This installment of Funded in the Alley is presented by Bond Collective. Leading the way in hospitality and luxury offices space, Bond Collective designs workspaces to empower individuals and companies to be themselves. Rather than fit you into a limited, traditional office environment, Bond 60 Broad features larger 15-50+ person suites customized around your needs: privacy with access to community, concierge service, views of the Statue of Liberty, sound booths, and designer furnishings, just to name a few. Focus on your dream, and we’ll handle the rest.
Everyday, millions of Americans workout at the gym to improve their health and bodies only to guzzle down a protein shake that contains harmful, destructive, and unknown ingredients. While eating and drinking the right foods as a part of your workout regiment is important, you need to know which are most suited for your body to optimize your results. Thankfully, Revere simplifies the process. By collecting a host of information based on your habits and personal circumstances, Revere tailors your pre and post workout foods, using non-GMO and vegan-friendly ingredients. This ensure that you actually retain the muscle you build pumping iron and that you are able to fuel your day with great energy. Devised by nutritional science experts, product development specialists, fitness specialists, and physiologists, the Revere product pledges what you are putting into your body matches with what your body needs.
AlleyWatch chatted with CEO and cofounder Matthew Scott about the company and discussed the details of their most recent round of funding.
Who were your investors and how much did you raise?
We’ve raised a $2M Seed round led by Lerer Hippeau Ventures with participation from SterlingVC and Brand Foundry Ventures.
Tell us about your product or service.
Revere is the first personally tailored line of natural, plant-based pre and post workout powders that give people the exact nutrients they need to maximize their workouts.
Revere’s product formulations were developed by its board of nutritional science PhD’s and Product Development Advisor Mike Barwis, who built a 25+ year career as one of the most respected fitness trainers for elite professional athletes, including the New York Mets. The lineup of breakthrough pre and post workout formulas balance purposeful performance with safe, natural, considered ingredients. Each ingredient offers a specific benefit, such as pea and rice protein to support muscle rebuilding and strength, sweet potatoes to fuel your brain and muscles, and tart cherry to defend against muscle damage and minimize soreness.
In terms of our service, Revere’s simple and intuitive online experience helps consumers easily understand and create a product regimen designed around their personalized goals and routine. Users create individual profiles that capture biometric data (age, gender, weight, build) and exercise routine information (type, frequency, intensity) to curate a plan of monthly products. The pre-portioned drink mixes are delivered once a month and consumers’ profiles and plans are easily modified according to the natural ebbs and flows of exercise habits.
What inspired you to start the company?
Revere was born out of personal pain point that my cofounders and I all have been living with for years. We have always seen exercise and fitness as an integral part of our daily lives in order to stay balanced, healthy and grounded, but despite how much time and effort we invested in regular fitness, the connection between fitness and nutrition has always been a complete black box. What should you eat or drink before you exercise? Are carbs bad? What is that $15 kale juice actually doing for me?
The more we spoke to our friends about our confusion here, the more ubiquitous we realized this frustration was. Specifically, Alex (my cofounder) in her role founding the national spin studio Cyc Fitness, heard questions about this connection between nutrition and fitness daily. We realized that there was an opportunity to fix this universal pain point through a better, simpler approach to nutrition.
How is it different?
Revere is the only brand that provides a tailored product line specifically designed to fit our users’ workout routines. We inform and educate people of the natural, plant-based ingredients that are going into each formula and they are all created by a dedicated team that has a profound appreciation for overall health and wellness, including cofounder Mike Barwis, a trainer to elite athletes and Senior Advisor to the New York Mets.
What market you are targeting and how big is it?
The global sports nutrition market projected to surpass $45B by 2022.
What’s your business model?
We are a direct-to-consumer subscription service.
What NYC ecommerce startups do you admire?
Casper and Lola both come to mind. Not only because they’ve built great businesses, but also because they’re similarly bringing fresh thinking to stale, broken consumer product categories.
What was the funding process like?
We were lucky to find a team of investors that are keenly in-tune with the needs and wants of modern consumers so they quickly saw the opportunity to build a big business in this category. So needless to say, it was pretty quick.
What are the biggest challenges that you faced while raising capital?
The are a number of other startups in the health and wellness category so it was critical that we demonstrated how we were differentiated from others and why we had what it takes to win in our category.
What factors about your business led your investors to write the check?
Everyone’s attention is on health and wellness, and while fitness has seen recent innovation with the likes of Peloton or SoulCycle, there’s the whole other side of nutrition that has seen virtually no change in the last 30 years. Fitness nutrition is ripe for disruption and our investors believe in our mission of bringing personalization, simplicity and transparency to an industry that has otherwise been stuck in the 80s.
What are the milestones you plan to achieve in the next six months?
Scale the team! We have tons of open positions and now that we’re live, we’re hoping that the greater visibility will help us find some talented entrepreneurial people that are interested in what were doing.
What advice can you offer companies in New York that do not have a fresh injection of capital in the bank?
If you’re looking to raise money in the long term, focus on building a thesis and then prove it out. Investors will understand the potential for the opportunity at scale if you can demonstrate the model.
Where do you see the company going now over the near term?
We hope to become an iconic consumer brand that is synonymous with a love for your health and body.
What’s your favorite restaurant in the city?
Lovely Day (on Elizabeth). Get the ginger fried chicken and the Chinese long beans.
This installment of Funded in the Alley is presented by Bond Collective. Leading the way in hospitality and luxury offices space, Bond Collective designs workspaces to empower individuals and companies to be themselves. Rather than fit you into a limited, traditional office environment, Bond 60 Broad features larger 15-50+ person suites customized around your needs: privacy with access to community, concierge service, views of the Statue of Liberty, sound booths, and designer furnishings, just to name a few. Focus on your dream, and we’ll handle the rest.
