Embarking on an entrepreneurial adventure is a significant decision in our lives. Starting a new after a failure or success is an even weightier choice in one’s life journey. Imagine you are in one of these situations:
- you have just successfully exited your company and are financially free;
- or conversely, your business has just gone bankrupt and you have lost everything.
Are you ready to start a new business or would you rather move on to something else? Depending on your decision, the level of entrepreneurship in your DNA is as follows:
| Entrepreneurship Level in your DNA | Description |
|---|---|
| Less than 20% | You go bankrupt with your first business and decide not to start a new one. You will then become an employee. |
| 80% | You succeed with an exit sufficient to live without working and decide to enjoy life. You might use a part of your fortune to fund startups (as a business angel) but you stop being an entrepreneur. |
| More than 80% | You start a new business despite having enough from an exit to stop working; or despite the failure of your first enterprise. For you, nothing replaces the thrill of creating an activity where you are the owner. |
Take a moment to clarify your level of entrepreneurship in your DNA to better know yourself and act accordingly.
In my case, I founded my software industry startup in 2000 at the age of 33. After 18 years of hard work developing this business, I achieved a lucrative exit at the end of 2018. That was when I faced the choice of what to do next. With financial freedom, few people choose to embark on creating a company for a second time, possibly for another 5, 10, or more years, with the accompanying human, financial, and even health risks entrepreneurship entails.
In my case, I was fortunate to retain the passion for creating a new business, even after 18 years of hard work to succeed with my first company. However, I did not want to go it alone or embark on a project within my area of expertise, which is IT. I needed to make a 180-degree turn to recapture the purity of creating a first company, as I had experienced eighteen years earlier.
The spark
A few years before my exit, I met Tyna, who would become my co-founder at Drinkizz. She was already an entrepreneur. After an initial entrepreneurial success in hospitality, she founded the startup Biophap to introduce organic farming practices in Vietnam.
During a discussion with her, we converged on the idea of using products from Biophap farms to create a simple, health-beneficial consumable. A product that would be easy to make available to the masses, aiding in the awareness of organic’s impact on health. Since 2011, I have been regularly visiting Vietnam and observed that dietary habits, at least in major cities, were increasingly accommodating unhealthy options like fast food. In the beverage industry, I was surprised to see a surge in chemical sodas alongside traditional fresh fruit juices, teas, and beers.
So, we came up with the idea of creating a drink in 2019. The initial reactions around me were not favorable for two reasons:
- First, the beverage industry is saturated with many choices on supermarket shelves;
- Second, producing an organic drink is expensive, and people are not ready to pay more even if it’s healthier. They were right.
We therefore focused on finding a unique market position, what I call in my entrepreneurial practices “outcompete.” We decided to make a “Ready To Drink (RTD)” beverage in the form of a can, with 100% organic ingredients, an original recipe that wasn’t just flavored tea or fresh fruit juice, manufactured using a natural process to preserve the nutritional quality of the ingredients, and that delivers a sustainable energy boost. We thus created a new market segment for the beverage industry, which we named O.N.E for Organic Natural Energy.
With Tyna, I had found the perfect idea to re-engage in entrepreneurship on a terrain that was not IT.
The journey
Today, after more than 5 years of effort, we have stabilized the recipe and the manufacturing process. It’s even more complex than creating software. We have a loyal customer base who love our drink and regularly consume it to take care of their health and enjoy the sustained positive energy boost that Drinkizz offers. We still have a lot of work to do to lower the can’s price to match mainstream beverage prices. We will achieve this by increasing our sales volume to get better manufacturing prices. You can help us by subscribing to a monthly pack of 24 cans, delivered to your home or business (link at the end).
Of course, in 5 years of entrepreneurial adventure, there are many experiences and anecdotes that I will be able to share with you. These will be the subject of my upcoming posts.
If you’re interested in our story at Drinkizz, if you feel the positive drive of entrepreneurship, if you’re concerned about the negative impact of chemical beverages on your health, if you want to learn and experience the world of organics through an original energy-giving drink, then join us. You’ll be doing something good for yourself and helping us become known so that we can offer our drink to as many as possible at an increasingly attractive price.
Useful links
Organic Nature Energy drink by Drinkizz: O.N.E Drink (Organic Natural Energy ) – Drinkizz Shop
Training Drinkizz : Training session – Drinkizz
Drinkizz consulting pack:Consulting package No-Code AI by Drinkizz – Drinkizz
Good Energy without delay!
Pierre Bonnet
