Wonderade: Juice, Protein, or a Brand?

Josh Muccio (0:00)

Welcome to The Pitch, where startup founders raise millions and listeners can invest. I'm Josh Muccio.

Lisa Muccio (0:06)

And I'm Lisa Muccio. And on the show today, we have Matt with Wonderade. He's raising $1 million.

Josh Muccio (0:11)

You know Gatorade?

Lisa Muccio (0:13)

Yes, I do.

Josh Muccio (0:13)

Capri Sun?

Lisa Muccio (0:14)

Yes.

Josh Muccio (0:15)

It's 2026 Why don't we have a healthy version of these drinks yet?

Lisa Muccio (0:19)

Well, we do now, thanks to Wonderade. It makes me think of a superhero.

Josh Muccio (0:25)

Well, that's excellent, because that's actually their whole goal. Nostalgic, fun, superhero characters.

Lisa Muccio (0:31)

Yes, like the good old days.

Josh Muccio (0:33)

Like the good old days of...

Lisa Muccio (0:35)

Tony the Tiger and the Trix Rabbit.

Josh Muccio (0:38)

And that Kool-Aid guy.

Jeff Cantalupo (0:39)

He was kind of superhero-esque.

Lisa Muccio (0:41)

I liked the Kool-Aid guy, but looking back, he might be a little weird.

Josh Muccio (0:45)

Well, he was. All he did was knock down walls and be like, hey.

Lisa Muccio (0:48)

But I loved Kool-Aid. I was drinking the Kool-Aid.

Josh Muccio (0:53)

Drinking the Kool-Aid. Today's founder wants to make juice for children that's as delicious and nostalgic as our childhood favorites.

Lisa Muccio (1:01)

But with protein, and it's actually good for you.

Josh Muccio (1:04)

But can today's third time founder turn Sunny D into Money D and get the VCs to invest in juice?

Lisa Muccio (1:13)

The Pitch for Wonderade is coming up after this.

Josh Muccio (1:16)

But first, we are hosting two live events this season. One in SF coming up at SF Tech Week, and another one in November in New York City.

Lisa Muccio (1:27)

We're also hosting our next taping of season 17 in San Francisco. Join us at any of these events. Go to pitch.show.events.

Josh Muccio (1:38)

Welcome back to The Pitch for Wonderade. Let's meet the investors.

Charles Hudson with Precursor Ventures.

Charles Hudson (1:45)

We have 500 companies, so you pick it, we have it.

Josh Muccio (1:48)

And three new investors to the show. Ellie Bahrmasel with Perinat.

Ellie Bahrmasel (1:52)

Entrepreneurship is the dance between hubris and humility.

Josh Muccio (1:55)

Elizabeth Galbut with Sogal Ventures.

Elizabeth Galbut (1:57)

Not all exits are created the same.

Josh Muccio (2:00)

And Jeff Cantalupo with Listen Ventures.

Jeff Cantalupo (2:02)

Do you want this to be a premium brand?

Ellie Bahrmasel (2:11)

Wonderade.

Josh Muccio (2:13)

Oh, wow.

Charles Hudson (2:15)

She's a woman of many talents.

Matt Cauble (2:18)

I'm going to use your voice. Who did that?

Charles Hudson (2:20)

She did it.

Matt Cauble (2:21)

That was a perfect voice. I need to use that.

Lisa Muccio (2:23)

Wonderade. Thank you so much, Matt. Great to meet you. Good to meet you.

Charles Hudson (2:26)

Elizabeth, nice to meet you. Charles.

Matt Cauble (2:28)

Hi, Charles. Nice to meet you. Hi. Jeff. Matt. Nice to meet you, Jeff. Good to meet you.

Okay. Hi, everyone. My name is Matt Cauble, and I'm the founder of Wonderade, the juice that you wish you had when you were growing up. Let me take you back to my childhood.

Baseball, I was drinking Gatorades. On the weekends, I was selling Country Cock lemonade out of a lemonade stand. At night, I was mixing up Kool-Aid before dinner, and at birthday parties, we were fighting over pouches and boxes, Capri Suns, Juicy Juice. Sometimes I wonder if my parents were reading these labels. Things are a bit different now. I have two kids of my own, and I don't give them that stuff.

I looked, and in the last 20 years, there's been one innovation in juice. You may have heard of it, it's called Honest Kids, and their big innovation is just less sugar. At the end of the day, that's still sugar water, which honestly isn't good enough.

So, thanks to some pretty cool advancements in food tech, what's called Hydrolyzed Protein Peptides or Clear Protein, we can now make something even better. This is Wonderade. It's a juice that tastes like OJ or fruit punch, but it has 8 grams of protein, it has 4 grams of fiber, and only 3 grams of total sugar, all from juice. I didn't stop there, I went ahead and brought in as much potassium as a banana, as much calcium as milk, and then a bunch of other vitamins and minerals to boost immunity and brain health. My kids love it and I'm excited to share it.

The juice market is a $25 billion a year market in the United States, mostly dominated by legacy brands. We've seen the story play out in soda over the past six years, and I see that story happening again now for juice. This isn't my first time starting a beverage company, this is my third. My first, Soylent, got to $35 million in ARR in 18 months. My second, Kin, did $5 million in its first year. Both times I saw the opportunity for tastes and technology to serve a customer that had a health need. I see that same chance now thanks to my own kids. That's why I'm raising a million dollars to bring healthy, fun and delicious nutrition to families everywhere. My only question now is, are you ready to try it?