ADVERTISEMENT
  • About
  • Contact
  • Testimonials
  • Demographics & Advertising Rates
Thursday, April 22, 2021
Search
    Generic filters
    California Business Journal
    58 °f
    Los Angeles
    61 ° Fri
    61 ° Sat
    60 ° Sun
    58 ° Mon
    60 ° Tue
    66 ° Wed
    • Front Page
    • Business
      • Insurance
      • Real Estate
    • Finance
      bitcoin of america

      The power of Bitcoin of America intensifies

      venture-capital-investment

      Silicon Valley and Tel Aviv Firm NextLeap Ventures Rising To The Next Level

      Bitcoin

      Big Changes May Be Coming For Cryptocurrency

      bitcoin2

      What the average person needs to know about Bitcoin

    • People
    • Featured
      lights, camera, action2

      Lights, Camera, Testing!

      Dennis Weiss Lead Gen

      Commentary: Preventing Lead Generation Fraud

      yacht fishing sunset1.1

      J. Douglas Hines has shaken up the food industry with a plant-based seafood alternative product

      stock-market-3

      How the Inflow of Retail Traders is Changing Stock Market Dynamics

      Dr. Chris Harts4

      Oventus Medical Is Revolutionizing the Treatment of Sleep Apnea

    • Technology
      Higher Education Adapts to Covid Using IT

      How Higher Education Has Adapted to Covid-19 Using IT Tools

      NEC X Figure 3_Shige Ihara

      Fast Tracking Technologies … To The World

      Welcome to the construction industry’s automated augment

      Tech Future Healthcare1

      Technology and the Future of Health Care

    • Law
      Doctor getting second opinion on patients x-ray

      Improper Medical Treatment: What To Do Next?

      Mediation-For-Couples (1)

      What is Mediation and How It Can Help?

      Legal obligations of businesses: What happens when these duties are breached?

      Nicole Kuklok-Waldman Headshot

      Commentary: How to Bounce Back from a Canceled Career 

    • News
      blockchain2

      Blockchain.com Value Reaches $5.2 Billion

      Negative Google reviews1

      How to Handle Negative Google Reviews

      SleepScore Labs

      The Final Score

      Passports on a map of the world

      If Your Employees with U.S. Passports are Traveling in 2021, Start Planning Now

    • Human Interest
      • Food
      • Art & Culture
    • Education
      Take care of Mind-Body-Soul

      4 Steps to Taking Better Care of Yourself in 2021

      Health insurance claim form

      How to file an insurance claim: Everything you need to know

      safe workplace

      9 Essential Steps for a Safer Workplace

      trust3

      7 ways to build trust on your business website

    • Health & Fitness
      Take care of Mind-Body-Soul

      4 Steps to Taking Better Care of Yourself in 2021

      Woman climber on a Klettersteig (Via Ferrata)

      6 Unique Ways to Stay Fit Outdoors This Summer

      WOMAN WORKING OUT

      Taking the Gym Home: Hot Selling Items During the Pandemic

      silhouette-of-man-and-woman-running

      3 Reasons to Start Working Out … This Month

    California Business Journal
    • Front Page
    • Business
      • Insurance
      • Real Estate
    • Finance
      bitcoin of america

      The power of Bitcoin of America intensifies

      venture-capital-investment

      Silicon Valley and Tel Aviv Firm NextLeap Ventures Rising To The Next Level

      Bitcoin

      Big Changes May Be Coming For Cryptocurrency

      bitcoin2

      What the average person needs to know about Bitcoin

    • People
    • Featured
      lights, camera, action2

      Lights, Camera, Testing!

      Dennis Weiss Lead Gen

      Commentary: Preventing Lead Generation Fraud

      yacht fishing sunset1.1

      J. Douglas Hines has shaken up the food industry with a plant-based seafood alternative product

      stock-market-3

      How the Inflow of Retail Traders is Changing Stock Market Dynamics

      Dr. Chris Harts4

      Oventus Medical Is Revolutionizing the Treatment of Sleep Apnea

    • Technology
      Higher Education Adapts to Covid Using IT

      How Higher Education Has Adapted to Covid-19 Using IT Tools

      NEC X Figure 3_Shige Ihara

      Fast Tracking Technologies … To The World

      Welcome to the construction industry’s automated augment

      Tech Future Healthcare1

      Technology and the Future of Health Care

    • Law
      Doctor getting second opinion on patients x-ray

      Improper Medical Treatment: What To Do Next?

      Mediation-For-Couples (1)

      What is Mediation and How It Can Help?

      Legal obligations of businesses: What happens when these duties are breached?

      Nicole Kuklok-Waldman Headshot

      Commentary: How to Bounce Back from a Canceled Career 

    • News
      blockchain2

      Blockchain.com Value Reaches $5.2 Billion

      Negative Google reviews1

      How to Handle Negative Google Reviews

      SleepScore Labs

      The Final Score

      Passports on a map of the world

      If Your Employees with U.S. Passports are Traveling in 2021, Start Planning Now

    • Human Interest
      • Food
      • Art & Culture
    • Education
      Take care of Mind-Body-Soul

      4 Steps to Taking Better Care of Yourself in 2021

      Health insurance claim form

      How to file an insurance claim: Everything you need to know

      safe workplace

      9 Essential Steps for a Safer Workplace

      trust3

      7 ways to build trust on your business website

    • Health & Fitness
      Take care of Mind-Body-Soul

      4 Steps to Taking Better Care of Yourself in 2021

      Woman climber on a Klettersteig (Via Ferrata)

      6 Unique Ways to Stay Fit Outdoors This Summer

      WOMAN WORKING OUT

      Taking the Gym Home: Hot Selling Items During the Pandemic

      silhouette-of-man-and-woman-running

      3 Reasons to Start Working Out … This Month

    Search
      Generic filters
      California Business Journal

      BEVERAGE KINGS

      It took a major surfing accident for Danny Stepper and Dino Sarti to experience their “wow” moment. Today, they’re reinventing a major beverage category – with their new partner, Coca-Cola.

      by Rick Weinberg, Editor-in-Chief, California Business Journal
      A A
      Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

      BY RICK WEINBERG, California Business Journal

      THE WAVES WERE EPIC ON THIS GLORIOUS SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA MORNING as Danny Stepper grabbed his surf board, raced out the front door of his Manhattan Beach flat and leaped into the sparkling blue Pacific Ocean.

      This was the day that changed Stepper’s life forever, not to mention his business partners, Dino Sarti and Pat Bolden.

      As Stepper rode a huge wave, his board flipped and cracked his forehead from his eyebrows to his hairline. He was rushed to the hospital. As he was about to be stitched up, he remembered once being told, “Don’t ever let an emergency room doctor stitch you up. They rush and they are sloppy.”

      “I’m not that good looking to begin with,” Stepper says with a laugh, “but I certainly didn’t want a two-inch scar on my forehead for the rest of my life.”

      Luckily for Stepper, a cosmetic surgeon was on call at the hospital. He stitched up Stepper, prescribed a topical gel then told him to drink Aloe Vera, which promotes healthy skin.

      “Aloe Vera?” Stepper said to himself. His eyes lit up. “That’s it,” he screamed.

      He immediately called Sarti and said, “Dude, I found it – what we’ve been searching for is Aloe Vera.”

      Stepper, Sarti and Bolden are beverage entrepreneurs who spent 10 years at Coca-Cola. Their dream was to create their own beverage. “As consultants, we were helping other people in the industry achieve their dream, yet we wanted to be entrepreneurs – we wanted our own brand,” Sarti says. “We just needed that one spark that entrepreneurs always talk about.”

      Aloe Vera was that spark.

      After years of incubation, research and development, Sarti, Stepper and Bolden created the healthiest Aloe Vera-based drink on the market. They named it Aloe Gloe. How good is it? Well, the highest-ranking executives at Coca-Cola were so impressed with it that it invested in the company and the product is now being carried by more than 20,000 stores.

      the-team

      “Our lives haven’t been the same since,” Sarti says. “When we were stocking Coke at supermarkets, we were only focused on our product and our competitors. It’s like we had blinders on. It’s like this: you think you’ve never seen a Volkswagen Passat and then when you see it, you realize it’s everywhere. That’s how it was for us with Aloe Vera.”

      With stiches holding his forehead together, Stepper and his business partner began the creation of their new hit beverage. “We quickly realized that everyone was doing it all wrong,” Sarti says. “First, it was being imported from Asia and it was loaded with 20, 30 and 40 grams of sugar. We felt, ‘Hey, we can really disrupt this space.’”

      Which is exactly what they did.

      And the timing was perfect. There were a dozen players in the space, yet a particular brand didn’t stick out.

      Until now.

      “Being raised in the beverage space, we knew that if we came up with something different, innovative and healthy, we could throw our weight around and be successful,” Stepper says. “That put us on this journey to make a healthy Aloe Vera-based product.”

      Aloe Vera is, of course, a very healthy, natural, plant-based product. Yet Asian manufacturers were killing it with sugar. “I liken it to steamed spinach versus creamed spinach,” Sarti says. “When you go from steamed to creamed spinach, it stops becoming healthy for you. That’s what the manufacturers were doing – creaming Aloe Vera with sugar and calories until it didn’t resemble anything in its purest natural form. We knew we had to completely disrupt this category.”

      From the beginning, Sarti and Stepper decided they wanted their product to be manufactured locally in Southern California, be 100% certified organic and have no more than 50 calories. The bottles, packaging, labels and caps are all made in Corona, Calif. Unfortunately, there aren’t any commercial Aloe Vera operations in the U.S. so the boys had to go to Mexico, where the finest Aloe Vera is grown.  Mexico is in fact responsible for 50% of global Aloe Vera supply.  Sarti and Stepper found an ideal Aloe Vera farm in Tamaulipas, Mexico that “we can trust and rely on.”

      a-plant-dripThe next step was formulating the drink – a very difficult task. Formulators specialize in a variety of areas – carbohydrates, savory, sweetness – yet no one could formulate the drink like Sarti wanted … until he met the right person. It took countless hours but their formulator finally emerged from a laboratory with the precise flavor and taste that Sarti and Stepper wanted.

      “It was ‘Game On,’” Sarti says.

      The company manufactures four flavors — Crisp Aloe, Lemonade, White Grape and Coconut. They sold over three million bottles last year. Now with the investment from Coca-Cola, Aloe Gloe is ramping up for an unforgettable ride.

      “The deal with Coke gives us access to the greatest distribution system in the world,” Sarti says. “They are a 129-year-old company with 450 warehouses, 70,000 employees and thousands of trucks. Now that we’re plugged into that, it allows us to reach every consumer in North America.”

      The day Coke agreed to invest in Aloe Gloe, “the world was spinning off its axis,” Sarti says with a laugh.

      Coke’s executives were content to ink the agreement by email. Not Sarti and Stepper. They wanted to fly to Coke’s Atlanta headquarters to sign off in person and experience the elation of their long, hard, back-breaking journey.

      For Coca-Cola, the deal was miniscule. For Sarti and Stepper, it meant the world.

      “When we told Coke we were flying in to sign, a corporate officer said, ‘Why would you do that? We can just scan the document and email it.’ I said, ‘No way. This is a once-in-a-lifetime moment. We’re flying in, man,’” Sarti says with a laugh.

      “We self-funded the company by taking crazy risks and by scrimping and saving and by doing what entrepreneurs do,” Sarti says. “Yet when it came to this, we were flying in, period.”

      cokeWhen they arrived at Coke’s headquarters the next morning, Sarti asked a corporate officer enthusiastically, “So where is the signing ceremony going to be?” He gave Sarti a crooked-eye look and said, “Pardon?”

      “I envisioned us signing on the deck of the USS Missouri like at the end of World War II,” Sarti says with a laugh.

      That’s not exactly the way it went down. They were in a small conference room. Lawyers were on a conference line fixing commas and dates in the contract. Finally, when the papers were ready to be signed, the Coca-Cola executives were using basic pens from the supply closet.

      Sarti looked at the pen as if was dipped in mud. He then pulled out a new Montblanc Fountain pen from his briefcase. “I bought this specifically for this,” he told everyone. “This is too special to sign with a regular pocket pen.”

      With the signing was complete, the party began.

      “We had a steak and a beer and crashed by 10 o’clock,” Stepper says with a laugh. “It was so anti-climactic.”

      Says Sarti: “We were drained. There wasn’t the ridiculous sense of elation that I anticipated, but the stress and weight that rolled off my shoulders and back was enormous. I slept for 12 hours.”

      Now, Sarti says, the real work is “just beginning for us.”

      [Editor’s note: To read the PDF version of the article, click on the image below.]

       

      Contact

      Aloe Gloe (a division of LA Libations)

      80 W. Sierra Madre Blvd. Suite 364

      Sierra Madre, Calif. 91024

      888-968-ALOE (2563)

      custserv@aloegloe.com

       

       

       

       

       

       

       

       

      ADVERTISEMENT

       

       

       

       

       

      Aloe Gloe on YouTube

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lt9OOyMS5VM

       

       

       

      Tags: Aloe GloeAmericaBeachbeerCaliforniacertifiedCoca-ColaCokecommercialcosmeticDannyDanny StepperdevelopmentDino SartiemployeesentrepreneursgrapehealthyinvestmentLos Angeles Business NewsMexiconaturalOrange County Business JournalorganicPat Boldenplant-basedRideSouthern Californiatrust
      ADVERTISEMENT
      Rick Weinberg, Editor-in-Chief, California Business Journal

      Rick Weinberg, Editor-in-Chief, California Business Journal

      Rick Weinberg is Editor-in-Chief at California Business Journal. He is a well-known journalist, writer, reporter and on-air talent who has worked for the New York Times, FOX and ESPN. He launched California Business Journal to focus on California businesses and business professionals as well as California business news and information. Contact: Rick@CalBizJournal.com / 949-648-3815

      WHAT TO READ NEXT

      lights, camera, action2
      Featured

      Lights, Camera, Testing!

      April 21, 2021
      yacht fishing sunset1.1
      Featured

      J. Douglas Hines has shaken up the food industry with a plant-based seafood alternative product

      April 16, 2021
      Dr. Chris Harts4
      Featured

      Oventus Medical Is Revolutionizing the Treatment of Sleep Apnea

      April 10, 2021
      alone at beach
      Featured

      One Fine Outlook

      April 3, 2021
      Graham-Michael-Byers No. 4
      Featured

      The Prince of Puerto Rico

      March 30, 2021
      electric-car-charging-station
      Featured

      Charging the Future of Electric Vehicles

      March 26, 2021
      Next Post

      SUPERHERO

      Follow Us

      ADVERTISEMENT

      Categories

      • Art & Culture
      • Business
      • Editor's Choice
      • Education
      • Featured
      • Finance
      • Food & Dining
      • Health & Fitness
      • Human Interest
      • Insurance
      • Law
      • Marketing
      • Medical
      • News
      • People
      • Popular
      • Real Estate
      • Social Media
      • Technology
      • Uncategorized

      CBJ Partner Firebrand Media

      Laguna Beach Independent Newspaper

      Laguna Beach Magazine

      Laguna Beach City Guide

      On The Menu Laguna Beach

      Newport Beach Independent Newspaper

      Newport Beach Magazine

      Newport Beach Country Club Magazine

      Coastal Real Estate Guide (NB,LB, CDM)

      Montage Magazine

      Monarch Beach Resort Magazine

      Pacific Coast Magazine (SoCal)

      Omni Escapes Hotel Magazine

      Sea Island Life Magazine

      Salamander Hotel & Resorts Magazine

      Bespoke Concierge New York

      Evans Hotels

      View our entire portfolio here

      ADVERTISEMENT
      1REALTOUR-SAN DIEGO-WEB DESIGN
      ADVERTISEMENT
      Facebook Twitter LinkedIn LinkedIn Instagram
      C B J   LOGO  SVG-01
      • About
      • Contact
      • Testimonials
      • Demographics & Advertising Rates

      Newsletter

      Most Viewed

      • Judge gavel, scales of justice and law books in court

        Lawsuit Basics: How Much Does It Cost to Sue Someone?

        0 shares
        Share 0 Tweet 0
      • THE ONLY WAY

        0 shares
        Share 0 Tweet 0
      • REPORT: TECH GIANT CISCO ABOUT TO LAY OFF 14,000

        0 shares
        Share 0 Tweet 0

      Latest Articles

      Take care of Mind-Body-Soul

      4 Steps to Taking Better Care of Yourself in 2021

      April 22, 2021
      Health insurance claim form

      How to file an insurance claim: Everything you need to know

      April 22, 2021
      safe workplace

      9 Essential Steps for a Safer Workplace

      April 22, 2021

      California Business Journal | California Business News, California News Media, California business articles | Orange County, Los Angeles, San Diego, Inland Empire, Northern California, San Francisco | Huntington Beach CA 92649 | (949) 648-3815
      ALL RIGHTS RESERVED BY CALIFORNIA BUSINESS JOURNAL.
      Site Design by 1REALTOUR

      Search
        Generic filters
        • Front Page
        • Business
          • Insurance
          • Real Estate
        • Finance
        • People
        • Featured
        • Technology
        • Law
        • News
        • Human Interest
          • Food
          • Art & Culture
        • Education
        • Health & Fitness

        California Business Journal | California Business News, California News Media, California business articles | Orange County, Los Angeles, San Diego, Inland Empire, Northern California, San Francisco | Huntington Beach CA 92649 | (949) 648-3815
        ALL RIGHTS RESERVED BY CALIFORNIA BUSINESS JOURNAL.
        Site Design by 1REALTOUR