Asher's Story: A Young Pittsburgh Entrepreneur's "Wild Soda" Business and Fledgling Etsy Store

Asher

From my earliest youth I have been a fan of creativity in all its forms. From drawing pictures to conceiving halloween costumes to story telling, the creative spirit is part of our nature. Entrepreneurialism isn't just about the business of making money. It is often simply another expression of the creative urge. 

I was probably around 10 when my brother and I sold home made popsicles that we made with Kool-aid back in Maple Heights. I was probably trying to add to my allowance money so I could buy baseball cards, Civil War cards or a model airplane. Most of my my regular allowance (a quarter a week) went to Mad magazines and Famous Monsters of Filmland mags.

When a long time friend of ours told me about the entrepreneurial activities of his grandsons, my interest was stirred. I asked what he's selling and he told me about a product called "Wild Soda" as well as T-shorts and T-tubes. 

Asher Deming is 12 and he's already got an Etsy store titled TheMegAndFreddieCo. The headline on his page reads, "I love making unique functional eco friendly items for others to enjoy." With the coronavirus he has had more time on his hands and rather than being idle he's been making things to sell.  

According to his Etsy page Asher's been sewing as long as he can remember. First it was pillows and then clothing. Eventually he began making stuffed animals and clothing for his nephews. 

Here are some notes from an interview we did via email.

EN: What products do you make and sell?

Asher: We sell t-shorts, t-tubes, and Wild Soda, with more products coming soon.

EN: Where did the idea of going into business come from?

Asher: I got the idea from a last minute Birthday gift. I randomly sewed a “pillow” out of a t-shirt, to make for my little cousin, which looked much like shorts, and they just happened to fit.

After that first pair of t-shorts my mom asked her "buy nothing" Facebook group for t-shirts we could upcycle. Then we made a lot more t-shorts, and a new product we call a t-tube, which is supposed to be something like a neck gaiter. 

I had also been on Pinterest looking at recipes for ‘wild soda’ which we figured out was pretty easy to make. So we got a bunch of reusable mason jars for a “soda club.” Every week our members are delivered a new flavor of wild soda.

EN: What prompted you to get into recycling and upcycling?

Asher: I understand that climate change and the environment is getting worse, with an imminent threat of climate disasters like pandemics, and wildfires as we have seen this year. So we try to make our products as environmentally friendly as possible.

EN: What is “Wild Soda”?

Asher: Wild Soda is what naturally sparkly fermented soda is called. It doesn’t taste real fermented, it just tastes like sparkling tea.

EN: Can you elaborate on how the Soda Club works? How much does it cost? What makes it unique? What gave you the idea to go with a Club versus just selling the drinks individually?

Asher: We deliver a unique drink weekly to neighbors doorsteps and reuse the bottles from week to week. If people don't live close enough, they pick up the drinks.

Isaiah Deming: Ultra-reliable Key Counterpart

EN: How does your younger brother Isaiah help with the business? 

Asher: My brother is the only other paid employee,. He feeds the ginger bugs (the fermented thing that makes wild soda fizzy) and he sometimes helps deliver.

EN: Do you have a favorite flavor of Wild Soda?

Asher: I like orange Wild Soda.

* * * *

To learn more, and follow the evolution of their young enterprise visit TheMegAndFreddieCo on Etsy.
You can also follow them on @megandfreddieco on Instagram.

* * * *

For the record, Meg and Freddie are their pups.

Asher Deming: On the forefront of the Upcycling Revolution

Five Minutes with Keith Erickson

I can't even recall the first time I met Keith Erickson. He is a quiet force who doesn't draw attention to himself. Yet somehow he's drawn together a team of extraordinarily smart people, wizards of programming and technical understanding. Erickson is president of Saturn Systems, a Duluth firm with a growing influence. Four centuries ago they might have been burned at the stake because of the magic they can perform, though today it's with code rather than incantations.

Erickson arrived in Duluth at age five and evidently stayed for the duration, picking up a Bachelor of Computer Engineering at UMD in 1987. After bagging his Masters of Science, Electrical & Computer Engineering at the University of Iowa in '89 he returned to Duluth and began his career.

He's not only a really fine man, he's also a Dylan fan, so he get's high marks from my corner of the world. I asked if he'd let me pick his brains for a few minutes related to entrepreneurialism and technology today.

EN: When did you first become interested in computers, programming and technology? Who or what were your influences?
KE: I was always interested in electronics and technology, as far back as Junior High. The first time I considered programming was in about 1982 when a friend loaned me a Timex Sinclair computer to experiment with. My first real experience with computer programming and device control was through my experiences with the Computer Engineering program at UMD (1984 - 1987).

EN: Not everyone has an entrepreneurial mindset. What were the drivers that led you to take this kind of risk and start your own tech business?
KE: After living in Southern California for two years following graduate school, my wife and I decided to return to Duluth in 1990 to raise our young family. I was fortunate to have worked for a small defense contractor in Santa Barbara that was amenable to allowing me to contract with them, for a time, after I moved back to Duluth. This was definitely a risky move as my initial contract was only worth $7500 and there were very few technology jobs in Duluth in the early 1990s to seek if the contracting gig didn’t work out. However, with the support of my wife, our families, and colleagues in Santa Barbara, I was able to make it work, gradually increasing the scope of the business over the next several years. This was well before routine Internet communication was standardized, and the arrangement required significant travel.

EN: How many employees do you have?
KE: 28; 21 in Duluth and 7 in Charleston, SC. Also 3 full-time contractors.

EN: What is the key to attracting smart, talented people?
KE: Provide a positive, ethical business culture, do not micromanage your employees, respect their expertise and abilities and demand respect in return, pay competitive wages, offer interesting and challenging work, be willing to delegate responsibility. Above all, have the confidence to surround yourself with people smarter than you.

EN: How has the current economic meltdown affected your business?
KE: Surprisingly, it has actually had a positive effect on our business. Our focus on rural outsourcing and technical excellence has allowed us to position ourselves as a lower cost alternative to metro area consulting firms. At the same time, it has allowed us to communicate a message a technical excellence and customer service not available from foreign outsourcing firms. Finally, the current economic situation has provided us with a strong pool of high caliber job seekers. Two years ago, it was very difficult to find qualified personnel; today, the situation is reversed. So to summarize, the current economic meltdown has helped us obtain new customers due to our marketing efforts; at the same time, we are better able to service these new clients because of readily available technical talent. As a result, we have been experiencing growth during this time of national economic difficulties.

EN: Saturn Systems is a software and engineering technology firm in Duluth MN on the cusp of the trend toward rural outsourcing. What does “rural outsourcing” mean and why is it popular?
KE: "Rural outsourcing" describes a contracting arrangement whereby companies outsource certain work (in our case, IT and software engineering) to small contracting firms located outside of major US metropolitan areas. Saturn Systems is one of the leading rural firms in the country. We have actually been performing this service for our entire existence - it is only recently, however, that it has been given a name. We also refer to this business model as "Offshore to the North shore" (our regional tag line) and "Outsource to America" (our national tag line, trademarked in MN).

I wouldn't say rural outsourcing is 'popular'; only because it is still very much small scale. Most rural outsourcing firms are smaller than Saturn. A rural outsourcing firm needs to be able to attract professionals that want to live in the area, and the rural location needs to provide top qualify educational opportunities. While Duluth definitely fits the bill, most other ‘rural’ locations throughout the country do not.

EN: Do you have a personal life philosophy?
KE: It varies, depending on which Dylan song I'm listening to at the time.

EN: Favorite book of the past year?
KE: "Playing for Pizza" by John Grisham.

EN: That's pretty funny. I enjoyed it, too, and wrote about it here.

To all: If interested in more information about Saturn Systems here's where to find it.
Thanks, Keith, for your time and willingness to share. It's all good.

I think that I shall never see...

Most of us are probably familiar with Joyce Kilmer's famous ode to trees that begins thus:

I think that I shall never see
a poem as lovely as a tree.

One of the few poems of greater fame in this century might be Robert Frost's Two Roads, or the schoolyard ditty, "I'm a poet, and I know it." Though I am not precisely sure where the rest of that one goes.

What got me thinking about Kilmer's poem was an article I saw titled 10 Reasons Why Social Is Your Future SEO Strategy.

You're probably wondering what the link is between SEO marketing and poems about trees, but it's not much of a stretch from where I sit. Let's step back and look at the Southwest. Ansel Adams comes along and is utterly fascinated by the play of light on the western hills. Another family comes along with four teenage boys who see it as a recreational playground for their off-road vehicles. Another artist paints, and yet another writes inspired poetry. Then the entrepreneur comes along with a team of geologists. "This looks like the kind of rock that houses copper," or whatever. He raises a team of investors and they do exploratory drilling.

In other words, different people bring different perspectives to nearly everything. Artists and entrepreneurs are often at opposite ends of the spectrum here, but the most famous artists were usually pretty good business people, or got in league with them.

So it is with the Internet. In the 90's (the Middle Ages of Internet) the lay of the land was being transformed rapidly as countless settlers entered cyberspace and built web pages. These explorers were soon followed by eCommerce entrepreneurs who indeed saw dollar signs and reaped a harvest of them.

In what is called Web 2.0, the social networking spheres have ascended to prominence. In 2004 these were spurned by many entrepreneurs as time wasting distractions... like doing business in a bar. (I suppose it would depend on what kind of business you were doing.) MySpace and FaceBook grew into giants and other social networking siblings like Plaxo, LinkedIn and Twitter followed. Most of the people on Facebook and MySpace were initially simply fulfilling a natural human need: to socialize. Many were looking for like minded friends and others serious relationships. Ultimately, entrepreneurs recognize a market when they see one and now we have a horde of them scratching their heads trying to figure out how to crack this new nut.

10 Reasons is a pretty good article for eCommerce professionals. It all starts with one critical component: Content.

Did I forget to mention the link between the article and trees? It was this. One man looks at a tree and sees a poem. Another gets inspired to paint a picture. A third wishes to climb it and hang a rope on it for a tire swing. The fourth chops it down to make rocking chairs. (Hopefully he is growing more in its place.)

In the meantime, don't lose touch with your aesthetic self. After all, we're human, with hearts and souls.... not machines.

TREES
by Joyce Kilmer

I THINK that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.

A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the sweet earth's flowing breast;

A tree that looks at God all day, 5
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;

A tree that may in summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;

Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain. 10

Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.

Jon Thralow, Revisited

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." ~Arthur C. Clarke

At the end of January we interviewed Jon Thralow on Internet entrepreneurialism and especially eCommerce. It seemed we'd only scratched the surface so I met with him yesterday at the Red Mug to do a little more probing regarding his work.

Though now primarily doing consulting work, Jon used to manage a team of programmers. As we compared notes from time to time these past few years, I found it interesting to learn that programmers and Internet developers can have temperaments like artists. Those who do the best work may not fit neatly into your standard corporate cubespace. Jon, though a technical wizard and programmer himself, understood this art-heart-spirit of his team. They consequently achieved remarkable things together.

Here, for a few moments, we explored the meaning of Web 2.0, the explosion of web content and at least one solution for dealing with the tsunami of information that is washing across cyberspace.

Ennyman: I have been hearing a lot of numbers thrown around regarding how fast the Internet is growing. What kind of numbers are you seeing and where do these numbers come from?

JT: As for sales growth the Internet is one of the few bright spots for the economy, but the larger growth is happening in content My best guess is that in pure data being uploaded is growing so fast with YouTube, and social media sites that the number of gigabytes online is at least doubling every other year.

Ennyman: The Internet has brought a lot of new terminology into existence. Here are a couple that the average person might be hearing that need clearer definitions. What is “Web 2.0”? What is the “deep web”?

JT: "Web 2.0" refers to a perceived second generation of web development and design that aims to facilitate communication and interoperability on the World Wide Web. Some concepts that have led to this evolution are web-based communities, hosted services, and applications; such as social-networking sites, video-sharing sites, wikis, and blogs. As all of this new content is quickly being added search engines like Google are having a hard time keeping up and indexing this information. The amount of information that Google is able to index is a small fraction of the entire Internet. Everything that is not indexed by search engines is called "deep web".

Ennyman: You have helped develop a number of successful eCommerce companies and are currently consulting in this area. What is it that so turns you on about eCommerce?

JT: I am not really sure. I like science and I like doing things that people tell me not to. When I first went into eCommerce, it was more of a feeling like, “What is this? It is going to go away in a week or two and will it even work if more people get online?” I was just too curious to leave it alone. One of the parts that I liked best was the ability to marry marketing and science. Knowing exactly what each dollar did and how much that dollar turned into…

Ennyman: You are also involved in a company called Mozenda which helps eCommerce companies efficiently gather data from the Internet. Why can’t people just do this with search engines like Google?

JT: Mozenda does much more than help eCommerce companies. We have very large companies using this tool.

For eCommerce, a search engine only returns results on the browser while Mozenda gathers the data you want and puts it into a usable format.

Ennyman: What other kinds of companies are currently using Mozenda’s software platform? How are these companies using the program?

JT: There are many different companies including even a couple of DOW-tracked publicly traded companies, one from retail and one from financial. Financial companies will track buy/sell data to predict future stock prices. The retail company is using it to compare its prices to its competitors. Another financial company is using it to gather data from one section of its organization to mesh it with another. Many PR companies are using the program to watch the reaction to the brand by harvesting data from blogs and forums. Other large companies are using the product to learn about potential recalls in their product line before production has put too many out into the marketplace saving the company millions and increasing the product quality.

Ennyman: Doesn’t it seem a little like opening the door to a Big Brother situation here? Can this kind of data acquisition lead to abuses and does that concern you?

JT: Yes, this sure can lead to abuse. I think the analogy might be that Mozenda makes the guns and they can be used for either good or evil fits here. There have been companies that have been taken to court by stealing data from their competitors, but Mozenda does not advocate this practice. The goal of Mozenda is to make the data on the net much more usable.

5 Minutes with Jon Thralow: Internet Entrepreneur

Despite the turbulence of the economy these past dozen years, Jon Thralow has had a remarkable run of good fortune. In 1996 Thralow’s older brother Dan, founder of a Midwest sunglasses business called Peepers, took his first baby steps in eCommerce. In less than three years, with the company listed as one of the fastest growing Internet retailers in the country, they sold out to a New York City firm at the height of the tech bubble. When the bubble burst, the Thralows were able to re-obtain the domain names they’d sold… for a song.

The lessons learned only made them hardier. Instead of developing a mall that batched all their product lines under one domain, the Thralows embraced a specialized market niche concept, recognizing the power of defined domain names. Before long the new company, Thralow Inc., was rolling out niche eCommerce businesses with remarkable effectiveness so that they were once more catching the attention of major magazines like Inc. and Internet Retailer. At the end of 2006 Thralow Inc. sold its 30-plus domains and eCommerce sites to Netshops of Omaha, Nebraska.

Though not the founder of these ventures, Jon has played an integral role in their success. His specialized knowledge in Internet marketing has given him keen insights in how to take advantage of the efficiencies and opportunities offered by today’s cyber-arena.

ennyman: When did you join your brother’s first company and what role did you initially play?
Jon T: I joined Peepers in 1997 as an Intern. My job was to add products to the site and find ways to get us listed on the search engines. At the time Alta Vista, Web Crawler, and Excite had a lot of market share. I also taught myself two tools - Adobe Photoshop and Microsoft Front page.

ennyman: What lessons did you learn from the collapse of the Internet bubble that might have value in today’s challenged economy?
Jon T: I went through a year of depression. Everything that I had worked to build was being destroyed before my eyes. I had a hard time sleeping at night. I went from having a million dollars in the stock of Eyecity to having the company become de-listed. Extreme high to extreme low. Looking back on it, I learned that if you keep plugging away things will work out, just never give up. I could not have seen the huge turnaround that was about to come, but if you focus on the core business rules and keep pounding away on it eventually you’ll gain traction which will give you something to build on.

ennyman: You mentioned that you have taken an interest in a company called Mozenda in Salt Lake City. What is it that so captivated you there?
Jon T: Over the years I’ve found that gold lives in the data and the trick has always been learning how to mine the data. In the early days the log files were mined to give a picture of our website's performance. Then I found that by mining our customer database and writing scripts around that you can market to people with the exact products they were interested in. Gathering and manipulating data became one of the biggest factors in growing our company. After the sale of the company I found Mozenda, a company that took this philosophy and applied it to the entire Internet. Mozenda gives people the tool to gather all of the Internet data they could want and store it in a usable method. This company gives its users real value.

ennyman: What is screen scraper software and how is it different from simply gathering information from search engines?
Jon T: Screen Scraping Software allows the user to predefine the exact data on a page that he or she would like to harvest. Most importantly a person can harvest certain patterns of data that repeat themselves on pages. In a way this is very similar to how a search engine works. So there’s a sense in which Mozenda gives you the power of your own personal search engine. You can train the Mozenda spider to follow links and grab the wanted data that you are looking for.

ennyman: What are the two or three most important things internet entrepreneurs need to understand in order to have the greatest probability of success?
Jon T: First, set up tracking mechanisms to measure every marketing penny that you spend. Second, find your niche and don't deviate; stay focused. Third, use the scientific method so that you can test for the outcome. This ensures that you do not make the same mistake twice. For example if you want to test a new layout for your home page make sure you A/B test. This is the only way to know if you are headed down the wrong path.

ennyman: Thanks, Jon. Good luck in all your new ventures.