Balance the Superfood Shot is a nutrient-dense, ultra-portable solution to getting enough greens in your diet, with half your daily recommended fruits and veggies in one serving. In this Q&A with co-founders Chris Thowe and Kyle FitzGerald, learn the inspiration behind the product, how their business has evolved over the years, how they thrive in Kansas City, and more.

What is your background?

Chris: I went to school for graphic design. I have a passion for art and transitioned it into graphic design to have a career. I spent 10 years working with other companies as an in-house graphic designer in marketing before I started this business on the side.

Kyle: I also have a design background and was a licensed landscape architect and worked in the design world. The design process to me is pretty universal—no matter what problem you’re solving there’s a way to go about it. I’ve also been interested in the business side of things. [Chris and I] actually worked in the same building and met each other by happenstance and came up with an idea together and started chasing it.

How long have you been in Kansas City?

Chris: Let’s say since 2012.

Kyle: Going on 13 years.

Did you always know you wanted to be an entrepreneur?

Chris: No. The answer is no. My track from my parents was to get a degree, trade school or something else, but make it applicable and go out and get a job really, really quickly. Entrepreneurship was not in my family, it was not in my background, it was really something [Kyle] had to coax out of me before I even knew it was a possibility…

Kyle: …coaxing took years! Me on the other hand am a natural-born hustler! Selling candy in middle- school, mowing yards, etc. is always who I’ve been. The architecture route was somewhat constricting to me, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to run or do anything for 20+ years. I wasn’t super interested in that. I only took one business class and had no encouraging to understand what I could be doing with my personality.

How did you come up with the idea for your company?

Kyle: In the beginning, we actually started with a line of vitamins that we sold, and we built that brand out of a need I had myself. I am really sensitive to caffeine. So, we said, “What if there was another product that was more balanced and food-based?” So, we came up with Focus & Energy, which was our first product. That was sort of our entrance to saying we want to start a business, and one that is online or applicable to online—I have this need and I’m sure someone else has this need. We grew from that product into a line of vitamins and the really special part was when we figured out the Balance the Superfood Shot.

Speaking of Balance the Superfood Shot, how did you come up with the idea?

Kyle: We got into Spark Lab KC, which is a business accelerator program. We were one of the only product companies there. Most were tech, scalable, digital things. We said we want to build a brand and speak to our customers in a unique way. One of our advisors was Bob Bernstein, who has seen everything! The one piece of advice Bob gave us was if we want to be a national brand, we have to find a first-to-market product for a really big problem. A line of vitamins wasn’t going to do it. We went back to our team of advisors and asked what they believed was a problem they see as health care professionals. They came back and said they see preventable disease more than anything and that it all starts with food. If their patients could have an easy, convenient way to eat fruits and vegetables—that is the root of the problem. If we wanted to address the health of America, specifically preventable disease, we needed to get people to eat real food, especially fruits and veggies. To be authentic, we didn’t need to provide everyone with all their food, because people are eating. So, we aimed to provide people with half their daily recommended servings of fruits and vegetables. We said; “Okay, Balance the Superfood shot—we can take 2.5 cups of fruits and vegetables, remove some the water, and it’s super nutrient dense, no preservatives, no added sugar and boom here you go.” It has been amazing.

What keeps you and the business in Kansas City?

Kyle: The vast majority of our business now is Balance the Superfood Shot and the cool part of that is that it’s actually made here in Kansas City like 20 minutes from our office. It’s a husband and wife team who make it here in Kansas City and that’s been really special to have that. The local piece is super real—we make it here, our best store is here, our team is here, it’s been really fun. I’m a huge Kansas City fan.

Chris: It is fun seeing Kansas City wake up to this idea. We’ve been in this game for a while now, and Kansas City has always been a huge BBQ town, of course. So, it’s been nice to see how Kansas City is warming up to organic and products like this. Plus, being centralized is also really beneficial for the e-commerce side of business. Shipping out of Kansas City makes a lot of sense. Also, the accessibility to other entrepreneurs has been really fantastic. We started literally from scratch, so Kansas City has been really welcoming, warming, and approachable city and it’s really been easy to get plugged in to.

What drives your business?

Kyle: I think people inherently know they want to do the right thing [eating well], so giving people a really good solution that’s just as easy as anything else, and cheaper than buying actual produce is a huge win.

Tactically speaking what is driving our business? Whole Foods has been a huge partner for us. They are the purveyor of health and wellness products in the United States. They are an excellent partner for us, and the Kansas City Whole Foods store is absolutely our best store!

Chris: Most people don’t know this product exists, still, because it’s such a new product on the market. I don’t know that a lot of people are looking for it, yet. But once they find it, they’ll think, “Where has this been my whole life?” People can drink it, recycle the bottle, and move on with their day and have two and a half cups of fruits and veggies like that (snaps fingers).

What challenges have you faced as a small business owner?

Chris: In Kansas City, specifically, there isn’t an ecosystem built out, yet, for natural food products like this. There are a few other companies that we’re well aware of and we’ve tried to create a nice group together to pump everyone up. But there just isn’t a lot here yet, as opposed to like Boulder, Colorado.

Kyle: Access to capital is a lot more free flowing on the coasts. Is that to say you can’t raise capital? That’s not true. We have raised a lot of capital quickly to do what we’ve done, as quickly as we’d done—which some days doesn’t feel quick at all, and other days it’s like I can’t believe this. Access to capital can be tricky. You have to do a lot of relationship building and expanding your network beyond Kansas City, but that’s not to say that it can’t come here and be centered here in Kansas City.

Have you considered going on Shark Tank?

Kyle: I’ve actually met Daymond John at a Kansas City Chamber of Commerce dinner—he’s an interesting guy. It’s terrific for consumer brands because you get an insane amount of awareness, so you have to be at a point where you can really leverage that. When you’re pitching capital to investors, you’re really doing Shark Tank on a smaller level, sans the cameras. All that to be said, I would never say no…

What advice would you give to any local KC entrepreneurs who are trying to figure out how to be a business developer?

Chris: Get out there, go talk to people, and ask what’s wrong with your idea. You have to understand why your idea will fail and be able to pivot more than you feel comfortable doing. Be extremely vulnerable and humble. Put yourself out there and learn what’s bad about your idea.

Kyle: As fast as humanly possible, try to sell your product to someone. Make something, whatever it is, and get anyone to pay any amount of money for it. You’ll find out very quickly a) what’s wrong with it and b) is this even in the ballpark of reality. You could hide out forever trying to craft this thing—make one of them and go try to sell it and see what happens. You’ll cut years off your timeline!

Chris: Lastly—have a really good business partner to do it with. It’s really tough to do it by yourself. I couldn’t imagine doing this without him or anything else.

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