Making Something From Nothing: Alexis Schulze Of Nekter On How To Go From Idea To Launch

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Employees are truly the most important part of your business. We have had ones that stole from us, ones that have gone above and beyond and I’m always surprised by the ones that did each.

As a part of our series called “Making Something From Nothing”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Alexis Schulze.

Alexis Schulze, Co-Founder and Chief Visionary Officer.

As co-founder and chief visionary officer of Nékter Juice Bar, Alexis Schulze leads the award-winning company’s research and development efforts, creating menu items to nourish America’s increasing appetite for plant-based, functional, and nutrient-rich foods that support various lifestyles and diet preferences. A certified health coach with a passion for integrative nutrition, Alexis has been at the forefront of developing accessible and healthier for you fast-casual alternatives.

With over 20 years of experience working with children in both preschool and elementary school settings and holding a Bachelor’s Degree in Child and Adolescent Development, Schulze combined her education, expertise, and passion into a children’s book, Sneaky Spinach, with plans to author more. Alexis is a well-known face of the brand, often participating in speaking engagements and social media narrated videos on the power of nutrition and plant-based health.

Schulze is also the founder of Sojourn Foundation, a nonprofit connecting people through mission-driven trips that focus on working with children in developing countries in an effort to shift perspective, encourage personal growth, and positively contribute as global citizens. Schulze is available to speak on nonprofit creation and leadership, philosophy of philanthropy, and global cultural competence.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a bit about your “childhood backstory”?

I was raised in a very small AZ town by a single mother. My father passed away when I was 5. It wasn’t always easy but I’ve found that all the adversity provided strength and growth. I always wanted to be a teacher and put myself through college.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

There are so many! I think the one that resonates the most is “We rise by lifting others,” by Robert Ingersoll. As I learned to be a Boss in this company I created, the best moments were helping others rise and grow. Including other small businesses that we have grown with.

Is there a particular book, podcast, or film that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?

I’ve read so many. Power of Now by Eckartt Tolle really helped me claim my power. A few others by Brene Brown as well. So much of being a boss is knowing your worth and having the self awareness to know when to stick to your guns/listen to intuition and when to listen to the experts.

Ok super. Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion. There is no shortage of good ideas out there. Many people have good ideas all the time. But people seem to struggle in taking a good idea and translating it into an actual business. Can you share a few ideas from your experience about how to overcome this challenge?

Well, I think sometimes the ignorance of what we didn’t know was probably helpful. Haha! Honestly, we started without really too much knowledge and had to learn a lot as we went. The biggest thing I think was just having people with passion behind what you’re doing. It helped that our menu had integrity and our customers created better lifestyles because of what we provided.

Often when people think of a new idea, they dismiss it saying someone else must have thought of it before. How would you recommend that someone go about researching whether or not their idea has already been created?

Sometimes it’s not about the idea as much as it is the way you present it. Juicing had been around when we started, but we made it mainstream by creating menu items that tasted good but were also healthy. We brought the juice bar to the mainstream.

For the benefit of our readers, can you outline the steps one has to go through, from when they think of the idea, until it finally lands in a customer’s hands? In particular, we’d love to hear about how to file a patent, how to source a good manufacturer, and how to find a retailer to distribute it.

When you start out small you certainly have to work harder to find distributors, etc. We honestly googled and made calls till we found ones. As we grew this got easier and we were able to negotiate prices and a lot of aspects were done by experts at that point. Getting in a supply chain person and then being sent samples etc. all of that was definitely out of our league but we did it.

What are your “3 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Started Leading My Company” and why? (Please share a story or example for each.)

1. Employees are truly the most important part of your business. We have had ones that stole from us, ones that have gone above and beyond and I’m always surprised by the ones that did each.

2. In order to be a boss you have to know how to lead. Knowing how to lead is hard when you question yourself. Work on yourself. I had to find my confidence during the process of growing a company. I had a new marketing assistant who asked how I stayed soft in a business that requires you to be hard. I think I’m still trying to figure that one out, but I do know that we need both and need to spend more time valuing the soft side of business. The good stuff comes from there and sometimes gets lost in the chase of power and money. I really sound like a hippie juice bar owner I know. Haha!

3. Integrity doesn’t always lead to financial success. I think as we have grown there have been many people coming in with ideas to change the way we do certain things all in the name of money. I’ve had to fight and sometimes pick my battles to maintain that integrity but it’s always worth it.

Let’s imagine that a reader reading this interview has an idea for a product that they would like to invent. What are the first few steps that you would recommend that they take?

For us it was looping in all of our friends to try the juices and smoothies. Having input from trusted friends is important. Oftentimes we are too involved to be objective. Getting a good lawyer is a good step to make sure you are protected and know all that needs to happen. Make sure it comes from a place of passion and interest- I believe that gets you farther than trying to make money from something. Of course that’s the goal of a business but coming from a place of providing something people need or that will help others has such a better starting point. Then the money will follow.

There are many invention development consultants. Would you recommend that a person with a new idea hire such a consultant, or should they try to strike out on their own?

I suppose it really depends on the invention. I am sure we would’ve done great with help, but not everyone can afford that when starting out — there are so many costs associated. Sometimes it’s good to go for it, and sometimes it’s important to make sure you have all your ducks in a row.

What are your thoughts about bootstrapping vs looking for venture capital? What is the best way to decide if you should do either one?

I think it comes to personal position and abilities. I think having accountability and experts make hiring a venture capital partner worthwhile, but if you can self fund or do a private equity raise to get the ball rolling it is probably a lot easier to take on help later. For us, we had to use our own until we had some solid proof of concept. Probably depends on the type of business but for us we didn’t have a lot of collateral for banks with juicers and blenders.

Ok. We are nearly done. Here are our final questions. How have you used your success to make the world a better place?

I would like to think I have already. I started a non- profit to help children in developing countries. I volunteer in orphanages in Mexico. And I have mentored quite a few women in business because not many people understand the extra dynamics of being a woman in the business world so it helps to have mentors and support systems. I’d love to expand all of that as time goes on.

You are an inspiration to a great many people. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.

More support specific to women in business. A lot of things I’ve attended have been networking oriented and I’d love to see more support and vulnerability within that space.

We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US, with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.

I think Reese Witherspoon has done a fantastic job of supporting women and telling their stories. I’d love to find a way to support women more and tell my own story. The more we are willing to share and be vulnerable with the hard parts the more we can encourage others to do the same. It’s powerful and she’s really making an impact.

Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.