Who doesn’t enjoy a trick, shortcut, or innovative method for accomplishing familiar tasks more easily and efficiently, right? While these type of lifehacks are heralded throughout society, it’s fraternal twin known as biohacking feels like a strange cultlike mix of amateur DIY medicine and things you’d read in futuristic sci-fi novels. Depending on which biohacking subculture you ask (e.g. grinders, transhumanists, primitivists or immoralists), you’ll get a different definition of what biohacking is, but how about we try on the one I prefer? I explain biohacking as making small, incremental diet or lifestyle changes to achieve modest improvements in your health and well-being. By that broad definition, biohacking seems like a recognizable pursuit, right? While the media likes to sensationalize the extreme actions of select biohackers, I’ve scrolled through many biohacking forums and subreddits, and followed prominent biohackers across social media platforms…and noticed almost all are trying to solve familiar problems. Biohackers want to get more and higher quality sleep. They want to perform better at work. They’d like to lose weight, gain strength, or reduce their risk of things like cardiovascular disease. Biohackers are trying to prevent or manage mental health issues like depression. So, if biohacking comes down to something we can all relate to…why hasn’t the movement exploded in popularity? I think perception and reality aren’t matching up around biohacking, and it’s time for a much needed rebrand. For many years, I’ve referred to the desire to feel better, perform better, and to see just how far one can push the human body as an individual that’s pursuing a high-performance lifestyle. It wasn’t until a recent conversation with Matt Titlow, CEO of Compound Solutions, that I learned he has been calling the mainstreaming effect of the biohacking movement…the “Best Self” category. I liked the simplicity of that term, so I’m going to rebrand my own rebrand and use it going forward. The “Best Self” movement is a broader yet direct approach to the wellness culture that doesn’t just assume one-size-fits-all. It’s the consumer that simply wants to be better each day. While the future of biohacking might one day have us resembling cyborgs, that would be closer to Z on the A-to-Z spectrum. Right now, Shelly from Ohio isn’t thinking about all those sci-fi distractions in her pursuit of “Best Self.” Today’s opportunity is targeting the “Best Self” consumers that are looking at real problems or highlighting real goals…and interested in finding real solutions.

Compound Solutions TeaCrine, Dynamine, and Caffeine Information

FOLLOW ME ON MY SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNTS

It’s that glorious time of year again, where my content creation morphs into a collection of Top 5 lists that either gives me the chance to highlight key insights from the last year or provides me the opportunity to put my reputation on the line as a forward-leaning CPG strategist and make predictions about the coming year. Outside of just ranking which five sports nutrition brands I thought were the biggest winners in 2022 (plus another handful of honorable mention brands), I also toss in numerous insights about strategies that made them each supplement brand special and some important supplement industry business themes to make the content more impactful. 

FOLLOW ME ON MY SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNTS

Isotonic beverages, sports drinks, hydration products…whatever you call them, blurring lines and new positionings are creating one heck of a fascinating CPG category. For those looking beyond water for their hydration needs, the market is heavy with functional beverages and powdered supplements. While just about every CPG category has been filled with brands “skating on ice” trying to meet the everchanging consumer demands, none closely compared to the hydration category that was once defined pretty much only by the sports drink Gatorade. It’s that “cat and mouse” business game which is blurring the lines between category, brand, function, and format. But you’ll see throughout this content together that the functional CPG category isn’t so much about invention as it is about incremental innovation. Invention is creating a totally new thing. Gatorade was something totally new. Today, if you want to create something that has a lasting impact on the CPG world, it needs to be combo of “new” yet “familiar.” Do something too closely related to the market leader and people won’t take notice but do something too novel and they’re confused. In the CPG industry, most successful products do not arrive out of nowhere; they’re remixes of existing ones. I'll explain how brands like BODYARMOUR, BioSteel, Liquid IV, and PRIME Hydration, were all inspired by the category creator Gatorade. Finally, I'll explain where I see the hydration category going next by mentioning a few trends.

FOLLOW ME ON MY SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNTS

I want to welcome you back to another episode of what I’ve branded Pivotal since these interview-style segments tackle impactful CPG industry topics and lessons from the business leaders that live it EVERY DAY! As we close out another year, it only seems right that I would focus this latest episode on both recapping some sports and active nutrition trends/themes from the last year and look forward to predicting what trends/themes are getting hotter and others that might be cooling off. Instead of just sharing my collection of categorical insights, I brought on my good friend and Senior Market Insights Analyst at SPINS, Scott Dicker, to help make this content even more valuable. Though Scott covers tons of product categories for the data insights company SPINS, the sports and active nutrition space is a personal favorite of his because of the speed of innovation and shifts in consumer behavior. In our conversation, we chatted about which sales channels are winning the categorical incrementality, how energy everything took off, why hydration is for everyone now, the creatine evolution, why precision fermentation is going to have a massive year, and how flavor partnerships might be hitting resistance. These are just some of the interesting topics we chatted about in this episode, but without further delay, here is my recent conversation with the Senior Market Insights Analyst at SPINS, Scott Dicker.

FOLLOW ME ON MY SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNTS

If you watched to my last content about the (not yet officially announced) new CEO at MusclePharm, I unfortunately had to leave you on this sort of cliffhanger. While I was alerted about the MusclePharm intellectual property (IP) portfolio sale a few days before that content was published, it wasn’t my place to break that news publicly and I provided my reasoning for that to stay transparent with my audience. But this content will get the important stuff, such as why MusclePharm is selling a collection of its intellectual property, what IP was up for sale, and what are some paths for MusclePharm after this public auction. Additionally, I'll explain the accounting issues that are making those possible paths unpredictable. Despite the unknowns severely outweighing the limited public information available, I take a shot in the dark on where I think things could go…(1) bankruptcy (2) bolt-on acquisition or vertical integration M&A move provides strategic value (3) private equity or investment firm buys and simply lease back the IP to MusclePharm, collects payments, and let the new CEO Eric Hillman operate without interference. All I know is a "Part 3" is likely going to be needed soon!

FOLLOW ME ON MY SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNTS

Back in December 2021, I successfully predicted that the biggest YouTuber in the world, Jimmy Donaldson aka MrBeast, would build on the successful momentum of the MrBeast Burger virtual restaurant concept and launch a CPG product. Two months later, MrBeast launched Feastables, a better-for-you snacking brand with its first product being the MrBeast Bar. The current Feastables product portfolio, which now also includes plant-based cookies, is just the beginning of a much bigger vision. What will be the next CPG product MrBeast will launch? Jimmy Donaldson already told us in a recent Forbes feature that the next CPG product launch will be in cereal, likely under the Feastables brand, but what about after that? Outside of trying my luck at correctly predicting another MrBeast CPG market move, I deep dive into the trend that’s fueling massive CPG industry success of MrBeast, but also The Rock, Logan Paul, and many others. Everyone thinks the C in CPG stands for consumer, but that’s dead wrong. The most popular celebrities and creators of today are becoming the biggest CPG brands of tomorrow. Celebrity packaged goods is a relatively new phenomenon. What's driving that shift from celebrities and creators using endorsement deals for wealth creation into entreprenuership? Fortune favors the bold and, increasingly, the many celebrities who’ve made the leap into the CPG industry. As seen with Feastables (and PRIME), celebrity packaged goods brands hold the potential of being developed into billion-dollar successful businesses capable of competing with even the most powerful CPG giants. Will MrBeast take on the beverage industry next? I think the signs are pointing to yes!

FOLLOW ME ON MY SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNTS

Keurig Dr Pepper (NASDAQ: KDP) finally got off their butt and landed a key strategic partnership in the energy drinks market. On December 8, KDP and C4 Energy entered into a strategic partnership that includes a long-term sales and distribution arrangement, which is expected to meaningfully increase retail availability and household penetration for the C4 Energy brand. KDP is making a pre-tax cash investment in Nutrabolt of $863 million, in exchange for preferred equity ownership stake of approximately 30% that has additional earn-out benefits, rights to increase ownership in certain capital raising scenarios, and board representation.  This will make KDP the second-largest shareholder investor in Nutrabolt behind its Founder, Chairman and CEO, Doss Cunningham. Net of the anticipated cash tax benefits, the investment represents a multiple below 4x estimated 2023 net sales, which are expected to be above $650 million. This strategic investment was something that I predicted in October 2021 in a YouTube video titled “Keurig Dr Pepper Buys These Five Beverage Companies Next.” You can watch that YouTube video here - https://youtu.be/AHrmn87c26w. In that content, I not only explain my conviction pick for the energy drink category being Nutrabolt (aka C4 Energy), but also provide logic on its valuation being cheaper than Celsius Holdings and other key points that seem eerily familiar to yesterday's news. I’ll unpack all that original commentary and more throughout the content, that hits on some under-the-radar business reasons why KDP chose Nutrabolt, a little history on the sports nutrition brand portfolio Nutrabolt, and explanation around how this investment fills an important short-term need at KDP and potentially creates a long-term advantage. I'll also explain the implications to the energy drinks market, and explain some outside stakeholders that were winners and losers in this announcement.

FOLLOW ME ON MY SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNTS

MusclePharm (OTCMKTS: MSLP) has a new CEO and every supplement industry veteran will recognize his name. At the time of filming this content, the CEO change isn't exactly public information yet, but I can confirm that it's Eric Hillman. Who is "Big E", which he has been signing off on MusclePharm social media interactions? Eric Hillman is the co-founder of the supplement industry distributor Europa Sports Products (now known as Europa Sports Partners). After acquiring its second-largest competitor Lone Star Distribution in 2016, the combined revenue of the company reached around half a billion dollars. So, even though Europa Sports Partners is much smaller today, Eric Hillman is a strong businessman and has value here as the CEO. I give him all my respect for what he built at Europa Sports Products and the overall impact he had in building and growing the sports and active nutrition market. But the MusclePharm that Eric Hillman is being handed needs A LOT. The chance of getting back to the heyday of MusclePharm, both in influence/impact and revenue, is a statistical anomaly, but even clawing back to the level of the last few years will be extremely tough. So, I'll explore what went wrong during the Ryan Dexler era at MusclePharm and explain if I believe Eric Hillman really help turn the company around.  Disclaimer: I kept this "short and sweet" because there’s going to be a part 2. Don’t ding me for the cliffhanger, but for ethical reasons I’m not going to disclose until I see public mentions.

Europa Sports Products (May 2021 Content)

FOLLOW ME ON MY SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNTS

1st Phorm isn’t like other supplement brands. That’s by design, but it seems to cause a level of ignorance by sports nutrition industry pundits that has always felt downright disrespectful to me. My belief is that outside of a rare few, the vast majority are one trick ponies that see the sports nutrition space through one lens only. Basically, they like to fit brands into boxes based on their understanding of the supplement market. The problem is that 1st Phorm doesn’t fit neatly into a box. Regardless, most of these supplement industry pundits recognize that 1st Phorm is successful by capitalistic market metrics. This does one of two things...they choose to simply ignore 1st Phorm all together or they take misguided jabs at them to try and generate attention or clicks. In my opinion, both are disrespectful. But, instead of hearing it just from me, I included a snippet of a conversation I had with Sal Frisella (President - 1st Phorm) on what he and his supplement brand thinks about it. Additionally, I breakdown a collection of strategies that are actually important and really damn impactful that 1st Phorm doesn’t get enough respect for, such as their job creation, free TransPhormation Challenges, Legionnaire Program, building the best community in the sports nutrition industry, leveraging of a vertically integrated business model, and being aggressively patient. Why is 1st Phorm different? 1st Phorm is an incremental success story…one that takes just as much patience to fully understand and appreciate.

FOLLOW ME ON MY SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNTS

In a challenging business environment, where managing innovation risk has become critical, should you be expecting more than the typical brand-supplier relationship in the CPG industry? With tens of thousands of new CPG products launching every year, simply putting “new” on a bottle won’t get any meaningful market attention. There’s no doubt in my mind that innovation done right accelerates company growth in the CPG industry, but anticipating consumers’ needs, and measuring and managing innovation to address those needs, will continually get tougher. The supply side (e.g. ingredient suppliers and contract manufacturers) of the CPG industry have a vested interest in helping you beyond the lowest common denominator of just selling you ingredients or compiling the recipe or formula together to create that innovative new CPG product of your dreams. Seek out these partners, like Nutiani, as early as you can in the process to take advantage of value-added services and support. “What you don’t know can hurt you” or at least that ignorance can create disadvantages within the CPG industry. So, my baseline hope with this content was that you learned to elevate your expectations when seeking out supply side partners.

Full List of Nutiani Solutions

FOLLOW ME ON MY SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNTS