Interview with the people behind Antimatter energy drink 02/08/08
Question 1. Who are you and what is the name of your company.
I'm Rich Glover and the name of the company is Microgravity Enterprises, Inc
Question 2. How many people work for your company.
We currently have four people direct and six part time.
Question 3. How did you come up with the idea for Antimatter energy drink?
There isn't a short answer to this. Most of us at MEI have spent our
careers in the space business and are frustrated by the lack of progress
in space commercialization. The current approach, which has been in
place for the last 40 years is that the government drives space
exploration and development but really is not capable of doing much
about commercialization (the government doesn't understand
commercialization). So, we're trying in our own small way to change the
equation. We have solid plans for space based production and
manufacturing of food products, pharmaceuticals, and special materials
(each with a clearly defined market opportunity on Earth). However we
aren't rich so we had to figure out a way to finance our space
commercialization ideas. Plus we want to have the freedom to go where
the market drives us and not be constrained by the government or large
institutional investors. We looked at our collective finances and it
wasn't pretty. So we all ended up setting up home equity loans and
maxed our credit cards to fund this venture.
Next we developed a capability to fly ingredients to space and back on
existing rockets (i.e. no development or extra $$$ required) and to do
it without having to charge a "space premium." This was not trivial
because it's not as simple as just sticking stuff on a rocket and flying
it. By the way we have a patent pending on this process (you'll see the
mention on each can). We reviewed the consumer market and identified
three products we thought would have a lot of appeal and would allow us
to generate sufficient revenue to move on to the next step. Those
products were an energy drink called Antimatter (we fly the vitamin
complex), a purified water called Space2O (we fly the electrolytes), and
a beer called Comet's Tail Amber Ale (we fly the yeast). While we all
support the work going on for space tourism, most of us don't have
$200,000 to spend on a flight. These products are our way of giving the
average consumer an opportunity to interact with space without having to
pay an arm and a leg for it. So, every time you drink our products you
are drinking stuff that has physically been to space and back. Note
that some people pay thousands of dollars to hang something on the wall
that has been to space. With our products you can get it everyday for
the space price you pay for other similar products.
For completeness let me highlight our dedication to space education and
research. MEI has established and fully funds the ACCESS for Education
Foundation, a 501(c)(3) non profit corporation. In a nutshell, we fly
K-12 and university student experiments to space for free every time we
fly. On average we fly 12-14 experiments per flight. Our goal is to
get more kids interested in space and show them that it can also be a
profitable business venture. We have made a long term commitment to fly
these free experiments for as long as MEI exists - that means when we
start our orbital production flights we'll still be putting experiments
on there for free. This is very important to us.
Question 4. You have a lot of ingredients in your drink. How did you
decide which ingredients to put in Antimatter?
We worked extensively with a beverage development house. They were
involved with our space plans from the beginning and very enthusiastic.
What we told them was that we wanted an energy drink that tasted great
but also had a potent yet smooth lift. We didn't want anybody suffering
an energy drink crash - we needed a smooth lift and smooth drop. What
you see in the can is the result of a lot of focus group taste tests and
comments.
Question 5. Do you plan on releasing other flavors? How about an
Antimatter energy shot.
We already have a "Green Apple" flavor which tested very well with our
focus groups. We'll be releasing that plus zero carb versions of the
original and green apple over the next year or so. We've also developed
Moon Dust which is a water additive. It has a very unique taste and
contains all of the ingredients in Antimatter minus the sugar and
caffeine. We're not sure about the release date for that yet.
Question 6. Some companies target extreme athletes, Students, nightshift
workers ect. Who is your target market?
We have been surprised at the broad appeal of Antimatter. We originally
went after the student market, particularly those students interested in
science and engineering. However, in the process of working our focus
groups we began to see much broader interest. One focus group was a
bunch of football players from a University I'm not allowed to mention.
They loved the drink and are now regular customers. In another session
we actually had a group of teachers, they also loved the drink and it
has become their routine after lunch pick me up (they still do coffee in
the morning). I just delivered several cases to a local hospital
because it is the drink of choice for doctors and nurses working the
night shift. We are working hard to learn how to handle this broad
market, it is clearly a little unusual. In general our approach has
been to highlight the space connection but really focus on the taste and
performance. Most people will give it a shot because they are curious
about the space aspect but they keep coming back because it tastes good
and works!
Question 7. Who is your products main competition? Energy drinks, Energy
shots, energy pills, Coffee drinkers?
I think without question our competition is other energy drinks. In
fact we've found that we do best when stores put us right next to Red
Bull. In almost every case where that has happened we end up outselling
Red Bull.
Question 8. Ok I have to ask this one. Which ingredients have been flown
in space?
As I mentioned earlier. We fly the vitamin complex for Antimatter,
electrolytes for Space2O, and yeast for Comet's Tail Amber Ale (by the
way, flying yeast is very difficult). On our first flight we lost
almost half of our yeast. By the time we got to our second flight we
had solved the problems and got 100% back.
Question 9. Who designed your can and what is that picture on the front?
Both the Antimatter and Space2O designs were created by Mike namers at
LightSpeed Commercial Arts. He also created the Microgravity
Enterprises logo. He has received a number of awards for these
designs. The picture on the front is a snap shot of a matter-antimatter
annihilation event - the ultimate source of energy.
Question 10.Tell all the Energy junkies out there why they should use
and support Antimatter. Give us your best sales pitch.
There are lots of energy drinks out there and they all follow the space
formula. Create a cool name, put some catchy graphics on the can, then
come up with a story that will appeal to the target market. What you
get is the result of some marketing company's analysis. Red Bull gives
you wings, party like a Rock Star, etc. Well, you can say that we have
a gimmick too - space flight. The only difference is our gimmick is
real and our story hasn't been created by some 5th Avenue marketing
group. We're just a small group of people that want to really do
something different. In the process of doing that, we've created the
ultimate energy drink experience. Tastes great, performs well and
you're drinking stuff that has physically been to space and back - it
doesn't get any more extreme than that. We're in it to create a
profitable commercial space company and that is just the beginning. We
aren't going to take these profits and retire - there is a lot more to
do. We plan to reinvest everything in to creating the next phase. Even
if you don't drink our products, get involved and send us your ideas, we
could use the input.
Read the review of Antimatter energy drink