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234 | Cater to Customers That are as Passionate as You | with Paul Voge

Honest Ecommerce
Honest Ecommerce
Episode • Jul 17, 2023 • 22m

Paul Voge is the co-founder and CEO of Aura Bora, a national beverage company from San Francisco. 

Since the company’s founding in 2019, Paul has expanded the brand’s whimsical sparkling waters into more than 8,000 stores including Sprouts, Whole Foods, Target, Publix, and Wegmans. 

Aura Bora’s best-selling retail varieties include  Lavender Cucumber, Ginger Meyer Lemon, and Cactus Rose. 

Plus, every month Paul and his team formulate and release online-exclusive flavors for sparkling water aficionados like Guava Eucalyptus, Mango Chili, and the infamous Green Bean Casserole. 

Aura Bora prides itself on being sugar-free, calorie-free, non-GMO, Whole30 certified, and made with real herbal extracts. 

Read more in Fortune, Business Insider, Dieline, and AdWeek. Paul’s entrepreneurial journey started with t-shirts, socks, concrete curbs, and even Christmas trees. 

As a Forbes 30 Under 30 awardee and Shark Tank success story, he has turned Aura Bora into one of the fastest growing beverage businesses in the world. 

When not selling sparkling water, you can find Paul somewhere deep in the woods, away from his phone.

In This Conversation We Discuss: 

  • [00:00] Intro
  • [01:12] What are Aura Bora’s products?
  • [01:37] Where the idea of Aura Bora came from
  • [02:50] Making sure that the market wants your product
  • [05:09] Getting feedback from “serious drinkers”
  • [06:41] Launching a food/bev product in Boulder, CO
  • [08:10] When the worst case scenario isn’t too bad
  • [09:43] Sponsor: Electric Eye electriceye.io/connect
  • [10:40] Sponsor: Sendlane sendlane.com/honest
  • [12:07] Go-to-market strategy at the start of COVID
  • [13:30] How Paul got into Whole Foods shelves
  • [15:09] Was it the play to go wholesale first?
  • [15:53] The pandemic forced Aura Bora to pivot to D2C
  • [16:24] How Aura Bora got featured in Shark Tank
  • [17:19] Preparing for the “Shark Tank Bump”
  • [19:08] Circumventing the risks of fragile packaging
  • [20:28] Aura Bora’s new subscription line
  • [21:31] Where to buy to support Aura Bora directly

Resources:

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