{"id":4099,"date":"2016-01-14T16:14:24","date_gmt":"2016-01-14T21:14:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/futurpreneur.ca\/?p=4099"},"modified":"2024-02-14T10:38:06","modified_gmt":"2024-02-14T15:38:06","slug":"spotlight-on-crik-nutrition-one-of-the-worlds-hottest-start-ups","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/futurpreneur.ca\/en\/blog\/spotlight-on-crik-nutrition-one-of-the-worlds-hottest-start-ups\/","title":{"rendered":"Spotlight on Crik Nutrition: One of the World\u2019s Hottest Start-Ups"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Alex Drysdale, a resident of Stony Mountain, Manitoba, always felt an inner driver to become an entrepreneur, but didn\u2019t really know it was possible until just a couple years ago. Like many entrepreneurs, Alex dabbled with entrepreneurial things such as buying old houses, renovating them and then renting them out on the side of juggling his full-time job, and to him, he loved being the one responsible for making the decisions. \u201cWhether it worked out or not was on me,\u201d Alex shared.<\/p>\n

Having a full-time job was making Alex miserable, he didn\u2019t like being forced to sometimes take instructions that made little sense, and after being with his previous job for nine years, he knew it was do or die time. \u201cI quit, sold everything, and moved to Europe to learn all about e-commerce from some smart, experienced friends,\u201d Drysdale shared.<\/p>\n

While Alex was increasing his skillset and knowledge in the e-commerce world, he happened to read an article on Facebook about a company making protein bars with crickets. \u201cAs I started reading about why the company chose crickets, the answers kept getting better,\u201d Alex explained. \u201cBeing focused on health and fitness my whole life, the benefits definitely appealed to me and I wanted to give them a try.\u201d After hours of searching online for a protein powder made from crickets, since Alex didn\u2019t eat protein bars, he realized there was a gap in the industry. \u201cI remember right then and there, I swiveled around on my chair, erased my entire white board and put \u2018Cricket Protein Powder\u2019 at the top, ordered up some ground crickets, and went to work experimenting.\u201d<\/p>\n

But why crickets? Alex explained that there are two sides to this question. First off they are nutritious and naturally high in protein, which means that when you grind them up into a powder, they don\u2019t need to be processed. \u201cCrickets are high in calcium, iron, B12, omegas, zinc, magnesium, amino acids, and more,\u201d Alex listed off. On the other hand, crickets are eco-friendly, they use less feed and water than beef or dairy, and produce very little greenhouse gases.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Fun Fact: The methane livestock expel is 30x more harmful than the CO2 that comes from transportation. Plus, livestock produces more than all types of transportation combined and uses up \u00bd of all landmass in the U.S.A. Crickets use 2000x less space and grow 13x faster! <\/em><\/p>\n

The environmental and health facts of using crickets for protein seem clear, but Alex told us about all the hard work and energy he\u2019s put into turning this idea, that started from reading an article on Facebook, into reality. \u201cIf an aspiring entrepreneur wants to start a business, and develop a consumer product like Crik Nutrition<\/a>, they\u2019re going to have to be all in and willing to learn and become an expert,\u201d Alex explained. \u201cWhen you\u2019re an entrepreneur, you have to wear many, many hats, and a lot of those hats suck, but when you\u2019re passionate and believe in something, it makes it more bearable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even though Alex has worked hard to become a subject expert in using crickets for nutrition, he couldn\u2019t stress enough how important it is for entrepreneurs to get help and reach out for advice. Alex is a recipient of the Spin Master Innovation Fund<\/a>, a program supported by Spin Master Ltd. and Futurpreneur Canada, where innovative entrepreneurs compete for up to $50K in financing, mentoring, and the opportunity to connect, and attend expert-lead workshops. \u201cGetting personalized mentoring and consulting in every department of my business from such an experienced team was huge and once in a lifetime,\u201d Alex shared about his Spin Master Innovation Fund experience.<\/p>\n

Since launching Crik Nutrition, Alex has seen his hard work pay off. He is the only Canadian company out of 50 finalists in the Global Entrepreneurship Network\u2019s Startup Open<\/a> and was also recently named on CNBC\u2019s list of the 20 Hottest Start-Ups in the World.<\/a> Although Alex attributes his recent recognition to the fact that crickets are a big attention grabber, he also feels that since health, sustainability and animal welfare are such hot topics right now; crickets really hit the nail on the head.<\/p>\n

With Alex\u2019s determination and commitment to his business, there\u2019s no doubt we will continue to see him and his product popping up all over the place, and for those wanting to compete with him, he laughed as he told us that you better be good and hungry because he\u2019s putting all his energy he has into this!<\/p>\n

Follow Crik Nutrition on <\/em>Twitter<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>Instagram<\/em><\/a> and <\/em>Facebook.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Click here<\/a> to sign-up to be informed of the Spin Master Innovation Fund and the next round of applications.<\/h3>\n

Written By:<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0Lauren Marinigh, Social Media & Content Creation Coordinator, Futurpreneur Canada<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alex Drysdale, a resident of Stony Mountain, Manitoba, always felt an inner driver to become an entrepreneur, but didn\u2019t really know it was possible until just a couple years ago. Like many entrepreneurs, Alex dabbled with entrepreneurial things such as buying old houses, renovating them and then renting them out on the side of juggling […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4100,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-futurpreneurs-and-partners"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/futurpreneur.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/futurpreneur.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/futurpreneur.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/futurpreneur.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/futurpreneur.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4099"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/futurpreneur.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4099\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/futurpreneur.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/futurpreneur.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/futurpreneur.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/futurpreneur.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}