After proving its flagship product's effectiveness through clinical trials, AllerPops is ready to expand with the help of new marketing partners and crowdfunding.
AllerPops, a Los Alamos-based startup that produces lollipops for allergy relief, wants to go national. The company has secured five marketing companies to help spread the word. They are also rolling out a new crowdfunding campaign.
The Wefunder crowdfunding campaign will open to the public the second week of January and will remain open until April 30, 2023, said Cliff Han, AllerPops' founder and CEO. The campaign is currently in private mode, meaning only investors with the direct campaign link can contribute.
It comes on the heels of AllerPops' successful completion of its phase two clinical trials. The double-blind trials, conducted in partnership with Toronto, Canada-based regulatory agency dicentra, showed that the lollipops are safe and effective in providing relief from nasal allergy symptoms for up to a week.
AllerPopscurrently sells its LolliPop product in packs of 12 on its website and through Amazon, as well as at retail shops in New Mexico and Illinois.
"With that successful completion, our next move is to open up to the national market," Han said about finishing the clinical trials.
Around half of the money raised through the campaign will go toward marketing, Han said.
Boston-based web design agency Going Clear handles graphic design for AllerPops. It's worked with the Los Alamos startup for around five years, Han said.
The other companies working with AllerPops are more recent. Earlier this month, AllerPops started work with Otter PR, Manta, Apex Drop and Digital Niche Agency. Digital Niche Agency, specifically, is handling online marketing for the crowdfunding campaign, Han said.
"We are in this digital freelancing service era, so usually [the companies] just do their own job and report back to their main company," Han said. "But I think we would like more than that to promote direct communication [between the companies]. I think those interactions will have each of them do their job a lot better."
Han plans to use the other half of the money raised through the crowdfunding campaign for product development and inventory production, he said. The startup is also working with a legal advising arm of dicentra to submit applications to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to figure out what health benefits it can liston the lollipop boxes, Han said. He did not disclose the name of the legal advising company.
Han's ultimate goal for AllerPops is for the startup to be profitable by the end of 2023 or early 2024.
"It will really depend on the financing we get from this campaign and also the marketing efforts among the partners," He said.
The company projects revenue of nearly $14 million by 2026, Han said. Eventually, he wants to sell the lollipops internationally, but that is a more long-term goal.
AllerPops has previously raised just over $250,000 through crowdfunding and received a $25,000 science and technology grant from the New Mexico Economic Development Department in March of this year.
A previous version of this article incorrectly stated when the crowdfunding campaign would go public. The article has been updated with the correct date.
