A Pittsburgh-based startup that makes caffeinated eye drops to prevent vision fatigue commonly caused by computer screens has received its first bulk order of the product and has begun offering direct sales to consumers.
Revitalize Energy, co-founded in 2019 by CEO Kyle Guinness and Chief Financial Officer Tammy Szijarto, received its first shipment of over 10,000 units from a St. Louis-based manufacturer and has begun fulfilling orders out of the Ascender co-working space in East Liberty, where Revitalize is based.
According to Guinness, the product has been cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's various testing and protocol requirements.
He said the company is mostly doing direct-to-consumer sales for now, which has the 15-milliliter bottle—about a month's supply if used two-to-four times per day—costing $16.99 a piece, though a 20% discount is offered to those who sign up for a subscription-based plan. A recent contract with an unnamed business owner who "wanted to stock his office with our product" is also in the works as are deals with distributors to get the product on store shelves, Guinness said.
"Thankfully, the first batch is always the hardest because, aside from the FDA protocols, we also had to go through those manufactured protocols," Guinness said. "But for future batches, because a lot of the legwork is done, the rest is really about scale, fulfillment, repurchasing from our manufacturer and that type of stuff."
To date, Guinness said Revitalize has raised about $300,000 since its founding and has about $100,000 available to raise in its current funding round.
"It's taken a lot of work to get here, but we're really glad that we're just finally here," Guinness said.
