Two young entrepreneurs by the names of Thi Lam and Brent Lagerman have made an interesting “breakthrough” in the soft drink industry. They, interestingly, came up with the idea of a citrus coffee soda. The two entrepreneurs began their venture by simply experimenting with different drink combinations during their lunch break at work. Over time, however, they began to enjoy mixing and matching flavors to make different drinks so much that they came up with their own idea for a citrus coffee soda drink. After deciding to quit their jobs to pursue a business with their new-found product Thi and Brent ended up making their own company called “Keepers”. Moving along quickly for the good of their company, Thi and Brent landed a deal with the Whole Foods Market to sell their beverage, less than a year later.

What I found interesting about Thi and Brent’s business venture was the fact that, first of all, they started off just messing around in their office mixing random drinks together, but later ended up enjoying themselves so much that they turned their “messing around” into a company. Secondly, I found their business interesting because even though there are so many other big companies out there that dominate the beverage industry, such as Coca Cola, this did not stop these two men from working hard to come up with something new and exciting.

Another thing that struck me was these new entrepreneurs ability to brand their new company as well as market it efficiently. Because he was a graphic designer at a branding agency Thi was able to learn the basics of branding. With this knowledge Thi asked clients lots of questions about their brand, target audience, and marketing goals, and that information was used to inform the design of their good. Since both of the new entrepreneurs also had some market experience, from their previous jobs, they also used this knowledge to strategically place their product in the correct category of the market. Since they knew that soda sales have been going down in recent years, and seltzer water sales have been going up, they tried to place their product somewhere between these two categories. I found this to be very smart as well a great idea to help them to be able to sell their product more.

Something that definitely inspires me about these two men, which I have already mentioned, was their ability to look at a market that is so big already and be able to come up with a new product that they thought people would definitely like. When I look at something like the beverage (or drink) market I couldn’t imagine that I would possibly be able to add something else substantial to it that people would be willing to pay for. These men, however, have shown that it is not an impossible task. So, in my mind, this just goes to show the countless possibilities of what other new products there are to come up with, and by saying this what I mean is that the possibilities are absolutely endless, if you have the passion and the right attitude.