Challenge: sending, tracking and securing sales proposals

Andres Izquieta and Juan Jaramillo founded Chiki Chiki Boom Boom (short form: Chiki) based on a simple premise: bring the tropical water the two men of Ecuadorian descent grew up drinking to the masses.

“There weren’t any Latin power and hydration drinks on the shelf that were enhanced waters or something that was good for you,” Izquieta says. “From a brand perspective, we wanted to create something that had a positive, reflective positioning of Latin culture, something that embodied authenticity, and something that came from us. We also wanted to integrate social impact and sustainability.”

So the duo did what any aspiring entrepreneurs would do: they started a farm. Specifically, they opened a regenerative farm in the south of Ecuador, working with the indigenous peoples who have grown herbs, antioxidants and organic botanicals that give the 500-year-old recipe its unique flavour and health features. When Izquieta and Jaramillo needed a name for their beverage, they borrowed “Chiki”, which is Spanish slang for “baby”, and combined it with “boom” for effect. They doubled up the words and launched their “reggaeton in a bottle” into the world. But how to get it into shops?

The beverage industry is an analogue place, a world full of paper invoices, overwhelming logistics and complex manufacturing. The sales process is no different, especially when it comes to a new brand trying to break into the retail market. Throw a pandemic that limited the ability to sell in person on top of everything and a difficult job only got harder.

Getting Chiki into stores required Izquieta and the team to have a place where they could easily save, store, sync and search for images, documents and other files. Then, they needed a way to send, track and follow up on hundreds of individual proposals to buyers in their target cities and states. They needed to know who received the proposal, whether they read it, and when and how to respond.

“In the past, the system that a company like us would have used was pretty simple and archaic,” Izquieta says. “It was basically sending an email to someone and asking them to keep it confidential, which obviously there’s no accountability or traceability on that. We needed a better way.”

Solution: the DocSend “one-two-three punch”

In a word, DocSend. “We’ve been using DocSend on a daily basis since day one,” Izquieta says. “It’s like the one-two-three punch.”

Punch one: Izquieta or someone else on the Chiki team shares a link and the password with the recipient via email.

Punch two: the intended audience views the file and the Chiki team is notified of the view.

Punch three: the Chiki team proactively follows up and closes the deal, whether it’s an investment, a retail opportunity, a marketing effort, collaboration with a creator or authorisation.

The security features of DocSend help Izquieta sleep easy at night as well. “For investors and retailers, we’re sending confidential or proprietary data, so we want to be able to monitor who’s viewing these things,” he says. “The beauty of DocSend is that you’re alerted when someone views your password-protected files, and then also gives you the initiative to follow up. We’re creating links and sharing with people probably five to 10 times a day at minimum.”

The Chiki team takes advantage of other Dropbox services as well. The company is distributed all over the world. Jaramillo and a content team live close to the farm in Ecuador, where they are constantly uploading photos and videos to the company’s robust network of subfolders on top of subfolders in the Dropbox account. The Los Angeles-based Izquieta and the marketing team will take those assets and transform them into posts for social, images for retailers and all kinds of other collateral, frequently while they are on the go or running between meetings. 

“It’s kind of mandatory internally that everyone has the Dropbox app downloaded on their phone,” Izquieta says. “It makes things so quick, fluid and transparent, and, you know, it also holds people accountable.”

Results: more than a million bottles sold in thousands of retail stores 

Chiki is now in 3,200 stores, primarily in New York and Florida with a secondary focus on Texas and California.

• 1+ million bottles sold
• 300 proposals sent with a 90 per cent open rate
• 10,000 trees planted
• 100,000 plants planted 

30 to 40 investors, a mix of friends and family and consumer funds. “A lot of people really believed in the team, in the story of the product and what we’re trying to impact in terms of the cultural movement,” Izquieta says.