Jack Carrick (left), Tom Ogg and Tom McGuinness, co-founders of Nailed it Nutrition.
Jack Carrick (left), Tom Ogg and Tom McGuinness, co-founders of Nailed it Nutrition.
Jack Carrick, co-founder of Nailed it Nutrition, talks to Tom Raynel about starting a business while studying and why he feels bolstered getting to start a business with his friends.
What is Nailed It Nutrition?
Nailed It Nutrition sells a range of different health supplements. We do a unique plantprotein powder that’s derived from fava bean protein, and we also sell a 100% bovine collagen.
All of the ingredients we use are all-natural ingredients, so Kiwis know they’re getting the healthiest ingredients and they’re not having any garbage. We don’t use any fillers or anything else that dilutes the protein content, which some of our competitors use to try to make their protein powders taste better.
Yeah, so it’s myself and the two other co-founders, Tom [Ogg] and Tom [McGuinness]; they’re both called Tom. I was in school and we all take plant protein because we have issues with whey, which is the dairy protein in the market.
We used to get bad acne and digestive issues with whey, and so the available alternative was your pea proteins and brown rice on the market. We tried those for a bit, but we just hated the chalky and grainy texture that you get from pea protein. Pretty much all of the plant proteins in the market are made from pea protein. The problem was that all of these companies were claiming they had a smooth and creamy texture, even if they didn’t.
So we did a bit more research, and we found a unique plant protein source called fava bean protein, which is pretty untapped in the New Zealand market. It was way more pleasant than the pea protein, so after heaps of research, we reached out to a supplier and teamed up with a food technologist there. We were back and forth with them for about two years.
Then we got thrown in the deep end with an obstacle where we couldn’t use her, like she couldn’t help us out with formulating the recipes anymore. That was a massive obstacle for us because we’re all business majors at university, so we’re like headless chickens in terms of the recipe formulation part of it.
But then we reached out to the university, and they let us use their food labs on campus. We finalised our recipes, and after about three years, we launched to the market.
Nailed it Nutrition is a unique plant protein powder derived from fava bean protein and was devised by three young students at the University of Canterbury.
What was it like working in the food lab formulating recipes?
Oh, it was pretty tough. We felt like we were quite proactive in the sense that we all worked to our strengths when we were in the food labs themselves. We’d have one person on the computer reading out the different measurements, and then we had the other two who were preparing the next steps, like pouring ingredients into a bowl or measuring them out.
We thought if we played to our strengths, we’d be more effective in terms of timing, especially because we didn’t really know what was going on. We asked around about how we should approach it and got some good insight from that. It took a while in that aspect just because we didn’t have someone leading us, and we had to figure it out ourselves.
I think that’s probably our biggest highlight, would be just all that preparation and hard work and long hours and then finally coming out with a product in our hands that we can give to people.
How has it been working with your friends in starting the business?
I think that’s a question that we’ve had quite a bit in terms of people saying that you should never go into business with your mates, but I think being in business with two of my best mates, I think it’s probably one of the best things we’ve ever done. Not only are we really close as friends, we also understand each other as people.
I find that we’re far more efficient and can be transparent with each other when we’re getting things done or if someone’s slacking off. We’re really good at giving each other feedback because we’re quite close with each other. I think the fact that we’re all best mates, we don’t want to let each other down, so we’re always kind of pushing to be better and each of us will say how it is to each other just because we’re comfortable.
Jack, Tom and Tom had the inspiration for the business when working out at the gym while at the University of Canterbury.
What would be your advice to other budding entrepreneurs wanting to start a business?
The most important thing, especially for kind of young budding entrepreneurs, would be to just follow through with your idea and actually give it a crack. Get to the stage where you have a product in your hands, and you can be proud of yourself that you’ve gone through all the long hours and hard work.
Tom Raynel is a multimedia business journalist for the Herald, covering small business, retail and tourism.
