Everly focused on helping people stay healthy, energized and hydrated
(EDITOR’S NOTE: The eight teams that comprise the fourth cohort in Launch Tennessee’s “The TENN” master accelerator program bring the curtain down on the experience at a pitch finale set for March 29 at Well Placed Smile, 907 Gleaves Street in Nashville. To register, click here. Ahead of that event, we are running short profiles on each of the teams.)
By Tom Ballard, Chief Alliance Officer, PYA
“We are all about helping people save money and their health by reducing sugar usage,” Kyle McCollum, Chief Executive Officer of Everly LLC, says.
The Nashville-based company accomplishes that goal by creating natural drink mixes to help people stay energized and drink more water. The powdered product comes in many flavors with 30 servings per pack.
During Launch Tennessee’s “The TENN Road Show” last month, McCollum said one packet is equivalent to 40 cans of a diet drink and costs as little as 33 cents per serving. The drink mixes are sugar free and natural.
“What we are doing is pretty simple,” he explained, adding, “What we are offering is unique in the market.”
In addition to providing a healthy alternative for consumers, Everly is also giving back.
“Every time you buy a box of Everly, we provide life-saving salts to treat kids sich with waterborne disease,” the company proclaims on its website.
McCollum’s presentation drew kudos from Glenn Swift, a retired AT&T executive who was a key player in the University of Tennessee’s Anderson Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation before his second retirement at the end of 2015.
“This is incredibly environmentally friendly,” Swift said during McCollum’s presentation at a private event in Knoxville.
Everly sells its product online as well as on Amazon and at Kroger and Earth Fare stores, generating more than $660,000 in revenue in 2016.
While McCollum thought his customer base would be comprised of males, he found that it is adult women who were switching from soft drinks.
What caused him to found Everly? It was a multi-week Boy Scout trip to Minnesota where he tried without success to find “good tasting water” for hydration.
