Mo Hassoun and Kun Yang are the cofounders of Pricklee Cactus Water, a sustainable natural hydration beverage that’s good for your body and the planet!

How Did Pricklee Begin?

Mo: Growing up in Lebanon, my favorite childhood drink was made from this delicious, magenta cactus fruit called the sobbeir! It was a treat we’d get whenever we were sick, and I’d fight my siblings for every last drop. When we moved to Canada when I was young, I never got to have it again.

Kun: Fast forward to when Mo and I met in Boston while working in healthcare, and we noticed that all of the daily natural supplements we had been taking for recovery and immunity contained prickly pear cactus extract. As we researched the natural health benefits of the prickly pear, we thought this would be a really interesting hero ingredient to build a supplement around. But, we actually never knew what the prickly pear looked like, so we pulled it up on google…

Mo: I couldn’t believe my eyes – it was the Sobbeir! Overcome with nostalgia, I tracked down the closest prickly pears around me, and attempted my best impression of the childhood drink my grandma would make us.

Kun: It was this beautiful magenta liquid, with the most refreshing and unique flavor profile that was just so easy on the tastebuds. It was such a serendipitous and special moment, we knew we had to share this with the world.
Mo: The cactus found us, and Pricklee was born.

What are the benefits of cactus water?

Kun: I mean, anything that can thrive in the most challenging environment on earth HAS to have some incredible natural benefits, right? Well, there’s nothing that hydrates you better than the cactus. Prickly pears are packed with natural antioxidants, electrolytes, and vitamin C, and contain 50% less sugar and calories than popular hydration beverages like coconut water, sports drinks, and juice! It’s great for hydration, immunity, recovery, and skincare!

Mo: And, it’s the most water-efficient crop on earth, because it requires little to no irrigation to grow. It’s good for your body, and good for the planet.

What has been the hardest part of building Pricklee?

Mo: Building a beverage company is so challenging because it requires founders to have such a deep knowledge base of all the different touchpoints that are required to get a product from manufacturing line and into the hands of the customers. Understanding all these different levers, and more importantly, how and when to push them is as much an art as it is a science. It’s taken a lot of failures, smart partners, advisors, and mentors to help us get to where we are – and much of the same recipe to take us to where we intend to go.

Kun: I think getting product and branding right in the beginning was such a challenge, because marketing cactus water effectively – it had never been done before. The tension point of taking an unapproachable ingredient, and turning it into a really approachable brand and product, was really difficult, but with the help of our community and some incredible design partners, we landed in a place we never thought possible. We’re excited to get it into as many hands as possible!