Garrett Waggoner, co-founder and CEO of water bottle company Cirkul, joined Cheddar News to discuss how the company became a TikTok sensation and how its product works.

Water bottle brand Cirkul raised $70 million in its latest funding round. Garrett Waggoner, co-founder and CEO of Cirkul, joined Cheddar News to discuss how the company became a social media sensation and how its product works. “I think the real unlock for us on…Tiktok was…the authenticity of the folks trying the product,” he said.

Water Bottle Company Cirkul CEO on TikTok Success

water bottle brand circle raising 70 million in a series C round led by S. C. Holdings, the company reaching unicorn status in the process with a billion dollar valuation and circle developing a reusable water bottle and flavor cartridges which allow consumers to flavor their water, sip by sip using a dial to control the flavor intensity. It does aim to take the beverage industry into the future with a product that centers on personalization, health and sustainability. And joining me now is Garrett Wagner co founder and Ceo of Circle Garrett, thanks so much for coming on the show. Pretty cool water bottles. I see behind you there. So give me some more details about these bottles and the cartridges, The unique cartridges for consumers to totally thanks for having me. Um Yeah, so what we're up to here at circle is really reimagining how beverages are delivered to customers. Um When you think of the notion of a single use plastic bottle beverage, it's, you know inefficient to ship. It's inefficient for customers. It's not customizable, it's one size fits all. Um So what we're really doing is is challenging the status quo when it comes to delivering beverages to customers. Um With our circle flavor cartridge, which is our patented device here that is inserted into the top of a reusable bottle. Um You're able to dial up or dial down the amount of flavor sip by sip and allows you to really deliver on customer expectations in a way that is, you know, pretty unique in the beverage space. Um We've been really fortunate to see explosive growth um customers. The reception has been amazing across all, all forms of media, especially Tiktok. Um, but at the end of the day, really, what we're about, we're about customization, delivering something that's, you know, personalize able to the end user. We're about choice offering a bunch of different varieties of beverages for, for those customers. Um, and we're about convenience and sustainability. You know, when you think about this cartridge, it's, it's the equivalent of six bottles of, you know, any flavored beverage. It's, you know, 84% less plastic. It's 96% more efficient to ship. It's 100% customizable. So customers, you know, they tell us they love it. A lot of the growth that we're seeing is, is really, really staggering. So let me ask you this. This product went viral on Tiktok. Right. What stood out on Tiktok, I think you sell it at walmart too. I see a top seller, um, at walmart. How have you been able to use social media to drive sales. Yeah. I think the real unlock for us on, on Tiktok was, you know, the authenticity of the folks trying the product and um, people time and time again, we get the bottle and they see a reaction video and be like, this thing can't be this good. It can't work this great. Um, so they would set up their Tiktok film a video. Um, and time and time again. Just the reaction was super authentic. You see the big eyes and people say, wow, oh my gosh. Um you know, the reaction is, is pretty, pretty fun to see. Um, and what we saw is people just kind of kept challenging. Like no, this thing can't be this great. And you know, time and time again. We just saw, you know, video after video go viral. Um, and I think it's, it's a product that was designed for, you know, the new generation that's on Tiktok. The folks that are looking for something that challenges the status quo. It's new. It's authentic. Roots is a D to C company. It's, it's something that's important to us to be able to connect with the customer day in and day out. So what are the flavors that people can get and what's the price point to keep these filters flowing and the drinks nice and tasty. So we've got a variety of flavors, um, 70 plus blends across 11 different kind of functional beverage lines. You can think of anything from, you know, a vitamin enhanced water to an electrolyte sports drink. We've got tasty iced coffees, iced teas, energy drinks big for us is, you know, table stakes is no artificial flavors, no calories, no sugar, no colors. Um, it's important to us to deliver something for, you know, those end users that's, you know, healthy and then of course giving folks the option to, you know, really refined and kind of dialing what health is for them because that's, you know what we're all about. We're about giving people access to water as their favorite beverage. So some of the favorite flavors, you know, people love the Black chair, the fruit punch, we've got some really tasty teas, but you know, we've got an option for everybody. I think that's the beauty of the product that we have, you know, a huge offering of flavors kind of the high level. But then when you get into the cartridge itself, if you like something that's a really light flavor, you can actually just dial down the cartridge and deliver on that expectation for the customer. I think that um, that's something that's really resonated with the customer base. My last question very quickly is um what's the reusability of the cartridges? Garret, can people send them back to you, Can you reuse the cartridge or is it just something that you end up recycling when it's all said and done? So depending on how flavor do you want your beverage, It lasts anywhere between six and 12 bottle phillips, which is, you know, equivalent to six or 12 pack of sports drink or vitamin enhanced water. The cartridge is recyclable. We've got tips on our website at drink circle dot com backslash recycling and 3 60 recyclable program is definitely on our minds and as we continue to move towards scale, um, it's gonna be a focus for us. All right Garrett Wagner co founder and Ceo of Circle. I want to try some of these. I hope you can send them okay, We can take care of that black cherry and ice coffee. Those would be my two suggestions for meals. You got it. Thanks for the time. Let's appreciate it. Thanks. Garrett. Garrett is the co founder and Ceo of Circle.