Benny — the energy drink that leaves you feeling good, sans heart palpitations!

We sat down with the co-founders of Benny, Julie Letizia and Paige Cey to get a behind-the-scenes look at the reality of starting a small business in Canada!

What inspired you to start Benny? How did the idea of creating this “better-for-you” energy drink evolve into the brand that it is today and how did your background and experiences shape your approach to building a brand like Benny?  

Julie Letizia: Paige and I first met at UVic and in our third and fourth years, we struggled with the long-term effects of excess caffeine and sugar. In University, you’re encouraged to drink five coffees or a bunch of Red Bulls a day—I even took caffeine pills. We both hit physical and mental rock bottom and started looking at what was causing it. I saw naturopaths and doctors, and they told me my cortisol was high because of the caffeine so I knew I needed to fuel myself in a better way. I went to Whole Foods, Choices, and other stores looking for what I assumed existed, but there was nothing. The only brand making yerba mate had 30+ grams of sugar, which was crazy.

We did market research and found a gap in the market for an energy drink that truly nourishes you. There was no one in Canada combining yerba mate and adaptogens, which are superfoods, mushrooms, and herbs that help your body adapt to stress. Each has a different targeted outcome. Lion’s mane, which we have in Benny, is great for focus. Reishi is good for immunity. Many people know about ashwagandha, which helps with calm and stress relief. We loved these ingredients and the calmer boost of yerba mate. So, we combined them in a can, recipe-tested in our parents' kitchen for eight months, and brought a naturopathic doctor onto our advisory board to help with dosages and active ingredients. She’s been a guiding force for us in choosing the best ingredients for our products.

Paige Cey: When we were launching, we loved yerba mate and adaptogens but weren’t clear on what it looked like. When we launched, people would ask, “Is this a kombucha? What is it?” It took us launching to realize Benny is an energy drink. Maybe a week or two before launching, it clicked that this is a “good for you” energy drink. For a long time, we resisted labeling it an energy drink because the category felt like something we didn’t identify with. Julie and I weren’t proud of drinking Red Bull—it felt almost shameful, like a secret. So we avoided launching it as an energy drink. But once it clicked, it made so much sense. We’re still working every day to communicate clearly what Benny is as a brand.

Our community and events are an important part of the brand. Julie and I both found it hard to make friends in our early twenties, especially during the pandemic. That’s been a priority for us, and it’s been so much fun. While we’d still be doing Benny without our community—our “friends with Benny”—whenever I feel unmotivated, we’ll have a Friends with Benny event, and I’m reminded how much fun it is to connect with real people. As a smaller, bootstrapped brand, growing through these events has been a cool way to avoid heavy influencer investment, by treating our customers like influencers instead.

When you were in university, did you think this was going to be in your future? To be a founder of a company?

Julie: I did an economics major with a business minor. I only worked after University for about six months before we both took the plunge, left our jobs, moved in with our parents, and scraped together our savings to start Benny. Throughout University and even after, I’ve always worked in food/beverage and hospitality. I worked for a couple of food startups pre-Benny and in University, which helped me refine what I wanted [to do with Benny]. I always knew I wanted to start my own business and that I wanted it to be in the food industry. I’ve always loved food and cooking, it’s been a form of creativity for me my whole life. Even before Benny, I had a plant-based food blog—I’ve just known I wanted to combine food and business. I didn’t know what the idea was, but I knew it would happen.

Paige: Similarly to Julie, I always knew I wanted to start something [of my own], for as long as I can remember. My dream jobs were Pop Star and Founder, and I really don’t remember anything else I ever wanted to do. It was cool growing up in the girl-boss era—despite its problems, we took a lot from it. I don’t come from a family of founders. My family has a farming background, which is a business of its own, but that wasn’t something I aspired toward. I always knew I wanted to start a business, I just wasn’t sure what.

Similarly to Julie with her food blog, over the pandemic, while we were in University, I started a podcast interviewing female founders, which was so fun. I did that for about two years, and it led to my post-grad job at Girlboss, the digital media publication for female founders and women in business. They’ve now shifted more to just general women in business, but that was really fun. I was there for about a year and a half, working on Benny on the side, and then things fell into place to take Benny further.

In terms of my background in school, I did a BCom and majored in entrepreneurship, so I always knew this was what I wanted to do. All of my co-ops and internships were with small businesses. I’ve never worked a corporate job. Some of them were more corporate-y, but I’ve never been at Deloitte or something like that. Honestly, I know I would have hated it—well, who knows?—but I really enjoyed what I’ve done. Learning from so many startups and seeing how they are run and organized has been really valuable for Benny.

Julie: I worked for one corporation—some people like this, but in this context, I worked for Pepsi for a little bit, and I didn’t last long. I realized pretty quickly that it wasn’t for me. After that, I decided I would only work for startups. Personally, I felt so boxed in. I remember being 22 at the time and thinking, ‘Why am I being bossed around by this 24-year-old who also has no idea what she’s doing?’ And someone was telling her what to do, and someone was telling them what to do, and it just felt like this whole thing. I just felt so small. 

How would you define your target demographic and how do you think Benny is filling a gap in the beverage market that competitors aren't addressing? 

Paige: Something Julie says that I really resonate with—and all credit to her—is that Benny is the energy answer to the soft lifestyle we're all moving into. It's like the anti-hustle culture, which I love. In a marketing context, I always think of what Red Bull does. They do such cool storytelling, outside-the-box thinking, and have built Red Bull to be so much more than what's in the can. You don’t even really think of the drink; you think of the empire. So, we always try to think, what's the Benny version of that?

To us, it's girls like us who are doing a lot and want more for themselves and their lives, but not in a toxic or crazy way. Whether that's going for a walk, enjoying Pilates, or attending our events; I think a lot of corporate girlies love Benny. We wanted to build a brand for women, though it is gender-neutral. There are brands very "for the girls," which is awesome, but we wanted it to feel more neutral, though it’s resonated more with women, which is what we wanted. There's not much that speaks to women, especially in Big Energy. It’s all for gamers or extreme sports, which never resonated with either of us. And neither did the extreme neon pink and bows. We wanted something approachable in all ways—in taste, look, feel, and communication. That’s another reason we chose the name Benny. We wanted Benny to feel like a friend, which has been so much fun. When we get tagged on Instagram or meet our community face-to-face at events, I’m like, “Oh my God, you're exactly who we wanted to target,” which is so cool.

We’re big on manifesting, visualizing, and all that, and when we were building Benny with our designer, we did a lot of "What if Benny was a person?" Like, where would she shop? What would she listen to? What movies would she watch? We specifically said in our deck that she would shop at Set Active, which is an amazing activewear brand. We love the founder, the team, and their vibe.

When we launched Benny in June 2023, we had been in touch with someone who’s now one of our advisors, and she’s friends with the Set Active team. Set Active was opening their Bleecker Street store the same weekend we were launching Benny in our first New York store. We flew there for the opening, and our advisor introduced us to the Set Active team. We were sampling that same day at Set Active, which was such a cool moment. It was like, "Oh my God, what we said in the deck came to life."

What are some key considerations regarding sustainability and ingredient sourcing and how does this align with the values of today's conscious consumer?

Julie: I think for us, especially ingredient-wise, it’s always been important and part of our ethos to not use anything bad. We always say that in 2024, consumers want more than just "not bad for you"—that's table stakes. Personally, as a consumer, I’m always looking at what's in what I eat. If I’m going to have a matcha, I’ll check if there are adaptogens, not just low sugar. So with our ingredients, we made sure there were no "nasties"—no preservatives, no artificial sweeteners, no artificial flavours, nothing artificial, no sugar alcohols. We also have added adaptogens and yerba mate for brain-boosting benefits. After drinking a can, even if people don’t necessarily believe in the ingredients, we say, "Okay, just drink a can and let me know what you feel after." They usually say, "I feel so good." You get a strong sense of clarity and a calm, focused feeling—it’s the best, like you’ve meditated all day.

Paige: In terms of sustainability, we’ve always been mindful. We could source ingredients from all over the world, but I think 80% or more come from British Columbia, where all of our products are made, which is really cool. We also have an innovation in the pipeline that’s going to help our sustainability footprint in a big way, which I’m really excited about.

Julie: We haven’t finalized it yet, but we are going to do 1% for the planet, even though it’s not on our cans yet.

Both of you are Canadian women in business, how do you think being Canadian has influenced your perspective on business, community building, and your market approach? How is it being a small Canadian beverage company competing against big American companies?

Julie: When we first launched, we went down the whole rabbit hole; should we move to the US and should we launch this in the US? Most people kind of give you the advice to grow in your backyard though. We just really liked the fact that in a way it almost feels like a little bit of a protective bubble in Canada because there might be brands that are doing great in the US, but they're not coming to Canada because they would be losing a profit. So I think it kind of gives us a lot more of a chance to grow quickly and stand out and then make that jump for the US.

But on the other end too, it's, it can be hard to hear from other founders, that once they launched in the USA, “oh my God, it's the biggest game changer" and “all of our business comes from the US”. So I think that end too leaves us itching to get there. 

Paige: We are in the US a tiny bit, but nothing grand scale. I think it's nice that Canada can be a bit more of a training wheels in the grocery system. Yes, we still have to pay some crazy fees for listing and all of these margins for different distributors, but I know it's that like tenfold in the US. So it's been nice for us to really get our bearings here. 

Julie: For first-time founders, I just think it's a bit more gentle and a more accepting environment than the US. I'd say training wheels is a great way to put it. Like we've learned so much that if we launched in the US, I think I'd be shitting myself. 

One thing I love about your brand is the visual design of the cans and the marketing. I think it's beautiful and really satisfying to look at. How did you go about building the visual identity and overall brand experience for Benny? What do you want consumers to feel when they interact with your product?  

Paige: Thank you, those are such nice compliments. It’s been a journey, and so much TLC has gone into the brand and continues to. We’re still working with the same designer [from when we launched], but when we first briefed him and worked on the design, we had a totally different aesthetic and vision. We weren’t super clear on what Benny was—we knew the ingredients, but it wasn’t really an energy drink at the time. We worked together for months and got the branding done, including the packaging, but after sleeping on it, we realized it wasn’t right and needed to start over. It just didn’t feel right.

We took a step back and got very granular. We created a whole brand identity of who Benny would be as a person. I remember thinking, if Benny were a celebrity, it would be like Kate Hudson—cool for the girls, but casual and fun. That helped shape it, and our designer was awesome. Even now, we’re always working to get more clarity on the messaging and what Benny is. We have a close friends story on Instagram, our "Friends with Benny" community, where we poll them on messaging, and what resonates most with them. Julie always says this, but as founders, we know all the benefits and want to talk about everything Benny is, but the messaging needs to be clear. We want everyone talking about Benny to say the same thing, and we're always working on that because it’s still unclear.

As for the look and feel, we wanted it to reflect how you feel when you drink it—like Julie said, you just feel great. It’s not like, “Oh my God, I’m having heart palpitations,” and it’s obviously not a sleepy-time drink. I remember going back and forth with the team while I was at my parents' house in Saskatchewan, where they have gorgeous sunsets. We sent each other pictures of sunsets and thought, “This is kind of cool.” That’s how the orb came into play—it wasn’t always part of it. So thank you, it’s a labour of love, and it’s nice to hear that it resonates with you.

Julie: I think how we want the consumer to feel is clear, grounded, and like they’re making small changes towards becoming a better version of themselves— like when you turn yourself into a morning workout person, and that feels great. Benny offers an option to make those small changes that help people improve by 1% each day.

What would you say were some of the biggest challenges you faced launching Benny? And what milestones have you achieved that you're most proud of?

Julie: I would say challenges are just like logistically— inserting yourself into an industry that has its ways of functioning and you have no idea how that works at first. A pinpointing challenge that we always come back to is that it felt like the world was ending right as we launched. Everyone just kept telling us that we needed a distributor and we talked to a ton and no one really was willing to take a chance on a baby brand with 22-year-old founders that had no experience. Then we found someone to take Benny on, but I think it was like two weeks later, we got a letter in the mail saying that they went bankrupt and they closed and they're dissolving immediately. We were so upset, but luckily they didn't have any inventory and they didn't owe us any money. So we didn't get screwed over in that way, but it more just was like, okay, we need to pivot and figure out how to do this ourselves. It definitely slowed down what we thought the first six months of business would look like. Then actually in March/April we got a really amazing nationwide distributor that we just feel so aligned with. Now I think we're in over 400 stores.

Another thing that we're really proud of is we have some amazing advisors on our team who are so helpful and hype us up so much. Tara Bosh, the founder of Smart Sweets is one. Dionne Laszlo Baker, the founder of DEEBEE’S is another. Paige did an internship for her during university. And then Sabeena Ladha, the founder of Deux. She's more of an informal advisor. And then we have a naturopathic doctor, Dr. Caroline Lewis, based out of Toronto as well and she's just so amazing.  

Paige: I would say for another low, we were working with a co-manufacturer that also made kombucha and we'd done some test runs, and it was fine. Then we got this opportunity to launch at this really exciting store in New York so we were like, Oh my God, we're going to push our launch ahead, we're not going to do any more test runs. But turns out that when the cans reach room temperature, they would overflow— like when you'd put a mento in a Coke bottle. It was terrible. We just kind of stopped and looked at everything and after talking to so many people, we thought we'd have to reformulate, and we do now, we do pasteurize so we're shelf stable for a full year. It doesn't need to be in the fridge. And we thought that was the problem. But it turned out the real problem was that we were manufacturing in a kombucha facility so there were trace amounts of yeast that would get into the beverage similar if you've ever had a kombucha, kombucha will do it too, if you leave it to room temperature, it will like overflow like no tomorrow. But that was so disheartening, we were thinking, “Is this product not workable?”

For milestones, I feel like the press has been cool. We just have gotten some cool organic press like features in Forbes, Inc magazine, Food and Wine Magazine. And that's all just been organic, which has been so cool.

How do you overcome self-doubt? Did you ever have moments of doubt along the way, where you thought, “Maybe it'd be easier if I just got a corporate job?” How did you manage those feelings and push forward?

Paige: Totally. I think we'll probably both say the same thing. I would never be able to do it without Julie. When one of us is down, the other one is up, which is so good. We definitely have those times where we're like, is this worth it? It feels like pushing a boulder up a hill every day. But having Julie is life-changing.

And I think that it’s our personalities, we're very tenacious. You can't tell me no, I'll just figure it out. If a store says no, it's just not right now. Tara once told us, unless someone literally tells you to F off, you just keep pushing.

I think that is at the end of the day, what fuels us both is like, yes, this is very hard but it's exactly what we wanted. It's like, choose your hard. I know it would be very hard for me to work for someone else and just put in my nine to five and no shame if that's what people want to do— I kind of wish I could be like that. But that's just not the way we're wired.  

Julie: I agree. I think we both have a mentality of being accountable and not making ourselves a victim. If bad things are happening, it's just kind of like, okay, what is this teaching me? How can I personally and professionally reflect rather than just be like, “Oh my God, the universe is out to get me”? Take a moment if you need to, to work through your stuff and recognize how maybe you might be holding the business of yourself back. Versus like, I think it is very, I say “boy boss” and “hustle culture” to just keep pushing. But I think often it's kind of like the slingshot where you gave yourself a moment to sit in it and then you shoot forwards.  

Your board of directors is all women, right? Is that by design?

Julie: We never said we need to have a board of advisors that are only women. It's just who we connected with and looked up to and it kind of filled the gaps we were looking for. I think we'll probably bring on one or two more advisors over the life of Benny. Now we would want someone who's an operator because we've got all founders. Whether that's a man or a woman, it doesn't really matter at this point. But I do think it's been really impactful that our two main advisors are women.  

Paige: I agree. One thing that Tara told us early on when we were raising money from investors, was that she wishes that she could go back and be more selective on who she was winning with. And I think that's something that really spoke to us. So when we were raising money or when we'll be raising money in the future, it's like, okay, if our wildest dreams come true and we built this thing and when it sells in a big way, who are the people's lives that we're changing? Is that going to have a positive impact on the world? Cause it's such a cool opportunity to build generational wealth potentially for people who might not have that opportunity. I don't know if we need to put more money in the same people's pockets. 

Your brand centres around being healthy and caring for yourself, but you're also in this position as founders where you're probably working, you know, 80 hours a week. Is maintaining work-life balance and well-being difficult?

Julie: Yes. I think we're very lucky to not have a mortgage and kids, so we do have a lot of opportunities to be selfish with our time and energy right now. I think we're so obsessed with it that it's more than like Benny is our life. So sometimes quality time with our partners looks like packing gift bags or building a trade show set up, just involving the people in your circle in it versus having a separation. I would say my brain literally never turns off. 

Paige: I totally agree. I think we're lucky to have a lot of really good founder friends so my social bucket feels pretty full. I get why they say that being a founder is so isolating and I can imagine without a co-founder, you'd feel that times a million. You look at life and your time so differently.

We're definitely very disciplined and expect a lot of ourselves and each other, but we are gentle in that we know if you're having a low moment if you give yourself permission to rest, chances are in an hour, you're going to feel better. Just go for a walk, go have a shower, lie in your bed.  Give yourself what you need because you'll probably come back to work, you get it done instead of just powering through. And we'll text each other, “Hey, today I’m feeling wobbly, I'm going to have a slow morning.”

I like to reflect on, this is why we're doing it. We're doing it obviously for the potential outcome, but it's also the lifestyle that we're building as well. This is the whole point.  

What advice would you give to people in Canada looking to pursue their entrepreneurial dreams?  

Paige:  Just do the thing and put it into motion. We did not feel ready on the product front when we launched. We felt pretty okay about the brand. But we had to launch with the cheapest cans ever, everything was super scrappy. Do it before you're ready, because you're never going to be ready. But definitely do it. I have no regrets.

Julie: I think my advice is to make sure that you're solving a problem that you personally are really passionate about. And not just like, financially driven, because you will burn out so fast if that is your motive. You need to enjoy the journey.

A little bit more tactical advice is to audit and intentionally choose who you're surrounding yourself with. I think when we first got started, we inserted ourselves into so many communities of other young entrepreneurs, surrounded ourselves with people like Tara, so we could look to those people and remind ourselves like, okay, if they did it, so can I.

Paige: I will say one more thing that somebody told me recently, and I felt this way with my podcast, is just put in the reps. Just like going to the gym; you're not going to see progress every single day but when you take a step back, you totally will. So I think whether you're launching or you're 10 years into it, just keep putting in the reps, keep being consistent.

What's next for Benny? Are there plans to expand into new markets, product lines, or any partnerships in the near future that you want to share with us?  

Julie: Yes, we're not publicly sharing our new innovation yet, but it’s super exciting. It's going to be a more portable, quick, instant-dose version of Benny, which we're really excited about. We do have a waitlist going, which is right on the pop-up on our website, and it's almost at like 2000 people on the waitlist already. We're very excited about it!

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