EP:72 - Entrepreneur Inspiration - Benjamin Mogul: Pioneering Organic CBD Beverages with Cann-Ade

Benjamin Mogul is the  founder and CEO of Cann-Ade Corporation, the exclusive producer of the world's first and only USDA organic certified cannabis-infused beverage. Benjamin's journey began with his passion for wellness and athletics, leading him to create Cann-Ade beverages, which are designed to promote relaxation and recovery. His products are known for being gluten-free, vegan, kosher, and bottled in glass, ensuring the highest quality for consumers.

 In this episode, Benjamin shares the story behind Cann-Ade, from his initial inspiration to the challenges and triumphs of bringing a unique product to market. We discuss the benefits of CBD-infused beverages, their legal status across the U.S., and the meticulous process involved in ensuring product quality and safety. Benjamin also talks about his hands-on approach to distribution and marketing, emphasizing the importance of personal engagement and building strong relationships in the industry.

Listeners interested in wellness, entrepreneurship, and the cannabis industry will find this episode incredibly insightful. Benjamin discusses the anti-inflammatory and anti-anxiety benefits of CBD, the rigorous testing for quality assurance, and strategies for successful product distribution. Keywords such as "CBD beverages," "organic wellness drinks," and "cannabis-infused products" are central to this conversation, offering valuable knowledge for aspiring entrepreneurs and health-conscious individuals.

References:

• Cann-Ade Corporation
• Amazon Cann-Ade

Three Potential Listener Questions:

1. How can CBD-infused beverages like CanAid help with stress and inflammation?
2. What are the legal regulations for selling CBD products across different states?
3. How did Benjamin Mogul successfully market and distribute CanAid beverages?

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Transcript

0:23

First day of distribution, I walked to 30 stores in Manhattan and sold into 29 of them. What's up, everybody? Happy to be here as usual. Today, we have a special guest, Benjamin Mogul. And you can see these delicious looking drinks over here. He created these drinks. He's a guru in the wellness industry. Do you want to tell our audience a little bit more about what you do? Sure. Thank you, Danielle. Thank you, Jason, for having me on. It's a pleasure. Hello, everyone, OWL viewers. Yeah, so I'm the founder and CEO of CanAid Corporation, the sole exclusive producer of CanAid beverages. We're the first and only USDA organic certified cannabis-infused beverage in the world. All our products are gluten-free, vegan, kosher, and bottled in glass, super anti-inflammatory, amazing relaxation. You're getting me excited. You're getting me excited. Is this sold right over the counter at Publix, or is it like you need a special license? Is this in distribution centers where you get marijuana, for example, or hemp? Where can you get this? Yeah, so the easiest way is Amazon Prime. We have one day nationwide. Then we're sold at retail right now, mostly in the Northeast, in New York City, in Boston, in Rhode Island, in New Jersey. We're expanding our retail distribution footprint every day. What does it do? Tell us why someone's drinking this and what are the effects? Because you say hemp-infused. I'm like, what is it going to do if I drink it right now on air? Tell me a little bit about the benefits and also what I should expect, of course. My pleasure, Jason. In each bottle, there's 20 milligrams of cannabidiol, CBD. The finest in the nation, that being USDA Organic, the only one. It's an adaptogen, so it promotes homeostasis, and in turn, it's anti-inflammatory, and it's also an anti-anxiety. It's great post-workout. It's also great as an alcohol alternative, which we're appearing on menus, on alcohol menus, on that non-alc little section now all over. It's also, people like to mix it with vodka or white rum. You got Danielle excited right now. She's like, wait a second, alcohol alternative? She's like, I'm not a big fan of alcohol. I like this. What could it do? It takes the edge off. Take the edge a little bit. You see, I have a lot of edge. I drink a lot of Starbucks, so maybe this could go good at the end of the day where I just want to relax and not be running 100 million miles an hour, right? Oh, yeah. And Clean Label, there's only three ingredients. It's triple filtered water, organic fruit juice, and organic- That's what I was excited about. It's not possible. It's not possible. Three ingredients. Three ingredients. Isn't it crazy when you look at so many bottles and you're like, don't know what any of this stuff is, and it's crazy. We all drink it, and to see three ingredients, that is absolutely awesome, so I'm excited to give it a taste on air. Yeah, you really thought of everything, even the glass bottle. I'm a huge fan of glass bottles. I don't drink the plastic. I have a glass water bottle, and they say BPA-free with the plastic, but that's never true. Glass is just the way to go, and I love that glass. Can this be sold everywhere then? Is it legal in all states? What's the regulations when it comes to CBD and hemp infused? Each batch is tested at a DEA-regulated laboratory, ensuring 0.00% THC, and thus, all 50 states legal. I'm going to have to test one on air, okay? Go ahead. I kind of want to as well. Lemon is our close number two, and strawberry, lime are close third. Peach is number one, you said? Peach is number one. Oh, look at that. I picked the best one. I immediately went to the peach. Even when it comes to energy drinks, I've always been a fan. Like Celsius, I like the peach or Bang Energy. I'm a big fan of peach-type infused drinks. I guess I'll do- Beautiful. But lime too. Lime, lemon. I'll do a different one because I don't want to- What about black cherry? I love black cherry seltzer. Black cherry is a nice one. So those are the three that you have. Cheers, everyone. Cheers. Great. I really did not- If everyone's listening, you hear that clunk, right? These are heavy, heavy bottles. It reminds me of Arizona iced tea. I was raised in Port Washington, New York in Sands Point, and I lived about eight blocks right down the road from the famous Arizona iced tea. And our kids went to parties with me, and there was just something about that glass bottle with Arizona iced tea. It was so cold when you got it at a bagel store, and it just went down so smooth. Same with Snapple. I was thinking of Honest Tea because I remember that's immediately what I thought of. I remember my dad coming back from Whole Foods and being like, this Honest Tea drink is so healthy. There's nothing in it except for tea. I don't know now. I was looking at the ingredients of it recently, and I'm like, I think there's more in it. But I remember that being the big thing for a while, and they're the glass bottles and Whole Foods, and that's what I thought of. But they don't have cannabis in them, CBD. Are these things we should be drinking daily or once a week? What's the rules? Daily. I suggest three a day, one in the morning. I love it. I'm always careful with a lot of stuff. I'm a big water drinker. I try to drink five bottles of water per day, and then seltzers. I'm a water and seltzer type of guy. I've kicked the Diet Coke. I've kicked the regular Coke. Even Celsius, I'll drink. We're big fans of them. They're right down the block in Boca Raton. They've done some sponsorships. I love this. I'm always nervous. Even Celsius, my heart races a little bit. Even though it's the healthier energy drink, I'm still a little cautious, just too much. I always say, okay, there's only three ingredients, but I'm like, there's still CBD in there. There's still hemp. I'm always a little nervous to drink it more than a few times a week, of course. That's understandable. I always like talking to the expert, because you could tell me different things. I'm like, no, no, no. There are these benefits, like coffee. All the coffee boys are lying to us. They're like, drink coffee. Then the next day, they're like, don't drink coffee. Drink coffee. Don't drink coffee. That's so funny. Right? Because I'm a big coffee drinker. That I drink daily. I want to know, obviously, there are so many drinks out there. How did you decide, I'm going to get out there. I'm going to create this product. I'm going to compete with... I've seen other CBD drinks on the market. Sure. How did you decide to get into this competitive industry? Then what makes CanAid different from those other CBD drinks out there? This is a two-part question. Great question. I have been an athlete my whole life. When I was playing collegiate football, I ended up as a linebacker with post-concussion syndrome. I tested poorly at the Mayo Clinic, up in Jacksonville. A talk with the physician led me to step away from the game. That's when I was really suffering with this post-concussion syndrome. My best friend at the time, who had family out in California, who was growing really craft, special healing cannabis, brought some to me. It was CBD rich. From the first time I consumed it, it was instantly providing improvement in my overall health. How long ago was this? About 10 years ago. I became enamored with cannabis. I started conducting my own research and meeting with some amazing clinicians, physicians, and scientists, and getting my hands on the plants as a farmer, and really exploring the industry from a multi-pronged standpoint. At that time, parents were being arrested in the state of Florida for giving their children CBD rich cannabis to help with epilepsy. That was before the Charlotte's Webb Bill came forward in our state. I became a major advocate, writing letters to the Department of Health, explaining my experience, and linking together with some amazing physicians, as mentioned. Ultimately, studying the brain and the body as a pre-med student. I had the opportunity to be one of the first growers with now a multi-billion-dollar company. I was one of the first individuals to grow for them and with them. I've grown thousands of cannabis plants and was able to thank them. That's not easy in Florida. Everyone listening, it's a vertical market. I've interviewed Brody Cobb on one of my other podcast shows, The Shrimp Tank. He explained the whole process. It's not easy to get a license. There's under 20 licenses out there. Most of them are not even being used. It's very costly. You've got to grow it. You've got to sell it. It's a very hard market in the state of Florida. Good for you for getting in. I know it's not easy to go through 10 years of getting this on the shelves. Beverages, most of the time, fail. 99.9% of them, just like mobile apps. We're in the same business in a way. Everyone says, don't do it. You go on Shark Tank, and what do they say if it's a beverage? It's a great beverage, but I'm going to sit this one out. They always sit out. And you said, nope, I believe in this so much. You got into a vertical market. You got personal benefit from it. I like that story. I think as entrepreneurs, that's why I do what I do. In terms of I'm in wellness, I teach meditation because I know it works. It helped me with my anxiety and depression. That's why when something has helped you that much, you want to put it out there. You want others. You have a good intention behind it. I think that's when things succeed. You're not just doing this for the money. It's really mission-driven. I saw the products that were being produced. I saw a need in the mass market for a cannabis product that was easy to consume, that wasn't scary, that really set the bar at a different level of gold standard for safety and efficacy. I found beverage to be that medium because we're chronically dehydrated. With a touch of fruit juice and the hemp extract that we sourced, we're fulfilling a need in a major total addressable market. You mentioned Snapple. Our director of sales was actually the original director of sales for Snapple. Then he helped lead Zico, Coconut Water to their exit and Hint Water as well. This is his final hurrah. Shout out to Robert J. Corsaro. We love you. He's got to get on Owl, of course, so people can pick his brain. He's a great mentor, it sounds like. Mr. Brooklyn, he's the best. He would love it. We do Mentorship Mondays on the app because people like him, of course, are pretty wealthy, I'm assuming. What ends up happening is they don't care about really networking or giving advice, but they want to mentor others. They don't care about the money element of Owl. What we did is we created this thing called Mentorship Monday, where experts go on there and they don't feel like they're devaluing their services, and they just charge a dollar. It's cool. Someone like him could go on there on a Monday morning and just say, hey, call me, willing to help you make a dent on this world. Because lots of times, that's what they want to do. They want to just go to folks like you and say, hey, I see what you're doing. I just want to help. It's not about the money side of things. Let's talk a little bit about when this product got on the shelf, so our audience really sees how long it took you to get. Because often, they're like, oh, it's cool. I want to do a bottle, and a drink, and hemp, and marijuana, whatever it might be. It took years, I'm assuming. How long did it take to get your first bottle on any storefront, Amazon or on a shelf? Well, I started my journey in the cannabis industry in 2013. We brought this product to market at retail 14 to 16 months ago. It wasn't USDA certified organic at that time. We're about eight months into that. The company was initial corporate docs, December 2019. Self-funded, or did you raise capital at that time with pitch decks? Did you go pitching? Originally, self-funded and friends and family, and then brought in a local angel, of course, with a pitch deck and so forth, and a piece of equity. We're still raising as beverages. We can use Celsius as a case study. I can talk about them all day, but we always are raising. Eventually, partnered with a large global strategic, very similar to Celsius, because it's all about the distribution. That's when the unit economics really start to make sense. Let's talk a little bit about the distribution, because most brands fail because of bad marketing. I've seen so many beverages. One of my worst investments was Skinny Water. Back in 2000s, I don't know. I was in New York City. They were up on big billboards. They got into Walmart. They got into Target. They had everything. The person used to work for Pepsi Cola. It doesn't matter. You have to get distribution. The big boys, I think they say, unless you get up to $50 million of revenue, they're just going to try to squash you until they start trying to partner with you. And it's so hard to get on the shelves. When you go down CVS's aisle, it's the usual suspects. And then Pepsi is on every campus or Coca-Cola. Pepsi owns FAU's campus, then Coke's fighting for it, or vice versa, whatever it might be. Absolutely. It's so hard. You must have done something right when it came to marketing. You must have done partnerships to see your websites as Donovan McNabb. Tell us about the marketing. How did you fight through to just get to the seat to even talk about distributions? You don't just call up Walmart and say, hey, can we be on your sales for Costco or BJ's? You have to have someone like Donovan McNabb, someone they could call just to get the meeting. And then you get the meeting, and then you have to, of course, say this is amazing. You got to try it out. And then sales have to hit. So tell us about the whole marketing aspect. How you accomplished that. Sure. Well, hey, my initial proof of concept was selling store to store by myself out of the back of my Jeep. And from that, bringing that proof of concept to a major distributor in New York City. And the rollout strategy was to prove it in the most competitive CPG market in the world. And if you can prove it there, then you branch out from there. And so we did just that. And hey, the first day of distribution, I walked to 30 stores in Manhattan and sold into 29 of them. And I did that the entire week to get our store count upwards of 100 from there. And then I did that in every other follow-up distributor from that point forward. So acting as a field sales rep, no one can sell like the founder. And I still do that. Every market we go into, I go and sell with the distribution sales team and teach them about the product and bring our POS, our point of sales marketing materials in there and teach them about that, speak with the store owner, position it correctly on the shelf. And it takes a lot of work. You really have to ground the pavement. Excuse me. You really have to... Pound the pavement? Pound the pavement. Thank you, Daniel. I need help on that. As a leader, that's just like people want to be part of brands. I think that's how Jason is too. I pound the pavement too. Yeah. I was literally like... I'm like every day. So similar. I got to slow down. He'll tell me to do something and then he'll be like, oh, here, did it. And I'm like, wait, I was going to do that. But today, you're like, send this email. I was going to go through and find all the people. Here are all the names. I'm like, that was easy. Made it easy for you. Yeah. But yeah, you're super hands-on and you want to be... It is your baby at the end of the day. So you want to make sure that it's done right. And I respect that. Well, I've just learned a lesson. If you make it hard for the other person, the odds are it won't get done. So if you say, join this meeting to 40 people and you hand them the link and you're like, it's at four o'clock, the odds are more people will join versus them having to remember when you send the link a week ago. And then when it comes to stories on Instagram, when you send them a link in a Dropbox folder, they have to download it. And the odds of them downloading it, they get frustrated, the Wi-Fi is down, the internet's down, and a phone call came in and they don't do it. Then you're just like, cut your little clip. And all that takes minutes. But lots of times, what if one person doesn't know how to do that? But if we just take the clip, put it on Instagram and tag them, all they got to do is hit add. And now it's going out to all their people on their story. So I'm just a believer of keeping it as user-friendly as you can. And Owl, that's part of its success. It's like, we have built crap, torn it down, built crap, torn it down, and we just keep going until we get it right. Because as much as you think it's user-friendly, the person who signs in, they're the true test. When you sign into the app, can you get through? Are you putting your credit card in to become an expert? And the good news is, three years later, we're finally there. Where our success is showing, because it's live in public. We have over 15,000 people, 15,000 reviews left on the platform, which is phenomenal. But you go under new experts, and those experts are there for 30 days before they lose the new symbol. So you go right there and see, this is how many people have put in their credit card that want to be part of Owl. Unless we give them a free trial. But most of those people are not free trials. You get a free trial, because you're a guest on the Owl podcast. But it just shows you just don't give up. You don't take no for an answer. Never. And can you share, while you're sharing this, I'm going to start going live to take some calls. So if you're listening, call in. We're about to go live. I want to hear from you in the next minute or so, just how you deal with rejection. Because this, you get a lot of rejection, just like my mobile app Owl. Everyone told me, throw in the card, you spend enough money, Jason. Don't rebuild it. That's going to cost more money. And then you're like, they just don't understand it, like you do or I do. But you handle rejection differently. You ignore a lot of the noise. So just share how you handle the rejection, because beverages are the hardest. Yeah. Hey, it's the high-risk, high-reward space, without a doubt. How to handle rejection, you just keep on putting one foot in front of the other, and adapting, and listening, and learning, and remaining humble, and waking up every day with that fire, and sure, relentless belief that it's going to win, no matter what. I like the staying humble answer as well. It's vital. And being able to adapt, because I've seen so many people, even just as a musician, we are entrepreneurs, which many people don't realize. We are out doing the same thing, getting gigs, and competitive industry again. So yeah, I think just knowing that there's always someone one step ahead and learning from those other people is key. Vital, vital. You have to be a lifetime learner. And as an old client of mine used to say in his Kentucky accent, Benjamin, humility is just about as important as breathing. Let's hear the Kentucky accent. That was it. That was the best I could do. No, you can do better than that. I'll know about that one. I can put a little bit on. Yeah, that was better. Okay. Yeah, we're going to... Oh, you're going live right now. Okay, good. Well, he's not going to call right away. This is how you go live. There's a little clock, right? And pretty much that clock just sent out notifications to all his followers. And then if you're out there listening live, call him right now. You're going to be patched into the OWL podcast, and you could ask Benjamin any questions on your mind. I'm curious, as a future consumer, how much does this cost in the store? Yeah, averaging about $4.99. Oh, really? That's not bad. Yeah. Okay. I was expecting more, honestly. Because I think about... What is it? The... I'm blanking. But they're like for your gut. I'm trying... I can't... Kombucha. Kombucha. Yeah. That's about the average price for them too. I feel like they're more expensive than that. Sometimes. Seven, maybe. The specific brands. Or coconut water. They can go for $8, which is crazy to me. I want to drink it, but I'm like, but $8? It's up there. So I think that's pretty fair. Well, people are willing to spend a lot. We go to Raw Juice often down here. And Raw Juice has smoothies at $12, $14. And people are buying them every single day. People are going to Starbucks without a problem spending $6 to $8 on a Starbucks drink. And this has a lot in it. No, but I think $6 is very... I was thinking that was cheap, honestly, for everything you're getting with this. And it's a way to make this wellness drink accessible to more people. Because I think not a lot of people can afford Starbucks and green juices all the time. So I think that's a great price. I appreciate that. And that's a lot to do with the mission of CanAid. It's about cannabinoid access to the mass market. Because at CanAid, we believe that we're all battling inflammation every day. And this is a daily aid, a daily beverage that really fights that inflammation in the most natural fashion. So we think that the more people that consume this, and like it says in our bottle, that we believe that together we can enjoy a healthier, happier existence. And that's what CanAid is all about. And to read that full statement, a portion of our earnings is donated to clinical research, studying amazingly powerful hemp plants. We believe that together we can enjoy a healthier, happier existence. And thus, we're contributing to the nonpartisan federal nonprofit AMVETS, American Veterans, who as a well, as a team, they're presently working towards access, safe and efficacious and affordable cannabis access to veterans nationwide. So that's our ongoing philanthropic partner that we're really proud and serious about. Wow. That's amazing. Excuse me for stuttering. No, it was good vocab words. I need a little bit more CanAid. Yeah. I'm trying to think. I don't know if it's placebo. That's the problem. Like, I feel relaxed, but you know... It's not placebo. I'm like, is it placebo? Definitely not placebo. But yeah, because I've had... I'm getting calmer on this podcast. I was noticing. I had so much energy when we started. Yeah, me too. I was calming me down. I feel calm. I'm not shouting at the mic anymore. I feel like CBD, though, like when I've just tried it in the past, like gummies and stuff, doesn't really work unless there is marijuana with it. Well, this just isn't any CBD. Right. Okay. Yeah. So I don't know because I'm kind of curious, like, when people talk about CBD versus marijuana, like Delta, whatever it is. I don't know. Seven? Who knows? Don't get me started. Yeah. I'm curious. Like, obviously, with this, it's legal. Like CBD is legal here, but marijuana is not. Right? You're opening up a can of worms, Danielle. It's legal if you have a card. Well, I guess if you have a card, but not like to just sell... But New York, I think it is now, right? New York, you can walk right in anywhere and it's legal. So every state is quite different, but it's going towards legalization like New York. Without a doubt. New York's doing it. Florida's going to do it. Right? I don't know. New York was so against it for so long. So for them to open it up, that's going to open up. Isn't it all backwards? The strictest states opened it up and then states like Florida didn't and they're the least strict with stuff, usually. I love the flavor because for me, I really hate things that are fake sugar tasting, overly sweet. And to me, this just tastes like a hint of flavor, a hint of strawberry. It's just really balanced, really nice flavor. So I love it. I love it. Yeah. I'm sold. I'm like, Ooh, where can I buy? I'm ready to go on Amazon and order some for my parents right now. Yeah. Six packs, $29.99. I think we have a $3 coupon going on right now. So a little better. Can I get a promo code? You got it. Of course. Okay. What we're going to do is we're going to call other people because they're not calling. Paul Votto too is a good one. Okay. Let's call him. Where is he? He just won a poker tournament. He was telling me. Hi there. Hello. Hello, Mr. Paul Votto. How are you doing today? Good. How are you? Good. You are live on the OWL podcast. So we are here with Benjamin Mogul and he is the creator of CanAid. It's a cannabis or hemp infused, I guess you want to say, drink that is super natural. It's delicious. I just tried some and Jason and I think that we're feeling the effects of it. We feel calmer. That's why we called you Paul. You came right to mind when we saw you live. What do you call when you're feeling the effects? You call Paul Votto. Yeah. I love it. Send me some. Yeah, right. It's actually delicious. So Paul, do you have any questions for Benjamin? Well, I would like to start a brand. I mean, I have a brand as far as cigars go, Votto Cigars, but I've been trying to look into starting either a tequila brand, but I think that that's maybe run its course. I'm thinking Mezcal. Oh, I love Mezcal. Obviously, Mezcal, it's not the same as CBD or cannabis, but it's a brand. So if there's any advice as starting something in the beverage industry, I would greatly appreciate it. Hey, Paul, this is Ben Mogul. How are you? I'm doing well, Ben. Thank you. Great. Thank you for answering my question. Great. Absolutely. I forgot he has a cigar brand. So this is perfect. Yeah, I was like Vegas. I feel like he'll be, yeah, yeah, yeah. I must lead that drinking a cannade while smoking a cigar is a wonderful combination. We're in a few cigar bars locally here in Fort Lauderdale. But hey, starting a beverage brand, the number one thing comes to what Jason was sharing earlier, thick skin. And I mean, hey, if you're in cigars, I mean, that's CPG, I'd say. And a wonderful thing, a wonderful libation. So first thing that comes to mind is branding and quality and co-packing and how you're going to produce it and the unit economics of it and building a team. Building out an initial advisory board is something that I always suggest when people are consulting with me, a meeting of the minds to check you and to bring different sort of brain power. What about money? How much money do you really need if you're going to bootstrap it to begin with? Because often people are like, 50,000, I'll get going. But really, what's that number? And again, every beverage is different. It's seven figures plus. Yeah. There you go, Paul. You got seven figures to give it a try? Is that too risky? My next question. Yes. Can I borrow seven figures? See, that's a great rebound. That's why we call it Mistovato. Well, if we have an initial sample, a prototype, if we can see a deck, see who's involved, see the corporate structure, we'll take a look. It's not a no. I love it. Thank you. It's not a no. Often it takes 99 no's and then you get that one yes, and that's all that matters. So you're saying? Raise a series A, it's about 299 no's, but... I was going to go higher. I was going to go like... So you're saying the first step, if I'm like, I love Mezcal because I do, I want to start a Mezcal brand, right? The first step is getting an advisory board? No, I'd say the first step is first creating a name and creating an initial prototype. Okay. And then from that initial prototype, you need proof of concept. Okay. And building off of that proof of concept, first money in is going to be your own and then friends and family. And building that proof of concept, making sure it has key differentiators to it. And the name is fantastic. And the product itself is fantastic. And then there's a lot of mistakes to be made and a lot to not make with regard to distribution and marketing dollars and moving lean and mean. And there's a lot I could talk about there. People should work for a brand first then, right? Often people create brands in the beverage industry that have no experience in the beverage industry. They're like, Oh, it'd be cool. It sounds right. Right. Oh, I'll make a beer. I'll make an alcohol, you know, and all of a sudden, or just a seltzer, right? And they go down a path, but they really have no experience in that industry. So it's cool that you started like growing cannabis and you knew about the industry before getting into this product. It's certainly helpful. Certainly helpful. You know, working for a brand, it depends on the brand's life cycle ahead of time and how that would translate or not translate to a startup, to a new product. But you with having a CPG background, that's clearly super helpful in having some in and outs of knowledge within with regard to distribution and pricing and so forth and getting to retail. That's all super helpful. And if you're living in South Florida, go look up Celsius. They just keep growing and growing. They're right here in Boca Raton, Florida, and they have a staffing issue. They need more people to work there. So you work for a brand like Celsius and get that experience with an awesome brand that's spending quite quickly, of course. Too bad Celsius really doesn't have the funding right now. Just a little comedy. Congrats, Celsius. Congrats. I had the original co-founder as my first podcast guest ever. And a lot of people don't know the whole backstory, but that company, you know, she took it public and eventually they delisted the stock, right? It was about to be out of business. And not a governor DeSantis, but a different DeSantis, Carl, ended up infusing. He's on the top of FAU's building. And that's where I run my other podcast. And that kept the company alive. He believed in it. And that one investor, you know, went from his net worth was like $800 million to $2 billion plus because of Celsius. Unfortunately, he passed away this year. But, you know, it just takes one person to believe in you, right? Simon Sinek always says that, right? One investor, one mentor, right? And to be able to keep going, which is what Celsius did, like it's 2023, but Celsius, it's been around for, I don't know, 20 years, I think, you know, something like that. I don't think they made a penny of profit until 10 years in distribution. And I think the runway was about $12 million to get to that point, if I'm not mistaken. So, that really speaks to the bandwidth needed and the tenacity needed and the dollars needed to win in beverage. That's non-alcoholic, but alcohol has similarities. It also has strong differences. And relationships, because I know the family quite well. And just relationships mean so much. So, often it's not this product. It is that there's 10 other products similar, but the one like yourself who puts himself out there on a podcast, puts themselves out there in New York City and the people who started Celsius had amazing relationships. They kept going. And those relationships, it just took that one relationship, literally, with Carl DeSantis to kind of give them the infusion to keep going to then get to the brand where it is today. Right? But if it wasn't for a relationship, it wouldn't be there. So, that's the whole point of Owl, right? Like we didn't know, you didn't know Paul before right now. And then all of a sudden, next time you're in Vegas, I'm sure you're going to get Paul alcohol. You guys could have a cigar together and have a beverage together, and you never know where it will blossom. Right? Absolutely. You know, you could be a mentor to Paul one day, and then Paul could be the next Celsius, you know, type beverage out there. You just don't know where people will take their inventions, their businesses. And we see that all the time on our podcast, of course. Fantastic. Absolutely. Paul, thank you for allowing us to interview you on the Owl podcast. We'll send you a clip later today. Okay? Yeah. No, thank you very much. If you want to add more time, you can. I'm just kidding. But thank you guys. Good business, man. Positive persuasion right there. I like it, Paul. Thank you, Paul. Thank you for answering that question. And I will make sure I send out the mezcal samples as soon as I have them. Let's do it. Can't wait. Okay. And here's the coolest part about Owl. It's a two-sided review platform. So, even though, you know, we called Paul, but Paul's also reviewing us, right? Everyone's held accountable at the end of the day on Owl. Okay. We'll say, great call. So, you're going to get your first review by Paul. You'll always remember it. And looks like we are out of power. So, that will be our final call. And we have a beautiful background now up on the Owl podcast screen. But that was a pretty cool experience, right? To be able to call someone instantly on demand and just connect and just have a conversation and see where it goes. It's fantastic. I'm team Owl. Team Owl. We're team CanAid. Thank you very much. Well, that wraps up today's episode on the Owl podcast. I think we're two, three months booked out on the podcast now. And we have an amazing, amazing guest joining us. And we have some surprises. We're going to do some of those call-in shows coming up soon that are like two hours, four hours, eight hours long that you've seen. Well, thank you again, Benjamin, for joining us. And for everyone listening, what are your handles on social media? They want to follow you. Of course, they could call you right on the Owl app. They show your name up on the screen. But what are the best routes when it comes to Instagram, your website, for example? Yeah, we're CanAid.com. C-A-N-N hyphen A-D-E dot com. And then Instagram at Drink CanAid. Drink CanAid. No hyphen there. And then on Amazon, One Day Prime nationwide, type in CanAid. You'll find us there. It's been an absolute pleasure. Take care. Absolute pleasure it has been. Post-production for the Owl podcast is done with care by Ocean Tree Creative. Thank you.