The Bossticks - How To Take On A Male Dominated Industry And Win Ft. Bev Founder & CEO, Alix Peabody

Episode Date: July 22, 2021

#376: On today's episode we are joined by Alix Peabody. Alix is the founder and CEO of the wildly popular brand; Bev. Alix joins the show to discuss how she took on a male dominated and saturated industry and won by creating one of the premier wine brands. Alix discusses her journey as an entrepreneur and the struggles she has been able to overcome along the way.  To connect with Lauryn Evarts click HERE To connect with Michael Bosstick click HERE Read More on The Skinny Confidential HERE For Detailed Show Notes visit TSCPODCAST.COM To Call the Him & Her Hotline call: 1-833-SKINNYS (754-6697) This episode is brought to you by The Skinny Confidential  The Hot Mess Ice Roller is here to help you contour, tighten, and de-puff your facial skin and It's paired alongside the Ice Queen Facial Oil which is packed with anti-oxidants that penetrates quickly to help hydrate, firm, and reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles, leaving skin soft and supple. To check them out visit www.shopskinnyconfidential.com now.  The episode is brought to you by TRADESY Personal style is a journey, not a destination. That's why Tradesy is making it simple and environmentally friendly to recirculate pre-owned clothing and accessories as your style changes. We all have that one thing sitting in our closet that we paid way too much for and know we're never going to wear again. Now you can find that piece a new home and stop feeling guilty. Go to www.tradesy.com and get $100 off your first order of $500 or more by using code TSC100. This episode is brought to you by Sakara This year, turn your resolutions into reality. Whether you're looking to try plant-based eating, build an empowered body, boost skin's glow, or simply feel your very best, Sakara makes it easy to create rituals that last. Sakara is a wellness company rooted in the transformative power of plant-based food. Their menu of creative, chef-crafted breakfasts, lunches, and dinners changes weekly, so you'll never get bored. And it's delivered fresh, anywhere in the U.S. And right now, Sakara is offering our listeners 20% off their first order when they go to www.sakara.com/skinny and enter code SKINNY at checkout. Produced by Dear Media 

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And now Lauren Everts and Michael Bostic are bringing you alone for the ride. Get ready for some major realness. Welcome to the skinny confidential, him and her. So we made our logo and all of the design of our can out of like literal handwriting. Because we really wanted her to be sort of your best friend, a person, something you could interact with them that way, not brandy. We didn't use agencies or anything like that. It's just all us. And sometimes it shows.

If you see old cans, you can tell that it's like it's been a constant work in progress. You have probably seen in my Instagram stories, Bev. I've seen. It's all over the place, Bev. We have it everywhere. And we have it all over our house. The baby was grabbing it off the counter the other day. I had to put it up.

Let's clarify. The baby was grabbing a closed can. I don't need people to be coming at me and saying, Why is the baby got a bunch of wine? She doesn't have wine. It's close. She just loves to grab the cans for some reason. She does it have a wine cup, though.

She does it with every can. So cute. One of a gun. I feel like you should leave that in. It's kind of funny. I'm going to leave it in. That was our producer. He just ate shit and flew down off the whatever he's doing back there.

But listen, guys, it doesn't always go to the way it's plans. So we're just going to keep rolling. Taylor was beating his meat too hard and he just fell off his chair. Anyways, back to Bev. He's had too many Bev. He's had too many books. Just kidding. Drink responsibly.

Drink responsibly. if you're going to start with Bev, I would try the rosé. That's the one that I like to throw in my purse when I'm getting in an Uber. It's so good with a pixie straw. It's dry. It's delicious. So, because I'm so obsessed with Bev canned wine, we went straight to the source to interview the founder. She is a gorgeous, smart woman named Alex Peabody. She's 30 years old, and she signed a deal with Gallo, the largest family-owned winery in America. And she's really healthy. helping canned wine get this expansive presence. You will see Bev on the shelves of Target Albertson's Bevmo Safeway and Total Wine. You'll also see it all over Instagram because it's so

aesthetically pleasing. This is for the people who want to learn how to bootstrap a business, learn more about business, hear about the grit that it takes to take it to the next level. With that, let's welcome the incredible Alex Peabody to the Skinny Confidential, him and her show. This is the skinny confidential, him and her. Tell me what the pitch is. Pretend you're in overalls right now. What's the pitch? For me, originally, it was so hard to raise money for Bev.

Like, so hard because I had no experience. I had no idea what anything was. Like, nothing about the industry. It's a super tough industry. There's kind of like a reason that things keep popping up with celebrities and whatever, and they're really all owned by a lot of the same people, right? So you end up in this, like, kind of whatever. annoying situation, but not a lot of people want to invest in the early stages of a business like

this. They want like the margins and the numbers and the growth, but you have to buy a shitload of product, right, like in order to get your numbers. And it's really, really expensive. And so I was trying to raise money. I was trying to figure out people who would like invest in booze. A lot of places won't invest in booze because they have money from endowments or, you know, whatever it is like that. They have like clauses. And I finally kind of hacked it and figured it out. and got one of the investors to fly down to my house, which was also my office at the time. I had a bunch of my employees. I was like, you guys just, you know, I know you left at five, but like, I need you to come

back and like pretend you're still working at, you know, at nine when he gets here. He was like all so late like I was. And at that point, I'd like given up on anybody funding me ever. Like, I was just like, fuck it. Nobody's going to do it. I'm never going to get it. I'm exhausted. I've been doing this for like a year.

Like, it's just never going to happen. And so I literally was like, fuck it. I'm not even changing. Like, this is just going to be yet another heartbreak. And then he came, my cat sat on his lap. And he was like petting my cat for a while. And I got a term sheet the next day. You know what's so interesting about that? Because I have a similar story with Dear Media, and we won't have to get into it. But it's a weird thing because ultimately, you know, why this is probably so successful outside of the funding is because you have a vision. You're an operator. You're a creative. You're all these things that take you that have nothing to do with actually funding, right? And similar to like, you know, when I went out and started doing funding, it's like, what I want to do is I want to operate the business. I want to run the company. And like the funding thing is such a. It's a whole, it's a job in and of itself.

Yeah. And I think there's a lot of people and maybe you've probably seen this that get really good at kind of like hacking the system and get really good at like fundraising. Like we know these people. Like they're good at. It's like a sport. Yeah. They're good at.

Yeah. They know the right people. They know how to bring on the funds. But they're not necessarily great operators, right? Like they're just good at raising. capital. And I think we've, we've, we've been in this culture for a while, it's like, running to raise. I could go on for days about this. Yeah. But it's important to talk about because I think, like, you know, people read headlines and they're always, it drives me nuts to people like,

congratulations on the round. Congratulations. And they're like celebrating a win. Well, that's not even something to congratulate me. Really. Like, it's not. It's, it's an obligation now. Yeah. And well, and you get on a treadmill, right? And so like, raising money is a dangerous vice. Yes. And so, like, you raise it. Then you think you have to hire and you have to scale. You overhire, you have to scale back, you know, you're kind of, you have to think about what people who invest want and they want to own more of a successful business. They're going to push you to spend while you're succeeding. And it's a fine line for you to be like, no, I, you know, how do I hug the line between profitability and growth, right? And then you're on a treadmill where you're just constantly,

you know, your goal is to not lose too much money, but to still lose money and until you make it to the next round. It's almost like a video game, you know. And not just, is that, but I think people, especially young founders, they get in trouble because they don't realize that their goals may not be the investor's goals. 100%. Right? And like the investors have, like, this is a formula for them. Like, they need to put out X amount of dollars to get X amount of dollars back. And they're willing to sacrifice some of those dollars along the way to get returns later on. So, you know, you may, like, in a founder's trip, we're like, hey, I built this profitable business and I can maybe sell it at some point for X amount. But if that doesn't fit their formula, they're going to sabotage that deal. So I think a lot of

young people need to think about that. Yeah. And I mean, I think there's, oh my gosh, I have so much to say on this. I mean, first of all, you know, one of the things that I kind of learned the hard way, frankly, about this whole shebang is asking people upfront, what are your investment return expectations? What are your timeline expectations, right? Like you get these like crazy runaway evaluations if someone's really good at fundraising, but you don't necessarily know what it is that they are expecting you to return on that until you're kind of like in it. and you're not performing up to what they need, right? And so that's one thing that I learned the hard way was be super clear with people about,

okay, if you give me this valuation, are you expecting a four-x return in three years? Like, can I actually do that? Can I provide that? Like, is that going to literally kill me and, like, exhaust me to the ground? Like, that's one thing that I think is really important. The other thing, which is, you know, kind of a more tactical, technical thing. But a lot of times these term sheets that will come in and stuff like that, you really have to, you know, have a good legal team and understand what it means.

Because a lot of places they'll put in liquidation preferences, which basically means we get paid back for XR return before you get a dollar. So I know many people who have raised a bunch of money and sold their company thinking like, oh my God, this is great. It's so much and made nothing. They didn't really like the liquidation preference. Yeah. Like there's so many technical things like that and nobody teaches you that. Yeah. There's so many things.

And I think like I want to start talking about a little bit more. Mostly I want to get your story here. So this is probably not the right place. But I do think someone in your, it's important to talk about because to your point, a lot of young founders, they get it, they get on this path and they start thinking I'm going to bring on funds and they don't really realize what they're signing up for. And I'm a bigger fan of just going, maybe getting a couple of French family, Angel checks, bootstrapping for as long as you can before you have to get on that past.

You have a little bit more leverage at least. 100%. I mean, successfully closing around is very difficult. And it is something to be celebrated. but what's something to be celebrated more is turning a profit, being sustainable and not needing to raise money from people, right? And that's what I, that's the small piece of guidance I would give is like think about your business model first and then the money that, you know, and how you could, if worse comes to worse, bootstrap it if you really had to. And if you, if you're confident

enough that you could do that if you had to, then you have a strong business model and you're better off when your ways capital. I want to get into how you got in the booze business in the first place. Honestly. Let's go back to the child. She started fundraising and started drinking. Yeah, I was about four. No, just kidding. Honestly, it still baffles me how I ended up here sometimes. Very windy roads. So I never thought I would be in booze. Like not like a, not like a wine person, really. I mean, I like wine, don't get me wrong, but like not, you know, wine snob or anything like that. It was never about the product for me, ever. I went to school, I went to an all-girls school most of my life.

I did not understand this whole concept of, like, women being afraid to raise their hands or having, like, less opportunity. That was just, I just didn't get it because I was like, well, of course I can be class president. Like, any girl here can be class president, right, or whatever it is, like these little things. I'm actually, weirdly a pretty strong believer in girls schools for girls at young ages as a result of this. boys and just co-ed, just go co-ed. It just never dawned on me that sexism, like, was real or existed at all. And then I left. I actually, I left my school in ninth grade for high school to study abroad. And that was, like, a totally different culture. People had a really different experience with alcohol in general. Like, I was in France, then I was in Italy. And then I went to Dartmouth. And

Dartmouth College is a place I just have, like, a lot of mixed emotions about. Like, I think I would have at any university because it's so frat-heavy. And sororities are not allowed to throw parties. That's a national rule. But the fraternies are. What? Yes. Yeah, that's how it is.

That's a national rule. Did you know that if you have over six women living in a house in most states, it's considered a brothel by law? Oh, come on. Swear to God. Okay, they need to get what the fucking times. But I just knew that, like, thinking back to college, I knew the sororities weren't allowed to have anybody over.

No. Besides the people that live there. Yeah. Exactly. So you're basically, so you basically have this, you know, it was the first time that I'd ever been like, oh, wait a minute. Like I, I under like I get what people are talking about here. And I started a group there called Smart Women Securities that still runs today, like trying to help women learn about investing. I didn't know anything about investing. So I got like folks from the business school to come teach it. I've always just kind of cared about this. I guess is what I'm trying to say. And I like many of my friends dealt with sexual assault at Dartmouth. And so, you know, one of the things that I did to kind of deal with that was I wrote this paper that ended up, like, kind of going viral when I was right out of college. I wasn't, I wasn't brave enough to post it while I was still there. But like a year after I graduated around why good men stay silent and toxic masculinity and drinking culture and what happens when you like insert alcohol into the mix. All to say that it was not about like booze at all.

It was kind of these like passions that have always driven me. And I always knew I wanted to do something about it, but I didn't know how or when or where. And then I went to my first job. I don't think I've actually told anybody this before in a public setting, but I will tell you. I went to my first job. My first boss within my first three months of work got fired for sexually assaulting me and 12 other women. But I was like, the direct report. So that was, you know, the line.

And I was like, how about 11? Is 11 not the line? That's crazy to me. And so it was, I know, you're like, what do you mean? Like, the line. No, I mean, I mean, it's like the first 11 times this was reported wasn't enough. Oh, okay, okay, okay. It has to be time number 12.

Like, like, that was the time when someone's like, hey, we're doing something about this. And then they let him go. And which I, you know, and they handled it. But that's all that happened to him? You just got let go? Yeah. Yeah. You know, they handled it as far as I was concerned, fine.

And I stayed there for a couple years. But it was very, you know, I was in the finance world. It was also very fratty and mail heavy and all of this kind of stuff. So at a certain point, just wanted to change of scenery, moved out to San Francisco. Took a job as an executive headhunter, which nobody understood why I was doing that. But I basically was like, I've never been there. And if I move there and my job is to meet people, then it will serve me later when I eventually want to start something. And yeah, and I mean, okay, next twist of the story.

And then I got sick. So I don't know if you've heard about this at all or whatever. We have done all the research. We see it all. So then I got sick. I just basically had reproductive health issues and it was costing thousands and thousands of dollars for medical bills. I went through like three different insurance plans, max them all out, had to freeze eggs, which wasn't covered at all by insurance. And I was trying to figure out how the fuck I was going to pay for all of this stuff. So I started throwing these parties basically just at my aunt and uncle's house in Sonoma and charging tickets for them. And I and that was kind of like where Bev, I think, was really sprung in a way. But, it wasn't, I don't know, it was, it was a moment in my life that was so, I was, it was hard, but it was beautiful. And I was really, it was really like a reckoning for me of who am I, where am I going, you know, who do I want to be? What does it mean if I can't have kids one day?

How do I learn how to love myself, you know, outside of what the confines of what I think womanhood should be? And I just started, you know, having more fun and like taking things a little less seriously and understanding that risk was not real. It was all in my imagination. And at that point, I basically found a moment in my life and I was like, I want to make this moment in my life. And I want to bring this to other people and make them see that there's, you know, that there's a different, there's a different way. We're moving through this quickly, but I want to, I want to address the trauma here real quick because from that college experience, from that experience you had at your former job, like these are traumatic things. And it sounds like you grew up in an environment that

was somewhat protected because you're in this all-girls place where, like, most likely these traumas aren't occurring. So what is that due to your psyche at the time? This is some heavy stuff to Yeah, I know. I just like blew through that really, really fast. I think it's important to talk about. No, I think there's a lot of women that listen to this podcast and this is not an issue that I think we've talked about enough. So I would love to just know more if you have any resources where women can go, if they're feeling harassed. Maybe someone doesn't want to, they want to remain anonymous. Like, if there's anything that you can share with us. Yeah.

I think the reason because you're somebody on the surface now that's had this trauma, but you've obviously persevered and helmed a huge company, which is, I think there's value with people hearing this story that they can extract for themselves. Okay, so guess what just got delivered to my door? My Sakara. I am obsessed with this meal delivery. Okay.

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And you're going to get 20% off your first order. Sikara.com slash Skinny. Drop into my DMs and let me know how you like it. You know, trauma can break you or it can fuel you. It's up to you, right? And if it starts to break you, and it's okay to be broken for a while, you know, it is. And but, but then you're letting it win. And like, is that really, do you want to live having let it win? You know, no. And I think for me, I lived for a little too long, letting it win, you know, and I think that when, you know, when all of sort of the health issues happened and, you know, it was really just like, a reckoning is really the best, best way to frame it. And I just started, you know, I mean, I started throwing parties, right? Which was so weird and random. And what, and it kind of evolved for me into how do we make safer spaces for women in

general, right? And once I started thinking about like, booze is involved almost always. I would be shocked if you surveyed 10 female friends and, you know, fewer than eight of them had a story, right? So many people do. And I think for me, it was, you know, how do I, how do I celebrate not only like the women, but also like the men who are good and doing good and good guys who maybe might be quiet in a really male environment, but in a female environment, like, you know, they feel they feel permission to like not take shit in that kind of way. To me, it was very much like, how do I like foster that type of environment? I don't know if that makes sense. I mean, that that didn't totally, that wasn't directly answering your question. I think that like, you know, one, you know, we're still pretty primal animals, all humans in general, right? And you start to, you start to put a bunch of young people that have never been outside of their parents' home.

I'm talking about a college environment. Yeah. And in a frat basement with tons of booze. Yeah. And those booze typically not quality and strong as hell and like mixed with God knows what. And you put all those into a pot together. Like there's the perfect storm. Yes. Yeah. It's totally the. perfect storm. And I think a lot of schools fail young women. Not to give it a pass, right? Like, it's not, I'm not condoning that. But what I'm saying is like, you put all that together in a pot. And then also you have a country where that is maybe not the most responsible country when it comes to alcohol. Like you talked about going to France. My sister went to France abroad too. And the, the culture

around alcohol there is completely, you don't go out there to binge drink. No. No. It's just part of the vibe. Yeah. But here, you know, in my college days, like, people were going, like, I was talking to my buddy. They're like, you go out and you get fucked up. Yeah. 100%. And then you're surprised like, oh, my God, like this didn't end up well. 100%. And let me take that small moment to plug that Bev is, like most women, stronger than she looks. So don't drink it like beer. Tread lightly. I can attest to that because we were talking earlier about how when Michael's rushing me out the door,

I grab a can of Bev and stick a pixie straw in it and drink it on the elevator and in the Uber. She's done before she gets in the car. Yeah, I know. Just don't drink it like beer. like some of our friends have in the past. But it's a lesson usually you only have to learn once, though. But yeah, I think, you know, I think part of what I'm trying to do, and this, I've never really articulated it this way before. So it sounds, you know, bear with me.

But I think part of it is that there isn't anything in those environments. If you think about a bar or a frat basement or, you know, these places where a lot of these things are going down, just look at the back of the bar. Like, how are those things branded? It's all dark, black, targeted towards men. It doesn't fit with my Instagram aesthetic. Yeah. Or targeted towards men trying to buy drinks for women, right?

So what does that say about whose space it is? You know? Like, to me, that's something where it's, what does that say about you're not, you know, you're an accessory to like, to a male vibe, right? And that's, and I think you also have this situation right now where being like a good dude, we call them. We love our good dudes. Michael, you're a good dude. Yeah. Listen, the arc's leaving. I'm coming with you guys. Yeah, we love, we get stuck with those dusting men, right? We love our good dudes. But, like, being a good dude is, is becoming more and more

normalized and mainstream popular, whereas being like a hard frat bro is, it's a little, you know, starting to get a little passe, which is good, which is what we want, right? And for me, you know, this also serves as a signal, as silly as it sounds, where, you know, a guy holding this, he's saying something about who he is, what he stands for, that he's confident, that he, you know, it's like, yeah, he's, he's going to be like, yeah, I drink that. He wants you to say that he's holding it. You are, you are holding it. I did go to the blue one, though. I looked at the red.

You know, it's a, the blue is a gateway drug because then you move to the yellow and then suddenly you're kind of in the pink coral zone. And now you're just like, heck yeah. I'm going to read the salient blonde. Yeah, that's, I mean, that one's a, that one's a great one. But you know what I mean? And so it's, it's all in the little cries, right? it's all in the little things. And how do we make little moments more approachable for people, gentler, like, kinder.

And also, you know, to me, it's like giving people permission to say, yeah, I love that this is made by chicks. I want an environment and a world that looks like the one that, you know, that they're trying to build. I want to be part of that. For me, that's what it's always been about. So I actually thought I wanted to build a media events company to get back to how the heck I ended up in booze. Let me tell you, don't build a fucking media company. is it is. I'm just kidding. Well, I literally was like, well, that's a hard long road.

And if I want to build a brand, I should probably have like, you know, something that I sell that makes money. So I have the utmost of admiration for building a media company because that shit is not easy. I basically ended up in booze because I gave up on the media, on the media company. Listen, I might not be far behind here. You know, yeah. I know a guy for wine if you need somebody. But yeah, so I basically started, I started looking at different models. and I kind of looked at the Red Bull model and was like, well, that is really a brand.

It's a media company that happens to be fueled by beverage sales. I have a brand and an ethos and a mission. You know, our tagline or not our taglines made by chicks, which is also our podcast, which you all should be on and come listen to you. I love it. Yeah. I do that sometimes and talk about hard things. But it's do it different, do it better, break the glass.

That's our mission, mission statement. And so, you know, so we really are. like that before anything else. And then I was like, well, booze is kind of integrated into, you know, all of the things that I care about and want to change culturally. And so I might as well just go into that industry. Turns out, wouldn't recommend hugely expensive, very regulated, very difficult, but I'm having a blast regardless. Okay. So, so most days. Tell us how the first Bev came to fruition. Like walk us through the steps. Yeah. So it started, you know, I got a little pushback on the first can color originally

where it was like, oh, it's, you know, why did you pick that color? Like pink doesn't have to be for women. And I literally was like, because it's my favorite color. It was the accent wall in my bedroom when I was like a full grown woman. So it was like, it's just, I just picked it because it was my favorite color. And so all of these colors, me and my cousin, who's our creative director, have picked ourselves. like out of pantone books, every single Bev. The collars are genius. Thank you. Whoever said that to you was wrong. Thank you. I posted one on my Instagram story the other day. I was at a bachelorette party, and I was really loving how the blues of the can brought out the blues of my fun boy float and the pool.

Love that. So you picked the right pantone. Thank you. Well, we literally have pantone books. Like I've, you know, been involved in picking every single, like, none of it's been outsourced all in house. Originally, I drew on a piece of paper just like what I envisioned for the can, what it kind of would, the layout would look like. And my cousin, Charlotte worked with me on it because she's a graphic designer. So I basically, I would go over to her house at nights.

We would work together on just kind of the design. And yeah, and then, you know, she was our first hire and first employee. And she's our creative director. But the writing on the side is by her sister, Emma. So it's literal handwriting. So we made our logo and all of the design of our can out of like literal handwriting because we really wanted her to be sort of your best friend, a person, something you could interact with in that way, not brandy. We, you know, didn't use agencies or anything like that. It's just all, all us.

And sometimes it shows if you see old cans, you can tell that it's like it's been a constant work in progress. Okay, so a few months ago, I was watching Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. And Doreet had this mini Louis Vuitton backpack. that was so cute. I love how it hung. It was like super little and just reminded me of, I don't know, being in high school and I needed it right away. And I didn't want to pay full price. So I went on tradesy.com. Tradesy, you guys, you have to check it out because you can save up to 90% on top designer brands. It reduces waste and you can kiss knockoffs goodbye. So you know it's the real authentic product that you're getting. I got mine in the mail. It was wrapped so cute. Honestly,

I felt so good about it too because I didn't spend a gazillion dollars. I'm wearing my backpack all the time. You've seen it on Instagram stories. I just feel like if you want to shop, gently loved Chanel Dior, Louis Vuitton, Fendi, whatever, you've got to check it out. Everything's authentic. Like I said, it's sustainable, which is amazing. And they also have a page so you can buy whatever you want, but you can also sell whatever you want. I actually was doing a side hustle on Tradesy for years. Michael knows this. I had all my clothes. that I was selling up there. And that was so awesome. It's so easy to upload. It's like very, very seamless, which a lot of the sites aren't. They take care of everything for you, okay, from making your photos of your items look great to handling the return process. I mean, what's better? You can sell your clothes. You can buy something cute. Personal style is a journey, not a destination. That is why Tradesie is making it simple and environmentally friendly to recirculate pre-owned clothing and accessories as your style changes. If you need a side hustle, go sell your clothes. I'm telling you, you're going to go to Tradesy.com to get $100 off your first purchase

of $500 or more with code T-S-C-100. Keep in mind, Tradeses prices are already up to 90% off, and now they're giving you an extra $100 off, which is wild. That's Tr-Z-T-R-A-D-E-S-Y.com for $100 off when you spend 500 or more on your first purchase, and you're going to use code T-S-C-100. Come see what your closet's been missing, visit tradzie.com today. First-time buyers only. Other terms and conditions apply. Visit tradzie.com for details. I want you to talk about the early days a little bit because I think, again, people, like maybe they tune into this show and we have founders on like yourself and they're like, this is overwhelming because they see this in stores and they see this on shelves and they see on the podcast. And like, okay, like it in some ways for some people might seem unattainable.

But there were early days with this where you were just starting out and maybe you didn't have the funding, you didn't have the team, you didn't really know what you're doing. And I want you to talk about that a little because I think people don't realize, like you can build something like this, but you have to start somewhere. And it doesn't always mean starting with all of this funding and all of these resources. It's really just starting with an idea and figuring it out. Yeah. Okay. So let's make something explicitly clear. I still have no idea what I'm doing every single day. Who does? Yeah. Let's be clear. We're all just swinging it. It's all a lie. You know, and I think it's interesting. It's interesting because we just,

we just closed our series A round of funding. And I was looking at fundraising tips. that I'd written out in a document for a friend who's doing her seed. Something came up that was thoughts post fundraising, because it was just like searching fundraising. And it was what I'd written from my first round the day after it closed and the money was wired and everything. And I was terrified. Like, I was just deeply terrified. And I took the time to sit down and write about it.

And I was like, you know, I feel like there should I should feel some success, but I just feel like sad, worn out and scared. and it feels like I have just summited this like crazy mountain only to realize that that it's just the first like the first of many plateaus and I can't even see the top it's covered in clouds. Exactly how my husband felt when he raised for Dear Media. It's anti-climactic. Yeah. But also you're like, oh my God. And I'm looking at a bank account with like more money than I've ever seen in my life.

I still have my own over $60,000 of credit card debt, you know. But and you're just kind of like, what the fuck? just happens. It's a lot of responsibility. Yeah. And it, the pressure increases. Well, this is why I always want to caution people about this, because it's, it's not, it's not like when you, when you raise around, it's not like you get all this money and it goes in your pocket and the company's all of a sudden great. What it is is, is it's an obligation to bring a return to your investors and it's an obligation to take that capital and to turn it into more, right? We need to, we need to have more than one bab over this because, but, but this is why I think like celebrating,

fundraising all the time because we've kind of gotten like you know you read about all these unicorn companies and you read about people raising all these crazy rounds but what you don't read is between the lines what's going through those founders heads and it's a ton of pressure it's a ton of obligation it's not like it goes in your pocket it's it just means more work like you know it literally just means more it means more work more pressure it gets harder gets harder yeah my my co-founder like after i closed around i'm so tired i did the you know for months and months and months my Hopefully my investors are listening. I put me in the fucking ring of these guys.

Oh, I have some of those too. Jeff, I hope you're listening. It's really stress me out. Anyways, and it was all done. You're right. Like, it's not like this big celebration thing, right? You go, like, I was at Barney's Beinerie. And I don't have you ever been there.

And I was eating some chicken wings and some cheese in a mozzarella stick and like a shitty beer. Wait, it is so funny that you say that because right after I closed our first round of funding, we all looked around. We were like, well, what do we do now? By all, I mean, there were four of us. And we just ordered cheeseburgers and ate French. fries and sat on the couch and, like, cry. Like, we were just like, okay, I guess.

And then most recently, this is my, this is my favorite, this is my favorite phrase. I feel like you will relate to this. It's now the real work starts. Yeah. You will hear that from every single investor you've ever had after you close money. And meanwhile, I was like, I look like Prince Philip coming home from the hospital. Like, I look like, I look like hell frozen over right now. I haven't taken a vacation in four and a half years.

I just did it. When I did this, it was pre-COVID, and these guys had me flipping and flopping, flying all over the country, meeting all these. I mean... I spent... I did a fundraising video. I filmed myself in my first raise, which is something I've never actually put out, but I intend to do that at some point.

I have, like, a whole video of it. I'm, like, sobbing and elevators and then wiping off tears and walking the things. I just did the whole thing myself because I was like, I feel like this might help people one day. You have to show that. I know, I do. I have to figure out just the right chance. I don't know.

It's a hard thing, too. would know better than I do what's a hard thing. Like here's the thing. I go back and forth. I was gone like 180 days. Sure. No. I have no doubt. I have no doubt. I want to talk about it more, but here's the pushback and why I don't. And maybe I will at some point. Most people, if they've never done this, they'll read a headline and they'll say like, Bev gets series A funding. And they'll read the headline. It's like, wow. And it looks like a lot of money. And it seems like this whole thing. If you're not experienced and you don't understand what that process means or what that obligation to the capital is, you're like, okay, like, somebody just got a lot of money. And so what I think, so what I

think the difficulty talking about it to people have never done it or maybe you don't understand the process is you think like, yeah, how could you complain about getting all that? But it's, there's not a complaint. I literally joked with my husband this morning. I was like, and once again, my diamond shoes have given me blisters. I was like, that is hilarious of me. I just really, it made you laugh, but it's hard. It's not like this woe is me thing, but I think there's only a few people that have actually really, you know, it's a selective amount of people that go and do this type of thing. And so it's hard. It's not a complaint. It's more about like, hey, this is a very stressful, large obligation. It's, you know, it takes more out of founders than people realize.

And I think I want to talk about it more for young founders that are thinking, hey, the answer to running a business is just raise capital, raise capital. It's not. The answer to running a business, well, God, I mean, I guess this is the multi-billion dollar question. But to me, it's the people. It's the people management. It's making sure. You need people who are going to run through a brick wall for you. And those people, if managed properly and cared about and seen and strong performers, will be the thing that you turn to over and over again that will give you life back. And I don't mean like leaning on them or that that's not their stress to carry.

But I mean, I literally, literally last night sent an email out to my management team and was like just about some people management tips I've learned over the years, whether I know anything or not, I don't know, but basically saying when you're at your worst, when you're the most depleted, the most exhausted, that's when you need to send an email out to your team encouraging them because they're going to feel that. And, you know, that's thing number one. And then two is just like have a real business model. Like raising money is not a business model. It's not. And we've made, you know, especially tech and, you know, especially if you're not in like SaaS software or social media where it's really about, you know, building, because I think, I think one of the things is a lot of these companies that have had the big headlines, they're

about building followers or clicks or, you know, more sort of in the media realm or in the SaaS realm where it's like users to monetize later, right? And so it's, and hope is not a strategy. Like you have to figure out how you're going to actually monetize those things. If you're looking in like consumer products or whatever, you have to, you have to look at what your margins can be now at scale. You have to look at like how much money, you know, you spend a dollar to make a dollar, right? And you have to, you have to look at those things. And you have to know in advance where your trigger points are. Money is not going to solve your problems. In fact, it's going to make them bigger. Yeah, I also think like looking at your category, like for me right now, and I've never

raised capital for outside of friends and family for outside business because I didn't, I wasn't in a category that needed it, right? And I'll elaborate. Podcasting is obviously a competitive space right now. There's a lot of very big... Well, you're crushing it. Thank you. There's a lot of big competitors in the space, a lot of tech platform. So you need the capital in order to keep up with a scale of what's going on space. Similar to you. You need capital because this is a very competitive space. There's a ton of shelf space that I'm sure you have to fight over. Yeah. It's a land grab. Yeah. And so like that, but maybe you're running a business. You're like, okay, you have room.

You don't have all those competitors. You have a space where you're like, I don't, you actually don't need venture capital or scalable capital. And so I think like sometimes it's not about, it's sometimes about looking at the category and like does this category actually demand these dollars. And then the other thing I'd say, because I was joking about shitting on my investors, but it's not just taking any check, but it's taking the right check from the right investors. Oh my gosh. You're like all of these things are so hot topics for me right now. I am obsessed with my new squad of investors. And that's the most important thing. Like I love my investors and like not just saying that because of the invests, but like I talked to.

so many different people like we are not going to jive what like we are going to be like fighting every day and I met these guys and this woman and they are incredible and like we get along and we operate and it's like it feels like a partnership I have I have a piece of advice so I love helping founders particularly female founders raise capital this is like a passion of mine I do as much as I can obviously I got a lot going on but I really but I really try as much as I can because I do think part of raising money is other people raising it for you it's the back channel. It's the like, hey, this deal is cool, you know, whatever. You can't say, you can't tell someone your party's cool. Someone else has to tell them your party's cool, right? That is so true.

And, but the one thing that I will say, it is so tempting to just grab that check, which is part of why it's so important that you have a business model where you know if you had to pull yourself up by your bootstraps, you could from someone that isn't right for you. But at the end of the day, your investor needs to be the first person when you want to call when you have. have a problem, not the call you're dreading. That's great advice. Like, that is, that's, that's the litmus test for me. Like, is this the person that I want to call and be like, everything's fucked up?

Oh, my God, help? Or is this person that I'm going to be just totally terrified, right? And it's really good advice. If, if it's somebody that you're going to be terrified, it's just don't, just, you're marrying this person. Don't do it. I want to take a plot twist and talk about that you're dealing with an infringement copy from a tequila brand.

Ooh, we went there. Sure. Okay. I want to talk about that because I've seen this become a very hot topic with a lot of brands. A lot of brands are getting copied. A lot of small businesses are getting copied by big brands. A lot of artists are getting copied by brands. A lot of influencers are, honestly, a lot of influencers are copying a lot of small brands, too.

This is an issue that's going on. Yeah. What are your thoughts? I mean, I think that there's tons of space for everybody to play. right? Just don't cheat and don't play dirty. And I think that there's, you know, it's just not a, it's just not a good look. There's room for all of these products. There's room for all of, you know, these people and all of these things. But when you're clearly knocking out off something that someone's worked really hard for, put millions of dollars at, like, it's just not cool. It's just, and for me, my question then is around like, okay, well, like, what is that? what is that adding to, you know, to the industry, to the space we're in, what is that saying? And what is it saying that you're, you know, that you're cool with? And I think that that's a big part of it is just, I don't know, I don't even know how to describe how I feel about it.

But I think that people need to just win the right way. When because your stuff is better, your products is better, your branding is better. That's cool. I'm down to be beat. But just not because, not because you knocked off my work. I also think people can tell when people are copying. I think the main thing I've realized about creators and business people when they get too big is they start to think the audience isn't savvy. That's true. The audience is savvy.

They know if you're a second rate version of another brand. That's what blows my mind. It's like, I'm going to pull a fast one over my audience and completely rip someone off and steal all of their branding and all of their messaging and da-da-da-da-da-da-da. and I'm going to pull it over my audience's head. The audience is starting to call people out. Yeah. And they, you know, that's part of it too.

You know, when we started our new distribution agreement and partnership, you know, one of the things that our new distribution partners said to me was you can't knock off culture and you can't knock off brand and you just can't. It's obvious, right? True. The same thing you're saying. And I think this isn't going to work without you. And I think a big part of that is because.

because, and I don't mean that in like a cocky way, but I mean it because we, because it was a mission. It is an ethos before it was anything else. We are not like a product shop. That is not our thing. Like I, why would a booze company have a podcast? Like that doesn't even make sense, right? But for me, it's really about opening those conversations. And, and this happens to be how I get the message to you. Fastest and most efficiently. It's very smart. You know? And, and so. For me, when it's like when somebody comes in and it's, it's a weird thing, too, because I'm immediately, like, cringing being like, oh, God, what would legal say? Like, how does that work? And that's a whole, that's a whole issue in and of itself, right? Where it's, you know, where people

don't feel comfortable speaking out when, when something like that is happening, that's just not right, right? But I think that there's, there's an element to me that's, you know, I have to protect what the company has built. I think you actually, Michael was telling me the other day, if someone infringes on your trademark, you actually legally have to go after them. Well, you set a precedent if you don't that it's okay to do. Right. Right. And our trademark, you know, like I said before, it's handwriting. It is a human. You can put her, you can sit her down in a court of law and ask her to draw it.

Yeah, no, I think that it will be the same, right? So it's like, it's not, it's very obvious what it is. You know, and to me, it's like, just do something different. Just look, just look different. Be cute and different. And that's, and power to you, you know, but agreed. The trademark stuff I was sent, like, you're right. You're 100% you set the precedent, right? Like, I need my, I need a step up after that. If you don't, you know, we look at people.

I think sometimes people will say, like, they'll look at this mark. Like, there's a pretender to this show. Like, oh, it looks like this fun, like blog. But, like, you know, we're pretty aggressive guarding the mark in everything we want because, like, you're right. You do set a precedent and you have to, you know, you're not going to take this intellectual IP or this brand you've built on that people want a fringe on. And if you do, you're basically saying it's okay to do so.

100%. People get shocked at like, how could you defend your market? It's like, well, this is what you do. Yeah. And it's tough. And you know what's so brutal is that on small, younger brands and granted, like, maybe people see us as a small brand. Maybe they don't.

I don't really know. To me, we're just a bunch of friends trying to build a company at the end of the day. Like, that's just what's going on at HQ. And we're all over the place. And we're, you know, pretty tiny. But, you know, but I put my whole life. savings into it. Like every dollar I had, I took huge amounts of risk. You know, and I didn't have somebody who was going to be the face and name that was going to help promote the product.

We had to do that all ourselves, right? And it's also like at that point, protecting your, it's protecting the work. It's protecting your investors. It's protecting, you know, your team. Because you can't just, you can't allow people to just go around knocking off their work in your space and expect that nothing's going to happen. And then if you're us and you're trying to build more off Because, again, we're brand first, like ethos first, whatever. That I, you know, someone can't be wearing a piece of merch that looks like us when we're building out, you know, more and more offerings in that category. It's why I always have the problem with people say, like, it's not, it's not personal. It's business, right?

And like, I don't, I think people that say that they've never actually like had to put their self on the line to build a business. Because to me, like, yeah, it's business, but it's very personal to me, right? Like you're taking a majority of your life and energy and you're taking these risks that you're putting yourself on the line. You just tried to steal half a decade. Yeah, exactly. And it's personal. Right. Like,

It's not cool. If that's not personal what is. I completely agree with you. Right? Like, it's not, if that's not personal what is, I don't know.

Like this is something that you've dedicated of, like you said, a decade of your life to building it is personal to you. It has to be. Or else, or else, like, we mentioned,

we were joking around earlier about, you know, building a media company. I think every brand at some point in the digital age has to also. Exactly. You have to have a message. And the product brands, they're not going to survive into the future. If they're not, if they don't have a media, if they don't have a message, if they don't have some kind of mission, if they don't have a culture.

Like, you can build a great product, but that's only going to last so long without all the other things. I want to talk about how you've utilized social media to build the brand. I mean, it's obviously very beautiful. You want it on your Instagram feed. How have you worked with influencers or podcasters? or, you know, even on your own Instagram feed and stories, built an audience. You know what? This is a great question. It still boggles my mind that we even have any followers at all. It's like, it's all, it's all a whole thing. I put, I put, I made Bev a wine because literally liquor loss.

And I knew that no distributor was going to take me seriously. I didn't have like a fancy name, celebrity tied to the thing. I didn't really know anything about the industry. And so, and I knew. that, like, you know, guys in their 50s who have worked in the industry for 20 years plus aren't going to necessarily understand the value prop of the brand. And so I knew that I was going to need to be able to sell it direct to consumer in order to prove a market. And so that's why I picked wine, because that's the only thing legally if you're a winery, you're allowed to sell direct to consumer into 44 different states and have a tasting room. And so that's the reason that I picked wine. And I put it in a can. And again, this was like over four years ago, I put it in a can and

we designed the can because I had no money. And I was like, I need something that's going to market itself. I need something that people want to hold. It's almost like an accessory. It goes with their outfit or whatever it is. It's cute. It's fun. And it's really, you know, it's really eye-catching so that it markets itself because I'm just not going to, I just don't have money, right? And so it was almost like an accident. Like it was both the fact that we could sell online, which helped. And then it, And then it was the fact that it needed to be visually shareable, which I think is, you know, part of what we were talking about. I do think that it's just you work so hard and you put so much into these things and they're worth protecting because they have, they've built a rapport and a conversation with your consumers, right? And I think for us in terms of, you know, growing organically and, you know, working with with people like you guys is just the best and people who are really aligned on, on.

what we believe in is really the thing. Like, I don't like, you know, and we're also limited on what we can do in terms of selling product out because we're booze. So it's really, you know, it's people who are who engage with us do it because they care about who we are. You work with your husband. I assume. Yeah, I'm like, he's the person you're really asking about this.

How is that going? Because it goes, it ebbs and flows for us. Oh, does it? We selfishly try to find the chance of life. I almost murdered him and buried him in the backyard on Saturday. Do you need a help with a shelf? Just, I mean, tell us about how you work with your husband. Oh, no.

He is, I mean, he's amazing. And he is my, foil is the wrong word, but my yin to my yang is what I mean to say. Jeff is very, he's very focused. He's very analytical. He'll, you know, he's, he's really good at what he does. I think a huge part of bringing Bev to where it is in terms of social, you know, has to do with Jeff and, you know, in our creative team and marketing team in general. but when he came in, things really started to pick up. And frankly, in many ways, he saved my ass at that point because COVID had just hit

and he's really good, you know, with online. And were you guys working together in the beginning or? No, I started the company before I met him. So it was a really excellent recruiting strategy, if I do so myself. But, yeah. And he was very pro separation of church and state, not doing it, not going there. But he ran a marketing agency that did a lot of work for White Claw launches. back like a while ago. And so at a certain point, and he's also pretty, he's so humble. He's so quiet,

you know, for the most part. He's, he's somebody that's like one-on-one, you're the center of his attention and focus. And he is so smart and consumes more knowledge. It drives me crazy. Like the number of books, a new book arrives every day. I joke with him. I'm like, most of the time I know what you're thinking about based on what book you ordered. And then I open it. Sounds familiar. Yeah. And I, and I check it. And I'm like, oh, okay, he's, you know, worried about, cack. Like, I don't I don't even know. But I think, you know, he has done such a great job. But it's tough because you're constantly in this state of everyone assumes you communicate more than you do, first of all.

Huge thing. Everyone assumes that you're like in business communication. And I don't know how big your team is. But ours is getting bigger. I mean, we're over 20 people. And I really, in part because, which is still small, but in part because we're married, I really want to make sure that he, He, you know, has full autonomy and authority over his team. And people don't feel like he's constantly coming to me, right?

And so, you know, so I make a concerted effort to just let him do his thing. And I do my thing. But people assume that we're having conversations at home by the time we get back that we're exhausted and drained. And what I'm really doing at home, if any of you are listening, I'm watching the office. That's what I'm doing. That is what I'm doing sometimes friends. Like, that's what's happening. And if you tries to talk to me about work or vice versa, it's just like, I can't. Like, I can't. I'm done with

the day. And so I think that's one of the hardest parts for us personally, where it's kind of, there's kind of this constant assumption that you're more in tune than you are. And it's hard to carve out. Like, okay, this is our one-on-one about the business, like fully. And this is when we're going to have sex. Yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah. That's a whole, that's a whole other, that's a whole other thing. I don't know. I mean, I don't know how you do it with kids, too. I mean, just I've. I literally. said to him today at 9.30, I need your full attention and put it in his calendar. She's at that age where when she was little and she didn't know what was going on, you can kind of sneak one in with her being around. Now I'm like, I can't have her anywhere in the room because

I can't have her seeing this. You got a, you got a high. I don't need anyone looking at me. I mean, I'm going to be calling you. I mean, my real question is how do you work together? Like, I'm going to need your advice. I think we, I mean, we've talked. It's a misconception because, you know, in our worlds, we're actually like very separate outside of this podcast. Yeah, but working together on the podcast is not a joke. I mean, it's something, it's like riding a bike. You just have to get up, get up, get up, get up, get up, get up, get up. Do I still have this brew? It is like, it's like, right. I went to my gyropractor and Jeff was like, oh God, people are going to think I beat you up. But I went because I literally, I was like holding so much tension in my shoulders that he was like basic. I mean, whatever this is stupid. You need a bad. Yeah, he was like, you need to rely. Like, you need to breathe. We are like full church and state when it comes to our, like we manage different teams, different businesses. We're like that too. But. But.

when it comes to this pot like the podcast is where you got to like kind of we're like that too but what's tricky is that I started this business with my family like no one was no one was smart enough to do it and dumb enough to take the job aside from the people who really knew me and believed in me that's that's true for every startup right like you it's going to start and that's why a lot of people you know they work with friends at the beginning it doesn't work out you hear all these stories like it's tough that's you know a lot of people I know myself included to certain degrees have been through that because you you really have to take people to task when it's life or death, right, in terms of your business.

But it gets a little bit more hairy for us because he manages people who have been there longer than he has who are also related to me. Oh. So that's a whole... That's a dynamic. That's a whole dynamic. But I do think that in many ways, just because they're so kind and sweet and, like, good people and we all care about the same thing and there really is like a mission behind what we're doing

and everyone knows what that is. I actually think that it's... You know, we are in many ways of family business. You know, we started out that way and we're starting to scale. But it's helped with the culture because there's a built-in, you know, nest egg of how people interact with each other. That's honest and, you know. I think if you can make it work, it's one of the most rewarding things. 100%.

Right? Like, and I, so I don't want to discourage people, but we joke all the time. And I say, like, don't do it if it's going to jeopardize like this, right? Like, if it's, like, you know, one of the first businesses I was a part of was a my dad. And like it, you know, me and my dad always been so close. My best friend, but like, we became so much closer. And like, there were some dark parts trying to navigate that, but figuring it out. I'm like, we have, now we don't work together anymore, but we had that experience. Same with my wife. Like, I think if you can make it work and you can get through the

tough stuff, it is rewarding, but not at the expense of the other stuff. It's 100% worth it. So originally when Jeff and I started working together, I, I just asked him to consult. And I was like 90 days. Just help me, like, I'm drowning. This is our. like family business in many ways. And so, you know, my investors were cool with it, obviously, because he's really good at everything does. She's annoying. So he stayed for 90 days and then 90 days turned into 120 days. And then 120 days. It's turned into like almost two years. But, you know, I've had the company for four. I started at four years ago. I have a feeling it's going to work out. The business. The business and the relationship. We had this crazy moment the other day. Yeah.

The relationship is going well. But we do, you know, check in. It's like, is, this still working? You know, and same with all of my, there's like a dedicated time to talk to family and friends who have been here for a long time on, you know, maybe it's like a quarterly basis where it's like, is this still working for us? Let's be real. And I think that's really important if you're working, especially at the beginning if you're working with family. But we had this crazy moment the other day. Sorry, just one small thing where we signed like a contract because we're the, we're the partner of the Rose Bowl. And it was, I don't know. Like the flea market?

Yeah, yeah, in LA. Yeah. I don't know that. That's rad. Wait, it hasn't been announced yet, but you guys, whatever. My team gets mad at me because I split you all the time, but it's fine. And so I just have no filter. And so we signed this contract and it's, you know, to do promotions with them and stuff

like that. And I was like, oh, my God, these people assume I'm still going to be here like three years from now. No one's ever had that much faith in the fact that we're still going to exist, right? Like I think from the outside, you know, it's like, oh, yeah, the company's growing. It's doing well. It was jarring. I was like, that's as long as I've existed. That's why it's so good to hear these stories, though, and showcase this on the podcast.

And I think it's so inspiring. What is a book, a podcast, a resource that's brought you a lot of value with your business that you would leave our audience with? The advantage is a book that's really great. And principles, Ray Dalio. 100% agree. Great book. Which is actually where I worked, by the way. Really? What? How can you just claims over that? Yeah. Is Ray Dalio amazing? He's, yeah, he's great. I'm obsessed with him. I listen to all his podcasts on a random podcast. He's really, yeah, he's really wonderful. Yeah. They've really, you know, figured, granted, it's, it's for some, not for others. And they're, but they're straight about that, right? And I think that that's something that I took a lot of learnings from in terms of, like, building a culture. They've done a really good job and just making it clear. And it's like, if it's for you, if it's for you, if it's not, it's not. But it works for.

the people in it, you know? And I, and that's, that's something that's really hard to build. So I have a lot of respect for that. Great book recommendations. I'm ordering the advantage. Where can everyone find you? Pimp yourself out. Pimp, Bev out. And we'll do a giveaway maybe afterwards. Oh my gosh. You're so sweet. At Drinkbev is the Bev Instagram. I'm at Aleeks P-Body, A-L-I-X. P-Body. It's weird because my mom's French. And check out our Made by Chick-Begs podcast and buy Bev on DrinkBev.com. If you were going to start with one of the beves, I would start with the varietal pack. I'm a huge fan of that one or the rosé.

That's the first one that I became obsessed with before I even knew you. I'm obsessed with it. I put a pixie straw in it. It's so good in the refrigerator. I can't even believe that you were obsessed with the product before knowing me. It's just crazy to me. Like it's still. I thought that it's in my house for so long.

Just for those listening, it is still wild to me that there are people I don't know and haven't begged to purchase buying this product. Like, thank you. I'm a huge fan. This has been in our house for like, at least forever since we lived in San Diego. Huge fan. It's dry. It's not too sweet.

There's zero sugar. You guys, I'm such a fan. I'm going to talk with you about doing a giveaway. So stay tuned. Thank you so much for coming on. Come back anytime. Thank you so much. Bev is doing a giveaway for you guys.

All you have to do is tell us your favorite part of this episode on my latest Instagram at Lauren Bostick. And someone from the team will slide into your DMs. I think they're going to send you like a major variety pack, all the canned wine you could ever wish for. And I'm telling you, once you try this wine, you're going to be so impressed. It is boozy. It is good. It is dry. It is sugar-free. You're going to love it. Enjoy.