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Her main challenge was mass producing her flavoured water without adding preservatives or sweeteners. “Frankly, we had no idea, because the industry didn’t have any idea how to develop a product without using preservatives.”<\/p>\n
She researched how fruit juice is pasteurised to extend its shelf life, and went on to devise a similar technique for her waters, with the help of her husband Theo, a former patents attorney who is now Hint’s chief operational officer.<\/p>\n
“We were the first fruit water brand to use a pasteurisation product to create our drinks without any kind of preservatives in them,” she says.<\/p>\n
But while Kara had successfully worked out now to produce her drink on scale, she realised that she didn’t have any experience of running such a company. So she approached one of the global drinks giants to see if it would like to buy her start-up business.<\/p>\n
She managed to get a phone conversation with a senior executive at the multinational in question, but as she revealed to Forbes magazine back in 2015, the talk did not go very well., external<\/span><\/a> Kara says that the man called her “sweetie”, and that this sexism gave her the drive to continue to run Hint herself, and make a success of it.<\/p>\n Her next challenge was how to break into a market dominated by the likes of Coca-Cola and Pepsi, who both own their own water brands and a host of other soft drinks. “We had no idea of the power of the large soda companies,” she says.<\/p>\n Kara’s first step was to persuade her local branch of upmarket supermarket chain Whole Foods to stock Hint. She dropped off a few cases at the shop just hours before she gave birth to her fourth child. They sold out overnight.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n