Welcome back to LaunchVT’s monthly content series where we shine the spotlight on past participants, coaches, and community partners from the LaunchVT family. This month, we heard from Max Luthy of Plink! Max and co-founder Luke Montgomery-Smith took home the grand prize at Demo Night for their electrolyte-loaded “fruity, fizzy” drink tablet startup. The duo worked with LaunchVT superstar Coach Neil Bainton throughout the accelerator. We asked Max to answer some questions about Plink!’s experience participating in LaunchVT and what’s next for the business.
How did you come up with the idea for your business?
In the middle of the night! I'd wanted to start a beverage company for a long time, but the waste of canned and bottled drinks was holding me back. I was clearly inspired by waterless companies in different industries like Blueland (homecare) and Lush (beauty). Because at 2am one night, I sat up in bed thinking about "a bath bomb you can drink called Plink!". That simple idea needed a lot of work, and once I was introduced to my co-founder Luke, he made that dream a delicious reality.
What year did you participate in LaunchVT and HOW do you think your business will change as a result of the accelerator?
We participated in 2023. The best part of LaunchVT was meeting the other founders, advisors, mentors, and sponsors — SO many inspirational people with such a wide array of skill sets, all contributing to your success. The accelerator timing meant we had to refine a new pitch for investors. It was during that process that we learned to embrace the fact that Plink! is surfing the wave of hydration products. Catching a wave is way easier than starting a revolution from scratch. Previously, we'd leaned into much more of our sustainable roots, but what is more important to consumers is what we do for them. Delivering great-tasting hydration - through electrolytes and increased water consumption - is what we now lead with. Fun, fruity, fizzy hydration. The sustainability is a bonus.
What’s the most important thing you learned from LaunchVT?
Entrepreneurs are often guilty of shiny object syndrome. We're attracted to new challenges. I think one of the biggest takeaways for us is to focus. It's hard not to want to do it all. But we need to win in a specific territory and get that part of the business self-sustaining before we go off innovating in different directions. It's hard enough to build a narrowly focused business with great fundamentals. There is no need to distract the team until that's all in place.
What advice would you give to anyone who wants to launch or has recently launched their own start up?
We started working on this in 2020, a much frothier time when it felt like everybody was starting something and everything was getting funding. It's hard out there at the moment — as it should be. What investors are looking for now are profitable businesses that are growing, as opposed to a growth at all costs mindset. It seems so obvious. So, while this approach isn't possible for every category, I recommend running a small test of your idea, where folks are actually paying you money for your product or service, before getting too far down the rabbit hole of fundraising, strategizing for scale, brand building, etc. Prove out that people WANT your offering on a small scale and the ECONOMICS are there and you're in a really, really strong position. Also, reach out to me on LinkedIn if you want to chat.
Please give an update of where your business is now and what’s next.
The first half of the year for us was about proving in a specific market (Vermont) that people wanted our product and we were viable in brick and mortar retail. Thanks to our incredible early Vermont retailers of all different shapes and sizes, we have enough evidence to scale beyond this green state. And shout out to the wonderful humans who've been buying Plink! directly from our website and those local stores. We're now working with brokers, retailers, and distributors to rapidly expand in the Northeast and beyond. The trick for the next phase of our business is to expand at the right speed and not spread ourselves too thin into markets where Plink! collects dust on the shelf. It's a good problem to have.