Heroes in Business - Strauss Zelnick fmr Chairman CBS, Advisory Board of Zeke Bronfman Nate Medow Founders CEOs SESH

Episode Date: February 22, 2021

All Flavor No Bull... Zeke Bronfman (3rd gen Seagram's beverage family), Nate Medow Founders and CEOs of SESH and Advisory Board member Strauss Zelnick, former Chairman of CBS are interviewed by David Cogan founder of Eliances and host of the Eliances Heroes Show. Broadcast on am and fm network channels, internet radio and online syndication  

Up in the sky, look, it's captivating, it's energizing, it's Alliances Heroes. Alliances is the destination for entrepreneurs, investors, CEOs, inventors, leaders, celebrities, and startups, where our heroes in business align. Now, here's your host flying in, David Kogan, founder of Eliance's. That's right. And again, you know what? I'm just so honored to have the privilege, because it is a privilege, to interview the most incredible people that exist, where we always learn secrets from them. And I really appreciate the feedback we continue to have when I had on the founder of John Paul Mitchell Systems. That's right. Make sure you go ahead and check out that

episode with John Paul DiGiorgio by going to alliances.com. Because as you all know, it is the only place where entrepreneurs align. Well, we've got an exciting episode with you today. And you're just going to be blown away by first of all what they're doing and also their background on them, so let's go ahead Let's bring them on we've got three different people. We're gonna be talking to at once here, so this is gonna be great first of all We got Zeke Bronfman Zeke you're the sesh co-founder, CEO, and chairman. Also, we've got Nate Meadow, SESH co-founder, president, and Strauss Zelnick, the CEO of Zelnick Media Capital and also the former chairman of CBS. You could reach them at drinksesh.com. That's D-R-I-N-K-S-E-S-H.com.

And of course, we'll have it on our website.com. All right. Well, first of all, I want to get a little bit of background on each of you because you really have some pretty cool things going on in your background. Then we're going to talk about this drink session, how it's taking everything by storm. So let's talk. Let's first start off with you, Strauss. All right. First of all, you were the former chairman of CBS.

Yeah, for about 18 months I served on the board and as chair of the board. I stepped down about a little over a year ago. And then what have you been doing since? Well, I'm the founder and managing partner of ZMC and I'm the chairman and CEO of Take-Two Interactive, which is a leading video game company. Pretty cool, you got a great background.

Well, thanks. And then also too is, okay, so Zeke Bronfman, talk to us a little bit about your background too and kind of your family legacy. Yeah, so this is my first venture in the space. Nate and I met when we were in college and this is our first foray into the beverage alcohol space. I am lucky to have, excuse me, sorry. I'm lucky to have an unbelievable legacy of my family who was in beverage alcohol industry for the last four generations. But this is a business that, you know, we are doing independent of that and something that we are doing on our own and very lucky to have that guidance and legacy behind us. All right, Nate. So brief background on you too.

Yeah. So as Zeke mentioned, we met in college. This is our first foray into the venture world and specifically the beverage alcohol world. I'm also a type one diabetic and have been for about 16 years now. Okay. All right. So Zeke, talk to us now. How did this idea come about to create what you've got, which is Drink Sesh? Yeah. So this concept came out of a very real problem that Nate and I experienced at school long before it turned into a business. And this problem was that we were very frustrated by the lack of options on the beverage alcohol market when we started going to these college events. And I grew up drinking gins and whiskeys with my grandfathers, so I shied away from

beer and the other options that were there. And Nate has his own reasons for not choosing those. So again, you mentioned about the Seagram's family and stuff like that. What kind of things have you learned, though, from them that you're bringing over to build this company? Certainly, yeah. I think connecting with the consumer was sort of the number one thing that my grandfather always spoke about and sold to me. And, you know, you're not building products for yourselves, you're building products for the audience you're building it for. And we got very lucky because the audience we were building this product for was us and our friends. And so it gave us an

incredible insight into what the consumer was actually looking for and how to authentically achieve that. All right. So Strauss, we're going to talk about your wisdom. Talk to us about the wisdom that you're sharing with both of these guys, because you've got a wealth of background. I mean, you're, you know, a lot deeper than what we briefly just went over and stuff like that. But talk to us about what you're sharing with them and also what others can learn who are listening and watching. Well, look, I mean, I think the big story is that these guys have founded a business and they've created a great product and that product is coming to market and looks like it's going to be really successful and offers great taste and

not too many calories and no sugar and gives people what they want so i'm really excited about what they're up to in terms of what limited value i can share i'm an investor in the company and i'm an advisor to the business along with a few other people. And what I think we've generally talked about, since I don't know much about beverages of any sort, I'm a media person, has been how to build a company from an HR point of view, leadership and general management. And with the capital they've raised, they've been able to build a team. And we spent a good deal of time talking about what that team should look like and how to make sure that this is sustainable in the context of the growth that they expect to have. So probably that's what as an advisor to the area that we devote the most time to.

I really don't think I can offer much expertise on the alcohol part of the equation. And Nate, what's the target market then for you guys? It is the, I would say the young millennial, the 23 to 28 year old, skewing slightly masculine, but we want this to be inclusive of everyone. We really think of this as a drink for anyone, but I would say on the younger millennial side, obviously LDA plus. Now, again, any of you are welcome to jump in on this next one, but we've got some questions coming in. In such a competitive market, right, and trying to get shelf space and trying to get out there where you've got just millions of things, and you know, Zeke, right, from the Seagram's family, just, right, it's still a challenge in that. How do you make your mark?

How do you get into those stores? Or how do you get noticed online and all that where you're able to market to your specific target? Yeah. So I think that starts with having a genuinely differentiated product that doesn't exist on the market and that consumers actually have a need for.

And once you have that, you're able to demonstrate with strong data that we've had access to, to these retailers that we've had access to to these retailers that we will add revenue margin and new customers into their stores based on this product that'll add new people into the new consumers into the spike seltzer space consumers who previously shied away from it because didn't have enough flavor didn't taste enough like alcohol wasn't interesting

and nuanced and complex enough and now that enters a whole new world, just as we saw people begin to trade out of craft beer, sorry, out of, you know, light beer into more craft beers. We're seeing the exact same trend happen now where people are beginning to trade out of the standard commoditized spike seltzers and up and into a slightly more interesting premium option. Yeah, well, that's I mean, that's incredible. Again, you know, being able to launch this and it sounds like you've got just an incredible team. And what's incredible here too, is, is me having the opportunity to interview you, the three of you on the alliances show, right? That the only place where entrepreneurs align. So make sure you go to alliances.com. That's E-L-I-A-N-C-E-S.com. Cause as you know,

it is the only place where entrepreneurs align. That's right. The only place where entrepreneurs align. And we've got with us again, we've got with us Zeke Bronfman, SESH co-founder, CEO and chairman, Nate Meadow, SESH co-founder, and President Strauss Zelnick. He's one of the advisor and former chairman of CBS and Zelnick Media Capital. You can go to drinksesh.com. That's D-R-I-N-K-S-E-S-H.com. That's right. And of course, we'll have it on our website and stuff like that. So talk to us about the vision too of the company. Any of you are welcome to,

but where you ultimately want to go, right? When you're starting this company, you've got a lot of things happening at once, but what's the ultimate vision where you want to go to? Yeah. So Sesh is an incredible brand and we see that building and becoming one of the top 10 seltzer hybrid cocktail beverages in the United States. We think nationally it can be a really significant brand, but on top of Sesh, we've built an incredible infrastructure here of an amazing team, unbelievable and varied sales channels, great distribution network, and the ability to bring other products to market as well. And so when you think of a long-term goal, what we have here is we really want to build a portfolio company of better for you, better tasting brands that connect authentically with the consumer

across many occasions and many liquids. So that's really where we see this going over the next couple of years, and we're really excited to make it happen. So you've got other kind of products in the development then? We do. We have another brand that we're going to bring to market early this summer. And then one that's a little farther down the line. Awesome. Awesome. All right, Nate. So talk to us more about too, is, you know, the, the how you guys, you know, how did you guys come up with the idea though? I mean, when, and you said you met Zeke in college. Yeah. So, so Zeke and I met in college actually on the first day of classes. And as I mentioned earlier, I'm a type one diabetic and had been for a while. And one of the biggest things I always remember was not being able to eat the

same foods as my friends and always feeling like that was the point of differentiation from being normal was I had to eat different things. And that went away a lot in high school and in the end of grade school as I got older and took care of my diabetes. But then when I got to college and started to drink beer or these other alcohols, that feeling started to come back where I couldn't consume a cocktail because you have 29 grams of sugar or 30 carbs. And so I was always on the lookout for better tasting products that were low calorie, low carb and low sugar. And there weren't a lot of those products on the market.

So Strauss being the wisdom of the group here and all that, you probably remember when you were these guys age and stuff like that. Is it easier or harder now to do a startup? And what do you think? That's such a good question i mean it's always tempting to say you know everything looked better in the good old days i actually think that friction to starting a company now is lower because you know we've learned in this pandemic

how you have to work remotely but even before you could have a distributed workforce you have technology at your fingertips and there there are numerous easy ways to get into business. It's also, I think, somewhat easier to raise venture capital today than it was years ago because I think there's a ready market for it. But nothing's really easy. At the end of the day, all success is hard to win. The only overnight successes are someone else's. And these guys are working really hard to build this company brick by brick, brick by brick. That's the only way they will be successful. So in that way, I don't think anything's really changed. And also too is, you know, we ask this sometimes to people that, you know, like yourself and all that. What kind of wisdom, you know, have you shared with these

guys to keep them motivated and going? Because, you know, doing a startup is difficult. You know, there's a lot of barriers, a lot of challenges and stuff like that. But, you know, I'm sure they come to you and they say, hey, you know, how do we do this? I mean, how do you keep them motivated? That's such a great question because, you know, early stage companies, and I've started a few, always run into significant barriers. You know, it's never easy to start anything. That said, I think Nate and Zeke have extraordinary motivation.

And one of the questions they've never asked me is, how do we stay motivated? Or that hasn't been a problem. They're highly motivated and they're very scrappy and they solve problems. And I think actually, to the contrary, I've been incredibly impressed when they have some significant challenges, including the pandemic itself, that creates some real challenges for them. Retail, the retail channel, obviously, was challenging, at least for a while. They're resilient, and I think that ability to be resilient is correlated with success.

All right, Zeke, we're going to do some snooping in the room that you're in right now. I don't know if it's your office, bedroom or whatever, but we're going to do some snooping right now. What's something unique or something that you like? I see some pictures, some different things in your office. What's something unique? Something unique? I mean, family photos, but I don't know how unique that is. But that's definitely something that I appreciate. Excellent. All right, Nate, how about you?

You got a bunch of pictures there. What do you like? These are some, those are the Beatles, but I do have some in front of me. I have some good pictures of me when I was a young kid. So I think I'll go with those as well. Awesome. Awesome. All right. So how do our listeners and viewers, how do they go about purchasing it? Purchasing Sesh? So starting on Monday, if they're in New York, New Jersey, Ohio, and Illinois, they can go into their local store and should be there. We'll also be available at a number of big box chain retailers like Kroger, Binnie's,

Total Wine. We'll also be available online via GoPuff in those four markets. And starting on February 15th, we'll be available direct to consumer via drinksesh.com to over 25 states. So go online and buy some Sesh. And Nate and Zeke, since this is your first startup, what's something that you find very interesting in regards to starting a company? You want to take this one, Nate? Yeah, I mean, I feel like we both should, but I think that it's you wake up every morning

and you're just so motivated. You know, you're working 12, 15, 18 hour days, and there's always a new problem to solve and there's never a clear solution. And I think that some people shy away from that. And it's very interesting for some people. And that's something that it wakes me up. And I know it wakes Zeke up as well. And I think that's just what's been so fascinating to me. Yeah. And I'll add the incredible people we've met and all of the information we've learned have been probably the most valuable takeaways from this so far. Every single day we have meetings

with people that teach us something and that's really the most we can ask for. Excellent. Well, Zeke and Nate, you created a better way to have a sesh. That's right. Supporting consumers with better options and authentic flavor, lower calories, carb, lower calories.

That's a hero. Zeke Bronfman and Nate Meadows, supported by Strauss Zelnick, CEO of Take-Two Interactive. That's a hero. Zeke Bronfman and Nate Meadows, supported by Strauss Zelnick, CEO of Take-Two Interactive. That's right. You can go and reach them and get it at drinksesh.com. That's D-R-I-N-K-S-E-S-H dot com.

This has been David Kogan with the Alliance's Hero Show.