Beverage Startups
Third place winner at DrinkPreneur Live 2015
DrinkPreneur Live 2015 which was held in London received a lot of attention from beverage startups. This year we had twelve competitors at startup competition. They all were great and unique in their own way. Although, special jury had to nominate three startup projects for three first places. The third place was taken by LOVO Drinks. Today, I’m speaking with Harriet Moore the Managing Director & Founder of LOVO Drink.
Congratulations to you girls for taking third place at DrinkPreneur Live What are your thoughts after the event?
We had a great time! All the speakers were really engaging and said genuinely insightful things, it was brilliant to see other drinks companies across a range of stages, and the host did a fantastic job of keeping the day moving, asking practical questions, which generated useful answers from the speakers.
Do you feel satisfied with third place? Have you expected to be one of Top 3 team from 12 startups?
We’re more than satisfied with third place! We know we have a strong product which fills a genuine gap in the market, but we also know our branding needs work, so we weren’t expecting anything.
What was your own Top 3 startup list? Why particularly these three startups?
T-sticks, Naturelly and Vitness, because they all have clearly identifiable markets and consumption occasions, are doing something novel and different, and meet a genuine consumer need.
The first place was taken by Tapped and the second place went to T-Sticks. What are your thought about these startups? What kind of qualities assured those places for them?
They’re both great new companies. I think Tapped won in large part because of their phenomenal branding; their tree trunk design is so clever you can’t help but want to pick the product up and have a look. T-Sticks have a different appeal, solving a problem for consumers in a simple and effective way. T-Sticks already have some great traction in the market, which I think added legitimacy to their concept, winning over any skeptics in the room.
We loved your energy and positive attitude at the event. What is the future for LOVO? What kind of goals do you have in mind?
Thanks! Drinkpreneur gave us confidence that we’re on the right track, so we’ll be sticking to our business plan. Fundamentally, we’ll focus on completing our re-brand, continuing to grow sales, and developing two new flavours. Longer term we see LOVO stocked in ‘casual dining’ type restaurant chains and in the supermarkets; LOVO is a great at home convenience drink and we had encouraging feedback from buyers at Drinkpreneur, so fingers crossed and watch this space!
