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2 corporals revved up about energy dip

Ingenuity can strike almost anywhere — even while waiting in line at a Marine Corps 7-Day store.

That’s where Cpls. Matthew Doran and Steven Rundel had their eureka moment. It all began in December, when Doran cracked a joke after seeing a waterproof container for smokeless tobacco. Now the two aviation technicians from Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort, S.C., are on the cusp of cashing in on their own brand of dip, a product they say could actually save the lives of Marines in combat.

As Doran and Rundel waited in line at that convenience store, they watched as other Marines stocked up on smokeless tobacco and energy drinks.

“That’s when it hit us,” Doran recalled. “Why not make an energy dip?”

They contacted an attorney and filed a provisional patent on what they have dubbed energy-enhanced smokeless tobacco. Now, less than a year later, the two Marines, in collaboration with a longtime entrepreneur and a Georgia tobacco manufacturer, are poised to release Revved Up Energy Dip — a flashy adaptation of the homemade caffeine and Copenhagen combo many Marines know well. The dip will come in two flavors: straight and wintergreen.

They plan to introduce it next month at a convenience store convention in Chicago. From there, they hope it will be only a matter of time before Revved Up is flying off store shelves nationwide. Doran said their firm is negotiating also with suppliers who provide tobacco products to military exchange outlets.

He and Rundel expect the new product to be a hit, one that will launch more lucrative careers for them, and they are in the process of requesting separation from the Corps.

They are not scheduled to separate from the service until January 2010, and their command has not received an official request for separation, according to air station spokesman Gunnery Sgt. Chad McMeen.

“The command has very little visibility on it because they have been doing it in their off-hours,” McMeen said.

The two Marines say they’ve struck gold, and are predicting serious returns on the idea.

“Our salaries are going to be pretty phenomenal,” Rundel said. “Our projected profits are pretty astronomical.”

Despite the relative speed of their project’s evolution from concept to product, the entrepreneurial Marines worked tirelessly to realize their vision. Soon after filing their patent, they learned that getting the attention of major tobacco companies was a difficult process. Many letters and phone calls went unreturned.

‘Phenomenal idea’

So Doran, 34, of Lexington, Mass., liquidated his cleaning business to fund a trip earlier this year to a Las Vegas tobacco convention, where he struck up a relationship with tobacco businessman Soo Baek.

“It was probably the most phenomenal idea that was ever put across my path,” Baek said of his initial meeting with Doran.

Baek, who was at the show hawking a visor-mounted tobacco clip dubbed the Dip Clip, forged a fast friendship with Doran and Rundel, agreeing to partially fund their start-up costs and help them draft a business plan.

He said the tobacco industry has been waiting for a product like Revved Up.

“We’d like to think we are the next generation of smokeless tobacco,” Baek said.

With Baek’s help, the two Marines worked with Southern Smokeless Tobacco Co., based in Statesboro, Ga., to create a dip infused with energy additives. Doran and Rundel, 26, of Louisburg, Kan., have tested their product to vouch for its stimulating effects, but they said the secret of how it works will stay in the company.

Magnum Owens, Southern Smokeless vice president of sales and marketing, said the product will revolutionize the industry.

“The U.S. smokeless [tobacco] industry is going to be flipped upside down by this product,” Owens said. “It’s the most innovative product to hit the market ever.”

Doran and Rundel temper concerns about their product’s inherent health issues by boasting it is 65 percent less carcinogenic than competitors. They also contend Revved Up is not out to create new smokeless tobacco users, but to convert those already using traditional dips.

“We are just trying to give the guys who do this something new,” Rundel said.

They hope it will be wildly popular for troops serving in combat zones.

“We have friends in Iraq who stand on convoy,” Doran said. “They are all tired and they are all dipping. It could save the lives of Marines or sailors if they are a little more alert.”

And both say their experiences in the Corps prepared them well for life as entrepreneurs.

“The Marine Corps taught us to adapt, and overcome, to situations, which we had to do in this endeavor,” Doran said. “The Marine Corps tells you never to quit, and that’s what we did.”