Iris Nova's guest appearances

Iris Nova

Tearsheet Podcast: The Business of Finance

The Modern Retail Podcast

The VentureFizz Podcast

Zak Normandin

Gary Hoberman

Ian Schafer

Christiane Lemieux

Lerer Hippeau

David Chang

Bill Walsh

Chris Hutchins

Patrick Smith

Tom Roberts

John Burns

Jennifer Smith

Mike Kane

Wayne Chang

Dennis Mortensen

OwlTail

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I’m Zack Miller.The industry talks a lot about omnichannel payment experiences. Everyone wants to service the customer wherever he or she is. But what if that experience doesn’t look much like an experience at all.  A channel that’s left pretty much unexplored is SMS. There’s one company, Iris Nova, that’s pioneered payment over text for its Dirty Lemon beverage brand. Customers pick up their phones, send an SMS to the brand, and order their products through a chat interface. Given how familiar SMS is to most people, there’s little visible architecture around the customer journey.Iris Nova’s founder and CEO Zak Normandin joins us on the podcast to talk about payment over text and why he thinks in the future, most big brands will have just a website and a phone number. We discuss the challenges of doing conversational commerce well and how he’s positioning Iris Nova to be a future leader in food and beverage using SMS as a transaction channel.Zak Normandin is my guest today on the Tearsheet Podcast.

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I’m Zack Miller. The industry talks a lot about omnichannel payment experiences. Everyone wants to service the customer wherever he or she is. But what if that experience doesn’t look much like an experience at all. A channel that’s left pretty much unexplored is SMS. There’s one company, Iris Nova, that’s pioneered payment over text for its Dirty Lemon beverage brand. Customers pick up their phones, send an SMS to the brand, and order their products through a chat interface. Given how familiar SMS is to most people, there’s little visible architecture around the customer journey. Iris Nova’s founder and CEO Zak Normandin joins us on the podcast to talk about payment over text and why he thinks in the future, most big brands will have just a website and a phone number. We discuss the challenges of doing conversational commerce well and how he’s positioning Iris Nova to be a future leader in food and beverage using SMS as a transaction channel. Zak Normandin is my guest today on the Tearsheet Podcast.

Iris Nova's Zak Normandin on scaling consumer brands using payments over text

Iris Nova founder Zak Normandin is betting on a suite of "no or low" sugar drinks -- sparkling teas, seltzers and lemon juices -- and on a new way to sell them."Every brand has a phone number," Normandin explained on the Modern Retail Podcast. "When you want to place an order for a product you just pull out your phone, you text the brand directly."His lemonade brand, Dirty Lemon, has sold more than 2 million bottles since its founding in 2015, and per Forbes, 90% of those sales happened via text. And Iris Nova now is growing more, thanks to a cash injection of $15 million from Coca-Cola -- to whom, he said, he's open to selling to. "I think that that's probably the best path forward for us unless we can get to a place where, very quickly, where the company is profitable," Normandin said.Normandin called his research into the Asian market "inspiration" for the text message payment system. "I found that in Asia it was probably the most exciting, just the speed at which the market is moving is much different than here in the States," Normandin said.He talked about the fading clout of influencers, the tough path forward for direct-to-consumer companies and the value of text robots (even if none has passed the Turing test) on this week's episode.

Iris Nova founder Zak Normandin is betting on a suite of "no or low" sugar drinks -- sparkling teas, seltzers and lemon juices -- and on a new way to sell them."Every brand has a phone number," Normandin explained on the Modern Retail Podcast. "When you want to place an order for a product you just pull out your phone, you text the brand directly."His lemonade brand, Dirty Lemon, has sold more than 2 million bottles since its founding in 2015, and <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/chloesorvino/2019/09/17/never-mind-supermarkets-zak-normandin-says-the-future-of-beverage-is-on-your-phone/#25c7b75746c7" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">per Forbes</a>, 90% of those sales happened via text. And Iris Nova now is growing more, thanks to a cash injection of $15 million from Coca-Cola -- to whom, he said, he's open to selling to. "I think that that's probably the best path forward for us unless we can get to a place where, very quickly, where the company is profitable," Normandin said.Normandin called his research into the Asian market "inspiration" for the text message payment system. "I found that in Asia it was probably the most exciting, just the speed at which the market is moving is much different than here in the States," Normandin said.He talked about the fading clout of influencers, the tough path forward for direct-to-consumer companies and the value of text robots (even if none has passed the Turing test) on this week's episode.

Iris Nova founder Zak Normandin: Being on Amazon is a defense strategy

Welcome to Episode 105 of The VentureFizz Podcast, the flagship podcast from the leading authority for jobs &amp; careers in the tech industry.For this episode of our podcast, I interviewed Zak Normandin, Founder and CEO of Iris Nova.Zak is a serial entrepreneur with a deep background in building successful consumer products. It was his first company, Little Duck Organics, that taught him about the CPG industry and how the whole ecosystem works. This organic snacks &amp; cereal company was a success as its products were distributed to over 10,000 stores worldwide including major retailers like Whole Foods, Target, and others.This time around, his new company is selling direct to consumers and they are disrupting a $1 trillion dollar market. The company is called Iris Nova, which is building a platform to launch new brands. However, it is the technological innovations that are core to its strategy and their ability to differentiate themselves in a very crowded market.For example, its first brand is DIRTY LEMON, a high-end beverage line that is the first to be sold via text message in a method that they are calling conversational commerce. Its next offering is called The Drug Store, which is a conceptual retail experience where customers pay for drinks on an honor system. In this episode of our podcast, we cover lots of topics, like:-Zak’s experience in the U.S. Coast Guard, and what that taught him about entrepreneurship.-The background story on Little Duck Organics and how he navigated through the ecosystem and ultimately land distribution at Whole Foods.-The details on Iris Nova, DIRTY LEMON, and The Drug Store… and how they are disrupting the beverage industry and changing consumer buying habits through technology.-Why Coca-Cola’s Venturing &amp; Emerging Brands unit invested in the company, plus other VC firms and notable names like Tim Armstrong, Gary Vaynerchuk, Kate Hudson, Alex Rodriguez, and others.-Advice for entrepreneurs looking to start a food or beverage company.-Plus, a lot more.Did you know that we’ve published over 30 interviews with leading entrepreneurs and investors across NY tech?  Thank you so much for listening.  We have several more episodes coming soon, but if there is someone that you think we should be interviewing, we are always up for suggestions. Just send them to info@venturefizz.com.  Lastly, if you like the show, please remember to subscribe to and review us on iTunes, or your podcast player of choice!

Welcome to Episode 105 of The VentureFizz Podcast, the flagship podcast from the leading authority for jobs &amp; careers in the tech industry. For this episode of our podcast, I interviewed Zak Normandin, Founder and CEO of Iris Nova. Zak is a serial entrepreneur with a deep background in building successful consumer products. It was his first company, Little Duck Organics, that taught him about the CPG industry and how the whole ecosystem works. This organic snacks &amp; cereal company was a success as its products were distributed to over 10,000 stores worldwide including major retailers like Whole Foods, Target, and others. This time around, his new company is selling direct to consumers and they are disrupting a $1 trillion dollar market. The company is called Iris Nova, which is building a platform to launch new brands. However, it is the technological innovations that are core to its strategy and their ability to differentiate themselves in a very crowded market. For example, its first brand is DIRTY LEMON, a high-end beverage line that is the first to be sold via text message in a method that they are calling conversational commerce. Its next offering is called The Drug Store, which is a conceptual retail experience where customers pay for drinks on an honor system. In this episode of our podcast, we cover lots of topics, like: -Zak’s experience in the U.S. Coast Guard, and what that taught him about entrepreneurship. -The background story on Little Duck Organics and how he navigated through the ecosystem and ultimately land distribution at Whole Foods. -The details on Iris Nova, DIRTY LEMON, and The Drug Store… and how they are disrupting the beverage industry and changing consumer buying habits through technology. -Why Coca-Cola’s Venturing &amp; Emerging Brands unit invested in the company, plus other VC firms and notable names like Tim Armstrong, Gary Vaynerchuk, Kate Hudson, Alex Rodriguez, and others. -Advice for entrepreneurs looking to start a food or beverage company. -Plus, a lot more. Did you know that we’ve published over 30 interviews with leading entrepreneurs and investors across NY tech? Thank you so much for listening. We have several more episodes coming soon, but if there is someone that you think we should be interviewing, we are always up for suggestions. Just send them to info@venturefizz.com. Lastly, if you like the show, please remember to subscribe to and review us on iTunes, or your podcast player of choice!

Episode 105: Zak Normandin - Founder and CEO of Iris Nova