In this episode we talk with Chris Kanik about Smart Cups, the world’s first printed beverage, using a patented delivery system technology that allows flavors and active materials be printed on nearly any surface. 

Chris Kanik is the CEO and Founder of Smart Cups, a sustainability-driven technology company whose flagship product, an energy drink, hit the market in 2018 as the World's First Printed Beverage. Smart Cups utilizes a patented delivery system technology that allows flavors and active materials be printed on substrate surfaces. These applications can be used in a myriad of industries, including pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and more, allowing for a reduction in storage and transportation requirements resulting in a reduction of the world’s overall resources. Today, Chris oversees Smart Cups' 23,000 square foot manufacturing and R&D facility in Mission Viejo, CA. 

Born and raised in Union City, New Jersey, Kanik’s creative and entrepreneurial spirit can be directly attributed to being the first generation born of immigrant parents. Having experienced first-hand the struggles and inequalities that exist among socio-economic classes, Chris has always been drawn to disrupting the status quo and designing better solutions to systems. 

He first entered a lab at age 12 to study the chemical degradation of aspartame in diet sodas over extended storage periods at room temperature. At 14, he joined a research team in the Nutritional Sciences Department at Rutgers University to study adipocyte metabolism in adipocyte fatty acid binding protein (A-FABP) knockout mice (aP2-/-) after short-term high-fat feeding. His work contributed to the discovery of a functional compensation by the keratinocyte-FABP. From there, Chris went on to join a research team working on a NASA-funded project developing biologically based nano-robots at Rutgers in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering.

www.smartcups.com

My Bright Idea is a weekly interview podcast that celebrates successful small businesses and their owners who have taken the leap to make their ideas and dreams a reality.

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