Latest / Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast) / What I’ve learned from 7 successful female founders in the beverage space

Transcript

What I’ve learned from 7 successful female founders in the beverage space · Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast)

• 0:00
  Hello, it's Dune here, your host and hype girl. Welcome back to Female Startup Club. Thank you so much for tuning into my solo episode this week. I hope you loved what we did last week where we took a deep dive into the beauty space because today we'll be following in those same footsteps. We'll be following in those same footsteps.
• 0:22
  Strap yourself in as I take you through the seven biggest learnings that our founders have picked up from hustling in the notoriously tricky beverage space and through a pandemic, no less. Let's get straight into it. This is me for Female Startup Club. Okay, learning number one is that your product absolutely needs to be great.
• 0:47
  And we all know this is a no-brainer, but I can't tell you how many times I actually pick up a product, whatever industry it is, and I think to myself, I would never actually buy this or consume it again. It's not good. The beverage space is ultra competitive. It is ultra crowded.
• 1:06
  And without an amazing product, you simply don't stand a chance. And that's a hard fact. This is one lesson that's always going to remain relevant, whether there's pandemic or no pandemic. And you just need to know that your product needs to be so good that someone will tell their best friend about it on WhatsApp or they will buy it twice.
• 1:25
  Zoe from Earth and Star reminisced on this when she was talking about just how much time and money it took to bring her mushroom extract drink into fruition just the way that she wanted it. We're talking months and months of time and more money and iterations than she cared to admit. But at the end of the day, the reality is if you don't have a good product, you're basically screwed because people obviously won't buy your product a second time and they're not going to go and tell their best friend about it.
• 1:55
  And then all that work has been for nothing. So don't sweat investing in the R&D for your product. Go all in and get consumer feedback early on at every stage of development. The second learning from digging through our beverage archive is that you want to have real intention behind what you're building.
• 2:15
  It's really, really important to ask yourself often, what is my aim? What is my purpose? What is my goal with this business?
• 2:26
  As you'll well know, if you've been listening to the show for a while now, is that in every single episode, I ask my guests what their why is behind starting their brand. And this is actually something that really sets them apart. It's unlikely you just stumbled and ended up in the beverage industry one day. So leverage that story. Leverage your why. Your intention is your story. And that's what's individual to you.
• 2:52
  It's what makes you unique and it's what makes you set yourself apart from the countless other brands out there. And for you, having that North Star will give you all the motivation you need to do what you do every day. The knock-on effect of building with sincere intention is that you'll have a fab story to tell around your brand.
• 3:14
  Dee from Avec Drinks knows a good thing or two about that. She didn't know how powerful PR could be to drive the whole business forward in the first year, but she knew she absolutely needed to tell a story around her intention, around how to use her low sugar cocktail mixes, her why, why she cares, and just to create some excitement and buzz around it.
• 3:39
  Next thing you know, she had the New York Times knocking at her door wanting to shout about her brand. Okay, lesson number three is all around using your network to your advantage and not being afraid to ask those important burning questions to people that might be able to help you.
• 4:00
  People want to help. They really do. Kristen from the wine brand Nomadica was incredibly shy to ask for help in her first couple of years in the space. And upon reflection, it didn't make life easier for herself.
• 4:14
  She just didn't want to burden anyone and we all know that feeling. But what she found is that after becoming more successful herself, people are constantly asking her for advice and she absolutely loves it. She loves to be useful. Selfishly, it can make you feel really bloody good to help someone else out. And that's something a lot of us need to hear.
• 4:37
  Your network loves to help. Sherelle from Soda Brand Dry totally agrees that if she had just asked more questions early on, it would have opened so many more doors for her. It's time to quiet that little voice of self-doubt that's telling you not to ask the questions and not to reach out and to stop being afraid to seem uninformed or even stupid.
• 5:01
  This is actually the story of my life, having self-doubt and questioning myself. So obviously, I mean, I'm aware it's easier said than done. But if we keep reminding ourselves, if we keep speaking positively to ourselves and we try to block out the negative dialogue, it'll eventually work.
• 5:22
  Knowledge is king and you want to gain as much of it as you can. So get on that phone call, slide into DMs, email the people you admire because the earlier on in the journey that you realize this, the more you'll be able to gain from the knowledge of your network.
• 5:39
  While we're on the topic of using your network, last year, I spoke to Melanie, the founder of Gia, and she reminded us that your network is not just a place for advice, but it's also your most valuable asset. Now, I'm sure you've heard this little nugget before. Your network is your net worth, and there's so much truth to this. Learning number four is to really think about where those initial dollars are coming from.
• 6:06
  Like Melanie, you might opt to look to those closest to you when you're raising a first round of capital for your beverage brand. You're probably familiar with the concept of raising a friends and family round in the early stages of getting a new business up the ground. And the idea is that people invest their personal finances because of some level of loyalty to you or connection to your startup idea. It's obviously very, very intimate and there's a lot of value to it.
• 6:34
  These are the people that you want to win from building your business too. These are the people that are on your team. They're really cheering for your success.
• 6:43
  The key thing to take away here is that raising no money always trumps raising stupid money. And there's a lot of stupid investor money floating around this industry. It's easy to get blindsided by it. So think properly where those initial dollars are coming from. When you take on investment from people that just have money and don't align either on your values or it isn't a strategic partnership, it's probably not a great partnership. And you might regret making that decision further down the line.
• 7:13
  So, go to your network first. Learning number five is a major one and one that's been mentioned so many times on the show. You should absolutely, without a doubt, create your beverage brand with a D2C model in mind.
• 7:31
  The beverage space was already on the brink of a shakeup. And when COVID-19 hit, it's well and truly seen the industry shift to consumers purchasing their favorite drinks and favorite beverages directly online for at-home consumption. And this is super exciting for us. As you know, we're all about e-commerce, D2C, CPG, et cetera.
• 7:53
  And chatting to Debbie about her specialty coffee brand, Copper Cow Coffee, last year, reminded me just how powerful e-commerce really can be in this department. Copper Cow has seen their growth explode, and they've moved from 90% wholesale to 70% e-commerce. And she hails the move as one of the most powerful things she's done since starting her brand.
• 8:19
  For Christina from Swoon, Amazon was the way to set up their D2C strategy. Amazon remains so key as a channel for them around convenience. It's a place that you just need to be in today's world if you're a CPG brand that people are likely to buy on repeat.
• 8:37
  For Swoon, both the discovery aspect and the learnings derived from consumer reviews meant that Amazon operates as a super effective D2C channel for them. Her top tip is to ensure that your brand is ready to meet your potential customers with open arms on Amazon.
• 8:55
  And thinking a little more out of the box in this department, I couldn't help but think of my chat with Heywell's founder, Ashley, who discovered an explosion of all kinds of new D2C platforms during the pandemic. For example, have you heard of Snack Magic or Thrive?
• 9:13
  or good eggs, or imperfect foods, misfits. These are just a handful of really progressive emerging platforms where people that like what you're making are going to basically stumble across it and start shopping it. Haywell did a ton of sampling this way through these specific platforms, basically making it super easy to get in the hands of their potential customers, from which point their product could start selling itself.
• 9:41
  She advocated this as the place where you should really be spending your time and energy and saying goodbye to retail altogether. Which brings me to learning number six. One, some of us prefer to forget when embarking upon this crazy entrepreneurship ride. And it's that failure is inevitably part of the journey. Obstacles are just obstacles.
• 10:07
  inherently going to be part of this journey and so are mistakes. Sashi from T-Drops put it perfectly when she said that entrepreneurship is simply expecting a series of failures or obstacles every single day. Have the attitude that it's going to be just part of the journey and get ready to discover a lot about yourself. This reframe has been super helpful for me personally.
• 10:34
  There's so much to be said for perseverance and pushing past these so-called failures when they inevitably come. And as the saying goes, entrepreneurs are just ordinary people that have a true passion for a specific idea and have the grit to really see it through. And that's encouraging in moments when it's not going well, which happens all the time. Funnily enough, the true mark of the entrepreneur is just grit and perseverance and daily hustle.
• 11:05
  And last, but certainly not least, is the learning that if you feel this burning passion in your belly, there is absolutely no reason not to get started immediately. Today, that excuse that you were telling yourself not to, not to get started, just forget it. Just delete it. Wipe it out of your mind.
• 11:26
  Those reasons are always going to be there. There will always be some reason you shouldn't get started. Take Alison from Poppy as an example. She convinced her corporate husband to quit his job and appeared on Shark Tank nine months pregnant to ensure that her brand would have a chance of making it in this crowded space.
• 11:47
  When you have that gut feeling and you know you're doing something right, just go. Go for it. Nothing will phase you. Nothing will stop you. It's just about getting started. Doing something is better than doing nothing. So get the ball rolling.
• 12:03
  Live your life, of course. Have some balance, of course. Love the journey. It's so important. But it's so easy when you're starting out to feel like everyone else is legitimate and what you're doing isn't. And, you know, everyone is doing this the right way and you're not. And it can be very helpful to tell yourself, literally repeat to yourself,
• 12:24
  You're real. This is very much a legitimate dream. You can do it. This is just how it is. And wave goodbye to that imposter feeling. From the big time CEOs to the small business owners with just one employee, you can operate under the fake it till you make it mode and things will slowly start to fall into place. If you are dreaming of starting a beverage company, use this as your sign to get started today.
• 12:54
  Okay, that's all for today. Thank you so much for tuning in. I would love to hear of any of these seven learnings resonated with you, whether you're in the beverage space or not. If you've got any suggestions for industries that you'd like me to cover next, just reach out and we will make it happen.
• 13:13
  And as always, if you're on your phone listening to this episode, take a quick screenshot of the podcast and share it to your Instagram stories or leave us a review in your podcast app to help other ears find us. And of course, you're always welcome to slide into my DMs or my inbox because you know how much I love to chat and hear about what you're up to.
• 13:35
  Feel free to ask me any questions or share what you're thinking. You can reach me directly at Doona Roisin, which is D-O-O-N-E-R-O-I-S-I-N, in all the usual places. See you next week. Bye.
• 14:06
  Hey, it's June here. Thanks for listening to this amazing episode of the Female Startup Club podcast. If you're a fan of the show and want even more of the good stuff, I'd recommend checking out femalestartupclub.com where you can subscribe to our free newsletter. We send it out weekly covering female founder business news, insights and learnings in D2C, and interesting business resources.
• 14:31
  And if you're a founder building an e-commerce brand, you can join our private network of entrepreneurs called Hype Club at femalestartupclub.com forward slash Hype Club. We have guests from the show joining us for intimate Ask Me Anythings, expert workshops, and a group of totally amazing, like-minded women building the future of D2C brands.
• 14:53
  As always, please do subscribe, rate and review the show, and post your favorite episodes to Instagram stories. I am beyond grateful when you do that.