Overtime with Outland is Action Catalyst host Adam Outland's reflections and commentary on discussions with each of his esteemed and accomplished guests. In this segment, Adam dissects Episode 462 with Chris Hunter, founder of several successful beverage brands, including the iconic Four Loko as well as the health-focused Koia, and the unique Not Your Father's Root Beer.
Welcome back Action Catalyst listeners. This is Overtime with Outland. Today we'll be tackling episode 462 with Chris Hunter, founder of 4Loco, Koya, and Not Your Father's Root Beer. Four principles that came out of this interview that I thought would be valuable here in our Overtime episode. Number one, when going into business, always understand your exit at the beginning.
When Chris and his partner started 4Loco, they made most decisions as simple majority rules. And since they were all friends, they all assumed that most of them would be in agreement. But time changes, businesses change, and people change. And they found out that having such a loose business arrangement was setting them up for disaster.
So as Stephen Covey always said, begin with the end in mind with business partnerships. Number two, there is no cookie cutter boilerplate job description for a founder or CEO. When Chris was younger, he always thought the role of the founder meant one set thing, but each person brings a different set of skills to the table and can make better or worse use of their time in different ways.
But Chris, it's not day-to-day operations. It's forming new partnerships and relationships, which brings us to point number three. In sales, there are hunters and there are gatherers. Hunters love to go out and create new relationships, strike new deals, explore new territory. Gatherers like to optimize relationships they already have, increase efficiencies, and work with what they've got.
Chris sees himself as a hunter, and the fact that it's also his last name is not lost on him. Finally, Chris says it's important to zero in on the true value of your product. What about your product do people really want? Chris's latest company, Koya, offers delicious, refrigerated, ready-to-drink, plant-based protein.
And Chris believed the biggest selling points were that it was delicious and plant-based. But really, it was the ready-to-drink part that customers cared most about. So they branched out from selling and offering refrigerated products into offering shelf-stable drinks and powdered mixes. By understanding what their customers valued most in their product, they were able to expand.
For the full interview and more, check out Action Catalyst episode 462 with Chris Hunter.