thought, here is an opportunity really to educate consumers to develop a product that's actually effective, but doing it in a way that is actually gonna be appealing to them. So having ingredients that are a bit cleaner, some of the medical grade products are still using artificial colors and artificial sweeteners.

So I thought there was an opportunity to create a product that really worked, but really disrupt the formula and use ingredients that I felt good about drinking every day. So I think once I had that aha moment, I realized there was a big gap in the market. There wasn't really anyone doing this in the way that I saw it could be done.

Lauren Picasso (16:25.362)
And so I was working on this formula at home. You it tasted terrible. Coconut water and salt is, I know, not the most delicious combination on its own. So that was kind of the time when I decided, okay, let me go find a formulator to help me make this product. And I had wanted to do a powder because I was coming from e-commerce. So I had worked at companies like Jet.com and Walmart. We were shipping a lot of bottled water and sparkling water.

Ramon Vela (16:29.634)
You

Lauren Picasso (16:53.074)
And I saw just how unprofitable it is to ship liquids. Generally, whether it's laundry detergent or bottled water, just doesn't make sense to be shipping liquids. It's bad for the environment. It's extremely costly. So I really wanted to do the product as a powder as well. So I think for me, just to go back to your original question, it was curiosity and really just taking everything one step at a time.

Ramon Vela (16:57.122)
Mm-hmm.

Lauren Picasso (17:21.234)
figuring out what the formulation, I wanted the formulation to look like, what the format should look like, and then just continuing to grow from there.

Ramon Vela (17:33.214)
And what was, by the way, thank you for shedding light on the powder aspect of it, because I've actually been hearing some brands turning their formulas or their, you know, their beverages or their products into powder. And I was always curious about that. So I guess the lesson here is that the powder is much less expensive to produce and to ship and all of that, than an actual product itself. Right. And so.

I get it now. I've been seeing that more and more and I've been thinking to myself, must be, must be a cost reason. And so you just kind of validated that idea.

Lauren Picasso (18:11.78)
Yeah, Klaus and definitely the environment as well. mean, we use 20 times less packaging than a ready to drink bottle and we weigh 25 times less. So really throughout the life cycle of the product, it's just gonna have a much lower carbon footprint than a liquid beverage.

Ramon Vela (18:28.674)
Yeah. So I always look at an entrepreneur's journey and I always think there's so many different validation points along the way. First, you validated that you had this idea and this formula that you wanted to implement. You had a validation point with a mentor that you mentioned earlier. And then of course, as you start raising money, you have other validation points. At what point, do you remember at what point...

you maybe it was when you started making sales or whatever it was, but what point was it where you thought like, wow, okay, this idea actually is going to work or this idea has legs. so, you know, for some people it's like, like maybe it's, you know, when they got into a retailer or for others, it might be when, you know, they made a certain amount of sales and others, might be, you know, some other things, but

Do you remember that milestone when you were thinking like, okay, this is going to be a good, like an actual business.

Lauren Picasso (19:27.91)
Yeah, so we've had a ton of milestones along the way, but I'd say the first really big one for us was getting into CVS.

So we had just been selling online on our website and Amazon, and we had done a small pilot with CVS in eight stores. And I'll never forget when I got the email from them that said they wanted to expand us to 3,000 stores. And they wanted to, it was actually through their innovation program. they were really bullish on hydration much earlier than actually any other retailer.

and we're gonna bring us on a hydration end cap in stores with other hydration brands. That's actually still live today, so it's been live for five years now. And that was really just our first big debut. I always say, once you get one yes, it always leads to more yeses. So once you unlock one retailer, that was really the catalyst we needed to sell into other major retailers. So I felt like from there,

we were able to really quickly expand our retail distribution beyond.

Ramon Vela (20:35.852)
Yeah. And I'm curious from a, from a D to C to a retail, was there a strategy in place? was there, or was it really more cost driven? And of course there's always the cost is, is always part of it, but, was there a strategy in terms of let's start D to C first, let's understand our brand and what our brand means to customers. let's learn more about our customers and get a handle on that.

And then, and then maybe in the meantime, you're optimizing your supply chain and so forth. And then you go into retail. Was there, was there a strategy in place for that?

Lauren Picasso (21:19.632)
Yeah, definitely. I I think the great thing about launching online first is that you get that immediate feedback from customers. So we actually made many changes to our formula. The initial product that we had launched was not getting great feedback out of the gate. People thought the product is way too salty. We made a ton of tweaks and...

the formula has changed quite a lot to where it is today. And I'd say it's much harder to learn those lessons in retail. You kind of only get one shot with a retailer. So it's definitely best you learn as many lessons, whether it's price point, format, formulation, and taste before you launch in that retailer so that you know that it's gonna work. And I think even launching that small pilot with CVS was really helpful for us.

We were in a number of other very small retailers besides that. And that was just helpful for us to figure out the right format. And this is getting very tactical, we had launched with a 20 count box. We found that that was too high of an opening price point for retail and then pivoted to an eight count box where we felt like we would really be driving trial. So all of those were lessons learned before we launched in 3,000 stores. So we had some really great insights going into that.

Ramon Vela (22:39.372)
Wow. I love that sort of inside baseball a little bit. For everyone out there, if you want to take a look at what we're talking about, you can go to curehydration.com curehydration.com. That's C-U-R-E the word hydration.com. If you want to take a look at what we're talking about. And I am curious. I've had various companies on the show and one of their strategies around retail was, and it sounds like you were following this.

is like, for instance, chomps, I don't know you know the meat sticks. They said that they, they, when they got into Trader Joe's, they wanted to stick around for a little bit, really understand the whole retail space a little bit and just make sure that they were optimizing that retailer before kind of moving on to others. And I think they were, well, they were due to see, think for a while, I think four or five years or whatever that might've been. And then they got into Trader Joe's.

Lauren Picasso (23:10.491)
Yeah, of course.

Ramon Vela (23:36.214)
And then that lasted for a little bit. then they, then once they kind of felt comfortable with that, then they started launching into other places. And then of course, others have a slightly different tact in that they want to scale into as many stores as possible right away. And I think both of them works, but obviously depending on how ready you are to scale up and your supply chain and so forth. Did you have that strategy in place? that your CVS time period?

Lauren Picasso (24:04.7)
Yeah, mean, for us, launching in retail was, it was also a unique period of time. mean, generally I say, you know, you want to build out retail like the slow way in concentric circles where you're starting out, you really small, really where your core customer is. You know, maybe that's a natural retailer like Whole Foods. Then from there, you continue to expand that and you eventually work your way up to the bigger retailers like Costco and Walmart.

But for us, know, why we launched in CVS first, which is, you know, often a kind of a later partner for a lot of people, was really for two reasons. I think the first because I was through this innovation program where we were going to get this really unique placement that wouldn't come with this sort of normal slotting fees that you might see in a retailer.

But the second reason it was COVID, so it was 2020. And a lot of the grocery programs, like out of Whole Foods or a lot of the grocery retailers, that typically drive sales, like we think of in-store sampling when you go to stores like this. You think of merchandising, going to stores and trying to get secondary placements. All of those programs were not live. They were all shut down because of COVID. So we knew we couldn't be successful there.

Pharmacy was actually one of the few places where customers were shopping still, you the stores were still open. And eventually we were able to get really creative with CVS. So when people started going in to get their vaccines, we actually did a sampling program where you would go and get your vaccine and then you'd get a little thank you kit and it would include a pack of cure to help you recover from your vaccine. So we were able to kind of, you know,

Ramon Vela (25:27.712)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Lauren Picasso (25:51.666)
pivot and adapt to what was going on at the time to build out our retail strategy. And then, once COVID started to dwindle, that's when we actually started launching and some of those other retailers and from there have built it out since then.

Ramon Vela (26:07.182)
And then in terms of the COVID and then obviously, you know, there's a lot of suffering that occurred, but from a brand standpoint, did you find that your sales, well, yeah, I mean, it's hard to know obviously because there's, can't like just, you know, compare it to, you know, a non-COVID time. It just is what it is, but COVID, I don't know, felt like for a lot of brands really propelled them.

forward. And I would imagine like hydration. mean, I caught COVID once and I remember having to drink a lot. And during that time period, I know I was nervous about getting COVID. And so I was just trying to do everything I could, staying hydrated, know, vitamins, supplements, everything else. And I'm wondering, was it a sort of a propellant for you in terms of the brand?

Did it help you in terms of people wanting that hydration at that time?

Lauren Picasso (27:09.294)
Yeah, absolutely. I think it was just a time where people started really thinking about their health. whether it was immunity supplements or hydration supplements, they really were just doing everything they could to try to stay healthy, try to keep their immune systems active. And so I think hydration is just one of many categories within the broader health and wellness segment that definitely saw

a surge just with people really paying more attention to anything that could to make them healthier.

Ramon Vela (27:46.834)
And when did you guys launch? so it's like right before the pandemic. mean, you know, for a founder, that's you. Was this your first venture? So like for a first time founder, man, you were just thrown, you know, trial by fire, right? Right. Right from the get go.

Lauren Picasso (27:49.138)
in 2019. yeah, exactly. Yeah.

Lauren Picasso (28:01.966)
Yes, yes.

Lauren Picasso (28:11.41)
Definitely. I think for us, it was great because it taught us we had to be adaptable really early on. It's made us really resilient as a company. I think anyone, any company who went through the pandemic and all the challenges that have happened over the past couple of years, if you can adapt and stay strong, think that you end up building the company in a way that's going to really help you.

indoor over the long term.

Ramon Vela (28:42.542)
Yeah, I mean, but it's just, it's wild. mean, it's so interesting, I was just thinking about this and this is a side note is that, you know, because it's, we haven't, we hadn't had anything like COVID since, you know, I guess early 1900s or so, that this is really one of those moments where, you know,

Everyone in the world and everyone in this country experienced it. So everyone kind of has their COVID story a little bit. But again, for a first time founder, it is just amazing to have that trial by fire. So I'm so grateful and I'm glad that you made it through. we're at the right place at the right time because I think it probably helped out a little bit. I want to talk about the product in a second, but I want to get some of your

You've already given us some really good lessons and insights, but I'm wondering if someone's out there listening to you and they have this idea, maybe not on the hydration area, but just has an idea. Is there any insights that you've learned, any pitfalls or things that you would warn someone else about? You would say, make sure to do this or make sure to do that, whatever it might be. Do you have any of those?

Lauren Picasso (30:00.562)
Yeah, think the best thing to do, honestly, I honestly just wish I had started earlier. So for a long time, I was still working my full-time job. I was, for about six months, just doing research and didn't get really the nerve to just start doing it. And I think, honestly, the best thing to do is just to start. Obviously, do some initial research. But the longer you wait, the more you're going to talk yourself out of it.

easily find a reason of, there's someone else doing this. And I think just starting is going to be the best way to get the product out as quickly as possible. And once the products live, that's really when you start learning. So I would honestly just say to act sooner and not wait.

Ramon Vela (30:51.618)
Yeah. And then how about in terms of strategy? I know we talked about a second, but it sounds like you would probably advise someone to start with DTC first, right? Direct to consumer so you gather that feedback and whatnot.

Lauren Picasso (30:57.628)
Yeah.

Lauren Picasso (31:05.871)
Definitely. Yeah, if you are able to launch on D2C and I think some product categories, that's going to be more difficult. But if you're able to, it's a great way to just get feedback really quickly from customers. If you launch in retail first, you'll see the data, but you're not going to necessarily get those reviews. You're not going to get that immediate feedback that you would get from selling on your own website.

Ramon Vela (31:31.534)
And also the very fact that you do D2C, that is also a way for an entrepreneur or a potential founder to really think about the format. Is it going to be a bottle? Is it going to be a can? Is it going to be a powder? Because you have to take all of that stuff into consideration in terms of shipping.

excuse me, manufacturing and whatever that might be. it's actually a good way to, like, as you're thinking about your product, to wonder, like, is it deteseable? I don't even know if that's a word, but it sounds like you did it. At any point, did you think that maybe it was going to be a bottle or a glass or whatever it might be?

Lauren Picasso (32:10.093)
Sorry.

Lauren Picasso (32:21.106)
I had thought about it, because I was coming from an e-commerce background, I knew that was where my capabilities were. I didn't have any experience in retail. All my experience was really performance marketing. And so just looking at the economics, I just knew I couldn't make it work with a liquid. But I did get a lot of pushback. A lot of investors told me early on.

Why are doing a powder? It's such a small market. And I just believed, I kind of saw that, you that was changing. You saw, was seeing brands like Fido proteins and athletic greens really start to, you know, make the category more mainstream. think people used to think of powders as sort of like the protein, protein powder and creatine that, I don't know, my brother certainly grew up drinking.

Ramon Vela (33:07.021)
Mm-hmm.

Lauren Picasso (33:11.698)
But that's really a change. I think it's a category that has become a lot more mainstream than it used to be.

Ramon Vela (33:18.572)
Yeah, no, I agree. And like we talked about earlier, there's obviously some cost advantages around that. And I'm wondering now, let me just mention again, if you want to take a look at what we're talking about, you can go to curehydration.com. We're going to talk a little bit more about what you can find there in a second, but it's curehydration.com. And so I'm wondering also in terms of the product,

So it started off as a powder, you had this formula. Now, as you've gone through, and maybe this will become clearer when we start talking about specific products, but have you started adding additional products, like additional formulas? Have you, the feedback that you're getting, are you finding that, ooh, some people want maybe hydration and plus this, or they want hydration plus, you know,

I know this is going to sound silly or maybe it's not silly, you know, like proteins all over the place, right? Have you thought about maybe adding protein in it? Although maybe there's a lot of protein products out there or I don't know, or probiotics or whatever it might be, but have you thought about as you moved on, how best to serve some of these other markets that are kind of adjacent to you that could use a product like yours, but also with this added benefit or functionality?

Lauren Picasso (34:18.514)
Alright, we're going.

Lauren Picasso (34:39.858)
Yes, so yeah, absolutely. So when we first launched, we just launched with three flavors. And we tried to launch with as broad of a sort assortment as we could. We had a berry flavor, a lemon flavor, and a ginger turmeric flavor, just to have kind of like a wild card. And for us, it was just a great way to start to get an understanding of what people liked. We kind of quickly understood actually that people really liked the more

familiar with flavors. We tend to do really well with more nostalgic flavors. Something like a ginger turmeric was a bit too niche. So that was a good lesson for us to learn early on. We now have 10 flavors and continuing to expand there. Our goal is really to have, not to give the consumer too many choices. We don't want to overwhelm them with flavors while just still making sure that there's something for everybody. So having something

Ramon Vela (35:28.718)
Mm-hmm.

Lauren Picasso (35:35.28)
that is a flavor that for people who like something that's really sweet, something a more citrusy, something spicy, and making sure that we're always introducing newness to get people excited. So yeah, mean, to date it's really just been hydration. We recently last year launched a kids line, which we're really excited about.

And that was really because our customers were asking for it. Most of our customers are parents. They were writing into us to see if the product was safe for children. And a lot of retailers were asking for a kid-friendly product. Our product actually was already kid-friendly, so it was already safe for children. But we thought, why not use that demand as an opportunity to design?

Ramon Vela (36:18.444)
Mm-hmm.

Lauren Picasso (36:24.306)
a whole line that's really focused on kids, kid-friendly packaging, it's pediatrician approved, and we have kid-friendly flavors. We actually did, we've still continued to do focus groups with kids to get their thoughts on our flavors. So we have flavors like Fruit Punch, and we're launching a grape flavor soon, all that our kid tested and approved. Yeah, so for now, really just focused on hydration. mean, we...

Ramon Vela (36:49.869)
Wow.

Lauren Picasso (36:53.786)
are seeing just tremendous growth. I think that's always a big question, when you really start to innovate versus focus on what you're really good at. So we still see a ton of growth potential just with our existing hydration line. That being said, yeah, we are working on other functional categories to eventually launch down the road and continue to expand into a broader portfolio.

Ramon Vela (37:22.284)
Well, and I will say also as a parent that I think that's a great strategy because if you, if you already have a customer that's a parent who understands already the need and you know, the need for hydration, it's almost, it's like a no brainer and it's, definitely should have like a kid's language. I'm glad you do. And I was, that was going to be one of my questions, but it just makes so much sense, especially since kids, you know, for the most part, I mean, I'm sure they're not all, but

for the most part, very active, always running around, you know, like my kids were in baseball and soccer and all sorts of other stuff. And, and then plus kids don't, in our culture, I'm sure there's, you you raised your kid a certain way, cause I knew parents who were very strict with their food, but in culture, in our culture, you know, kids, I think we'll find it hard to just drink water. So if you can make it a little bit more fun,

or tastes good and things like that. I remember, you know, trying to add something like that to my kids. And it's just so much easier for them to hydrate if it tastes good and it's not just water, but it's doing the trick and it's hydrating them. And it's something they enjoy. Every parent knows how hard it is sometimes to feed their kids or to get them to do certain things or whatnot. And you don't want to just give them the sugary drinks and so forth.

So I think it's really great that you have that and I think it makes a lot of sense.

Lauren Picasso (38:52.038)
Yeah, mean, were kind of initially think that thought the parents would use this for sports practice, which they certainly are. And when their kids are sick, but we've actually found kind of similar same learning with our adult line. Most parents are giving it to their kids as an alternative to soda or juice. And so their kids are asking, you know, either they don't allow their kids to have soda or juice and this is like a treat for them, or this is something they can say, okay, you can't have soda, but you can have cure.

And so kids are thinking of it as this kind of magic water, water juice is what they call it, some sort of like treat that's more exciting than water on its own. So that's been kind of an interesting learning for us that we didn't expect.

Ramon Vela (39:35.95)
Yeah. And then from a performance marketing standpoint, that was sort of like your background and that's you knew. Um, but was there anything that kind of, know, I've talked to other people who have a background similar to yours and sometimes they say, you know, when you're doing it for other people, it's one thing, but when you do for yourself, there's potential things that you find out or learn or didn't expect or whatever that might be. But did that happen to you? mean, you know, you knew this, but then as you're going through this, you're thinking, Whoa, this is kind of a little bit different.

Lauren Picasso (39:40.133)
Yeah.

Ramon Vela (40:06.074)
perspective now.

Lauren Picasso (40:07.602)
Totally. I I think that the biggest difference is, you know, the kind of the funding situation. So when I was at Jet.com, we had raised $600 million before we launched. was a great place to be a marketer, but we were running much bigger experiments, you experiments where you were live.

Ramon Vela (40:17.678)
Just a little bit.

Thank

Lauren Picasso (40:27.236)
with out of home and 10 major cities, are running TV commercials on day one. And when you have a really big budget, it's you're able to learn really quickly. And I think that was one thing that I had to adapt with at Cure, just being much, much scrappier. And so we run, we have the same sort of experiment mentality. We're always testing and learning, but we have to get creative and do a lot of our experiments in a scrappier way. So.

rather than spending millions of dollars to learn something. We might run a small experiment where we're reaching out to influencers to get a read on how a certain niche interest group might perform. Getting a sense for how many.

Ramon Vela (41:07.309)
Mm-hmm.

Lauren Picasso (41:10.492)
people would reach out to actually respond rather than running like a Facebook campaign. So yeah, it's definitely like very different, but try to take those same lessons and apply them with this much, much smaller budget.

Ramon Vela (41:25.484)
Yeah. And I'm, and I'm curious too, in terms of like a leadership perspective, do you still, and I don't know if you, if you do it in house or do it, you know, outsource in either, it just works either way. This question works either way, but do you find, do you kind of like, even though you have this background, you understand, do you kind of like let the team do it? or do you still try to get involved or do you want to stay involved? what, how does that look like?

Lauren Picasso (41:52.656)
Yeah, mean, really, my goal is really to empower the team as much as possible. every person on the team fully owns their area of the business. Everyone has P &L ownership. So I really try not to get too involved. I want to provide my opinion when someone is asking for it or needs help, but really not trying to get too involved in the day-to-day campaigns, for example. But that being said, I think it's a

definitely helpful to have the background. helps me understand the right questions to ask, think about the metrics we should be most focused on. So I think it's helpful, I think having the background also allows me to stay further away from it because I have a better understanding of what's happening.

Ramon Vela (42:41.422)
Yeah. Well, and I find, uh, and what I always tell the founders or starting, who are starting out that it's really great to understand how everything works. Like even if you have to do it yourself a little bit, just to better understand it doesn't mean you have to be an expert at it, but it's just so helpful. Like for instance, when I've already started, I didn't know anything about editing audio or video or anything like that. And I went through so many people.

because I was trying to find someone to do the way that I wanted and I probably wasn't communicating that very well. And so I finally said, screw this, I'm going to learn to do it myself. And I started learning how to do it. And now I can edit and video and audio. Now I'm not an expert, but now I know enough so that if I, when I hire someone, I know exactly how to instruct them and allow, still allow them to be creative. But now I have, you know, now I understand it.

And so I think it's just really helpful to do that. And especially if you have a really great skillset like performance marketing, it's it's so helpful.

Lauren Picasso (43:46.842)
Yeah, mean, definitely there was so many other areas of business that I was not familiar with, know, operations and supply chain being definitely the main areas that were not familiar to me. I think to your point, it was so helpful. mean, it was in beginning really just me. I was alone for the first 18 months and I'd say while was, you know, those were certainly crazy days and I wasn't, you know,

really paying as much attention as I could have, like should have to a lot of these areas of the business, it helped me learn. So I had to learn every single part of the business. And once I did eventually hire people to take on those areas and focus on them more, I had a lot of knowledge to pass on. it was just, eventually really helped me become a better manager because I had a better understanding of what they were doing in the day to day.

Ramon Vela (44:35.566)
And how did you learn some of the stuff that you didn't know, like the operations? And the reason why I asked that is that I interviewed the founder of Elvie, the breast pump company. And she told me she didn't know anything about all this stuff and that she was so grateful because she had these mentors that actually took time, like every Saturday morning, they would meet for like six weeks, seven weeks or whatever the timeframe was.

Lauren Picasso (44:47.74)
first.

Ramon Vela (45:04.024)
to basically educator on the supply chain and all this, the operation side of it and so forth. Did you have someone like that or did you ask a lot of questions? How did it work out for you?

Lauren Picasso (45:15.664)
Yeah, so I just talked to as many people as I could. So I tried to find mentors in the food and beverage industry. So somebody who had been there, had done it before, and it could help me even know what the right questions to ask were. So yeah, I did a lot of networking and trying to learn as much as I could about the industry. And then just even, you know,

talking to my partners. So whether it was my manufacturer or my 3PL, know, trying to learn from them as much as I possibly could as well and just asking a lot of questions early on.

Ramon Vela (45:53.198)
Well, yeah, well, I mean, you got to do it one way or another. If you're fortunate, you have people who can help you. But I often find if you're just very inquisitive, you just ask a of questions and that you can get a lot of it. And sometimes you make mistakes, but, you know, the more questions, the better. So let's take a look at the website and let's let's start off with this premise. If someone's listening to this and they don't know this is like their first introduction to cure.

Where do you want them to start the journey? And again, let me just say, everyone out there, you can go to Cure Hydration. That's cure, C-U-R-E, hydration.com. Where do you want them to begin?

Lauren Picasso (46:37.254)
Yeah, so they can begin right on our homepage and from there should learn a little bit about us. But really, you know, to just introduce the product, the brand, we're an electrolyte drink mix. So it's a powder that you add to water. The product is science-backed. So it is a medical-grade hydration product that's

proven to hydrate faster than water on its own. And we're using really the cleanest ingredients possible. We're using a base of coconut water powder. We have no added sugar, nothing artificial. are non-GMO, certified gluten-free, really trying to make the product as healthy as possible. And I think, you

One thing I'd want people to discover is what flavor they like best. I think that's always important. So we do offer a starter kit on our website that has one pack of each of our flavors. And that's a great place to start. So that's usually the product that first customers buy. The goal is for you to try all of our different flavors, see what you like best, and then place a reorder for your favorite flavor or flavors, depending on.

what you like.

Ramon Vela (47:54.466)
Well, and by the way, I love the packaging and I've seen this more and more because I think the trend is, and I this is a great trend, that people are wanting to know that there's like real food in their products. So I love how you highlight the fruit on your packaging. So anyone out there, you're going to curehydration.com, you're on the homepage, you just scroll down a little bit.

And you have the different variety packs there and the different packs and they're just like, boom, they're just bold in terms of what's in there. Like the blood orange has this amazingly deliciously looking slice of orange. And then the one that is, what is it? Tropical punch. You have this pineapple and you have this orange and you have cherries in there and it just looks amazing. Like when you're looking at this, my mouth is already kind of like.

Lauren Picasso (48:29.53)
I'm

Ramon Vela (48:51.074)
know, salivating, looking at this. So kudos to whoever did this iteration of your packaging design.

Lauren Picasso (49:00.282)
Yeah, thank you. mean, it was not actually our first version. We initially launched with a brand that was totally different and didn't really invest a lot in it. And I think that's always a question I get is like, should I work with a big agency in the beginning? Should I invest a lot in my branding? And I think for us, I'm grateful actually that we didn't do that at the gate because like I said earlier, I was thinking this brand is going to be for

Ramon Vela (49:03.982)
the

Lauren Picasso (49:27.634)
endurance athletes, I thought the brand was going to be totally different than what it up being. And what we found, you know, aside from customers really using this more of as like an everyday hydration product, we also found that the number one reason why customers were choosing CURE was because of our ingredients. So they, you know, weren't mentioning it all like, okay, you're science back, like they, that's important, but they were not mentioning that was the reason why they're buying CURE. It wasn't in our reviews.

So as far as like knowing what to do with the design, we went into it and we already had all this great data. We knew that customers were buying cure because of these clean ingredients. And we knew that we really wanted to put those ingredients front and center, which is why you have that big, bold macro fruit photography. But I think, sometimes in the beginning, it's hard to know exactly. There's so many things you want to say about your product.

and design is really about focusing on the things that matter most. And we didn't necessarily know that out of the gate. So I am grateful that we had a lot of data to tell us what we should highlight before making that investment early on.

Ramon Vela (50:40.876)
Yeah. Well, it looks amazing. And like the variety of pack has this watermelon and, and strawberries and other things. It just looks, it looks fantastic. And just to reiterate what you said before, just so I, I love seeing these. And so just want to highlight them. So it's plant-based, which I love. I'm a plant, plant-based person. No sugar added, non-GMO.

vegan formula, which I'm not a vegan, but I don't eat meat, so I'm kind of, I love when I see that, gluten-free, and then of course female founded, yay. So there's just so many really great data points there. And then I noticed that you also have a subscription and then rewards, and then you have a learn and a locator. Walk us through the subscription and the rewards. So we can, the more we buy, the more discounts we get, or how does that work?

Lauren Picasso (51:16.88)
Yeah.

Lauren Picasso (51:35.506)
Exactly. So if you subscribe, you get 15 % off plus free shipping. So it's really the best value anywhere. So if you go on Amazon or find us in store, nowhere is going to be lower than that 15 % subscribe and save discount. And then we have a rewards program too. So the more you buy, the more credits you get to get discounts. So yeah, we always say our website is the best.

place to buy Cure. You're going to get the lowest pricing, best benefits and rewards overall.

Ramon Vela (52:11.886)
Well, and I want to point out to something as I'm looking through this website. If you're on the homepage, you scroll all the way down. They're sort of like a little, um, uh, comparison chart and you have cure. You've got 25 calories, zero added sugar. And then you have what other typical drinks might have in terms of calories. And it's like, Whoa, it's like 112, 120 and so forth. And then you've got, uh, 27 grams of added sugar and some sports drinks.

as well as coconut water, kind of 28 grams of sugar. And what I've learned the hard way, and this is not in your category, but I've learned the hard way, is I love to go hiking. And this, by the way, it sounds like it's a great product to take if you're gonna go hiking too. And I would buy like a bar beforehand. I would stop at a convenience store, like a 7-Eleven here in Los Angeles. And you know, you...

you try to choose something that looks healthy and you're kind of hopeful, you try a brand that you think is healthy. And I never really bothered, this was a few years ago, because now I'm behind the label type person. I always look behind and I look at the label, but I'm just so amazed at products which I think are healthy, or at least I think they're made, have a great sort of nutrition profile. They're just packed with sugar. I used to love this bar.

Lauren Picasso (53:34.322)
I

Ramon Vela (53:36.0)
And I started looking at the back and I'm thinking, my God, look at all this sugar. No wonder is why I like it.

Lauren Picasso (53:42.992)
Yeah, totally. Yeah, I mean, the more I've at the longer I've been in the industry, the closer attention I pay to labels. And I'm always just shocked not just by the added sugar, but artificial ingredients added to products that as a consumer based on the front of the label, I think look perfectly healthy. They might say no artificial colors, but then they have artificial sweeteners and other things that aren't so good for you.

Ramon Vela (54:09.794)
Yeah, so there's a lot of stuff here and you have also a lot of the, I guess your big partners in here. I'm just actually just checking in for myself and I'm seeing there's plenty. So you have all your retail outlets there. If you wanna shout out some of your big partners, maybe I know you can't do them all but.

Lauren Picasso (54:37.434)
You can find us at CVS, Walgreens, Albertsons, Kroger, Sprouts. We are going to be launching in Whole Foods in about a month as well, so you'll be able to find us there soon. Where else? REI, Anthropologie, those are just a few of our big partners.

Ramon Vela (54:56.632)
Great. Yeah, I just typed in my zip code, which you can do if you go to curehydration.com, there's a store locator button. I typed in mine and right away it has a Sprouts Farmers Market there, has a bunch of CVSs all around me. There's Walgreens, Sprouts again, Walmart, and Walgreens, if I didn't mention that before. Yeah, so there's plenty of places. And is this available, are you located nationwide?

Lauren Picasso (55:25.286)
We are available nationwide, yes.

Ramon Vela (55:27.572)
that's fantastic. I love your mission and I think this is just such a great product to have and definitely people need more hydration. Is there anything else you want to leave with the audience in terms of either what it's made of or maybe the future? I know we talked a little bit about some other functional things that you might be coming up with, but is there anything that you want them to know before, and I want to be respectful of your time, but before we end this interview,

Is there any new products coming out? Any new product launches? Anything you're doing fun for the summer?

Lauren Picasso (56:02.598)
Yeah, so we are gonna be expanding our kids line. So we have a new grape flavor launching later this year. And then really just continuing to expand our product formats. So we recently just launched a tropical punch bulk jar. So we now have...

Several flavors available in our bulk jar format, is definitely popular for people looking for a more sustainable option. And we'll be releasing that and even more flavors later this year.

Ramon Vela (56:34.114)
Wow. Well, like I said, this has been amazing. How about your social media? What's your social media handle?

Lauren Picasso (56:40.464)
Yeah, so our Instagram handle is cure. Just see, see you re.

Ramon Vela (56:47.252)
And are you on TikTok as well?

Lauren Picasso (56:49.362)
Yes, and that handles cure hydration. yeah, go ahead.

Ramon Vela (56:52.01)
Okay. No, I was going say, so either cure or cure hydration. Well, that's fantastic. well, like I said, I love everything you've said. And I think it's really, you, you've provided really even for those founders and entrepreneurs out there, those people who are interested, you've given so much really great advice. So thank you for that. But I think the product really is, outstanding. It's sounds like it's a product that meets our tagline, which is products we're buying, brands we're supporting.

Lauren Picasso (56:57.572)
Yes, exactly.

Ramon Vela (57:22.147)
and I think that what you're doing is fantastic. So thank you so much for making time for us. Anything else you want to leave with the audience?

Lauren Picasso (57:30.106)
I don't think so. Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate you having me on the show.

Ramon Vela (57:34.316)
Yeah, well, I always love to highlight passionate founders who are, you know, making their dreams come true. regardless of how challenging it is, because, you know, we kind of gloss over some of those stuff, but COVID other times, and even, guess, now with some of the tariff going on, it's challenging. It's hard to be a founder. It's hard to be an entrepreneur. You bleed sweat and tear over your product and you want it to be the best product possible. And you've got all these other pressures hitting you.

So it's difficult. So thank you for creating such a wonderful product. I love the profile and all the other things that I mentioned in terms of the brand. So thank you for that. And I appreciate it. And like I said, I love to have founders and brands like yours on the show. So thank you for making time for me again. so everyone out there, we have just had Lauren Picasso, which by the way, fantastic name, CEO and founder of Cure Hydration.

Lauren Picasso (58:20.485)
Of course.

Lauren Picasso (58:28.764)
Thank you.

Ramon Vela (58:33.08)
We're going to have that link as well as the social media links on our podcast description, which you can find at Spotify, on Apple, and pretty much anywhere you listen to podcasts, simply type in the story of a brand show and you should be able to find it. We've got 1,273 episodes and we've got them all in sorts of different categories with lots of really great products that you can learn about. And you can also learn a lot about entrepreneurship from our show, but we really appreciate Lauren.

And so I definitely, I always end our shows with saying, stay safe, stay sane, stay healthy. Well, one way of staying healthy is staying hydrated. So definitely go check out the website, curehydration.com. See if there's something there for you. I think there really is. And the packaging, even if you're not that interested right now, go to the packaging, go watch the packaging. It's an amazing package. And I'm pretty sure at that point you're either gonna wanna buy

hydration, the, the pure hydration, or you're going to want to eat some fruit because it's just like so beautiful. By the way, kudos again to your packaging. It basically makes your mouth water as you're looking at that. So, I love that. but thank you so much and everyone out there. One last thing. So there's a crazy time going on right now. Politics, wars, tariffs, whatever. It's all this just really crazy, regardless of where you are.

and how you stand on any of these subjects is just crazy. So let's just do ourselves a favor. Let's just remember that everyone is going through something, anxiety, stress, financial issues, whatever it is, a lot of craziness in the world. Let's just be kinder to each other. Let's just remember that everyone is going through something and I know we can make this human experience a better one. Beyond that, thank you from the bottom of my heart for listening to another episode of the story of a brand.