GU Energy Labs is a Berkeley, California-based producer of energy gels and other performance sports nutrition products. The company was founded in 1994 by Bill Vaughan.
GU Energy Labs was founded in 1994 by biophysicist Bill Vaughan, based on products he developed for his daughter's athletics. It was named GU as a play-on-words for "goo" due to the consistency of energy gels. Bill's son Brian Vaughan now runs the company. In June 2011, GU Energy Labs moved its operations and 50 employees from a 13,000-square-foot (1,200 m2) space to one with twice as much floor space in Berkeley's 4th Street shopping district. As part of the move, the company's operations, which were previously spread among multiple buildings, were consolidated and its shipping operations were taken in-house. In 2013, in conjunction with the Challenged Athletes Foundation, GU Energy Labs helped raise money for prosthetic legs for children.
GU Energy Labs produces sports nutrition products, intended to increase the endurance of athletes. It produces and markets energy gels that include carbohydrates, amino acids, electrolytes and caffeine. It also has caffeine-free versions. Gel packets come in different flavors, such as blackberry, chocolate, mandarin orange, and peppermint stick. They have a sticky gooey consistency. Other products produced by GU Energy Labs include energy chews, drink mixes (called "brews"), brew tablets, and a Roctane Ultra Endurance line that includes an energy drink mix and gel.
Gu can refer to several different Chinese or Korean family names. Some places, such as Hongkong or South Korea, usually romanize this family name into "Koo" or "Ku".
く, in hiragana, or ク in katakana, is one of the Japanese kana, which each represent one mora. Both represent [ku͍], and their shapes come from the kanji 久.
This kana may have a dakuten added, transforming it into ぐ in hiragana, グ in katakana, and gu in Hepburn romanization. The dakuten's addition also changes the sound of the syllable represented, to [ɡu͍] in initial positions, and varying between [ŋu͍] and [ɣu͍] in the middle of words. A handakuten (゜) does not occur with ku in normal Japanese text, but it may be used by linguists to indicate a nasal pronunciation [ŋu͍].
In the Ainu language, the katakana ク can be written as small ㇰ, representing a final k sound as in アイヌイタㇰ Ainu itak (Ainu language). This was developed along with other extended katakana to represent sounds in Ainu that are not found in standard Japanese katakana.
The Wabun code for く or ク is ・・・-.