Susan Hardwicke wants to pump you up.
For Hardwicke, that means starting her own business making health products designed to increase brain functioning for runners and other athletes, and she knows the tricks of manufacturing and selling a product bound for drug stores and specialty shops.
Her company, Vabion, has one major product: Diesel Energy Stix, a powder that dissolves on the tongue and contains taurine, ribonucleic acids, creatine and caffeine that equals about half a cup of coffee. It is manufactured in Illinois.
“We originally wanted to keep caffeine out of it, but that was something that the consumer wanted, so we put it in,” she said. “But there is far less caffeine in it than in Red Bull.”
The company launched in 2006 and began taking off in 2008.
The company, which is located on Gaskins and Patterson, is profitable and has six employees. Sales have been slow but steady, said Jason Yu, a 2008 Virginia Commonwealth University graduate and the marketing director at Vabion.
“The energy supplement market is so competitive, and sales are not where we’d like them, but it has been a steady stream,” he said. “Most of our traction comes from Rite Aid, but we send out anywhere from 10 to 40 shipments a month directly from our site.”
Diesel Energy Stix was the not the original business plan, Hardwicke said.
“I was very interested in food-derived energy supplements,” she said. “So that led to the development of the Fuser Bar. … While the Fuser Bar was doing well, it just didn’t prove to be cost-effective. So we had to change our business plan, and the result was the Energy Stix.”
The Fuser Bar was developed at Hardwicke’s previous company, KSero, which was located at the BioTech Park in Glen Allen. KSero sought to treat physiological issues in adults and children without prescription medication, according to the company website.
The problem with the Fuser Bar was that it was costly to store and ship, Yu said
“Diesel Energy Stix means more profit per square inch,” Yu said. “The Fuser Bar was affected by hot and cold, so they had to be stored at the right temperature. And it just makes more sense because there is so much competition in the energy bar world, and not as much in the energy stick market.”
Hardwicke, who is in her 50s, said she realized she needed to change the business plan when fuel prices skyrocketed in 2005 in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
“Just the cost of getting them in and out of the warehouse was huge, and production costs were higher on the Fuser Bar,” she said. “And that’s pretty risky for a startup. So the new product was born out of lessons learned from the costs of the old product. The energy sticks had lower production costs and lower shipping costs.”
Hardwicke received her PhD in cognitive psychology at George Washington and has recently been doing research into “chemo-brain.”
“Chemo-brain is a side effect of chemotherapy,” she said. “Patients describe it as a general inability to process information as quickly. And I know this from my experiences also.”
Hardwicke’s research into chemo-brain is also leading her into development of a product that specifically addresses those negative side effects, although she said that the energy sticks did seem to help the response time in chemo patients.
As Vabion looks to the future, it also looks to expand its influence in the Web 2.0 world, running a site called thinkfastmovefaster.com, which is designed to be an online community of athletes. The site launched two months ago and has just under 100 members, Yu said.
Hardwicke said she was excited to have hired Yu, who started as an intern in 2007, full time and wants to hire similar people in the future.
“My vision for the company is to hire young people, like Jason, with a lot of energy and who understand what we are trying to do in the social media world,” she said. “And then of course there will be me.”
Yu said their product can now be found in more than 1400 Rite Aid/GNC centers nationwide and also on BodyBuilding.com, the top health supplement website.
David Larter covers startups for BizSense. Please send news tips to [email protected].
Susan Hardwicke wants to pump you up.
For Hardwicke, that means starting her own business making health products designed to increase brain functioning for runners and other athletes, and she knows the tricks of manufacturing and selling a product bound for drug stores and specialty shops.
Her company, Vabion, has one major product: Diesel Energy Stix, a powder that dissolves on the tongue and contains taurine, ribonucleic acids, creatine and caffeine that equals about half a cup of coffee. It is manufactured in Illinois.
“We originally wanted to keep caffeine out of it, but that was something that the consumer wanted, so we put it in,” she said. “But there is far less caffeine in it than in Red Bull.”
The company launched in 2006 and began taking off in 2008.
The company, which is located on Gaskins and Patterson, is profitable and has six employees. Sales have been slow but steady, said Jason Yu, a 2008 Virginia Commonwealth University graduate and the marketing director at Vabion.
“The energy supplement market is so competitive, and sales are not where we’d like them, but it has been a steady stream,” he said. “Most of our traction comes from Rite Aid, but we send out anywhere from 10 to 40 shipments a month directly from our site.”
Diesel Energy Stix was the not the original business plan, Hardwicke said.
“I was very interested in food-derived energy supplements,” she said. “So that led to the development of the Fuser Bar. … While the Fuser Bar was doing well, it just didn’t prove to be cost-effective. So we had to change our business plan, and the result was the Energy Stix.”
The Fuser Bar was developed at Hardwicke’s previous company, KSero, which was located at the BioTech Park in Glen Allen. KSero sought to treat physiological issues in adults and children without prescription medication, according to the company website.
The problem with the Fuser Bar was that it was costly to store and ship, Yu said
“Diesel Energy Stix means more profit per square inch,” Yu said. “The Fuser Bar was affected by hot and cold, so they had to be stored at the right temperature. And it just makes more sense because there is so much competition in the energy bar world, and not as much in the energy stick market.”
Hardwicke, who is in her 50s, said she realized she needed to change the business plan when fuel prices skyrocketed in 2005 in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
“Just the cost of getting them in and out of the warehouse was huge, and production costs were higher on the Fuser Bar,” she said. “And that’s pretty risky for a startup. So the new product was born out of lessons learned from the costs of the old product. The energy sticks had lower production costs and lower shipping costs.”
Hardwicke received her PhD in cognitive psychology at George Washington and has recently been doing research into “chemo-brain.”
“Chemo-brain is a side effect of chemotherapy,” she said. “Patients describe it as a general inability to process information as quickly. And I know this from my experiences also.”
Hardwicke’s research into chemo-brain is also leading her into development of a product that specifically addresses those negative side effects, although she said that the energy sticks did seem to help the response time in chemo patients.
As Vabion looks to the future, it also looks to expand its influence in the Web 2.0 world, running a site called thinkfastmovefaster.com, which is designed to be an online community of athletes. The site launched two months ago and has just under 100 members, Yu said.
Hardwicke said she was excited to have hired Yu, who started as an intern in 2007, full time and wants to hire similar people in the future.
“My vision for the company is to hire young people, like Jason, with a lot of energy and who understand what we are trying to do in the social media world,” she said. “And then of course there will be me.”
Yu said their product can now be found in more than 1400 Rite Aid/GNC centers nationwide and also on BodyBuilding.com, the top health supplement website.
David Larter covers startups for BizSense. Please send news tips to [email protected].