[00:00:10] Ray Latif: Hello, friends. I'm Ray Latif, and you're listening to the number one podcast for anyone building a business in food or beverage, Taste Radio. In this episode, we sit down with legendary athlete Bo Jackson and Larry Wert, the CEO Bo Jackson and Partners, who discuss the development of Bo 3.0, a brand of functional hydration powders. Bo Jackson, the multi-hyphenate sports icon, who's one of a handful of athletes to play both professional football and baseball, is now tackling perhaps his biggest challenge, the beverage industry. Bo is the creator of Bo 3.0, a brand of zero-sugar hydration powders formulated with ingredients that are designed to support joint, heart, and immunity health. Launched in February 2024, the brand comes in three flavor varieties and are sold direct to consumer via the Bo 3.0 website and Amazon.com. In the following interview, BevNET senior reporter Brad Avery speaks with Bo and Larry Wert, CEO Bo Jackson and Partners, about the creation and positioning of Bo 3.0, how it fits into Beau's perspective on nutrition and extends his presence in CPG, and the one reason he wouldn't want consumers to buy the powders.
[00:01:32] Brad Avery: Hi, I'm Brad Avery, senior reporter for BevNET and Nosh here at BevNET Live 2024 in Marina del Rey, California with Taste Radio Studio. We have joining us is Larry Wert, the CEO Bo Jackson & Partners and perhaps the ultimate multi-hyphenate, Bo Jackson.
[00:01:50] Bo Jackson: Hi, how are you?
[00:01:51] Brad Avery: Thank you so much for being with us here today. What brings you to your first BevNET Live?
[00:01:57] Bo Jackson: What brings me to my first BevNET Live? First of all, an airline that screwed up mine.
[00:02:01] Brad Avery: from first class to coach. It's all a mistake. Five hours on a plane.
[00:02:06] Bo Jackson: But the reason Larry and I are here at BevNET is because we have a powder sports drink, nutritional drink, and it's called Bo 3.0. We developed this during COVID with a company called Cary, Cary International. They're an ingredient company. So 95% of the food you eat every day got some of their ingredients in it.
[00:02:32] Brad Avery: So I know this is your first beverage product, but maybe you could tell me a little bit about the history of the company, because you've been involved in the food space for a little while.
[00:02:38] Bo Jackson: Been involved in the food space since the mid-90s. A little while. I did business with the United States government, with all the big box stores around the country, and still in it, but I've scaled down to just burgers and some plant-based products. As far as my sports drink is concerned, this is new. And to make a long story short, because we could sit here and talk about this all day, we decided to do with our sports drink what everybody else forgot to do or failed to do, is put a product out there that's gonna be attractive to the eye with the packets, put ingredients in our product that's good for you. This have no sugar, it has joint health products in it, heart health products in it, and cardiovascular, and it tastes outstanding. And my motto is, if you buy this because of me, you're an idiot. You got to buy this because of the taste, and the taste is going to keep you coming back to it. So I stake the farm on this being a winner to anybody that tries it.
[00:03:57] Brad Avery: So why did you originally want to get into this space in the first place? Obviously, you have the product that is going to deliver on the formulation, but what made you think this is something that we should be doing?
[00:04:09] Larry Wert: Can I just add, I think we saw a category leader in the space. And by the way, it looked like it was going to be a growing space. Hydration, three out of four Americans are dehydrated. And we saw the product that maybe had too much sugar and no other benefits. And so we thought we could put together a better hydration mousetrap. And so we embarked on about an 18-month journey with Cary. They helped us with ingredients in their science labs. And we added two super antioxidants, one Capros, one Iuflex, for joint and heart, as Bo said. Because it was COVID, we said, you know, COVID's not going away. We added immunity protection with vitamin C and zinc. And then we worked really hard on a natural sweetener blend that would be likable, right? And then at the end of the day, we hoped people would just drink more water. while they're getting these benefits. And I think it took a while, almost two years. We just got to market direct to consumer. We're not in any retail yet. We're on Amazon and bow3po.com. And so that's why we're here. We're pretty excited about our new product.
[00:05:19] Brad Avery: And so talking about developing this during COVID, it's kind of crazy to think about now, but that was almost five years ago. Obviously taking time to make sure the product is right, but from conception and development to today, why the long journey and how has it come about?
[00:05:34] Bo Jackson: For this simple reason. The last thing we want to do is rush this out and then have to go back and do it all over again. We want to get it right the first time. And it takes time to get it right. That old saying, crawl before you walk, walk before you run. That's what we've done. We are ready to get running now. And neither one of us probably didn't have the time to do this, but we saw a need for it. I'm not running up and down the football field no more, nor the baseball field. I am into cycling now, and I'm an outdoorsman. So I drink a lot of water, and sometimes, you know, water just don't get it sometimes. You gotta put some flavor in it. Why not put some flavor in it? And not only that, give yourself the proper nutrients while drinking that water.
[00:06:32] Brad Avery: So now that it's coming out, what does the rollout look like? Where is it going to be launching? Where is it available?
[00:06:38] Bo Jackson: It's available right now on Amazon.
[00:06:41] Larry Wert: Our Shopify website is bo3po.com. And we wanted to learn. We wanted to make sure there was efficacy at the consumer level. Also, the reason it took a while is because during COVID, you know, CPG, people know that there were supply chain issues. We had a lot of challenges, you know, just getting to market. But when we did, you know, we, we spent the last year trying to learn. And now we're here, we're starting to have our first retail conversations. So I really don't know yet where we will first launch, you know, out in brick and mortar, but it's available right now on our website and Amazon.
[00:07:19] Brad Avery: As far as getting the word out goes, now Beau, you said you don't buy this because your name is on it, but your name is on it.
[00:07:25] Bo Jackson: No, no, no, no, no, no. I didn't say don't buy that. But I said to the consumers, don't purchase that because my name is on it. Right. Purchase it because of the quality of the product. Let your eyes be attracted to that package first, because that's what consumers do. You're attracted with your eyes first. Then you're curious, what's in that package? I'm going to buy one to see what it's like. Now you're going to let your palate tell you whether or not you want to buy that again.
[00:08:00] Brad Avery: And so what I wanted to ask was having your name on it, though, and what involvement you will play in getting the word out and promoting it and bringing the consumer in so that they do give it a try.
[00:08:11] Bo Jackson: Well, I'm here at BevNET when I should be at home doing some ice fishing or something. So that's what I do. That's what I do. It's my product. I'm not one of these people that say, yes, put my name on it, go out and sell it and send me a check at the end of the month. I left my home on Thursday of last week. I don't get home until Saturday night at midnight. And I'm only home for three days. Then I'm back on the road again. So if it's my product, my name on it, or my likeness, you can bet the farm that I'm going to be out representing that.
[00:08:49] Brad Avery: So I do have one last question. And thinking back to your time playing pro sports in the NFL, in MLB, how have you witnessed the evolution of the athlete to brand partnerships change? Because it used to be that you would just be a spokesman for something and a company would hire you and you'd do an ad. Now everyone's an investor. Now people are launching their own companies. You see that with active players as well. What are your thoughts on how the game has changed? Life has changed.
[00:09:20] Bo Jackson: Life has changed as far as the only sports that I watch now. I hate to say it, it's Formula One, golf, outdoor shows. My wife is big on Formula One. I know how to play football. I know how to play baseball. That's like you all going home and watch somebody do a podcast. You don't want to do that. So I choose things that interest me now. I still love the sport because it helped me get to where I am. But as far as watching it and as far as seeing what people doing, putting their name out there and doing this and doing this. But I'd say, hey, if you could do it, do it. But do it the right way. Do it with class. Make sure that you're doing it with a company that's reputable. Make sure that you're endorsing a product that you believe in. Because a lot of these people now that's in the sports world, hey, whatever's out there, let me put my name on it. And that's not me. I got the opportunity to do that every day, but I don't.
[00:10:27] Brad Avery: take five years to develop a product before you put it out there with your name on it?
[00:10:31] Bo Jackson: To make sure it's done right. Excellent. Period.
[00:10:35] Brad Avery: Well, Bo, Larry, thank you both so much for joining us. I hope you have a great time at the rest of the show. And thank you for watching and listening.
[00:10:43] Bo Jackson: Thank you.
[00:10:46] Ray Latif: That brings us to the end of this episode of Taste Radio. Thank you so much for listening. Taste Radio is a production of BevNET.com, Incorporated. Our audio engineer for Taste Radio is Joe Cracci. Our technical director is Joshua Pratt, and our video editor is Ryan Galang. Our social marketing manager is Amanda Smerlinski, and our designer is Amanda Huang. Just a reminder, if you like what you hear on Taste Radio, please share the podcast with friends and colleagues. And of course, we would love it if you could review us on the Apple Podcasts app or your listening platform of choice. Check us out on Instagram. Our handle is bevnettasteradio. As always, for questions, comments, ideas for future podcasts, please send us an email to ask at Taste Radio.com. On behalf of the entire Taste Radio team, thank you for listening. And we'll talk to you next time.
[00:11:36] Larry Wert: you
