We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Deed Ziegler. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Deed below.

Hi Deed, thanks for joining us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

I was an officer in the Marine Corps, responsible for leading a team deploying to Afghanistan. We spent a lot of time in extreme, remote environments, carrying all of our gear often for days on end. In those places every pound matters, and it’s often tough to even have time to sit down to prepare a meal. Snacks like energy bars and trail mix are convenient but not nutritionally complete.

I realized that a product that combined the best of both worlds – having a more complete nutritional profile but also being lightweight and easy to pack and use on the go – would be so helpful for not just me and my team, but for anyone doing demanding activities in outdoor environments. I had no idea what I was getting into when I first started to explore this idea, and no way of knowing all of the hard challenges and amazing moments that were ahead.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I created RecPak because I saw that for people doing challenging outdoor activities, whether for their passion or their profession, it is often impossible to get complete nutrition while on the move. Our inspiration was to provide a better nutritional option to those who need it, from mountaineers to wildland firefighters. We’re even in the planning phase to send a significant amount to Ukraine.

RecPak combines the convenience of a snack with the nutrition of a meal. Contained in a lightweight, flexible pouch that’s designed to withstand the elements, RecPak fuels you up without weighing you down, just add water and drink on the move. To design the nutrition and source the ingredients, we worked with top sports nutritionists and food scientists with experience in endurance sports. It comes in three tasty flavors: Chocolate, Vanilla Chai, and Coffee (contains caffeine).

RecPak is made in the U.S., and we are currently based in Los Angeles, which has been a huge source for feedback since there are so many mountains, trails, and rock-faces close by to test out the product.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

Most recently, I had a huge issue with our supply chain that resulted in thousands of units missed final production. I assumed that product might be lost and would sit in our facility until it expired. Then I had an epiphany. I had always envisioned RecPak to have a social mission at our core, but so far I’ve been most focused on just launching. I realized that RecPak would be ideal for folks who need it most in Ukraine.

So, I’ve been working with a couple organizations to donate thousands of units to the frontlines, where so many soldiers and civilians right now have very poor nutritional options. I hope that this is just the beginning, and have allocated an even larger contribution next year. Stay tuned for details!

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

I view a company’s reputation as its brand, and brand to me is two things: the company story/mission, and the product. When I look at RecPak, we are just starting out so we don’t have an established reputation yet. What I can say is that people are attracted to the story, they like supporting a veteran owned business and as we grow I will increasingly add to that story by incorporating a strong social mission, donating profit and product to causes that I care about.

So far I’ve been mostly focused on building reputation through our product. With food customers, you only have one shot to make an impression in such a crowded market, and with a product like ours, if it fails for a customer while they’re on a mountain, our reputation could be tanked. So, we did a lot of product development to ensure that RecPak was ready for our market. Oftentimes, it was painfully slow, but I’m convinced that this was a key to our success.

Lastly, I’m very involved in all of our communications with customers. Customer feedback is the most important, which has been very positive so far. I constantly monitor our social media and reach out to customers to get their feedback. In the rare case when there’s an issue I respond with speed and work with them on a resolution. To me that is crucial to building and maintaining a reputation for decency and fairness.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.recpak.co/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/recpakco/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/recpakco