Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Andy Birutis. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Andy, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Coming up with the idea is so exciting, but then comes the hard part – executing. Too often the media ignores the execution part and goes from idea to success, skipping over the nitty, gritty details of executing in the early days. We think that’s a disservice both to the entrepreneurs who built something amazing as well as the public who isn’t getting a realistic picture of what it takes to succeed. So, we’d really appreciate if you could open up about your execution story – how did you go from idea to execution?
Alchemi Labs was started by three people who worked together for many years at different consumer good companies. We had not seen each other for a long time and decided to get together for lunch, have some really good burgers, and catch up. The lunch was great and we ended up talking about how much fun we had working together. Before lunch was done we decided that we really had to work together one last time. And so, Alchemi Labs was born.
We all loved the outdoors and agreed we should make some products that enabled people to enjoy being outside. Thanks to our backgrounds, we were aware of radiant barrier technology and knew right away that we needed to use this for our products. Radiant barriers were first used in the space industry to help protect astronauts from the intense radiant heat in space. We started playing with different radiant barriers and seeing how could laminate it to a soft material that would transform the radiant barrier to something that would be soft and apparel like. After almost two years of testing we had our radiant barrier! The material could block up to 80% of the sun’s heat waves and 99.8% of the skin damaging UV rays.
The logical application for our material was sun hats. We wanted to create a total cooling system for the head so we built an aggressive ventilation system to help circulate air inside the hat and added moisture wicking sweatbands. We also used very lightweight materials throughout the construction.
The hats we designed could be used by anyone from an ultra athlete running marathons to someone that went fishing or gardened in their backyard.
We had designed great products but we still needed funds to launch so we began crowdfunding. This generated buzz for the products and we were invited to a contest sponsored by Pfizer and Indiegogo. The goal of the contest was to identify the products that helped people live better and longer. We won and received a grant that helped us launch into production.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I have been in consumer products for close to forty years across a variety of industries including cookware, plastics, and insulated products. The sun hats we produce at Alchemi Labs has been, far and away, the most rewarding venture. From customers that have had skin issues or a have medical condition which does not allow them to deal with heat effectively to athletes that want that extra advantage while running a hundred mile race, the customer feeback has been truly heart-warming and gratifying.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
When you’re working on a new business, everything is stressful. You worry about cash flow, finding reliable, high quality suppliers, whether the product will be produced and shipped on time, and will the consumer react favorably to your product. And, things go wrong. You worry and lose sleep but you just have to work harder and trust that things will work out.
Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?
I met my partners/co-founders working together in previous companies. We truly enjoyed working together and shared a “get it done and make it great” attitude. When we decided to start Alchemi Labs it took us two years to create a product that we felt was great. When the products were introduced to the market, Apparel Magazine named Alchemi Labs one of the “Top Innovators” in the whole apparel industry.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.alchemilabs.com