By GREGORY ZELLER //
A five-year-old startup with a taste for healthy living has hit it big – just what founder Lamar Letts wanted, though the path to success was not what he’d envisioned.
Starting and operating a successful business is often a very different experience from whatever the inexperienced entrepreneur imagines. Letts, a Brooklyn-born Woodmere resident who founded Elite Super Foods (dba Hylux) in 2016, learned this lesson firsthand.
But the former top-level athlete, a track-and-field star until he suffered a career-ending heart injury, was ready and able to pivot – flexibility that turned his good idea into a successful business venture.
The idea was an all-natural, vitamin-enhanced water product with more nutritional value than sugary sports drinks. Myocarditis – inflammation in the heart wall – ended Letts’ athletics career, and after doctors told him he’d need to switch to a healthier, nutrient-rich diet, the innovator teamed with a food scientist to create Hylux in 2014.
“When I had my own health scare, it was a true wake-up call that I didn’t just need better nutrition, but so did athletes across the world,” he recalled. “Our bodies deserve it.”
Getting a jump: Letts back in the day, a George W. Hewlett High School star athlete.
The creation didn’t only meet his own dietary needs – friends who tried it liked it. Soon Letts was selling it by the bottle from his Northwestern University dorm room, and after a successful crowdfunding campaign, he officially incorporated his startup (in Delaware) in 2016.
By the time Letts earned his finance degree in 2017, Hylux was attracting private investments – and had already landed a deal with a national beverage distributor.
Flash forward four years: The vitamin-infused water product – packing four different electrolytes, B-complex vitamins, 100 percent of a daily Vitamin C value and more potassium than a banana – has launched on Amazon’s mighty online platform, and will be occupying Walmart.com’s virtual shelves by the end of this month.
What sounds like an easy run to the top was anything but, according to Letts, who noted that owning and operating a business was “not initially” what he thought it would be, and more an exercise in “taking things in stride.”
“When this first started, I just thought I would have a good idea, me alone, and people would just buy it and it would be very simple,” he told Innovate Long Island. “I make the product, I sell the product, and I can just dust off my hands and call it a day.
“As I moved forward, there were just so many aspects of the business that I didn’t have experience with,” Letts added. “I needed assistance to really operate at a high level and achieve what I wanted to with the drink.”
One prime example involved graphic design. Letts had a good idea of what he wanted his packaging to look like, but quickly discovered that he needed an experienced professional who was “really good at translating designs” to make his imagined visuals work as real-world packaging.
It’s who you know: Letts today, a successful business entrepreneur.
“I saw some really nice logos and designs that I wanted to go with, but I learned that the first thing you should do is print out the design and wrap it around a bottle from the store and see what it really looks like,” he said. “You have to think critically about it – see what it means to really produce a physical product.
“You’re not automatically thinking about how the logo is going to look on specific surfaces,” Letts added. “But I had some really good guidance.”
As Hylux took off, further guidance would be required on logistics and other critical matters (production of the company’s proprietary formulas, as well as bottling and distribution, are all contracted out). Today, the startup boasts a five-person executive staff (including Letts), focused on marketing, sales, finance and order fulfillment – no mean feat, noted the former track star and accomplished public speaker, with nationwide distribution in play.
“I wouldn’t be able to coordinate the shipments and go through [retailers’] back-end processes without the assistance of other people,” Letts said. “We’re always making sure shipments don’t get entangled, that we send enough, that we send the right flavors.
“You only get one chance to make a good first impression.”
Certainly, the product – available in multiple flavors, including pomegranate raspberry, red dragon fruit and strawberry kiwi – has been making good impressions. With Amazon and Walmart lined up, Hylux is already in talks with “another large retailer,” with other distribution opportunities in the mix, according to Letts.
While his initial idea was sound – a functional beverage that addresses prominent nutritional challenges – the innovator credits his startup’s rise to the expertise of others, and counts that as one of several lessons learned on Hylux’s winding, albeit relatively short, road to success.
“There are a lot of time-sensitive moving parts in a business like this,” Letts said. “I kind of learned along the way that it’s not as simple as ‘you just make it and sell it.’”
Elite Super Foods (dba Hylux)
What’s It? “Functional” sports drink packing top nutritional benefits and less sugar.
Brought To You By: Entrepreneur Lamar Letts, who had a great idea and got the help he needed.
All in: Roughly $20,000, for product formulation, packaging design and business-formation expenses.
Status: Now available at select grocers nationwide and on Amazon.com; coming soon to other major-league e-retail platforms.
