Neve’s Story: How Neve Went from an Idea to a Product

Growing up outdoors

Becoming an endurance athlete happened by accident, mostly. I’ve always been an athlete and I was naturally drawn to outdoor sports. When I was young, my mom would take us climbing. I fondly remember sitting at the crag, the smell of DEET bug spray, and barely pulling myself off the ground while on belay.

I was lucky enough to grow up skiing. I quickly went through ski school and then became a ski racer. My mom was a ski instructor so we would drive to the mountain together every weekend. She would teach, I would train. 

When it was time to go to college, I was lost. But there was one thing that attracted me to the University of Colorado, Boulder. The mountains were incredible. So with little idea of what the future held and knowing that Pennsylvania, where I was born and raised was not a place I would thrive, I moved to Colorado and never returned east. 

At CU, there was a backcountry club and I happened upon a meeting, so I signed up for a trip. I had frame bindings, Icelantic skis (essentially, a super heavy set up), no knowledge or background in touring, but a strong skiing foundation. I quickly fell in love with the sport, attaching myself to people who knew more than me. 

The Accidental Endurance Athlete

I did not set out to become an endurance athlete. I accidentally became an endurance athlete because I was in love with backcountry skiing and my goals got bigger as my knowledge grew. Each day in the backcountry became longer, each objective larger. That’s how I accidentally became an endurance athlete. I was chasing fun.

Spending the summer after my freshman year in Crested Butte didn’t help. I saved all my tip money from being a server and bought a mountain bike. I was screwed. Now I had two loves, two sports that sucked a lot of time and energy. Two sports that were really dangerous but incredibly fun. 

I was spending a lot of time in far away places and I had no idea that eating mattered. In fact, you can read this blog about how much I was failing to eat thanks to disordered eating. As I was being overly cautious about the food I was consuming, I was getting curious about food. I think it mostly stemmed from an unhealthy obsession. But then I started to make my own trail snacks. I started to educate myself. Then I started to try anything because at this point, I was bonking on essentially every long tour or bike ride, but I didn’t quite understand it, so I kept experimenting. 

Dreaming Up New Nutrition for Athletes

I started to notice people using apple sauce pouches. It made sense, plant-based, high carb, easy to eat and a super easy format for athletes. So I tried that, too. 

One day, biking in Crested Butte up Teocalli Tamale, which is one hell of a climb, I thought, wait a second. Here’s this concept, but no one is doing it for athletes. Why can’t adult athletes have essentially a smoothie in a pouch, but high calorie and designed to meet our needs? And why can’t this product, that I eventually name Neve (pronounced ne-vay), be suitable for all diets. Naturally Neve should be for everyone. And the idea stuck. 

One summer, I spent a month skiing in Chile. Let me tell you, as a vegetarian, eating in Chile, a meat heavy country, is hard. Between vegetarian empanadas that were hard to come by, I was using baby food. Plant-based, easy to eat carbohydrates. Plus they had guava flavors!

Mid boot-pack, easy to consume.

Sketchy transition, no problem.

Pouches just made so much sense.

And the idea continued to linger. 

The Struggle to Find a Manufacturer

I started to research manufacturers, but I needed recipes. I took a recommendation, reached out to a food scientist, and she totally failed the project and gave up. 

So I was back at the beginning. Still searching for a manufacturer, which might I note was a deliverable from this first food scientist.

I found another food scientist, way more expensive, but way more reputable. They also told me they would find me a manufacturer. 

I finally had recipes, but still no manufacturer. 

No one wanted to work with me because my minimums were too long or my production process was not what they offered. Pouch co-manufacturers want to pump out hundreds of thousands of pouches and I just couldn’t take that risk. 

So I waited. 

And I kept asking. 

I posted in a CPG Slack channel about my search. The first time, no luck. 

I posted again in the summer of 2023. A few months later, someone commented on the post and recommended I reach out to their co-manufacturer. I knew how the conversation would go - your minimums are too low. 

I was at my cousin's house for Thanksgiving in November in Boston when I heard back from the co-manufacturer that they wanted to set up a meeting. 

When the meeting came around, I had forgotten to send back my intake form. I sent it minutes before the meeting. 

When I got on the call with the sales director, I heard what I expected to hear - your minimums are too low. 

But then the owner of the facility joined the call. He told me the same thing. So I said, wait, let me share my story. 

So I did. 

And he loved it. 

This particular manufacturer had never done a puree before, they had only done liquids. They agreed to try my formula.

I got an email one day and they said sorry, it’s not going to work. 

I was in tears. Four years of searching for a co-manufacturer and I had searched every dark corner. 

I emailed them back and I asked what it would take.

They said they have one more thing they wanted to try. 

The next email changed everything. The process had worked. I had a manufacturer. I was again in tears. 

For the first time, I had a path towards turning Neve into a real product.

There’s a lot more to this story, but I’ll leave it here for now. 

Six years of work, four of which were just searching for someone to manufacture the product. 

Whether I was ready or not, it was time to move forward.