Don’t let anyone fool you - standing on the precipice of end times for any business is an achievement. To look down and see your own demise - it’s all you can ask for when it comes to business. With the effects of the FDA’s overreaching regulations on the electronic cigarette industry well under way, the end really is near for a majority of US-based vapor businesses.

Good sports that we are, we thought it was high time we shook hands with our neighbors, discuss how we got our tickets to the apocalypse, and, say once and for all, “Great game, man.”

These are the End Game Interviews.

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Jesse Gaddis: So, tell us a little bit about you Steve?

Steve Hong: I am a market researcher and consultant in the e-cig space. I started Roebling Research Group, which focuses directly on the electronic cigarette market. Also, I am currently the marketing director for Alpha Liquid, a brand out of France owned by Guy Trend.

 JG: When I first met you, you were interviewing experts and doing analytics on the e-cig industry. We met at Atlas, that coffee shop on Havemeyer in Williamsburg.

SH: Yeah, that must have been back in like 2011, 2012? Right?

JG: 2012, yeah. I never did find out who your client was. Who was that? What were you doing?

SH: The marketing research company was Euromonitor, and they do a lot of work in the tobacco space, and at that time I was doing some consulting for them on market research in nascent industries.  

JG: Prior to working with Euromonitor, you never really had been exposed to the world of e-cigs. You don’t vape right? How did you go from surveying the industry to actually getting involved in it?

SH: You know this might sound a little bit opportunistic – I don’t smoke, I don’t vape, I don’t have a nicotine addiction. But, when I was in business school we would do these case studies. And they were these studies of an executive at Apple in the early eighties. Or who was at Google in like the late nineties. And it was just the case of being at the right place and the right time.

And it was also a factor of me being in market research and often doing research in nascent industries, and doing growth projections in these industries. The marketplace for e-cigs was “hockey sticking.” I said to myself - this is the next big thing. So, if, one, I believe my own research then I should act on it. And two, that e-cigs were exactly that right-place-right-time opportunity.

To some degree, I think that industry has been borne out. There was some major growth, but some recent factors are hampering that hockey stick- like growth from continuing.

JG: Yes, I agree, over the last couple of years certain factors have hurt the industry. Do you think this is still opportunity for a business to succeed in this industry?

SH: For the record, I do think that the opportunity is still there.

JG: I think so too, what do you think of the deeming FDA regulations? What are your thoughts/predictions on what will become of this industry?

SH: You know, fundamentally I think it is a bargaining tool. It is a tool to be used to test the mettle of the industry. It’s being used to shake out the bad actors in our industry.

JG: Smart…

SH: At the end of the day, if regulators are rational, then they will realize it is too big of a thing to outlaw to ban or to stop. And if they do that, there will be dire consequences along the lines of black markets… along the lines of inviting more bad action in the marketplace.

JG: In your research, did you observe any black markets popping up in other countries that have tried to regulate electronic cigarettes?

SH: Not so much around e-cigarettes, but it is very well known fact that even in NYC there is a black market for cigarettes because of taxation. And that is a legal product. Imagine an illegal product. No, I can’t say that I am aware of any black markets for vaping.

JG: You have done research in plenty of growth industries, gathering a wealth of insider information into each. If the e-cig market didn’t exist, what kind of business do you think you would be doing right now?

SH: Education, although that wasn’t a research opportunity. Energy drinks, beverages, that kind of thing. But the reason I was so attracted to e-cigs was that it had real impact. Not just financially, but it has the potential to change the world.

JG: I saw that as well! {laughs}

SH: Right, at the end of the day I found it to be gratifying. As a sociological experiment - it is really interesting.  Through the lens of big tobacco, I have experienced how the government, regulations, and lobbying works.  It is like now that you have learned at this sector, a highly controversial sector, you can start to see how regulations work for other industries like the automobile or renewable energy. You see how it all works.

JG: Well, that is it thanks for the chat. Is there anything you want to leave us with?

SH: I don’t know…to address the vape culture?

JG: Anyone who may read this down the line.

SH: There are certainly problems in this industry, but this a passionate community of people. I think vaping has its place right alongside smoking.

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