 When will you know you've made it? When I can sit behind a desk and have someone in front of me that looks like me, who has a similar background, and I can provide capital for their dream. Var Malik, founder and CEO of Barcode. Are you ready to answer some questions? I'm pumped, stoked. What were you doing before Barcode, which you literally just recently launched? My background is sports medicine, exercise, fitness, sports science. So before this product even existed, I was advising, training, coaching athletes at a very high level, here in New York City with the basketball team. Is the basketball team the next? Yes. So you're a professional trainer by trade. What gave you the confidence to create your own beverage brand? Because I've been doing it for so long for them at a smaller scale. And I felt like because of the connections I have as an educator for them, it just made sense for me to step out of that role and provide a product that I would give to them if I was just working with the team. Them being professional athletes. Professional athletes. Why are you called Barcode? Because it's a code. I mean, you have a different code. Everyone has a different code. And I felt like if you scan a code, it tells you different information about a person and this product unlocks certain parts of your wellness based off of what literal, you know, really gets into your system. Would you have come up with a name Barcode if your name wasn't Bar? Yeah, because I love Barcodes and I think everything now is digital and scannable and it just made sense. Is your logo also the UPC code or is it different? It's the UPC code. Who did the branding and what was the brief? Our branding was done by a company called Somedays. They're based in Oakland. They've done vibe, they've done code, they've done stuff with Nike. And they just felt like we had an opportunity to be just like a product not just for athletes but for other game changers and culture makers and everyday performers and that's what they came up with. You're the first beverage band I've seen since vitamin water back in the early aughts that stopped me in my tracks and had me do a double take. Was vitamin water the inspiration? Yeah, I was, I felt like we had an opportunity with our partners who are athletes and some cool ambassadors who also live in the nutrition and wellness industry to partner up and come up with a product that is essentially designed to make you healthier. The product is one thing and the branding kind of is the other. Was the branding inspired on your mood board? Was vitamin water there? Was that what you were going for? No, I was going for just like, I guess like a disruptor. Like I felt like I needed to bring out a product that not only resonates with athletes or just wellness ambassadors but like the popping of the label and the colors. I felt like it would resonate with just an entirely different culture of person, not just athletes. And I wanted to bring that into the space not just beverage products alone. What other brands were on your mood board? CPG brands that I actually use and drink because functionally it makes me healthier. A brand like a Puma who just has different types of diverse entities involved from the athletics to also artists and entertainers. And then as an agency like Rock Nation just resonated with who I am as a person. Who's on your Mount Rushmore? I really like Jay-Z. I feel like, you know, he was a rapper and artist that turned himself into like a business mogul. That's the top person I would just want to meet and have a coffee with. Is there an experienced beverage partner in the mix or are you just learning this on the fly? No, my COO, an investor and advisor used to be the former co-founder of Dirty Lemon. You know, so he helped me commercialize it. He taught me infrastructure, supply chain distribution just ends up having a beverage product. The non-sexy fun stuff, he's the one behind the scenes. Is there such a thing as too cool? Yeah, I think so. I think, you know, we pride ourselves on having a premium product but it's accessible. I think if you partner yourself up with people who are just not attainable like other celebrities, other athletes and not service the needs of people like us who are just everyday individuals who want to be healthier, I think you lose the authenticity of the brand and we hang our hats and just be authentic. How long did it take you to go from concept to launch? It took me about three years. Even during quarantine, just constantly just tinkering and testing and figuring out what works. What's one thing about you that would surprise us all? Did I play basketball growing up in only five, seven? If you had one marketing dollar to spend, where would you put it? All right, we have our Flowcode Flowcard. This season, Flowcode is sponsoring, I'm with the brand and what Flowcode is is a next generation QR technology that allows you to just with your phone be able to pull your camera out and it takes you to your own customizable flow page. What people will be seeing at home right now is they're gonna see a Flowcode up on screen and they can scan it and you could tell the team at Flowcode what you'd love to be programmed into it. I envision when you scan a QR code through Flowcode you get behind the scenes content from some of your favorite celebrities and influencers about the product and coupons that they can reconcile once they scan the code. When will you know you've made it? When I can sit behind a desk and have someone in front of me that looks like me who has a similar background and I can provide capital for their dream. And when you say similar background, what is similar background? Just someone who just didn't go to business school who self taught themselves how to create something they feel like was the world needed and then put together a team of people in areas that they aren't experts in and come and be able to present a product with a group of people who have the experience that you don't have in a way that it fits into the market at that time. So now you've launched, you're just getting going. What's the next thing you focus on? Figuring out the data behind what is coming across all of our social channels, also our website, looking at strategic retail partners that makes sense, that doesn't need us to scale at a very, very high level, but that's most effective and then continue to build off the team and bring in people who have more experience in brand marketing and also just managing our influencers and affiliate programs. There is no shortage of drinks in the space and performance drinks, relaxing drinks, just brands everywhere. What was the white space you saw? The profiles of previous beverages, they only support use case, whether it's hydration formulation, whether it's sports games or whether it's just high performance individuals. What about the individuals who are recreational or who just want to be healthier? I feel like this product is profiled in a way that it taps into that consumer. What's the first milestone you're focusing on? I guess for me it would be retail. Who's your dream retail partner? Arawan. Why is Arawan? Because they just, their quality control is the highest and once you can figure out a product that can get an Arawan, I think you've done a great job of formulating it. Who do you want to steal market share from? Definitely Halo, their local, Hydrant, Roar, I want that space. Everyone in the beverage industry says don't do beverage now, there's too many players, it's crazy expensive. Did you know that going in? Yeah, I was told by my advisor and CEO that it's fucking hard, but I felt like we have a great team and we can really use our leverage, who we are as a community to really drive that white space, so that's why I decided to go for it. What keeps you up at night and what time do you wake up in the morning? Supply chain, just making sure that we can get bottles, get product at a volume that can keep up with the demand as early as we're experiencing it and I get up at West Coast time, probably it's 5.30. What's more important, liquid or the packaging? Liquid. You said liquid and I thought you would say packaging. How do we even know this works? I'll show you, I mean, this is all from this product, this is all from this. So if I drink this, I look like this? Yes. And I see some, in the industry we call it copy, I see some copy on your right chest, what does it say? It's an Arabic name, Ubaric, it means blessed one, I just have blessed one in my chest. Would you consider tattooing a barcode on yourself? I have, on my leg, I can't get naked in here, but I have it. What's been your best acquisition channel? Social media, it's been people posting, talking about it, us using our social media access to really drive awareness, it's been Instagram. What do you worry about? I could be overwhelming to people at times, so that worries me a lot. What's the best part of the job? The people I get to spend my time with. What's the biggest lesson you've learned so far? You have to control what you can control because beverage is hard. Work from home or office? Both. What's been your biggest investment to date? And our people, our ambassadors. You said you're targeting professional athletes. Are you getting traction anywhere else? Believe it or not, which has been very surprising is women, like more health conscious consumers who love wellness, beauty, skincare, makeup, and also fitness, women like the product. Who do you aspire to be? My dad's been a very important part of my life and I think he's the one who taught me just anything worth pursuing, pursue with excellence. So that's the person I just always keep in mind when I'm building or working with anything. Barma Leek, founder and CEO of Barcode. Thank you so much for coming on here and answering some questions and taking your clothes off. Thank you for having me, I'm stoked about all of it. I'm Ian Wishengrad and I'll see you next time on I'm With The Brand.