Fifteen years ago, during one of the most difficult chapters of her life, Rena Doman took her first sip of a warm beverage her husband, Gary Brown, had concocted. The coffee alternative, now known as Perk Energy, offered more than a boost of energy. To Doman, it felt like “a hug in a mug.”
The couple was in the process of blending their families after the death of Doman’s first husband, Matt, in 2010. Some mornings, she says, she could barely hold it together.
Brown’s homemade chai drink with antioxidants, caffeine and protein became part of her morning routine, offering comfort and steady energy when she needed it most. The creamy recipe with a distinct kick of warm spices became the foundation of Perk Energy, the Utah-based wellness company the couple now leads together.
Doman began bringing samples of Brown’s creation to the title company she managed, leaving them on her desk for coworkers to try. By the end of the day, every sample had been claimed.
“There was this immediate emotional response,” Doman recalls. “It felt like a treat.”
“We knew from personal experience that people would welcome a ‘hug in a mug’ because once we started drinking our first batch of Chai Latte Energy, it became a non-negotiable for our mornings,” Brown explains of the founding recipe. “If we shared it, we knew people would feel the same connection to real flavors, good ingredients and healthy rituals that support living a thriving life.”
Doman knew they were onto something. She walked away from a career spanning more than 20 years to help build Perk Energy.
“We didn’t see ourselves as a multi-million-dollar company,” Doman says. “We just wanted to bring this to more people.”
One order at a time
From the beginning, Doman and Brown bootstrapped Perk Energy. For four years, they didn’t take a paycheck, reinvesting every dollar into the business. The company grew steadily by design, as the couple prioritized their family and weren’t interested in pursuing rapid growth at the expense of that priority.
“We wanted to remain in charge of the product, quality and price,” Doman says. “The only way to do that was to keep it in our hands and not put other people in charge of those decisions.”
After launching Perk Energy in 2016, the couple leaned into the growing influence of Instagram while introducing their coffee alternative at gyms, bunco groups and blogger conventions. They packed every order by hand in their basement with help from their blended family of seven children.
“It was very much a family affair,” Doman recalls.
By 2020, repeat customers had given Brown the confidence to leave his career as a creative director at Adobe and join the company full-time.
“Rena and I woke up blissfully unaware of the hats we needed to wear each day,” Brown says. “We had to be prepared to work on production issues and keep up with the marketing calendar, accounting issues, logistics and planning. Showing up in the morning willing to tackle any challenge that faced us was critical to our survival.”
Just one week after Brown left Adobe, COVID-19 brought the world to a standstill. Overnight, the family of nine found themselves without insurance, a steady income or certainty about what would come next.
Rather than retreat, the couple leaned into their mission.
They launched a social media campaign offering Perk Energy samples to first responders, teachers and medical professionals. Hundreds responded, introducing the brand to a new audience and catching the attention of Harmons Grocery.
That social media momentum led to another breakthrough. After discovering Perk Energy through its social presence, Harmons became the first major retailer to carry the brand, helping transform the business from a single signature beverage into a growing wellness brand.
Beyond coffee alternatives
Today, Perk Energy’s lineup extends far beyond its original Chai Latte Energy drink. Its coffee-free roots also resonated with a sizable Utah market, where many people don’t drink coffee and may be looking for an alternative that still provides energy and fits into a morning routine.
The company now offers multiple energy flavors, hydration products, relaxation beverages, a pre-workout formula and, most recently, a line designed for kids.
“We’re not really ones to say, ‘Oh, here’s a trend. Let’s jump on it,’” Doman says. “We try to be really conscientious and think of what’s missing.”
“We’ve avoided getting too wedded to trendy ingredients or getting wrapped up in making dubious claims,” Brown adds. “We want to be part of people’s routines for a lifetime, not the product of the month.”
Doman calls every product decision “emotional” and rooted in personal experience.
“We really listen to our customers and hear what they need, what they love and don’t love,” she says.
An early product setback tested Perk’s approach when one antioxidant beverage developed an unusual taste due to a pH reaction. After testing ingredients used in some 80,000 units, the company identified the issue, fixed it and offered fresh batches to affected customers.
It was a tough experience, Doman and Brown recall, but one that reinforced the importance of listening and adapting.
Neither founder came from an entrepreneurial background. Doman says they’ve learned to evolve as the company has grown, including knowing when to set aside ego.
“We’re going to make changes that serve our customers best,” she says.
Looking toward the next million mornings
Now, Perk Energy partners with Vineyard-based Nutricost on manufacturing, a relationship that helped bring the brand to Costco and gave Perk a valuable local connection to the retailer. Perk Energy is now available in select regional Costco warehouses and through limited-time Costco Roadshows.
As the company continues expanding into grocery stores nationwide and additional Costco regions, the founders are focused on another ambitious goal: bringing Perk to one million new mornings through an expansive social media campaign designed to introduce the brand to more customers.
For Doman, success is about more than sales. It’s about creating a product that becomes part of someone’s daily ritual and helps them begin the day with a little more joy.
As Perk Energy celebrates its 10th anniversary, Doman says the Utah business community that embraced the company from the beginning continues to play an important role in its growth.
“My greatest strength in growing the business here in Utah is the other women in business that have come with open arms,” she says. “I can call up any one of them any day and ask their opinion. There’s no gatekeeping. There’s no fear of competition.”
A decade after launching the company, Doman still measures success by the same feeling she experienced after taking that very first sip. If there’s one business lesson she carries with her, it’s to trust that instinct and stick with her gut.
“We have survived existential threats to the business by sheer strength of will,” Brown says. “We didn’t always have a flawless plan or keen insight, but we had a deep belief in our business, and that determination allowed us to tackle challenges that could have ended us.”