Richard Laver has been through a f*cking lot.
The entrepreneur, who previously founded plant-based nutrition formula brand Kate Farms, was just 12 years old in 1985 when he was the youngest survivor of a commercial plane crash that killed 136 people, including his father. When he was 27, he spent a month homeless on a South Florida beach after a business venture failed. And years later, when his daughter Kate was born with cerebral palsy, she struggled to process all of the commercially available feeding formulations on the market, threatening her life.
While many people could collapse under the pressure from that string of tragedy and heartache, Laver has continuously risen to the challenge. It’s his philosophy of hope and perseverance that has now inspired the name of his latest brand, an energy drink called “Lucky F*ck.”
Scheduled to launch online August 2, the 38th anniversary of the Delta Air Lines Flight 191 crash he survived, Lucky F*ck is a line of functional, zero sugar energy drinks made with Maca, Beta-Alanine, and 200 mg of caffeine per 19.2 oz. cans. The drinks come in OG Luck, Bodacious Berry, Orange Drizzle, Red Ryder Punch and Tropical Thrill flavors.
The brand quietly entered the market this summer with a soft launch in Southern California and is currently available in around 50 stores, including 15 7-Eleven locations.
Laver founded Kate Farms in 2012 as a means of producing a plant-based tube feeding solution that his daughter could digest. On a personal level, the project succeeded (Kate Laver recently celebrated her 15th birthday) and the brand has now become the largest plant-based, medical-grade meal solutions company in the U.S.
Laver left Kate Farms last year and has since focused his attention on the booming energy drink category which, buoyed by the emergence of better-for-you performance brands, has become one of the fastest growing RTD beverage sets – retail dollar sales are up 12.7% in the 52-weeks ending July 15, according to NielsenIQ. That growth has also made the energy shelf quite crowded, with brands like Celsius, C4, Alani Nu, Ghost, ZOA, Bang, A Shoc, PRIME, Monster’s Reign Storm and more all competing for the same market share.
That competition didn’t scare Laver off. Speaking to BevNET, he cited RXBAR as a major influence on establishing Lucky F*ck, noting that the bar brand was also competing in a crowded category where it seemed that “everyone was copying each other.”
“I felt that energy drinks were in a little bit of a race for more vitamins, more ingredients, more caffeine,” Laver said.
On its cans, Lucky F*ck emphasizes that it contains only five active ingredients, with zero aftertaste.
“We have a saying – ‘Your life is complicated, your energy drink should not be’ and we believe the world is really ready for that,” he added.
None of that, however, explains Laver’s choice of a brand name.
Energy drinks have long been a space for entrepreneurs to experiment with outside-the-box names, and from Cocaine to Bong Water to Pimp Juice there’s been no shortage of companies trying to raise eyebrows with provocative branding; although very few have managed to stick around to the present.
While it may at glance seem to be designed as a shocking attention-grabber, Laver said Lucky F*ck is anything but a juvenile novelty product. The name was born from heartfelt conviction, he said, taking the phrase from a bracelet his son gave him around five years ago that honors the adversity Laver has had to overcome.
“He was tearing up, crying to me and saying that everyone thought I was the unluckiest person in the world my whole life, but he’s learned that actually, everything that happened to me set me up and gave me the courage I needed to take the steps I did, and actually I was a ‘lucky f*ck’.”
It was the emergence of Liquid Death, which seemed to shatter all the conventional rules of CPG marketing through its comically violent imagery, that gave him the confidence to go ahead with the name. While he briefly weighed softer alternatives like “Lucky Fella,” no other option felt authentic to him and he believed that consumers would recognize if he had pulled his punches.
By going ahead with Lucky F*ck, he believes that boldness has the ability to win the respect of consumers, particularly younger people.
“I have a message that’s not [trying to be] anti-brand, it’s a message of hope,” he said. “You might look at the name and go ‘Oh, that’s a smartass thing.’ But really, underneath the cover we’re committed to charity, doing good acts, helping the world move forward and building a community.
“I think that people are just tired of the bullshit, so when a brand stands for those things and really sticks behind it, and if the product is great, the company really has a chance to move forward.”
As such, Lucky F*ck is dedicated to the memory of his father and the 135 others who died in the Delta 191 disaster, and to everyone “who needs a second chance,” he said.
Since its soft launch this summer, Laver suggested the early response to the product has been positive, both from consumers and retailers. As more women enter the energy category, he said Lucky F*ck has performed well with female shoppers and the cans have already earned some minor buzz on social media as people discover the products and post pictures to Instagram.
Buyers are getting a kick out of it too, he added. While there’s still the risk of pushback from national retailers – might, for instance, Walmart, which for decades backed up its family-friendly atmosphere by refusing to stock CDs bearing the Parental Advisory sticker, balk at the brand? – Laver said that so far most people he’s spoken to have understood the importance of the name and its positive message.
“I was fearful,” he said. “It took everything I had to say ‘Look, I gotta be real here. I can’t call this Lucky Fella’. So far my biggest fear was I wouldn’t get into 7-Eleven. And I’m in.”
Laver is self funding the startup and has begun building out a team with the goal of bringing in experienced beverage industry veterans, starting with former Kate Farms VP of sales Corey Riley to lead sales. Eventually, he intends to seek outside capital.
Going forward, Laver said Lucky F*ck will focus on regional growth by following the “Repole Strategy” – referring to Glaceau and BodyArmor co-founder Mike Repole – of tackling individual cities with “real intention” and a door-to-door approach. After SoCal, Laver hopes to expand into Austin, Miami and eventually New York City.
Laver is now in his 50s and has at least one major past beverage venture on his resume. But he still points back to when he was 27 and homeless, when he spent a month living on a beach with the determination that he wouldn’t leave that location until he reached an internal understanding that he would make something of his life. He said he’s carried that ambition with him ever since.
Whether Lucky F*ck can rise to the moment and distinguish itself in the increasingly crowded energy category, or if its name will prove to be a boon or a hurdle, remains to be seen. But as he has done his whole life, Laver intends to make his own l*ck.