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Meet Craig Sweeney of iKOR Labs in Boulder

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Craig Sweeney.

Craig, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
iKOR Labs began in the summer of 2016 when a friend of mine, who is an athletic trainer, asked me what I thought of athletes using CBD for recovery from training. At that time, CBD was still a pretty abstract thing for most people, and was generally referred to as the ‘healthy part of a marijuana plant.’ Also, back then, CBD was classified as a banned substance by the World Anti-Doping Agency, so it wasn’t possible to get any notable athletes as influencers.

Nonetheless, as we learned more and more about the benefits CBD could provide to athletes, we decided that with enough education, there probably was a market among participatory athletes. Given the backgrounds of some people on our team, we decided to focus initially on age-group, endurance athletes – runners, cyclists, triathletes, etc. Our messaging has broadened to include more types of athletes, but we remain focused on providing the best athletic recovery products.

Since then, we have expanded our product line, with a somewhat unique philosophy. Our newer products, and all future development, combine ingredients with hemp extract to get the best possible result for whatever the intended use of the product is. We believe that CBD is an amazing compound that provides many benefits, but when you combine that with other natural compounds, you get a much more effective product.

We’ve also expanded our team since then, to include one of the founders of another Boulder athletic-focused company – Skratch Labs – as well as a prominent member of the global sports medicine community, Dr. Andy Pruitt. He’d actually be an interesting guy to include in this interview. He’s pretty highly respected, and that he’d join our team says a lot about what the CBD industry can become, in terms of product efficacy and legitimacy. There are plenty of stories from our first three and a half years, but I figure we can get into some of those in the interview. Hope this gives you enough basic background.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Not at all. Just given the industry we’re a part of, there have been a ton of challenges – state and federal legal gray areas, banking issues, advertising restrictions, etc., and those are on top of the normal challenges of trying to bring a new brand to market. Consumers, in general, did not understand what the product did, or if it was even legal to buy and use. Retailers didn’t know whether they were allowed to sell it. We repeatedly had our website shut down, usually because of banking concerns. Our social media accounts were restricted from promoting any content. There were a lot of challenges.

A lot of that has changed and become easier over time, but now with the COVID-19 crisis, we have a whole set of challenges, just like a lot of other businesses.

Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about iKOR Labs – what should we know?
We make products that are targeted at helping athletes recover faster and better. All of our product contains CBD as an ingredient. We’re known for making very high-quality and very effective products. They are relatively expensive, but we truly believe they are some of the best products you can get.

We work with a number of elite athletes, primarily in endurance sports. We have a number of professional and Olympic athletes, including a couple of world champions. Over time, our products have become known by more athletes at the elite level. Some of the prouder moments have been when we see orders coming in through our website by notable athletes that we have no relationship with. When elite athletes buy your product without any sponsorship deals, you know you have something that really works.

I think what really sets us apart from our competitors is our approach to building products. We brought Dr. Pruitt on to oversee our research and product innovation. As far as we know, we’re the only company in our space that conducts legitimate research, with the intent of having those findings go developing better and better products.

Any shoutouts? Who else deserves credit in this story – who has played a meaningful role?
We have an amazing team of people who make this happen. We have some really accomplished people as employees, contractors, advisors and influencers. We also have some very supportive investors who have provided the capital, which allows us to operate.

Specifically, some of our investors have been very successful. Cassidy Phillips, who founded Trigger Point (self-therapy products like foamy rollers), made a sizable investment and served as a business advisor. Barry Siff, who had a long career as an executive at ConAgra, and was an early investor in Justin’s Nut Butter, and currently serves as the CEO of USA Handball and as a broad member of USA Triathlon.

Among influencers, we have Craig Alexander, a 5x Ironman World Champion; Tim Don, until recently the record holder as the fastest Ironman athlete ever; Wes Argrow, a champion Muay Thai prize-fighter; Latoya Shauntay Snell, a notable chef and body positivity figure, and many others. We also have terrific brand partnerships that have really helped us to get a foothold. Wahoo Fitness, Normatec, Hyperice, and several others have been very generous to us in helping to spread our brand message to their audiences.

Pricing:

  • Our Daily product, which helps primarily with improving sleep quality and decreasing anxiety comes in two sizes – 1 ounce (one month supply) and 3.5 ounces (3+ months) – sell for $69.99 and $179.99, respectively.
  • Our Warming Relief topical product, which combines a ton of anti-inflammatories, also comes in two sizes – 0.5 ounces (travel size) and 2 ounces. Those sell for $24.99 and $69.99.
  • And our flagship product is a 2 ounce drink, that combines full spectrum hemp extract with tart cherries, raspberry juice, beetroot juice, hyaluronic acid, turmeric, ginger and a bunch of other natural ingredients to fight inflammation and oxidative stress. That sells for $5.99 per bottle and is sold individually or in 6 packs ($35.99) and 12 packs ($71.99).

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