Meet Kristina Smithe | Hiccup Founder

We had the good fortune of connecting with Kristina Smithe and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Kristina, what do you attribute your success to?
The most important factor behind the success of my brand is making a positive impact on the environment.

There is a great need to reduce single use cup waste, and my company is here to eliminate single use cup waste. To date, we have saved 250,000 cups from going to the landfill by providing 8 oz. silicone cups to aid stations at running events. Our goal is to eliminate disposable cups from all industries and make it the rule, rather than the exception, to have reusable cups wherever we go.

There is no reason we shouldn’t all be making an effort to reduce waste. It is not only unneccesary but it is costly.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I came up with the idea of Hiccup after running the California International Marathon in December of 2019. My husband and I took a redeye flight back home and I got coffee and water every time the beverage cart came through on the plane. When we landed, I threw away 6 cups. I quickly did the math and looked up how many passengers fit on a Boeing 737. The plane I was on can hold up to 188 passengers. I thought to myself, “what if every passenger on this plane only used 1 cup? That is still 188 cups being thrown away within 5 hours.”

That got me thinking about the marathon I ran a day prior. I ran a marathon with 9,000 other participants that had 17 aid stations. I, myself, used 21 cups during the long 26.2 mile haul. Doing the math again, we came out to 135,000 cups used and disposed of for a 6 hour event- which was being conservative and allowing only 1 cup per runner per aid station. I thought that there already had to be a cup rental service. To my surprise, there wasn’t already a company renting cups to running events.

Thus, Hiccup was born. I had a CAD done of the cup I designed and found a manufacturer to bring my vision to life. I started with an order of 5,000 cups and reached out to running events. 3 years later, we have an inventory of 50,000 cups and have been at 82 races.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My shout out would be to anybody that has made the uncomfortable move from employee to entrepeneur. Not only is it terrifying, but you don’t know if what you are doing is going to be a success, or a lesson learned the hard way. My shout out is to anybody that walks away from a comfortable career into the unknown. My shoutout is to anybody that is trying something nobody has ever heard of, gets laughed out, belittled or told to go back to their job. We only have one life to live and I find it very admirable when anybody finds a way off the beaten bath, because it is not how society taught us to think, and it certainly is not the easy way.

Website: www.hiccupearth.com

Instagram: instagram.com/hiccupearth

Facebook: Hiccup Earth