Livewire Ergogenics Inc (LVVV)

[Jason Coombs]

Anything worth doing is worth doing well, and anything that somebody else is doing that is worth investing in is worth the effort to comprehend fully. I agree that words get in the way of comprehension, but we have few alternatives today as a substitute for words, other than big sales numbers, to communicate about what a startup company is and why anyone would want to invest. Do we really want startups attracting capital by forecasting big numbers and pointing at industry estimates of the size of the market for the startup's products or services?

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What I want to know, and what I am working on, is how to bring together technical talent, experienced leadership and talented capital to do something more than just place product on shelves where consumer brand loyalty dynamics and our purchasing behaviors as customers are the source of future sales. There is nothing wrong with having an outstanding product that people go out of their way to buy from you instead of the competition, but achieving scale and building brand loyalty without spending millions of dollars on advertising is hard. Google famously never had to advertise, and Apple advertises but frequently says they don't need to advertise because of all the free publicity they receive from the media and the public.

It is these "self-advertising crowds" that make new companies grow without substantial capital investment, and LiveWire is attracting a crowd to help advertise. Still, I want to see the answer to the question "what good does it do a startup company to have product on shelves if people aren't thinking about buying the product when it is not right in front of them?"

LiveWire is getting the product in front of people, but that is much harder to do for a probiotics product, even "on-the-go probiotics" like Adia's. Most companies are in the same position, customers must seek out the product on retail store shelves or it doesn't move off the shelf fast enough to create growth. The strategy of convenience store point-of-sale instead of on-the-shelf product placement makes sense for the few products that customers will actually grab on the go. I am not convinced that we can ever achieve that kind of instant value recognition with probiotic drink mix and probiotic chews.