The SUU Outdoors hosted another Adventure Speaker Series at their Basecamp in the student center on Thursday, April 18. This week’s speaker was Danny Noal, co-founder of Infuze Hydration.
According to Noal, Infuze Hydration is a company founded on “making water less boring.”
The products available have an adjustable dial that allows you to infuse flavor into your water via a filtration and cartridge system. This system also allows for the bottle or water pack to not require cleaning between uses.
Noal’s initial idea came about during a trip where all he had to drink was filtered river water that tasted like charcoal.
He said he kept thinking, “there’s gotta be a way you can turn flavor on or off.”
With this idea, he worked on his business as a part of his master’s degree.
It took a lot of trials before Infuze was a reality. The initial business won four different competitions and Noal went on to receive $300,000 in investments.
Despite the financial help, there were many setbacks including products not standing up to consumer use, difficulties with manufacturing and other difficulties.
It wasn’t until a military contractor contacted Noal and his team that things really took off. If even one military base contracted Infuze it would be $10 million yearly for three to five years.
With this, Noal began seeking out investors once again to make the idea a functioning product. With the potential military contract, Noal valued the company at $10 million, however, he still needed to make debt equity deals to receive the necessary investments.
Finally, after four and a half years of work and just over a million dollars in investments, Noal shipped the Hydro product to the military in January for testing and began selling the Infuze bottles in March.
Noal encouraged those in attendance to visit the Infuze site to learn more about the products. He also said to use the coupon code “Danny” at checkout for a 30 percent discount.
The SUU Outdoor Speaker Series will continue next Thursday, April 25, at the SUU Outdoors Basecamp, located in the Sharwan Smith Student Center next to Chick-fil-a, and will feature Jamal Green as he discusses his backpacking adventures.
Story By: Alex Schilling
outdoors@suunews.net
Photo Courtesy of SUU Outdoors
