From the Dorm Room to the Boardroom: Javazen, an Organic Startup Story
Having a roommate in college usually means living with a stranger. The situation can be fun and exciting, or grounds for disaster.
Differences between people can lead to drama. But sometimes, it can be a recipe for innovation.
Take two roommates at the University of Maryland who had differing tastes.
One loved coffee.
One loved tea.
Countless friendly arguments ensued, with one trying to persuade the other about his own choice for his morning energy brew.
One day, one of the roommates mixed some tea with his coffee grounds. The resulting drink actually worked better than either coffee or tea on their own. And surprisingly, the two found this new blend packed a major energy boost without the “coffee crash.”
This led to more experiments of mixing coffee with a variety of tea and superfoods. When friends who sampled their concoctions loved them, they knew that they were on to something.
In that cramped dorm room, the two students raised their mugs full of the coffee-and-tea blend. With a clink of their cups, they decided to start their own company.
Today, less than two years since the joke turned into a golden goose, the once-roommates blossomed into full-fledged entrepreneurs, and they have set a goal for next year of over a million in sales. Look out for their brand on the shelves of over 100 stores across the country.
Not a typical Eureka moment, but one worth noting.
Javazen was a home-run for these first-time entrepreneurs. Sure, it seems like another college success story, but unlike the others, they used their leverage of conferences to help them turn their dorm room business into a nationally distributed brand.
Yes, conferences.
I ran into Javazen at the Green Festival in San Francisco. When I heard their story as told by Eric Golman on the Lifestyle Stage, I tracked them down, and asked them some questions.
What worked for them could very well work for your startup, and their suggestions could be the action items you do at your next TechDay conference.
Question 1: What type of contacts do you seek out when you are at a conference or tradeshow?
We have learned that the best contacts are change makers. In our industry, the change makers are those who can grow our distribution. The big chains like Costco, Walmart, and Whole Foods come around the booths with a massive entourage of their key-decision makers. Most of the time, they have already done their research and have preselected the brands they want.
At a show in New York last June, we saw a group passing us with Costco badges. We walked out into the aisle, boldly introduced ourselves, and explained to their key buyer that our personal dream is to have a product sold in Costco. He listened to us, and we think he was interested. Bottom line, this gave us the opportunity to share our story with one of the biggest change makers in our industry.
There is no reason to be ashamed of asking someone to support your passion. We were surprised by what could happen when we showed up in a powerful way to articulate our story.
Takeaway: Seek out change makers, and don’t be afraid to ask for the sale!
Question 2: How do you suggest interacting with other companies who are boothing at the same conference or tradeshow?
When we first started to go to conferences, we were unsure of what to do. So we started to talk to other exhibitors. One dialogue in particular caught our interest: the guy said “I’ll show you mine if you show me yours.” It was awkward, and we laughed. After talking a bit more, we realized that he was talking about our mailing lists.
That interaction was super powerful, because at every conference since, we have searched out other companies in our industry that have non-competitive or complimentary products. We initiate the conversation and say “I’ll show you mine if you show me yours.” And after a good laugh, we then talk about our willingness to make a email blast about them to our list in exchange for them doing a blast about us to theirs.
I can’t even tell you how much this one action has helped us grow. At each conference, we increase our database to the kind of potential customers we want.
Takeaway 2: Find companies in your industry that do not have a competing product or service and offer to swap emails to your respective email databases.
Question 3: What is the most valuable piece of advice you can give to startups that attend conferences and tradeshows?
Our advice would be to speak up!
Conferences and trade shows typically have opportunities for speakers to volunteer to fill up time slots. We have learned that even if they don’t offer opportunities, you might be surprised what happens when you ask!
Speaking at a show creates a space where you can tell your story to inspire the audience with your passion. We feel the biggest connection to the companies in which we have met a founder or have heard them speak. We’ve created our own opportunity to speak at the past two shows that we have attended. At the end, we tell them all to visit us, sharing exactly where we are located in the conference layout. Both times, we got a swarm of people who heard us speak, lining up at our booth to learn more about our product.
Takeaway 3: Speak up and ask for a chance to speak at every conference or tradeshow.
Javazen was given a free booth at this year’s Green Festival in San Francisco because they won the “Brand Award” at the Green Festival in Washington D.C., not to mention an award from Expert Dojo as a runner up for the Green Dream Award (all positive outcomes from their hustling of the conference scene).
And their success at garnering recognition does not stop there. Javazen was recently nominated for the prestigious and highly sought after ‘Nexty’ award at the Natural Products Expo East, one of the largest trade shows in their industry.
The online voting is open until 11:59pm on Tuesday, November 17th.
If you want to help them make the most of their efforts in leveraging conferences, you can support these millennials entrepreneurs with your vote at www.NextForecast.com/Nexty.
#conferencesmatter
#changemakers
#emailblastswaps
#speakup
#hustle