Behind the Brand: Horizon Verjus
Meet Horizon Verjus' Founder, Kevin Murphy
1. What is the name of your company?
Horizon Verjus Company
2. What is your title?
Owner
3. Where is your company located?
Littleton, Colorado
4. Whats your current obsession?
Shows: Pluribus and Shrinking.
5. How did you hear about Naturally Colorado? What made you become a member? Has Naturally Colorado helped you in any way?
“I heard about Naturally Colorado back in 2022 when my business was really just an idea and I didn’t even have a product yet.
Naturally Colorado has been such a big help, Specifically, three things come to mind:
1. Learning from other founders.
2. Connecting with business who can help my brand grow (designers, logistics, food safety, etc).
3. Pitch Competitions! Having experienced both success and failure – I can attest both provide great learning opportunities!”
6. What size is your company?
1 employee!
7. What inspired you to start your company?
As a former bartender – I love food & beverage. I became passionate about local food systems, learned about verjus, and realized I had an opportunity to make an impact with Colorado Verjus!
8. Why did you choose to focus on the natural and organic industry?
A vibrant, healthy local food system is incredibly important to our health, our local economy, and our environment.
9. Can you describe the biggest challenge you faced during the early stages of your company, and how you overcame it?
My biggest challenge was learning about food manufacturing. As a bartender, I was used to dealing with small scale challenges. Creating a product at scale is a whole new ballgame. Luckily, I have a wonderful team of support to help me learn (including Naturally Colorado!) I’ve learned to ask a lot of questions and be incredibly humble about the things you don’t know!
10. What keeps you up at night regarding your business?
Juggling all the different roles! Sales, operations, accounting, logistics, emails- the to-do list seems to never end! However I am(sometimes) better about saying “enough for now, that can wait for tomorrow”
11. What strategies can you share that have been effective?
Embracing a scrappy, slow-growth model. While I would love to grow faster, scaling within your means allows you to truly learn and prioritize what is actually important.
12. How important is networking, and what strategies do you use to build and maintain professional relationships?
Networking is incredibly important! Again, being patient and allowing the relationships to grow organically has been so important to my brand. The connections I initially made years before even launching my product have now become close collaborators.
13. What is one piece of advice or knowledge that has changed your life and why?
Stay curious and listen more than you speak. Following these basic ideas has helped me learn so much and remain grounded.
Connect with Kevin.
Learn more about Horizon Verjus.
More about Behind the Brand:
Everyone has a unique founding journey and we want to hear yours and share it with the community! Whether it’s how you started, your mission or the challenges you’ve overcome, we want to spotlight you and celebrate your success and journey.
We will feature one brand a month on our website, on social media, and in our newsletter. In addition to connecting with the Naturally Colorado community, this is an opportunity to provide support and guidance to others!
We’re excited to hear your story, for a chance to be featured fill out this survey or submit a video!
The Naturally Colorado team will follow up with more information if your submission is chosen to be featured in the Behind the Brand series.
