Alfred Members: Ray and Justin Kim, Founders of The Plug Drink
The Plug Drink founders and brothers Ray and Justin Kim, stepped away from their packed schedules and crucial prep time for one of the most exciting and high visibility partnerships, to catch up with us.
During our time together we learned about their past, present and exciting future for the brand.
With a seemingly endless list of tasks to be done at Plug HQ in Los Angeles, Justin was double checking shipping labels on new orders that had just come in. He was firing off messages to a team of 20 social media interns. Ray was looking at ad data sent over by their in-house data analysts and sending emails to investors. They were both working in tandem to finalize the details of big unprecedented partnerships with brands like the UFC, TAO Group, and h.wood Group.
The pair no longer flinches at 14 hour days, expert-level multi-tasking, or tight time crunches for projects and partnerships. Before we hopped on our call, Justin was making sure every Plug Drink gift bag going to Las Vegas for UFC 264’s post-weigh-in show party was packed perfectly for the VIP guests in attendance.
This breakneck pace is something the Kim Brothers have embraced in bringing a plant-based recovery drink to the US market. They saw a wide open window to bring something that’s ubiquitous abroad to the states.
“It’s a really big industry in South Korea and Japan. It’s a quarter billion dollar industry. Every street vendor has five or ten different herbal recovery brands. Basically, if you’re from South Korea or Japan and you’ve never had an anti-hangover or liver-related recovery drink in your life, that’s super weird. It’s as common as if you walked out your door and asked any American, ‘Have you had an energy drink?’ It’s that common and that prevalent,” says Ray.
“What we’re doing, in a nutshell, is educating consumers about the power of plants and Westernizing an East Asian practice and bringing it to the Western world.” says Justin.
Whether you’re bouncing back from having a few too many the night before, or wanting to flush out the fatty toxins in your liver on a daily basis, The Plug Drink has you covered when it comes to optimizing your time, energy, and productivity levels. It’s a plant-based formula with the highest herbal concentration out on the market, no added sugar and no caffeine.
The Kim Brothers told Forbes they’re “well above track” to hit a seven-figure sales goal this year. Now, they have more fuel to do just that. In July 2021, Ray and Justin closed a $1.5 Million Dollar Seed Round with investors like NBA player Myles Turner and Wish.com Co-Founder & CEO, Peter Szulczewski to name a few.
The two entrepreneurs now call a building that is powered by Alfred, home. And, after incredibly demanding days at the office, when they sign off for the day to relax, Alfred’s services make all the difference.
“Alfred has been a part of our lives for pretty much the past five years,” says Ray Kim, CEO of The Plug Drink.
“I first met the Alfred founders over dinner at an investor conference many years ago and was confident in the company since then. I thought, ‘Wow, this idea is pretty interesting.’”
Several years later in March of 2020, Ray and Justin moved into a residential building in Los Angeles that partners with Alfred. These days they end up spending a majority of their time at the office growing their company at a rapid pace, so having Alfred as their sidekick really makes an impact in keeping things balanced at home.
Even with hundreds of orders coming in all at once, and hundreds more to be shipped to customers across US and Canada, Justin was printing out packaging labels and stocking orders himself to make sure every order exceeds customer expectations.
“I want to make sure that every customer’s first experience is perfect,” says Justin, COO. That same attention to detail and high bar for customer experience carries from Plug’s HQ to his Alfred services at home. He loves to see the small details tended to. That might be a shipping label on a Plug order or, it could be a boba tea he thought he might miss out on while working long hours at Plug.
“Right now, our building is offering free boba tea. I’m not going to be home for that. But, I can just message my Alfred, Daisy, and she’ll say, ‘No worries, I’ll just bring that to your refrigerator so it’s here waiting for you.’ That was a big thing I liked, that Alfred could deliver to my home even when I’m not physically home,” says Justin.
As Justin manages operations, and ensures no boba goes to waste, Ray helps make sense of data insights from their team of analysts to find which markets are primed for Plug, and how their marketing efforts are resonating with their audience — including Alfred members shopping in the Hello Alfred app.
Ray and Justin are both part of the Alfred community, as well as partners in the Alfred marketplace. To ensure they’re able to do their best work, they try to make the most of their spare free time and either relax and recover or unwind with the Alfred community in their building.
“You get to meet people in your building. You get to become closer to the community in general. I’m used to living in apartment buildings where you don’t know anyone. But, with all of Alfred’s different services and events, it not only helps you offload those household chores, but during the time you would have been doing that, you can meet people in your building,” says Justin.
Learn more about Alfred and the cities we’re in. Try out Ray and Justin’s Plug Drink as The Last Shot of The Night, here.