Everything You’ve Been Wondering About Elevated Gains
May 31, 2022
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You’ve got questions and we’ve got answers! Straight from the horse’s mouth, here is what our founder Scott had to say about the five questions he gets asked most often.
1. How did you have the idea for Elevated Gains and get started creating the product?
The bar really came from my personal experience in the gym. I was getting back into working out and had ridiculous amounts of soreness and trouble recovering. You could say DOMS was dominating me. I became more interested in learning what foods/supplements I could take to give my body the fuel it needed to perform and recover. I went through a lot of trial and error while trying different products. When I tried CBD, I couldn’t believe the difference I felt in my next-day soreness. I can see the day so vividly: I was in the shower the morning after a leg day, and realized my typical agonizing soreness was not there. That was the moment I knew a product needed to be created utilizing CBD for workout recovery. Brainstorming at the gym the next day, putting CBD in a protein bar came to mind and the rest is history!
2. Why did you choose to use CBD in the bars?
The personal journey above was a big driving force to use CBD in our recovery protein bars. There were a few other big contributors as well. The data on the growth of the CBD market was staggering – and it’s so exciting to be in a new growing industry. CBD companies at the time (and still now) were operating in unchartered waters: With the lack of history and regulations, big companies were hesitant to jump in. Having basically no responsibilities outside of paying rent and feeding myself, I set myself up to be able to withstand more risk than the already-established players. With that in mind, I knew I wanted to get to market quickly and lead the new cannabinoid/workout industry. It took longer to get to market than I would have liked but our goal is still and will always be to lead this industry with great functional products and education for the masses.
3. What is your favorite flavor and why?
This is a tough question for me because I feel like it’s choosing between my kids lol. I personally am not a “chocolate lover”. Don’t get me wrong, I like chocolate. But I generally prefer non-chocolate alternatives when going for a snack or dessert. That’s why I created the Cinnagraham bar because I mean cinnamon rolls, cinnamon toast crunch, graham crackers and frosting…I grew up on that stuff. So my favorite for a long long time was Cinnagraham but after eating hundreds or thousands of bars, now I go back and forth. Currently, I’m on a chocolate PB kick which I personally think is a pretty good endorsement, since I generally don’t like chocolate peanut butter flavored things.
4. What is the best and worst part about working for yourself?
The best part is probably what you’d expect: The flexibility working for yourself affords you is amazing. Now what’s not always talked about in tandem with flexibility is why you have it. Yes I have this flexibility to golf on Tuesday or ski on Thursday, but the reason that’s possible is because like most founders, I don’t adhere to the traditional work schedule. Nights and weekends are just a part of the job, so if I need 4 hours on a Tuesday I’ll take it and “make it up” on the weekend.
The worst part – sometimes stress takes the cake. But the thing that has been most difficult for me is actually setting my schedule. I’m learning all of this on the fly so even though I was great at prioritizing at a typical 9-5, it’s basically a different sport as a founder. Figuring out the most important way to spend your time is difficult and requires you to be continuously learning – it’s all about reps.
5. What is the biggest fail and biggest win you’ve had?
Our biggest fail is definitely the lack of shelf stability on our first run of product. We lost a good chunk of capital on bars we couldn’t end up selling. But as a founder you are failing and making mistakes daily so this was also one of the best things to happen to me. The amount of learning that was necessary and came out of this was MASSIVE. Plus it taught me to take the best from the bleakest of situations (at least in my own head).
Our biggest win…I’ll admit one area that I have a lot of work to do is actually looking back on the wins and enjoying them. I’m always so focused on the next thing that I rarely take the time to enjoy the growth. A few wins that come to mind are actually launching with a great tasting, shelf stable product and getting into our first few gyms around Denver – both were huge. BUT the biggest win in my mind to this point is not quitting. That may sound funny but man there have been so many obstacles to get here and they will no doubt continue. It feels weird to vocalize externally but I am truly proud of my perseverance and resilience to keep going – and it’s not stopping anytime soon.
Got more questions you’d like to see answered? Reach out via email or social media and we would be happy to answer any and all of them!