X-ing Out Thirst: Brian Ansah, co-Founder of X Hydration

00:00

Dave Almy

Brian, what led you to this particular moment? So let's begin with getting a little bit about your background. Right, so you were a, you're a competitive athlete. You ran track and field at the University of Minnesota. Was, was that always part of your background, always part of your history? Were you at competitive athletically from a young age?

00:20

Brian Ansah

Yeah, I mean, competing athletics is something that I've always done. I've been in sports from really young age, so I've always loved to compete ever since. Ever since I could.

00:32

Dave Almy

And all kinds of sports. Or was there one that really stuck out to you as being like, I feel like I'm pretty good at this one, I should probably pursue it?

00:39

Brian Ansah

Yeah. In high school I was a three sport athlete, so I played basketball, football, on track. So I liked all sports. I mean middle school also played soccer as well. I kind of miss playing that too. But yeah, I loved all sports.

00:51

Dave Almy

You try to cram four sports into a three sport season and that you must be good at time management too, I suspect.

00:58

Brian Ansah

Yeah, I ended up quitting soccer.

00:59

Dave Almy

So I'm sure the football coaches were relieved that you gave that one up. So you can focus a bit more on what they wanted you to do. How, how did the idea for ex hydration first present itself to you? Was had you always had an entrepreneurial streak or were you more fascinated in the science behind hydration and things like that? What, what were that? What. Tell me a little bit about that particular origin story.

01:24

Brian Ansah

Yeah, so the origin story for ex hydration, it's a long. But it's a, it's an interesting one. The idea first came to me when I got to the U. Running track.

01:36

Dave Almy

University of Minnesota, correct?

01:38

Brian Ansah

Yeah, University of Minnesota. I was actually injured and I was rehabbing, so I had a bit more time on my hands than the average athlete because, you know, from an ACL tear, you're not just, oh, so you were injured? Injured, yeah, so. So I had a little bit more free time on my hands and I'm like, dang, like, what am I gonna do? You know, from a young age I was always told like, oh, you're gonna go to the Olympics, you're gonna do this and this, you're gonna do that. And I'm sitting there in bed, you know, like, my knees hurting and like, I gotta do all this rehab. I'm like, maybe that might not be the case. Like, what will my trajectory be?

02:13

Dave Almy

It's a tough pivot right there.

02:14

Brian Ansah

It is it is a tough pivot. And I, I always would call one of my best friends back home, Joel Carlson. He was going through a similar situation in terms of rehab. He had a really unfortunate accident happened to him, leaving him, like, paralyzed from the waist down. But Joel's most optimistic person. I know a great guy, and I'd always make sure to call him because I'd always wanted to make sure, like, he was doing good. And I'm still connected back home when I'm in college. So me and Joel were just chatting it up one day and were just like, yeah, let's start a business. Like, let's just do it. You know, it's just like something that, you know, like, it's like something in the group chat that made it out.

02:57

Dave Almy

We're just like something that escaped to the group chat into irl. But it was more about the idea of starting a business rather than specifically focus on hydration at this point. Your, your brain is used to working overdrive as an athlete, particularly as a student athlete. Now all of a sudden you find yourself with, I gotta fill this timer, I'm gonna go bananas kind of thing. And so this dialogue with Joel is sort of what led you to that point?

03:23

Brian Ansah

Yeah, that definitely led us to this point. So me and Joel were just kind of deciding in, like, you know, like, let's start a business. We're like, what are we gonna do? Like, oh, that.

03:34

Dave Almy

Yeah.

03:34

Brian Ansah

So we both. Joel's very high level athlete. You know, Joel's on route to be, you know, great Division 1 hockey player, good athlete. We're just like, you know, we know so much about sports and go with, be at the elite level, like, what kind of nutrition you need. So we're just like, you know, let's make like a sports drink. Let's make a hydration beverage. And that's kind of how it all took off. We're just like, let's do it. And I called my older brother at the time I was 18 when we first founded it, called my older brother. I've always been like, you know, the younger brother. I'm the youngest of three boys.

04:09

Dave Almy

So your parents shout out to the aunts of parents. Holy mackerel. That must have been a busy household.

04:17

Brian Ansah

It was a pretty busy household. So I called him and I'm like, yo, I know I have some crazy ideas, but, like, listen to me. Give me $3,000. I got this idea, like, I laid it out to him, pitched it to him, and I Were you the crazy Idea, brother. Yeah, a little bit.

04:34

Dave Almy

Okay, so what, like, give me. Give me a little history. Like, I mean, have you. Give me another crazy idea. You came with your brothers with. Is this, like, something that they picked up the phone and went, oh, no, it's Brian. This is gonna be insane. Or give me a little bit of that history on this. We.

04:48

Brian Ansah

We would always, like, just have some, like, crazy ideas where, like, we'd be, like, wrestling in the house or, like, playing soccer in the backyards. I broke windows and. Yeah.

04:59

Dave Almy

So again, shout out to the answer parents.

05:03

Brian Ansah

I was known for, you know, doing some. I was always moving around, you know. You know, it helped into my benefit with being an athlete, but still. So he. I asked him for $3,000, and he was super supportive. Like, he goes, you know what? I think this is a great idea. Like, let's go for it, really.

05:20

Dave Almy

So he bought in right out of the gate just like that, on the initial pitch?

05:23

Brian Ansah

Yeah, right off the initial pitch. And we. We never moved back, and were able to get to the point where we're at now.

05:30

Dave Almy

Were you intimidated at all by the fact that there. I mean, it's not like there's no hydration beverages out there? Was this something that gave you any pause or kind of a competitive person by nature? You felt like there was some. A niche that you could exploit in that kind of saturated market?

05:52

Brian Ansah

Yeah. So, yeah, definitely. You know, the drink industry is pretty saturated, so that's a given. But I do think there. There was a niche there for us, so I knew I didn't want to go against the competing leaders in the industry. So we'd have some.

06:08

Dave Almy

They have some resources at their disposal.

06:10

Brian Ansah

Yeah, a lot of resources. So we did a lot of research and seeing, like, you know, what are the trends? What is the industry shifting to look like? And we saw that, you know, it's more. So fitness waters are what, you know, buyers are trending towards looking for, you know, cleaner options. So not necessarily a sports drink. We're more in a subcategory of, like, fitness water, like a wellness water. So we found out that we could do that, and we're trying to be a leader in that category.

06:40

Dave Almy

Was the development process because you're. Did you have a science background? Did product development? Was this something you had to learn on the fly? I mean, how did that process unfold for you? Was it a huge learning curve or just more like an extension of yourself as an athlete?

06:55

Brian Ansah

I actually have my bachelor's in chemistry.

06:57

Dave Almy

Okay. So there's some.

06:58

Brian Ansah

I'm Kidding. I don't. I'm a business major.

07:03

Dave Almy

Tell you had me hook, line and sinker. I had a very straight face with the bachelor's in chemistry.

07:08

Brian Ansah

No, no, I do not have a bachelor's in chemistry. But I always had a good grasp on nutrition and what it takes to compete and fuel your body at the highest level. Although were fortunate enough to partner with, you know, one of the best labs who have a team of great chemists that was able to put, you know, our ideas down and really make this thing a reality.

07:30

Dave Almy

So is it that you approach the chemists with? Here's the idea that we're looking for. And you kind of build the broad brushstrokes and they say, okay, well, we'll come back here with some ideas on what that might look like. What was the process that led you to the ultimate, we'll call it the initial final version of what ex hydration would be. Was there a lot of iterations? Did you arrive at it pretty quickly?

07:57

Brian Ansah

There was a lot of iterations. We, we did a lot of sampling, a lot of taste testing, a lot of focus group. I'm not gonna lie, it did take a while.

08:06

Dave Almy

Like. Yeah, it take longer than expected.

08:09

Brian Ansah

Oh, yeah, than expected. When we got the first sample, I honestly at first thought, I'm like, man, I'm gonna be out. I might be out of my money. Honestly, the first sample I was like, oh, might have went south. But you know, we stuck to it and we got great tasting formula down, a great functional formula down. So it was definitely worth the time.

08:30

Dave Almy

Aloe seems to be a key ingredient slash differentiator for the brand. Did you arrive on that through your work with the group that helped develop the drink? Was this something that you went into the idea, like, now this is something that I think we really need just because of my experience with it. How did that become one of the more forward leaning parts of both the drink and the brand?

08:56

Brian Ansah

Yeah, so with the aloe, we really wanted to do something different and that's a conclusion that we came to just as a company, as ex hydration. We just wanted to really put in something that's, you know, beneficial for the body. I mean, you see most brands are always doing, you know, the coconut waters. And I kind of felt like, yeah, coconut water is good, but I kind of feel like it's kind of played out, you know, like I been there and I feel like, you know, some people just use like just regular water, just nothing to it. I'm just like, let's do something different. We want to come and want to be innovative. We want to differentiate ourselves in a pretty saturated market. So let's find a way we can really utilize aloe.

09:37

Brian Ansah

And it's a great ingredient where we found a way to really utilize and get all the benefits from it.

09:43

Dave Almy

And what are some of those benefits? Like when you talk about, I mean when I think of aloe I probably think about a lot of people. It's like when I get my sunburn I got to get my aloe on it, otherwise I'm going to peel like an onion kind of thing. So when you're talking about ingesting aloe, what are the qualities that make it an important ingredient for ex. Hydration?

10:02

Brian Ansah

Yeah, there's a lot of reasons it's important ingredient for us. I mean aloe, it helps our aloe that's in contained in our beverage. It helps reduce oxidative stress, you know, helps with like lowering cholesterol levels. It increases your. And I might sound like a chemistry major here, but.

10:20

Dave Almy

You'Ve absorbed a lot along the way, let's put it that way.

10:23

Brian Ansah

Yeah. It increases your body's bioethicacy and bioavailability of the fat soluble vitamins that are contained in our beverage. So it actually helps your body absorb like vitamins like vitamin E, vitamin A. So it actually helps your body be able to absorb those nutrients with that are contained within our formula.

10:43

Dave Almy

So as discussed, right, this is a crowded category right there. It does take a lot, particularly as a new player in it to stand out amongst particular on the shelf. So as you have built your team internally and you've had discussions about this, what are some specific ways that excydration is looking to break out in a crowded category? I think there's a lot of entrepreneurs out there like how do I stand out there for you? As you've developed along this process, what for you is some of the more important strategies in that regard.

11:18

Brian Ansah

For differentiation? I'd say an important part of it for us is branding. You know, wanted to make sure, you always want to make sure you're standing out in such a crowded market. Make sure your branding is clean and it looks good. It's appealing to the eye, it's appealing.

11:33

Dave Almy

Somebody's walking down the aisle, they'll their eye will go to it kind of.

11:37

Brian Ansah

Like, oh, you know, catch someone's eye walking through the shelves. Marketing is also a huge, huge part of that for us to differentiate ourselves Trying to come up with new viral marketing campaigns to get, you know, people to buy in. And one of the big things for us was being able to partner with Lyft Sports Management, doing a great job with us being their official hy partner for them, to help us break into new markets and really help our amplify our marketing efforts so we can differentiate ourselves and gain a bigger base as we're trying to emerge as one of the top hydration brands.

12:16

Dave Almy

I mean, as a college athlete, obviously this product is developed in this new period of time for college sports. Does name, image, likeness, and being able to partner with athletes enter into that equation? Or is that something you feel like is for when the brand is more mature?

12:32

Brian Ansah

Yeah, NIL is huge. And it's an ever changing, ever changing landscape right. Right now. And it's definitely something that when utilized correctly, can be a pretty powerful marketing tool. So we've done a couple nil deals so far. We're going to look to expand on those and try to find those brand partnerships that make sense for us. Because at Ex Hydration, everything we try to do is authentic. And, you know, we don't necessarily just go for the athlete that has 100,000 followers or like 200,000 followers.

13:06

Dave Almy

Like you go for the podcast. Go hosts with like 300. Yeah, that's what you go with.

13:14

Brian Ansah

That's, that's where you get the ROI there. But we look to get the athletes that really like our product and actually genuinely enjoy our product and what we're building here and what we're doing, because then that's someone who actually is authentic in their posts and is authentic about the brand and helps tell your story. Yeah, it doesn't look like just like another paid partnership. We really try to avoid that because those are, I feel like overplayed and kind of saturated as well.

13:42

Dave Almy

What are some aspirational brands for you? I mean, when you're getting started with excydration, you start to think about, gosh, what are the brands that I think we want to try to emulate? Has there been both within the category and outside the category? Are there ones that stand out to you saying, boy, if we could replicate that particular success and have that kind of authenticity and storytelling in our messaging, what are the ones that stood out to you and how are you trying to replicate that with extra iteration?

14:09

Brian Ansah

Yeah, I definitely say in the CPG industry or excuse me, let's restart on it. Yeah, in the beverage industry, A company that we really admire, I'd say, is Poppy. I feel like Poppy does a great job of coming in with, you know, new benefits. It's a new market. They're taking a twist on soda, making it healthier. And we're just trying to emulate, you know, their consumer friendly, like, Gen Z approach into marketing. I think they do a great job with what they're doing there. And then in the CPG industry as a whole, shout out smack and sunflower seeds, I don't know if you've heard of them. They're also of Minnesota grads and they're killing it. They have viral marketing campaigns. You know, they really know what they're doing.

15:01

Brian Ansah

They, they're on it every day and they're just a testament to, you know, hard work and growth. And we're trying to emulate what they're doing as well and try to use some of the things that they've done right into our marketing scheme.

15:14

Dave Almy

Talk a little bit, Brian, if you could, about making the transition from athlete to entrepreneur. So it does have some things that carry over, I think, relatively well. But there is a learning curve on a lot of other things. So I'm interested in what you've had to learn professionally and what you've had to maybe look on personally as boy. I need to develop some skills here. Talk about that transition a little bit.

15:45

Brian Ansah

Yeah, gosh, it's a, that's a good question.

15:50

Dave Almy

It could be a long list.

15:51

Brian Ansah

Yeah. Every, I feel like every athlete, unless you've gone to the next level, kind of has that like, realization from, like.

16:03

Dave Almy

They confront that moment.

16:04

Brian Ansah

Yeah. From a college athlete to now, you're like, you're in the world. Like every, like the thing that you've done since you were, you know, a kid and now you're doing something different. It's definitely like, it is the realization. Check. It's a, it's a bit of, a bit of a moment. Because, I mean, at some point, I mean, first, personally speaking for me, like, that kind of becomes your identity. Like, you know, I've always been like, oh, the track star, the track guy, you know, and it's kind of weird, kind of shifting that identity to like something else. Kind of like it's still a part of you, but like, that's not like the main focus.

16:37

Brian Ansah

But I think a lot of the qualities that I gained being an athlete, like hard work, dedication, you know, really being a grinder, being persistent, you know, failing and trying again. And trying again and trying again. I really feel like that has carried over into me being an entrepreneur. I think the leadership has also carried over for me being in sports for. For a while. I think that really helped me shape my leadership qualities. But it definitely is. It definitely is different being an entrepreneur than just. Just an athlete.

17:10

Dave Almy

Do you think there's this part of you that thinks, boy, my identity is so tied up into being a track and field athlete, I need to not replace it, but supplement it with a new version of me. And so that creates that competitive fire to make sure that you do it. Do you think that's part of that transition as well?

17:34

Brian Ansah

I think part of that transition also, it just kind of entails me wanting to be kind of like, with the same thing that I wanted to attract is me trying to be the best athlete I can be. I'm also trying the best entrepreneur that I can be. So that's definitely something that adds. That adds fuel to my. To my fire every day. Like, you know, done with track, but, you know, I'm gonna. I wake up every morning, you know, ready to go, and that's. That's kind of my motivation. Like, I want to be the best entrepreneur I want to be, you know, being able to do these things.

18:04

Dave Almy

I wonder if you have recommendations like. Like we talked about. Every. Almost every athlete goes through this moment. I've had several on the podcast, you know, from people who competed in the Olympics and getting out of the pool for the last time and being like, now what? Right when it becomes so much a focus of your. As someone who's in the process of successfully making that transition, what, I wonder, advice would you give to other people who are still at that cusp of reinvention? Do you have, like, some thoughts on what their first steps should be?

18:41

Brian Ansah

Yeah, I think one thing that really, you know, kind of helped me was, like, it was at one point kind of my identity. But, like, you. You can't make something like that your identity, because then if you do that and then you stop that, you'll. You'll really kind of lose yourself. A piece of advice I'd give is just that you're more than just your sport. You're more of a, you know, a complete person. And just know that, like, everybody has their timeline. You know, it's something that you can't do forever. Even if you go on to be a great professional, there's going to be one point, you're going to retire, you know, so just having that in mind, like, either if you're Done now, you're done in a year, you're done in two years. You didn't make it out. Like, everybody has a timeline.

19:27

Brian Ansah

Just knowing that, like, at one point you're going to have to transition to something else.

19:34

Dave Almy

So where do things currently sit with X hydration and particularly distribution? Right. Because it's one thing to get the product in a can. Yeah, Bottle. Bottle.

19:43

Brian Ansah

Can.

19:44

Dave Almy

Can. Bottle.

19:45

Brian Ansah

16.9 ounces. Bottle.

19:47

Dave Almy

All right. 16.9 ounce bottle. I love the precision. That's actually. That does speak like a chemistry major right there. So maybe. Maybe you did get your chemistry degree. Where do things sit as far as distribution? Like, where can people get it now? And what are you shooting for as far as distribution? Because, you know, obviously scale is. Is the name of the game in this.

20:07

Brian Ansah

Yeah. So currently we're available at all the nine Fresh Times in Minnesota. We are available in a couple of select gyms in Minnesota and some high schools in Minnesota, but in terms of nationwide scale, we're available nationwide on Amazon. So if you're not in Minnesota and you would love to try a premium hydration beverage, Amazon's your go to for that. In terms of what we're looking to get, we're looking to expand in more in the Midwest region, branching out from Minnesota to more of the other Midwestern states. But ultimately we're looking to take this thing nationwide. I think we do have the product and the team to do that. It's just. It's a matter of time before you can just go in and grab Exciteration wherever you want to grab it.

20:58

Dave Almy

But it is kind of nice at least to have your initial distribution somewhat close by where you can monitor how it shows up. Right. You can go to the Fresh Times, you can go to some of the local gyms and things and see and hear how people are responding to it. Right.

21:16

Brian Ansah

It's.

21:16

Dave Almy

You're starting to build that feedback loop that would be more difficult if you were, like, in San Diego or something like that. Something that wasn't. Wasn't close by helpful, right?

21:26

Brian Ansah

Oh, no. 100% helpful.

21:28

Dave Almy

Brian, as we. As we wrap here, I'm interested in some of your. Your big audacious goals that you have for ex Hydration. Obviously, we talked a little bit about distribution. We talked about the product development process itself. What else, as you look in these next 12 months, are things that you look at as being those aspirational things that you're looking for ex Hydration.

21:55

Brian Ansah

Yeah, I think some of the big aspirational goals that we're looking to in the next 12 months. I mean, distribution was a pretty big one, you know, to be picked up in, you know, stores, retail locations nationwide. Another. Another big goal for us is to be able to open the VC backed round, you know, to get more funding, more capital to really amplify the things we're doing here and us to be able to continue our mission in a. In an upward manner. Another big one is just being able to be more recognizable, you know, becoming more of a household name and be able to get more market share in this industry.

22:41

Dave Almy

Well, I mean, this podcast alone, my God, it's just going to be like, watch the percentages start to rise right in. I'm with Brian Ansa. He is the founder of X Hydration. Brian, I want to thank you for spending the time, but before I let you go, I got to put you in the lightning round. Oh, okay. Well, I mean, you know, these are a series of questions. These are not coming at you from in a linear perspective. These are coming at you from every direction. I mean, just, you know, just. All right, Brian, answer. In the lightning round, what flavors have you tested and abandoned immediately?

23:20

Brian Ansah

The first ones were doing in formulation, we kind of switched. We had to switch that one out immediately.

23:28

Dave Almy

It was that bad?

23:30

Brian Ansah

Yeah, it was. But exciteration is now a great taste inning. Functional.

23:34

Dave Almy

It's great tasting now, but that's built on a foundation of what have we done?

23:38

Brian Ansah

Yeah, built on a foundation. Things like this definitely take time. It's important to, you know, taste test before you go to market.

23:45

Dave Almy

Okay. According to your University of Michigan bio, you have a special interest in diamonds. So are you writing a heist movie?

23:57

Brian Ansah

No, it's not. Not writing a. Writing a heist. Heist movie. Got a. Just some pretty interesting. Timeout.

24:09

Dave Almy

Timeout. I can ask the question again if you like.

24:12

Brian Ansah

Yeah.

24:13

Dave Almy

Do you want me to abandon that altogether?

24:14

Brian Ansah

No, you can ask. It's Minnesota.

24:17

Dave Almy

What did I say? Michigan, for Christ's sakes. You can't do that. I apologize. That's different.

24:23

Brian Ansah

You might have got me canceled there.

24:25

Dave Almy

That whole podcast might have gone up in flames. All right, here, we'll start again. Ready?

24:30

Brian Ansah

Three, two, one.

24:32

Dave Almy

All right. According to your University of Minnesota bio, you have a special interest in diamonds. So, Brian, are you writing a heist movie?

24:42

Brian Ansah

I'm not. I wish I was. That'd be pretty cool if I was.

24:45

Dave Almy

That would be pretty cool director.

24:46

Brian Ansah

I think I'd have a badass heist move if I was. I just kind of like that. I think they're pretty Cool. I have a couple. Couple jewelry pieces, so. All right.

24:58

Dave Almy

So I come by that naturally. You ran the 400 in college. That is an event that is widely understood to be brutally hard. So my question is, why, Brian? Why?

25:16

Brian Ansah

Yeah, that's the question I ask myself.

25:18

Dave Almy

Usually somewhere around the 300 yard mark.

25:22

Brian Ansah

No, it definitely. It definitely is. It's a tough one. I feel like every 400 runner can relate that. It's a love hate relationship. Sometimes you do it not because you love it, but because you're just. You end up just being. That's the event that you're. You're good at.

25:37

Dave Almy

Brian, answer. He is the founder of Ex Hydration. Thanks for spending the time today, Brian.

25:41

Brian Ansah

All right. Thank you, Dave. Appreciate you.