We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Shreya Patel a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Shreya, thanks for joining us today. One of the toughest things about entrepreneurship is that there is almost always unexpected problems that come up – problems that you often can’t read about in advance, can’t prepare for, etc. Have you had such and experience and if so, can you tell us the story of one of those unexpected problems you’ve encountered?

There have been challenges along the way. First, launching a CPG company while working full-time has been part of the learning process. I had to learn how to balance being a professional, a mom, and a founder while giving each the attention it deserves. My goal is to be able to transition to hyve full-time, sooner rather than later, to more quickly achieve hyve’s goals and my personal goals. Second, launching a CPG company during the covid pandemic presents a new set of challenges. Getting word out about the company has been more difficult, especially a revolutionary product like hyve. There is quite a bit of a learning curve, or “un-learning” if you will. And third, building the right team around me has been a challenge, and I think this is true for all companies, regardless of stage in the growth of the company.

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

For years, I disliked doing dishes because of the kitchen sponge and all the yucky things that lurked in the sink. I knew it contained much more harmful bacteria than our bathrooms. During this time, a couple of things were happening: I was trying to DIY my cleaning products to decrease the amount of toxicity in my home, and I was also growing more connected to the environment and increasingly frustrated by the amount of waste being created. I had all these problems running through my head but no solution.

Until that day that I wondered why I was leveraging beneficial bacteria in my garden and my gut, but not in my home. Why couldn’t I use good bacteria to help eliminate bad bacteria instead of the harsh chemicals that are known to be toxic to our skin and lungs?

After months of research and talking to friends, the idea of hyve was born. A company that will redefine clean by harnessing the power of biology, not chemistry; and do it in a way that would be mindful of our planet.

Hyve is producing a new generation of cleaning products using the power of good bacteria to clean more naturally and more effectively at the microscopic level. We are using a plant-based formulation to protect our bodies and our earth from harmful, toxic ingredients. And that formulation is packaged up in 2 oz concentrates that get diluted in reusable bottles to minimize our carbon footprint.

What’s the underlying magic of hyve, you ask? First, our custom blend of beneficial bacteria can significantly reduce and eliminate harmful bacteria such as salmonella, E. coli, listeria, and so on by competitive inhibition as shown by our lab testing. Second, our bacteria can reach harmful bacteria hiding in places where traditional cleaners can’t get to. Third, our products provide you with a protective shield against these harmful bacteria for up to 5 days. Now that’s something traditional or natural cleaners can’t do. Fourth, we value transparency of the handful of non-toxic ingredients we use. Fifth, we offer a convenient for you subscription model. And finally, we support clean water initiatives by giving back through 1% for the Planet. This is a cleaner cleaner, no make that the cleanest cleaner, and Hyve is a name you can trust.

We’d love to hear your thoughts about selling platforms like Amazon/Etsy vs selling on your own site.

We started exclusively selling through our website, hyveclean.com when we launched. However, like many we soon realized Amazon was a necessary evil for us to grow. It’s a frustrating, confusing, process – but we do see sales there which is nice. We’d eventually like to get back to just selling exclusively through our site, but for the time being you can find hyve products on Amazon as well.

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

As a small business, we started with friends and neighbors – educating them on the advantages of cleaning with probiotics and the many harmful disadvantages of cleaning with chemical cleaners. From there, we gained many of our first customers from word-of-mouth, which is the best type of referral if you ask me! We are on social media and sell on Amazon – so we get some customers from there. But I’m confident the majority of our new customers come from our existing customers, which is so nice!

Contact Info:

• Website: hyveclean.com
• Instagram: @hyveclean
• Facebook: Facebook.com/hyveclean