This podcast is sponsored by hyper brain iQ. See what an innovative nootropic formula can do for your focus, energy, mood, and cognitive function at hyperbrainiq.com. That’s hyperbrainiq.com.
Joe: On this episode of the CPG & CBD University Podcast: Unleashing Your True Potential With hyper brain iQ, we go behind the science of the nootropic craze to get the heart of every gummy and capsule of what’s in them. The opportunity for retail and what’s leading the craze. This is the CPG & CBD University Podcast, and it starts right now.
I’m Joe Agostinelli, host of the CPG & CBD University Podcast. We’re talking the ingredients behind nootropics, and how one of our newest in-house brands is answering consumer demand with hyper brain iQ. Tune in to our YouTube channel for video extras, as we show off the products and hit that subscribe button wherever you get your podcasts. Joining me on this episode of our podcast, is our quality manager, Nelson Rodriguez, and our vice president of sales, Vince Gillen. Nelson got the memo, and Vince is on, we gotta dress up. So he even brought the suit jacket. Welcome both of you.
Nelson: Gotta do it.
Vince: Thank you. Thanks for having me. I mean, and Nelson.
Joe: Well, we first talked about this topic back on episode 98 of our podcast as part of our gummy central series, nootropics, and Nelson. Lots going into the science of nootropics. How did the gummies and capsules of hyper brain iQ come about?
Nelson: Well, let me start by saying that it was not only one person, like a lot of people have put their time into this formulation. Of course, it was not easy, it has so many active ingredients in there. I can go like to the specifics, and then I can go like maybe the other. I mean, they’re all specifically for something, but there are other stuff in there that might help you and might just have like a synergistic effect with other active ingredients. For the sake of it, I’m gonna start with, and correct me if I’m wrong, I’m just gonna say the name in Spanish because in chemistry, I’m way better in Spanish. So one of them will be, let’s call it serine, and the other one is alpha-GPC. The scientific name is basically a really long name. Well, it’s alpha-GPC, alpha-phosphorylcholine, and then the other one is alpha-glycerolphosphorylcholine.
Joe: That’s why we bring you on the podcast, because it’s like, let’s get to the science, we’re bringing on Nelson.
Nelson: So the serine basically helps you with…It improves mood, it improves…it actually reduces stress. It has proven to reduce basically signs of…what do you call that? Specifically, in elderly people like dementia, it actually helps with that. That’s basically the serine. The alpha-GPC helps more with sharpness, it helps with memory loss, it helps with hand-eye coordination. That’s actually pretty important in gaming of course, as you guys know. It has other stuff in there, like the vitamin Bs. Vitamin Bs actually help with, you know, turning your food into actual proper energy. So as you can see, we took stuff that helps you focus and gives you energy in one gummy, right? On top of that, we knew that all of this was giving you energy, and it was giving you focus, it gives you sharpness, but we were like, “This needs something else.” And that’s why we came up with caffeine.
It gives you a little bit more boost of energy. Of course, when you…well, I mean, I think we all drink coffee, but as you can see, it has so many active ingredients. And when you add that many active different ingredients into a formulation, it kind of makes you jittery, right? So, we decided to add L-theanine to it. So you have all these actives in just one gummy, and L-theanine is kind like help you like not make you feel jittery, just focused. So as you can see, taking all of these active ingredients from vitamin B3, B6, B12, serine, alpha-GPC, and caffeine, plus L-theanine, put it into one gummy, no easy task, very difficult to make. From basically making like a gummy at the scale that we’re doing it, difficult, flavor, difficult, color, difficult. So, it was a lot of hard work, not just by me, by a lot of people in here, so.
Joe: But you guys got it done, nailed it, because we’re noticing on the retail side, on the wholesale side, and Vince, obviously, as I mentioned, retailers, distributors taking over the popularity of these products, making them available to their consumers. What have you seen in recent months with the reception to hyper brain iQ coming on board with distributors?
Vince: Well, we’re not a newcomer to the nootropic game, there’s a ton of capsule products in the market. So immediately, when retailers and distributors saw that we had a gummy product that was different than the majority of the product forms in the market, that was definitely exciting for them and for us. So we have both SKUs that are priced well, aggressive to high margins for the retailers. And like Nelson said it, you know, having this many ingredients in a quality product that produces the focus, the energy without jitters is really what consumers are looking for.
Joe: And Nelson, let’s talk about one segment, those demographics, gamers. You, yourself, we talked about this on the last one. You, yourself, a gamer, why is this brand so popular with the gaming world?
Nelson: Well, as I said, hand-eye coordination, especially in first-person shooters, right?
Joe: Did you say first-position shooters?
Nelon: First-person shooters. Yeah, first-person shooter, basically when you see the gun is like a first-person.
Joe: Gotcha. All right.
Nelson: So hand-eye coordination, that’s very important, especially like in first position shooters, not only that, other games, you know, the majority of competitive games out there, fighting games, shooters, you name it, you need to have a really quick reaction time. And if it’s making you at least a couple percentage more, you know, faster than the enemy, for example, then you’re basically winning, right?
Joe: Yeah. That’s good.
Nelson: But so yeah, it’s very famous in the gaming scene. I’m not gonna lie, I just drink it also when I’m…I mean, not drink it, I take capsules or gummies when I’m traveling too, you know. Sometimes I don’t have time, you know, to line or get some coffee, you know, the plane’s gonna depart, whatever, so I just eat three gummies. It’s actually very good. I don’t like sleeping on planes, so that’s why I use it. So not only for gaming, I use it for almost everything, to be honest, gaming, traveling, anything.
Joe: Which makes it…I mean, talk about the traveling, makes it perfect for convenience.
Vince: Correct. Yeah, absolutely. I think when you break it down by who the customer is, and you look at gamers, you can look at athletes, college students, even business professionals that are traveling, like Nelson said, you know, there’s a lot. And then some would just be people that want that extra edge without the crash, if you will, that coffee can produce. And also, some people, there’s so many energy products and focus products in the market that are shots and beverages, that it’s unique to have a gummy product that tastes really good, that you don’t need to consume an entire bottle or shot that may not taste very good. So, you can have two or three gummies instead of, you know, a full shot or a full energy drink or half a pot of coffee, whatever it is that gets you going. And this category, in general, is growing, not just in convenience, but in the grocery space, which is usually…there’s similarities, but to see the words nootropic popping up with the scan sales data and with different trade publications is we really think we hit this at the right time.
Joe: And talk about the packaging, and really the look. And this is where you can turn to our YouTube channel for some extras. But I mean, the gummies and capsules really do stand out with the design and packaging.
Vince: Absolutely. Our graphics and design team did a great job with the packaging. The gummy packet itself, and then the blister card, both of them are eight-count. The majority of the product in the market, you’ll see that’s capsule-based, is a four-count or even a two-count for the same price that the consumer pays. So to have, you know, four times the product is way better value, and then the gummies, it’s just, there’s none in the market right now. So the packaging’s both [inaudible 00:08:49], eye-catching. And then, for some of the retailers, that could be a nutrition shop, or even some of the smoke shops that we carry, we have bottles. So, there are 30-count, retail’s $29.99. So $9.99 and a $29.99 option.
Joe: And Nelson, now that the brand’s out there, getting it in the hands of more and more consumers and distribution partners, excitement for the brand, and from a formulation standpoint, maybe stuff down the road coming up?
Nelson: We have some stuff down the road. Limited on what kind of info I can give you, right? But we’re always thinking ahead of, you know, how can we make this better, what flavors we can come up with next. Like I said, I’m kind of limited over the information I can give you.
Vince: Everything innovation.
Nelson: Everything innovation.
Vince: That’s what people want. What’s next? We start shipping this, and they want to know what’s next.
Nelson: I remember where we started making this, I used to bring it to Vincent, like the flavors, do you remember? Taking some of them were like, bad, like the flavor…That’s what I’m saying, it was very difficult.
Vince: It took a long time.
Nelson: Yeah, it took a long time.
Joe: What is the flavor?
Nelson: So the flavor in here is…it’s a sweet peach and citrus blend. So I don’t wanna get too technical on it, but when you have that kind of flavor, it lowers the pH of the gummy, and that’s basically when you start having very difficult formulations.
Joe: He’s talking acidity of the gummy. Are you not?
Nelson: I’m sorry. Yeah, pH is just acidity.
Joe: Yeah. Exactly. See? I’ve learned something through 118 episodes.
Vince: With that though, is when other people have tried to do gummies like this, I give our formulation team a lot of credit, it’s a quality product that is palatable, and people like the taste, and it’ll come back, because in retail anything can sell one or two times, but to create a product where it can be regimental for people to take all the time and have a quality, you know, nootropic product they can turn to that they know tastes really good is something unique, and I think we really hit it outta the park with the hyper brain gummies.
Joe: And what’s been…you’ve been to a couple of trade shows already this year, we talked about that on a previous episode, previewing some of those, what’s been the feedback from distributors and partners so far?
Vince: Well it’s been great. You know, we have some really good point of sale items that help display the product and get out there, a lot of marketing material. I mean, the name speaks for itself in a way, like I think it does really sell what it is, and the packaging, but the best part about some of the trade shows is the samples that we can only give out to even other vendors that have booths that are taking it, you know, in the morning, setting up from late nights or whatever, and they’re bringing people by, they’re, “Hey, take this, these really work.” So, so far, it’s been really good, so we have a few more trade shows coming up that we’ll get even more feedback on. And most of our distribution network either has samples, or their first, or second purchase orders already rolling out to stores.
Joe: And perhaps as the innovation continues, let me go further discuss about new products and additions to the line in coming episodes. We’ll have to see what you guys come up with.
Nelson: Creativity. That’s all it takes.
Joe: Very good. And for more information on hyper brain iQ, visit hyperbrainiq.com. Anything I didn’t cover? I think that wraps it.
Vince: Yeah, absolutely.
Joe: Quality manager, Nelson Rodriguez, vice president of sales, Vince Gillen, thanks for joining me guys. Lot of great information on nootropics. And thank you for tuning to this episode of the CPG & CBD University Podcast. Don’t forget to see the packaging. You can visit our YouTube channel for the episode of this podcast, along with some video extras of other YouTube videos in regards to hyper brain iQ and the products available in that line. You can also hit that subscribe button wherever you get your podcasts to get notifications of new episodes each week. I’m Joe Agostinelli, host of the CPG & CBD University Podcast, thank you for tuning in.
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food & Drug Administration. CBD products are unintended to treat, cure, or prevent any disease or condition. Always consult your personal physician about CBD and using CBD products. CBD should never be used by anyone under the age of 18. This podcast is not intended to provide legal advice regarding the legal status of CBD and CBD products.
