My name is Thomas Fraher and I am the founder of Aquavoss, an innovative in the health and wellness (cold plunge) industry. As an engineer, I am head of product development and innovation at Aquavoss. My career has been focused on the spa industry and currently am operating 2 brands in the niche. In my free time, I enjoy playing sports, hiking, and surfing!
Company: Aquavoss
We are thrilled to have you join us today, welcome to ValiantCEO Magazine’s exclusive interview! Let’s start off with a little introduction. Tell our readers a bit about yourself and your company
Thomas Fraher: Gladly! Aquavoss is the company and Thomas is my name.
Let’s start with Aquavoss: It is a entrepreneurial company in the health and wellness space. Our core products are contrast therapy based with our one of a kind combined hot tub and cold plunge. We have a truly special combined hot tub and cold plunge that seats 4 people on the hot side and 2 people in the cold side – we are calling it the Model 2. Our company is excited to grow as we create new and better recovery products.
About me: I am the founder of Aquavoss and have been creating products in the spa industry since the pandemic. I studied engineering and simply love to create new and innovative products. My brother (my business partner) and I are having a great time running Aquavoss and look forward to seeing what the future holds for us!
If you were in an elevator with Warren Buffett, how would you describe your company, your services or products? What makes your company different from others? What is your company’s biggest strength?
Thomas Fraher: If I were in an elevator with Warren Buffet, I would describe our company as innovative. Our services and products are one of a kind and we focus on being cutting edge. Aquavoss is all about creating new and better consumer products in the health and wellness space. Our company is different from others in that we offer products no one else has. We try and keep it spicy and separate ourselves from the competition. Our company’s biggest strength is our company culture – focused on a healthy and happy work environment with a focus on our customers and their needs.
Quiet quitting, The Great Resignation, is an ongoing trend causing many businesses to struggle to keep talent engaged and motivated. Most are leaving because of their boss or their company culture. 82% of people feel unheard, undervalued, and misunderstood in the workplace. In your experience, what keeps employees happy? And how are you adapting to the current shift we see?
Thomas Fraher: In our experience, employees are happy when they are pursuing their passion. With that in mind, we allow our employees to pursue projects they are passionate about. We have found that when people are doing what they love they are happy in their work environment. A large part of this is ensuring that we hire the correct people that are passionate about what our company is doing and finding the correct fit!
Online business keeps on surging higher than ever, B2B, B2C, online shopping, virtual meetings, remote work, Zoom medical consultations, what are your expectations for the year to come and how are you capitalizing on the tidal wave?
Thomas Fraher: We live in a highly innovative and tech-focused time. The year to come will be ripe with industry wide disrupting technology and culture shifts. New softwares, tech, and methods for growing businesses are popping up daily and capitalizing on this will be best done by keeping up to date on where and how to get access to the most useful tools.
Business is all about overcoming obstacles and creating opportunities for growth. What do you see as THE real challenge right now?
Thomas Fraher: For Aquavoss, our initial largest obstacle was product development. We spent countless hours developing our combined hot tub and cold plunge. We made sure every piece of our cold plunge was designed to be useful and sleek. The challenges in developing our Model 2 hot tub and cold plunge were enormous. We had different issues pop up at every step of the design and manufacturing process. With the development stage behind us, our latest real challenge lays in building brand awareness and achieving growth.
In your experience, what tends to be the most underestimated part of running a company? Can you share an example?
Thomas Fraher: The most underestimated part of running a cold plunge company is customer service. Our customers are customers for life and we spend a lot of time making sure that each customer is up and running as well as happy with their Aquavoss products (https://aquavoss.com). Keep our customers happy is vital to us and is a large part of our daily efforts. We do our best to ensure that our customers know that we are on their team and want them to love the Aquavoss experience. It’s not easy, but it is important to us.
On a lighter note, if you had the ability to pick any business superpower, what would it be and how would you put it into practice?
Thomas Fraher: If I had an business superpower, it would be super strength marketing. At Aquavoss, we have a tremendous product – and if we had super strength marketing capabilities everyone would have or know about our super cool Model 2 hot tub and cold plunge. The hard part is definitely getting your product known to consumers – so what a super power this would be!
What does “success” in 2024 mean to you? It could be on a personal or business level, please share your vision
Thomas Fraher: Success in 2024 means greater brand awareness for Aquavoss. We love our product and want to share it with more people. Our vision is to grow awareness for the cold plunges we offer as well as to come out with a new and exciting product in the health and wellness space.
