Our Story
More Juice is named for what it is trying to do: get more out of one bottle than you get out of a cup of coffee or a bottle of juice. Coffee gives you energy. Juice gives you fruit’s nutritional benefits. Instead of choosing one or the other, we made a drink that does both.
The idea started in a kitchen in Minnesota. Jake was working a corporate job at the time and mixing juice combinations after long days, mostly out of curiosity, trying to build the drink he wanted and could not find in the form he was looking for.
The caffeine question took the longest. Jake went deep on guarana, a seed from the Amazon that makes caffeine the same way a coffee cherry does, and that people there have used for the same reason for a very long time. It is known for a slower, steadier release than synthetic caffeine.
From there it stopped being a kitchen project, and that is where most of the actual work happened. Recipes had to be reformulated to survive being bottled. A licensed co-packer had to agree to run a small brand’s first batch. A process authority had to review and sign off on every formula before a single case could legally be made. There were samples that failed, timelines that moved, and a long stretch where More Juice existed entirely as paperwork. Every bottle has been made on a professional production line since the first one.
Today there are three flavors, three of us, and a growing list of stores across the Twin Cities.
The three of us
Jake Lee
curious (chronically)
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Jake works as a consultant with Brillect in Minneapolis. Before that, he spent two years at Deloitte. He studied accounting at Gustavus, and ran a marathon the week before More Juice went down their first production line. He asks more questions than anyone we know, and has yet to run out of them.
Iliana Luebbert
relentless (kindly)
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Iliana works in financial services at New York Life. She also chairs a committee at Burnsville Rotary and sits on the advisory board of a charity that gets kids into museums and ballgames. On top of that, she competes in bodybuilding and has a few trophies to show for it. Iliana wins at nearly everything she takes on, and is far too humble to tell you about it (so we will instead).
Lily Monorom
capable (unfairly)
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Lily consults at Harbor in Chicago. Before that she interned at Deloitte, then EY, then KPMG, three of the Big Four in three consecutive stints. She went to the University of Minnesota, where she played ultimate frisbee. Whatever the task is, Lily has probably already done it, or will be good at it by Thursday.