#179: Ryan Emmons, Co-Founder and CEO of Waiākea, the First Premium Hawaiian Volcanic Water, on Building a Healthy, Sustainable, and Ethical Brand, and Becoming One of the Fastest Growing Companies in the United States

Sep 20, 2020

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Ryan Emmons is the co-founder and CEO of Waiakea, the first Hawaiian Volcanic Water of its kind. Waiakea's mission is to provide healthy, delicious, Hawaiian volcanic water to people throughout the world with as little impact as possible while contributing to and promoting conservation and access to clean water and education for people in need throughout the world.

This is embodied by Waiākea’s slogan “Drink Healthy, Drink Sustainably, Drink Ethically”. Waiākea volcanic water originates in Hawai’i through both snowmelt and rain on the pristine peak of the active Mauna Loa volcano, one of the purest environments on Earth. The water is then filtered through thousands of feet of porous volcanic rock that enriches Waiākea with a variety of trace minerals, making it electrolyte rich and naturally alkaline, before emerging at its source, surrounded by rich forest preserves just outside quiet Hilo town.

In accordance with the Hawaiian practice and notion of “malama i ka ‘aina”, meaning “to respect and care for the land”, Waiākea is also proud to be the first American premium bottled water and beverage to be certified Carbon Neutral for its variety of eco-initiatives, including using 100% RPET packaging, sustainable sourcing, and its regional reforestation projects. On top of this, every bottle bought guarantees funding through PumpAid.Org that provides over 650 liters of clean water to those in need in developing countries...Waiākea is truly unlike any other water on the planet.

About Our Partners

This episode is brought to you by Hawke Media. Hawke Media is a full-service Outsourced CMO based in Santa Monica, CA, providing guidance, planning, and execution to grow brands of all sizes, industries, and business models.

Hawke Media was recognized by Inc. as the country's fastest-growing marketing consultancy and is proudly one of Glassdoor's "Best Places to Work", 2019 #893 on the Forbes 5000 list, UpCity Top Los Angeles Digital Marketing Agency. Hawke’s collaborative process, à la carte offering, and month-to-month fee structure give clients the flexibility they need to boost digital revenues and marketing ROI.

Hawke Media The company has serviced over 1500 brands of all sizes, ranging from startups like Tamara Mellon, SiO Beauty and Bottlekeeper to household names like Red Bull, Verizon Wireless and Alibaba.

Listen to our interview with Erik Huberman, Founder and CEO of Hawke Media, in episode 23 of the Just Go Grind Podcast.

This episode is also brought to you by Toptal. Toptal is an exclusive network of the top freelance software developers, designers, finance experts, product managers, and project managers in the world. Top companies hire Toptal freelancers for their most important projects.

Connect with Ryan Emmons

Some of the Topics Covered by Ryan Emmons in this Episode

How Ryan's Hawaiian roots led to him founding Waiakea
Becoming an entrepreneur
Starting Waiakea while at USC
Proving a differentiated product
Early informal fundraising and getting a loan
Building an ethical brand and a premium product
Finding their first distributor
Getting into Whole Foods
Attending trade shows
Expanding the business beyond natural channels into e-commerce, food service, convenient stores
Product placement within stores
Value alignment with distributors
Being the first 100% upcycled bottle company
The challenges of transitioning to their own production facility
Going from 50 to 90% OEE
Waiakea's social initiatives
How Ryan views fundraising
Prioritizing profitability and scalability
The value Ryan found in executive education
Overcoming challenges and what motivates Ryan

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