Andy gay

Read more about their journey as entrepreneurs in developing their product.

Here’s our interview with Andy Gay and Garrett Waggoner, co-founders of Cirkul.

Did your entrepreneurial path receive any pushback from family or friends?

Normally when you go against the grain of a “normal” path after graduation you will get push back from the people closest to you.

Cirkul's manufacturing currently takes place in warehouses in Tampa and Salt Lake City.

Don't 'let yourself get pulled by different ideas'

Other entrepreneurs agree: You need to figure out when to listen to someone's advice, and when to break from conventional wisdom and trust your gut.

"When you're just getting started in a small business, it's easy to drown an opportunity if you let yourself get pulled by different ideas," billionaire entrepreneur and investor Mark Cuban told CNBC Make It in March.

Successful business owners take other people's feedback seriously while filtering out bad or irrelevant advice, Cuban added.

Kopi Kenangan co-founder and CEO Edward Tirtanata offers similar advice: Don't ever sacrifice what makes your business unique.

So keeping the bigger picture in mind is extremely important.

The Future of Cirkul

Since this interview, Andy Gay and Garrett Waggoner have expanded Cirkul beyond direct-to-consumer and debuted on the shelves of domestic Walmart stores. Luckily for us, we have very supportive friends and family who have believed in us and Cirkul since the beginning.

What’s the short version of the birth and incubation process of the Cirkul concept?

Cirkul started in the locker room at Dartmouth College when we were both studying for our exams.

They tried outsourcing their manufacturing, for example — a common practice for consumer product companies — but struggled to find a factory that would work with Cirkul to produce a novel product.

"Most folks in the beverage space do cans and bottles, so when approached with something unique, they all declined to lean in," Waggoner says.

We’re taking a natural, flavored beverage and making consumption sip by sip.

Although our business model is similar to Keurig, our products provide completely different benefits to the customers. Once you achieve the functional design, product design has a huge role on market acceptance, especially in a crowded market like beverages.

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Andy Gay

Co-Founder and Chief Brand Officer

Andy Gay is the Co-Founder and Chief Brand Officer of Cirkul, the Tampa-based brand transforming how beverages are developed, distributed, and enjoyed.

Garrett retired from the game to focus fulltime on Cirkul.

Your crowdfunding was oversubscribed by nearly 700%. Upon graduating from Dartmouth College in 2014 with a degree in Film and Media Studies, Andy worked in retail while he continued to develop and improve Cirkul with Garrett. Cirkul is answering the call for changing consumer demands in the beverage space and is on a mission to help people drink more water in a more customizable, convenient, delicious, and fun way.

From idea to launch it took about six years.
Cirkul’s continued growth and success in a crowded CPG marketplace has made them a $1 billion water bottle company. The next Google is not going to look like a Google – you need to be radically different in order for you to compete against the incumbent," said Tirtanata.
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For example, new water bottle companies have made a huge impact on the market by creating trendy bottles that serve as fashion accessories that are even sold in clothing department stores. The product development stage took longer than expected, and unexpected challenges appeared along the way. This is extremely telling, in terms of the importance of consumer product design.
Is it fair to assume that you’re trying to disrupt the personal beverage category?
That’s a fair assumption.

"What worked for [them] might not work for a different type of business."
Waggoner and Gay launched their Tampa, Florida-based business in 2015, got their products — reusable water bottles with built-in disposable flavor cartridges — onto retail shelves in 2018, and obtained a $1 billion pre-money valuation during a $70 million fundraising round in 2022.
Some of the advice they received in Cirkul's early years worked, Waggoner says: focusing on solving a real problem rather than trying to build a cool product and "obsessing" over customer experience.
Before the pair landed on the Cirkul bottle's current design, they found themselves lost in imagining all of the cool things a new product could do, says Waggoner.

"We, by necessity, were required to manufacture the product ourselves."
Manufacturing their own product required a "tremendous amount of successes, failures and ultimately, learning," he adds. It’s the company’s focus on quality control and vertical integration that enables it to invent, pivot, and deliver in a nimble and cost-effective manner.
Profiles: Andy Gay and Garrett Waggoner, Co-Founders of Cirkul
Two standout scholars / athletes – from opposite sides of America, but with a common entrepreneurial vision – Andrew Gay and Garrett Waggoner launched Cirkul in October 2016 to change the way that people drink water.
Andy and Garrett have gained first-hand, practical experience in every possible corporate function; from product development, patent application and fundraising, to marketing, operations and accounting.

Motiv is an integrated product design firm that works with start-ups like Cirkul from concept to creation to design and develop their products.