Her.ie Meets AIB Start-Up Academy Hopeful, Dave McGeady of Wyldsson

Wyldsson Elite Nutrition includes the likes of Rory McIlroy and the L.A. Lakers among their high-profile customers, so we wanted to find out more about Dave McGeady’s tasty start-up business.

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What was your background before setting up Wyldsson? Before setting up Wyldsson I worked in investment banking in London, and then I did an MBA in Tel Aviv University. Why did you choose to go into the elite nutrition market? What research did you undertake before starting out? It’s not that I’m in the “elite nutrition” market – I’m actually in the food market. I see massive opportunity in food. The problem is that the food industry is still trying to use flashy TV ads to sell us sugar laden, junk filled products. But the world has changed and people now know a lot more about the impact of what they eat on their health. Food companies aren’t reacting quick enough, though – they can’t react, because their business models are based on using big advertising budgets to sell low quality products. So there’s massive opportunity for companies like Wyldsson, who use a really high calibre of ingredient to make products that are both healthy and taste great. I went to various food industry trade shows in London, Paris, Florida and Los Angeles. I wanted to see what other companies were doing. I was shocked by how little innovation was taking place and by how out of touch the food industry is. Was it difficult to stand out from the crowd? Not really, because our stuff tastes head and shoulders above anything else out there. The reason why is because we use remarkable ingredients such as organic Persian Mulberries, Californian Pomegranate and organic Goldenberries. These are amazing ingredients, with really interesting taste profiles so people talk about them and that really helps spread the word. Word spreads really quickly on Twitter, so we’ve benefitted from that hugely. Especially when international athletes or pop stars have tweeted about our products. (Rory McIlroy, Snowboarder Aimee Fuller, Golfer Thorbjorn Olesen, James from The Vamps, Gordon D’Arcy etc.) How did you decide to market your USP? One of the strongest USP’s is that we sell direct to our customers, and so cut out the middle man (retailers, distributors etc.). We’ve used social media (Facebook, Twitter and Instagram) to spread the word, as its cheap and we don’t have a huge marketing budget. Some of our higher profile customers have helped spread the word with tweets – including rugby players, cyclists etc. James from The Vamps sent a tweet on Friday, which had 1.2k retweets and 2.8k favourites! His Instagram photo had 43.9k likes… What has been your biggest barrier since starting up the company? We’ve been struggling to keep up with demand. It’s meant that we had to delay the launch of some of our new products (we’ve just launched our newest ProMix – with Organic Ecuadorian Banana). Have you had many mentors? What has been the best advice they’ve given you? Yeah, I really value advice and I’m really lucky to have had some help from some really great people including David McKernan (Java Republic), Dr. John Teeling (Kilbeggan) and Colin Byrne (European Tour caddy). I think the best advice was: “Make something people want”. At the end of the day, its all about the customer and giving them what they’re looking for. What’s been your greatest moment since starting up Wyldsson? Watching Rory McIlroy eating my products live on TV. What are your three pieces of advice you would you give to somebody starting off?​

1. Research your concept as much as possible – What else is out there? Why is yours better? How can you protect yourself against someone copying your stuff?
2. Figure out how you’re going to make money from it – and make sure to support yourself until you do.
3. Talk to as many experts / mentors as you can – Chances are, they’ve made plenty of mistakes in the past. Best to learn from their experience before you go out and repeat their mistakes.

For more information on the products provided by Wyldsson check out wyldsson.com. If you have a start up business that you think is worthy of making into the AIB Start-Up Academy, simply complete and submit the online application form for your change to be chosen as one of the lucky finalists. Head over here to submit your application…