Steeped in Success: Alumna’s Energy Drink Startup Gains Traction
21 August 2014 12:30PM
What does it take to start a successful business? Some might say all it takes is a good idea and a lot of caffeine. From Tatiana Birgisson’s perspective, that’s especially true.
In her dorm at Duke, Birgisson ’12 had taken to brewing large batches of tea in a pasta pot so that she could have ready-to-drink tea whenever she wanted a healthy source of caffeine. At the urging of several friends from InCube, the university’s residential entrepreneurship program, she decided to turn her tea-brewing hobby into a business.
Just two years after starting her own company and graduating with a degree in economics, Birgisson has found success with Mati Energy, her own brand of healthy tea-based energy drinks. The energy drink startup sold 5,000 cans in July and is projected to sell about 7,500 to 8,000 cans in August. Each can retails at $2.69. According to Birgisson, Mati hit break even between June and July.
Getting to this point has been a dream in the making for the young entrepreneur. “I knew that I wanted to start a business,” she said. “It’s been a dream of mine ever since I was a little kid, but I always thought it would happen after getting an M.B.A.”
With that goal in mind, Birgisson switched majors her junior year from mechanical engineering to economics, because it was “the closest thing to an undergraduate business degree at Duke.” She worked on the company full-time while attending Duke as a part-time student in her last semester.
Birgisson took two economics electives that were particularly helpful during the process of creating and growing her business: Professor Dan Ariely's behavioral economics class (ECON 490) and Professor Emma Rasiel's intermediate finance course (ECON 372). According to Birgisson, Ariely taught students how to “understand how businesses work on a macro scale and (to understand) consumers.” And in Rasiel’s class, she was able to study the financials for a large company, including its manufacturing and sales and projections estimates, and determine the best strategy for that company going forward.
These lessons were very applicable to a budding company. Birgisson said she strategized to market Mati as an energy drink because it would have been difficult to compete in the ready-to-drink tea market, which is already saturated with healthy products. And with the product’s high caffeine content, the energy drink market was a natural fit.
Birgisson’s engineering background proved to be a boon when it came to developing Mati’s manufacturing process. She figured out a way to maximize the amount of caffeine extracted from the guayusa leaves used in her product, and she is now in the process of designing an even better system.
“We have more caffeine than a Red Bull, and because of that we’re able to command a higher retail price (than tea drinks),” she said. Her blend also packs in plenty of antioxidants, potassium, and vitamin C. It contains no added sugars, no preservatives, and no artificial ingredients.
Though energy drinks and healthy typically don’t go hand-in-hand, Birgisson has made this a successful pairing. And it would seem that caffeine aficionados in the Triangle agree. Mati’s customer base includes offices, local businesses and individuals, and Whole Foods, the latter of which is rapidly expanding. Mati is currently stocked in six Whole Foods stores in the region, including the Durham location, where it is the best-selling energy drink. Birgisson expects to be in as many as 100 Whole Foods stores across the Southeast and Midwest by year-end.
With all this growth, Mati’s popularity shouldn’t come as a shock; however, Birgisson said she is always pleasantly surprised when she sees strangers drinking Mati around town. “It’s extremely rewarding when I find people who are addicted to the product.”
The way things are going, Birgisson doesn’t have any immediate plans to go back to school for that M.B.A. “I don’t have that many thoughts on a post-graduate degree. I’m kind of in over my head with my business right now,” she said. In five years, Birgisson said she wants to take Mati national – which she believes is “very feasible” – and potentially international.
With a can – sometimes a can-and-a-half – of Mati a day and can-do attitude, anything is possible.
Q: What advice would you give to undergraduates who are trying to decide on a major?
A: I would say that if you’re a freshman, look into classes that you find really interesting. There are a lot of economics electives that you can take without having the core (requirements). If you do that, you can start to see a trend in the types of things that you like. Every freshman should at least take the introduction to economics course (ECON 101).
Students need the core requirements to be able to take the other classes, which let you take it a step beyond and see how human behavior really affects economic decisions.
Q: Why do you think an economics degree is useful?
A: We live in a world that’s run by money, and if you want to make a difference in it, you have to understand how it operates. It’s just fundamental. The (economics) major itself helps you to understand that world all the better.
Q: How did you get your product into Whole Foods?
A: My competition is very stiff in the beverage market, and I knew that if I wanted to compete with the big boys, I’d have to start acting like one. Guys tend to pump up their egos when they have to do something, and I knew that I had to try and pump myself up in the same way – and it worked! I went in and asked to speak with a buyer at the (Durham) store. A month later, I had a meeting. It took six months from them trying (Mati) to getting into the store. Within the first month, we hit their minimum numbers to stay on the shelf.
Q: What advice would you give to students who have entrepreneurial goals?
A: You’ve got to motivate yourself and you just have to go out and do it! Test out your idea and see if people are willing to pay for it at the price point you’ve set, and go make it happen.
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