Did you know there are billions of gallons of water produced when maple farmers process the sap from maple trees? Probably not, and that’s okay. We didn’t know that either until Adam Lazar first pitched his startup to 43North a few years ago. Skipping ahead but also looking back at the 2016 competition, his company, Asarasi Sparkling Tree Water, won one of the 43North prizes.

Now settled into the 43North incubator, his bottled water startup is making a big impact in the beverage industry, and distributors are quickly signing up to sell the product. When maple sugar, used to make maple syrup, is processed from the maple sap, a value-added crop of water is extracted during the process. In fact, it takes 40-50 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of maple sugar, thus leaving between 39-49 gallons of clean, crisp water remaining.

This week on the podcast we take a dive into Adam’s passion for startups, how he founded the company, how mentorships have helped his business grow quickly, and what’s in store for his sparkling water startup for the rest of 2017.