History of FrostShot

Due to the enormous success of FrostShot, I have decided to start a blog and tell you a little of updates regarding the company and my day to day activities within the Frozen World of FrostShot. My name is Juan Felipe Echeverri, I am the proud President and owner of FrostShot - The Frozen Liquor Shot. it has been a long road hard road to get the process off the ground. the number one question regarding FrostShot is: "how did you come up with the idea?" In order to answer this I must first tell you about my business past and how I got into the business world. I grew up in a household with a single mother and a beautiful little sister, we moved to Miami after my father lost his life during the political turmoil that was going in in Colombia in the 1980's. I had a special talent for business starting at a very young age; as a child I would sell anything that i could get ahold of to make a profit on. At 10 years old the family took a trip to New York, this is where I discovered China Town, a ten year old boy negotiating dollar store goods to bring back to Miami and sell at a garage sale I would hold every Saturday and Sunday. Before long I had saved up enough to start buying and selling Film equipment online, I would buy and sell all types of Cameras at 13. From then on I would start small business, buying and selling Domain names, photo machines, tickets etc..... HighSchool came around and I had a small fortune for a 15 year old kid, I decided to start the first real business, JFE Vending, a part of JFE Inc 2000. I decided to buy 15 candy/gum ball machines and strategically place them around South Florida, on Saturdays my mother would drive me around and we would refill the machines and collect the cash. When Senior year of highschool came around I had over 180 machines working from Key Largo to WPB. I was a earning a very good living at the age of 17 but my drive did not allow me to stop there. I decided to sell JFE Vending and put all my money into a BankRupt Airline Supply company named Apollo Airline Support Group. I was a Freshmen in college at the time and wold attend classes from 6:15 am until 8:50am. I would then go to our small wharehouse in Doral and conduct airline business. We grew so much as a business but this is where I learned my first real lesson in business, two words Account Receivables.....I would sell sell sell not realizing that it was not a real sale until I actually got paid for it. The A/R just grew and grew......At that time my number one customer was an Airline out of Colombia named West Caribbean Airways, I would do millions of dollars with this company profits were great money was great, I decided to Start a Non-Profit organizations to help single mothers in Colombia. We opened our first factory in 2004, the concept was to supply the mothers pre packaged ice pops and have them sell them in the schools where their sons/daughters attended. With the money they earned they could put them through school and also have a job. Life was great that year, I had a great company making money and I was doing something good for the city which I was living in..... but like everything all good things must come to an end. The year was 2005, 16 August 2005. West Caribbean Airways Flight 708, a chartered West Caribbean Airways McDonnell Douglas MD-82 aircraft heading from Panama to Martinique in the Caribbean, crashes in remote western Venezuela, killing all 160 aboard, mostly French nationals. This was to date the worst day of my life, I was getting calls from all types of news outlets asking me about what happened to the aircraft, Apollo operated about 2 months after that and then had to close our doors. I was devastated all my youths work was now gone. At that point I wanted nothing to do with business. I had to close my factory which could no longer be funded by Apollo. It took a little while but I finally got back on my feet, I wanted to start something that would never jut rely on one or a few clients, I wanted something for mass consumption; at this point my only assets were my ice pop factory. I came down to Colombia and started to brainstorm; one night I saw one of my products being mixed with Alcohol, thats where the initial Idea of FrostShot came to life. Now the easy part, how do you freeze alcohol and make it stable at the same time. I met with two freelance engineers, who discovered how to modify and freeze the molecules. They also had to raise the percentage of alcohol so it could compete with other beverages, like beer, sold in bars. The idea for a new product began to take shape, but then I realized that I didn’t know anything about the beverage industry. So, I bought into a small beverage distributorship in Doral, Florida and my journey with Bev-Co began. Even while Bev-Co expanded, I realized there was more growth potential. That’s when I re-connected with an old friend and former business associate, Fermin Perez, Jr., to help me grow the business. Bev-Co annual sales now exceed $6 Million. In 2005, I entered a business plan contest for one of Florida’s major newspapers. My business plan won a Gold Medal but, more importantly, the plan became the template for World Frost, Inc., and its fabulous new product… FROSTSHOT, The Frozen Liquor Shot… the breakout spirits product in the USA and Europe.. Fermin and the team kept growing Bev-Co’s business with a dogged and relentless pursuit. Fermin earned product authorizations with larger chains such as Walgreen’s and Sedano’s. Before long, the dynamic duo Juan and Fermin were selling products into the Caribbean and South American Markets, negotiating territory rights in Costa Rica, Panama, Dominican Republic, Bermuda Islands and Antigua. Word began to travel and brands like, Perrier, San Pellegrino, Aqua Panna, Rockstar Energy, Red Bull, Coke and Pepsi all wanted to be in the Bev-Co House of Distribution. I finally completed FrostShot to be released unto the masses and the reception was overwhelming. However, I needed more help to smooth out the road to success. As Fermin took the wheel as Chief Operations Officer for FROSTSHOT, there was much to accomplish. While coordinating all of the components that help to make a new company successful, Fermin began to reach out to industry contacts/friends for assistance. I continued to improve upon FROSTSHOT and refine it to the product it is now, bursting with flavor and color. In order to better handle the rapid growth of two dynamic companies, I, as President and Fermin, as COO, realized it was time to mature WFI’s organizational team. As I concentrated on FROSTSHOT product development, Fermin focused on building the operations team. Fermin quickly reached out to two former business associates, Roger Nottestad to handle Product Packaging Design, Marketing and Media Relations and Fred Cohen to handle Logistics and Systems. Roger came into fold in the beginning designing Point of Sale items, equipment graphics and print media. Soon the job of spearheading the marketing of FROSTSHOT was taken on as well. With a newly created website and ALL new 4-shot box designs underway, Roger has had his hands full. Roger continues to use his various industry experience to enhance and increase the visibility of FROSTSHOT at all possible levels. With years of sales/marketing/design experience with companies like Specialized Bicycles, Rockstar Energy Drink, HyperTel Communications and Road Ready, Roger knows what it takes to get a product in the hands of early-adopters and consumers alike. As with all companies, Information Technology and legal issues became a priority and Fred Cohen was earmarked for the task. The technical brains behind the brawn of FROSTSHOT; Fred’s years of experience in Systems, High-Tech, Hospitality, and Management Consulting for companies such as, Computer Controls, Honeywell, Marriott’s Frenchman’s Reef & Morningstar Beach Resorts, Pearl River Resorts, and Peak Leadership Group bring years of MIS and a process-oriented leadership to the World Frost Inc./FROSTSHOT team. The recent attendance of FROSTSHOT at industry tradeshows in the US, Mexico, and United Kingdom has brought some amazing opportunities for FROSTSHOT. Both domestic and international distributors/resellers have joined WFI as business partners to handle the explosive expansion and demand for FROSTSHOT. Exclusive agreements are now in place for the USA, Canada, Mexico, and South Africa. Negotiations are moving forward for Greece, Malta, Australia and Dominican Republic. And this is where we are now, we are a much better company than we were four years ago, even 4 days ago actually, we continue to expand our team has gotten bigger and stronger, and today you will see our products all over the world. And with this blog you can be updated daily on how the Frozen World is going, Follow me into making this the worlds next great brand. Thanks for your time and patience, JFE