Stephen Anson was the owner of a natural foods restaurant in Denver. While he was happy with the menu, he was less than thrilled with the beverage options, reports the Greeley Tribune.
His customers wanted soda, but part of the reason for opening a natural foods restaurant was to avoid processed, corporate products stuffed with things such as high-fructose corn syrup. He even made his own mayonnaise. (Something he doesn’t recommend, by the way.)
So he decided to make his own soda. Never mind that he knew nothing about it. Why not? How hard could it be?
If you know Anson, 36, well, that’s just him. Since he graduated from Greeley West in 1991 – even while he was attending, really – he’s started businesses, some without much of a plan, because he “doesn’t work well with others.”
As he looks back on how he started Oogavé, his soda company, it wasn’t much different than those other businesses. He even laughs about it today, even as his soda is nationwide, in many health food chains. That includes Sprouts, which recently opened in Greeley, making his soda available to his hometown for the first time.
“You know, with the benefit of hindsight, I must have been out of my mind,” Anson said. “I didn’t know anything. I didn’t know anything about bottling, marketing, anything. I just knew I had a good product.”
Photo from Oogavé