Drink Helps Weaken Next-Day Hangover

Graduates’ new supplement prevents negative effects of alcoholEryn OlsonTHE SANTA CLARAJanuary 9, 2014Future party-goers may have one less thing to worry about during late nights out.Three Santa Clara alumni have developed a remedy for the infamous morning hangover with Ficks, an all-natural cocktail fortifier with vitamins, electrolytes and antioxidants that can lessen alcohol’s negative effects.“The reason you don’t know what a cocktail fortifier is, is because we are the first ones,” said Matt McDonald, who founded Ficks with Ron Alvarado and Michael Williamson.Their idea evolved from just another drink mixer to something unique and marketable.According to McDonald, there are plenty of hangover cure products sold that usually don’t have beneficial ingredients and are ineffective and cheap. When the trio were undergraduates, they saw the problem of people needing something to balance work and social lives.    Ficks is designed to be an upscale product with an all-natural focus. As a result, their target audience is the 25 to 40-year-old professional.“We are not trying to market to the college kid that’s going out every night of the week and trying to solve the problem of having six or seven drinks,” McDonald said. “We’re for the professional, for the person that goes out and has a drink at happy hour with their coworkers and just wants to remain at the top of their game the next day.”Sophomore Annie Schick thinks people beyond college would appreciate Ficks more.“I don’t think it can cure the 12-drinks-later hangover,” Schick said. In October, Ficks started a month-long campaign to raise $28,000 using Indiegogo, a crowd-funding platform based in San Francisco.Local and national media as well as newspapers spread the company’s word, and they met their goal halfway through the month. Ficks finished with $42,000 and have now received sales from 18 countries.Together, McDonald, Alvarado and Williamson took that chance and Ficks may soon be in a store near you. Contact Eryn Olson at eolson@scu.edu or call (408) 554-4852.