Blowing up

One day a couple of years ago, Nadya Nguyen was so busy she didn’t have time to eat or drink. “I got so dehydrated, I almost passed out on the bus ride home. For the busy lifestyle that all of us are living it’s hard to track what we drink,” she said.

That’s busy, indeed, so Nguyen and three fellow students at the University of Minnesota quit their jobs, moved into an attic apartment and eventually turned a $120,000 investment from Techstars into $1.2 million in revenue this past year.

The product is HidrateMe, which is a smart water bottle that comes with an app and adjusts to how much water one needs based on whatever is going on. When you need to drink, it glows, Nguyen told a crowd gathered to hear a really interesting pitch fest in September.

It was sponsored by WEStar, (actually WE*, which somewhat awkwardly stands for Women Entrepreneurs of the North Star state.) Joy Lindsay of the Sofia Fund is one of the orchestrators and the local venture capitalist who invited me to the fest.

I like the criteria the group used to select those who would present: “One, were you thinking big?” Lindsay explained. “Two, how good is the team?” “And three, progress,” as in how much progress has the company made.

I can’t think of a more succinct and on point list to separate the one-woman shows from companies that have a chance to make a splash.

Nguyen, who serves as CEO, couldn’t be more impressive, with a crisp presentation style and an orientation to building a brand, not just a product. “We have a strong understanding of what our target market is,” she said, and have built partnerships with Athleta and Neiman Marcus.

I like her confidence, too. “2015 was the year we got early market validation. 2016 is the year we started manufacturing. 2017 is going to be the year that we BLOW. UP.” I have absolutely no doubt Hidrate will.

Another presenter was It’s By U, a nifty idea in the do-it-yourself category that’s so hot right now. Launched in June as part of Target Corp.’s retail accelerator, it’s a kit with fresh flowers and tools sent directly to the customers, who then create their own floral bouquets or decorations.

As someone who once got roped into helping my niece create bridesmaids’ bouquets from raw flowers bought on the cheap at the farmers’ market, I would protest: Do not try this at home.

But founder Christine Strzalka, a florist by trade, assured the crowd that not only can you do it but also it’s fun. She said in the last 15 years more than a quarter of all flower shops have closed. “That’s sad,” she opined.

But she thinks she’s got a good thing going with do-it-yourself. “We have 60 percent margins. We own NO inventory. We go from farm to distributor to customer.”

Oh, and she’s got a deal with shopping show QVC and a deal with Target in which they will have an in-store endcap. Talk about turning lemons into lemonade—or rather, thorny stems into beautiful bouquets.

And finally is my personal favorite at the fest, perhaps because I have never heard an opening line like this before: “My name is Abby Hoeschler and I come from a family of world champion log rollers,” she said, about her company Key Log Rolling.

Turns out people are falling in love with log rolling, according to Hoeschler, but the problem used to be the 500-pound wood logs required. Her group developed a 60-pound log and added strapped-on weights that make it easier to learn. “We have revolutionized a 100-year-old sport,” she said. At Upsize, we hope she and the other entrepreneurs at the pitch fest keep on rolling.

Beth Ewen

Editor and co-founder

Upsize Minnesota

be***@*******ag.com