Interview with Halo

Who originally founded Halo?

Jeff Stamler and Jason “Jay” Del Giudice saw an opportunity while looking at online electronic cigarette forums, where many smokers went looking for guidance on what was then a very new product. Realizing both the future commercial and harm reduction potential of e-cigarettes, the two New Jersey entrepreneurs decided e-liquids would be their business. They opened in 2009.

What was the goal for Halo when the company was first formed?

There were very few rules in the early days of the vaping industry. Halo set out to establish industry standards — and with a high bar. The idea was to create a quality product that would be a better alternative for those who smoke traditional combustible tobacco cigarettes.

What changes has Halo undergone since its conception?

The company has grown from a foundation of two men working in a garage in New Jersey to a major international company selling in more than 90 countries. We have a headquarters in Trinity, Florida, and a 110,000-square-foot production and distribution facility in Gainesville, Florida. In 2015, we also opened our European headquarters in the Netherlands and offices in England.

How is Halo working to educate the public on the safety of vaping?

Our e-liquids have been independently lab tested, and we’ve always made those test results freely available to the public on our websites. These tests show our products to be free of the harmful ingredients some people associate with vaping.

Since our inception, we’ve continually sharpened our focus on saving the lives of smokers; that message is now at the core of everything we do. We want to help save a billion lives — the number of smokers in the world — and we’re going to do it by introducing smokers to a demonstrably less harmful product.

How did Halo come up with such great tasting e-liquid?

We start by sourcing all of our e-liquid ingredients exclusively from trusted domestic manufacturers. From there, testing, testing, and more testing help ensure that our e-liquids are both delicious and of the highest quality.

What does Halo offer the new vaper?

We give smokers who are looking to switch to vaping a number of enjoyable and flexible ways to do so. We have a variety of e-liquid flavors to suit all tastes, from tobaccos to menthols to fruits to desserts, as well as a range of vaping devices from novice-friendly cig-a-likes to more advanced hardware. With Halo, new vapers can closely recreate the smoking experience, or go in a completely different direction, depending upon their individual preferences.

Have the regulations the FDA set forth had an impact on Halo?  If so, how?

The most immediate impact they’ve had is to sharply limit how we may describe our product in our marketing materials. This has created the unfortunate consequence of making it more difficult to explain to cigarette smokers that our product can provide the same satisfaction they now enjoy with very few downsides — potentially inspiring them to give up that unquestionably harmful habit.

The premarket application process that the FDA originally laid out with an August 8, 2017 deadline has now been extended by five years. If allowed to stand, this requirement will create a tremendous financial and logistical burden on all vape product manufacturers, including Halo, and many companies may not survive.

What advice do you give to people trying to stop smoking by using Halo products?

We want people to remember that with their tobacco flavors (created with no actual tobacco content), nicotine, and hand-to-mouth component, our products have the potential to take many people off traditional tobacco cigarettes for good. Many, many people, including some who smoked two packs of cigarettes a day for more than 20 years, have seen positive results from making the switch to vaping.

What do you tell people that say vaping is more dangerous than smoking cigarettes?

Our e-liquids only have a few ingredients, and all are approved for human use. Cigarettes have thousands of chemicals. As Scott Gottlieb, Commissioner of Food and Drug Administration, said in July 2017, while nicotine is addictive, “it’s exposure to the harmful chemicals that cause disease.”

Where can people go to learn more about Halo?

More information about our company is available at HaloCigs.com, our consumer website, and Nicopure.com, our corporate website.