# data[].attributes.body
Factor- Entrepreneurship

From his dad, an entrepreneur himself, Kirban knew that failure was a big part of entrepreneurship. Many business ideas circled around with his business partner, Ira Liran, before coming to coconut water. The idea began at a bar in NYC when the two met young women from Brazil. The four of them talked about restaurants and food and mentioned coconut water but it wasn’t remembered until later. For the name of the company, Liran called Kirban one day and said Vita Coco. Kirban was on board and it took off from there.

# data[].attributes.body
Factor- Land

They went to a company in Brazil that was already making tetra packs of juices and milks. Liran asked if the company could start doing Vita Coco as well. The Swedish company in Brazil recommended them to a smaller company that would help them. It didn’t go well for Vita Coco. Coconut water is a hard raw material to work with and the company ended up falling through themselves. From there Kirban and Liran shifted to the company that was bigger and producing the most common brand of cocnut water in Brazil.  It would all be made in Brazil and shipped in the tetra packs to the US.

# data[].attributes.body
Factor- Capital

The two business partners immediately formed a partnership and treated it as an LLC. They made a bank account for the company. Kirbans grandfather left him $40,000 for college but he instead used it to start the company. On top of this, Kirban put in $75,000 to the company that was spent on the first shipment. This filled two shipping containers of product. It was shipped from Brazil to New Jersey where Kirban would receive it.

# data[].attributes.body
Factor- Labor

When the shipment was in progress, Kirban found a distributor outside his local coffee shop unloading orange juice. Kirban approached him and asked about what he was a distributor for. He was a distributor for Naked Juice and other orange juice products. The two met a few times and he eventually became Kirbans first distributor.

# data[].attributes.body
Factor-Entrepreneurship

Kirban didn’t do much market research. Goya was selling coconut water in the ethnic aisles of grocery stores. But Kirban wanted it to be more of a sports drink competitor. Vita Coco is a thirst quencher. It’s all about being a natural sports drink. Quickly, Kirban realized that they could sell without a ton of brand building and marketing. The diverse population of New York was already aware of what coconut water was.

# data[].attributes.body
Factor- Labor/Capital

The person that was in charge of the imports for the company called Kirban and asked for a registration number. Neither of them knew it so the products couldn't be imported until they got that number. The FDA gives them this number but it would take three months. This setback didn’t fit in his timeline. He needed the money from the sales and the product was losing shelf life. He chose to export it until they got this number. They sold it in the Bahamas from door to door. People knew what coconut water was in the Bahamas so it was fairly easy to sell. The rest that they didn’t sell was destroyed.

# data[].attributes.body
The new shipment was coming in about a week. Kirban visited GNC while the shipment was still in progress. This is where Kirban found out about Zico, an almost identical product. Similar packaging, price point, and everything. Zico had a bunch of partners and a bunch of capital already. Their initial market research was published and Zico actually had a business plan. When Kirban brought Vita Coco to stores it didn’t get much positive attention.

# data[].attributes.body
Kirban moved to a different strategy, selling samples in stores. By selling samples he got lots of sales from Latin America, the Caribbean, South America, etc. People who were familiar with coconut water.

# data[].attributes.body
Zico and Vita Coco became brutal enemies. The two would sabotage each other. Zico would set up stands in front of Vita Coco's office. The key difference between the two was that Zico got distribution early on. Vita coco's distributor was smaller but there were people who left Zico’s distributor. Zico and Vita Coco turned into a war. Vita Coco became creative with marketing. They had a mascot that walked around and a bike that was like a moving billboard.

# data[].attributes.body
Kirban got an investor that had 20% of the company. He had hired people to market for him now. They were still a small company but were growing. They kept investing small amounts into marketing. They bought a van to advertise. Liran was still in Brazil operating the business there. Kirban handled the money so he would just send checks to Liran back in Brazil.

# data[].attributes.body
Coca-cola announces a huge investment in Zico with a path towards acquiring the business. Vita Coco thought this was the end. But Kirban realized that Coca Cola was so large and Zico was so small that it wouldn’t be successful. Once Coke invested they moved to a concentrate model. Vita Coco put on their packaging that it was not from concentrate. This was the big selling difference.

# data[].attributes.body
At the same time Coke was investing in Zico, Kirban was introduced to Guy Oseary who was Madonna's manager. Madonna was already drinking Vita Coco so he saw the potential for Vita Coco's future. Kirban didn’t have enough money to fund her and put her up on billboards but Guy was interested in investing in Vita Coco. Many celebrities started investing. They are still investors to this day. When the celebrities  invested this is where the PR and money started taking off. It was spreading all over the country. Kirban signed with the third largest distributor in the country and this gave Vita Coco and national footprint.

# data[].attributes.body
Vita Coco became profitable in 2011. The biggest expenses is the cost of goods. Then expenses like marketing, wages, offices are factored on top of that.

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.tetrapak.com/en-us/insights/cases-articles/vita-coco-coconut-water

e.com/news/from-its-birth-in-a-bar-to-an-ipo-vita-coco-sets-its-sights-next-on-domina/608613/