Thrive is turning 5 at the end of this month.
Five years. Honestly, there were moments I wasn't sure we'd make it. But more on that later.
Over the next five weeks, I want to take you behind the scenes: how we got here, what we got completely wrong, and where we're going next. Consider this your backstage pass.
#1 - It started with an Ironman.
A few years back, a group of friends and I signed up for something borderline insane: a full-distance Ironman triathlon. 3.8km swim, 180km bike, 42km run. In that order. Without stopping.
Ironman's slogan is "anything is possible." Turns out they were right. We all finished.
But during training, we had a problem. We're Belgian. We love beer. And nothing beats cracking one open after a brutal session. The problem? Alcohol and sports recovery are basically enemies. Alcohol slows protein synthesis, dehydrates you, and undoes half of what you just worked for.
So we did what you're supposed to do. Recovery shakes. Non-alcoholic beers on the side.
I remember standing there with a chocolate-flavoured protein shake in one hand and a mediocre alcohol-free beer in the other, thinking: this is terrible. Someone should fix this.
That someone turned out to be me.
It took over a year, a team of scientists at the University of Leuven, and a lot of bad prototypes - but we eventually pulled it off. A craft beer with real recovery nutrition built in. Something that actually tastes good after sport.
That was five years ago. Next week: what happened when we actually launched it. Spoiler: not everything went according to plan.
Cheers,
Laurens D'Hoore
Laurens D'Hoore
Founder, Thrive
