Essential Steps to Building a Brand As An Industry Outsider

While extensive experience in the alcohol industry can be advantageous for launching a new brand, some of the most disruptive and game-changing brands have emerged from founders with little to no prior industry experience.

So how have these entrepreneurial newcomers managed to achieve success despite being industry outsiders? The Park Street Insider Podcast has hosted many successful founders, offering insights into how they educated themselves and navigated the complex world of alcohol branding and regulations.

Do Your Research and Hire a Good Attorney

In 2019, the founders of 21 Seeds tequila identified an untapped market opportunity for a premium, female-centric flavored tequila. Capitalizing on flavor innovation, a health-conscious ethos, and aspirational messaging, the brand quickly resonated with its target consumers. Just three years after launch, 21 Seeds was acquired by Diageo in 2022.

“The first thing we did was we hired a booze attorney, and they’re very expensive,” Kat Hantas, former filmmaker and co-founder of 21 Seeds, told the Park Street Insider Podcast. “Any sort of specific attorney is expensive, but they’re so worth the money. And I encourage any entrepreneur looking to get into the industry, especially a highly regulated industry like the spirits industry, to do the same.”

The US alcohol industry is highly regulated and complex, so a good alcohol attorney will educate you on the basics you need to know starting out. “We had so many questions and we wrote them all down ahead of time because we did not want to waste one single minute and pay for one extra minute of her time,” said Hantas.

After hiring an attorney, Hantas says the 21 Seeds team spoke to anyone and everyone they knew with some familiarity with the alcohol industry, including retailer, restauranteurs, packaging etc., to ask questions. “We read everything we could read. I mean it was like we did a masterclass in spirits. Like we learned everything we could learn in a very short amount of time. But we were so excited by what we were doing that we were up all night doing it.”

What were they using? “You can learn everything that you need to learn on YouTube and Google, including the very first GSM I ever did. I had no idea how to do that. I was like, what do you even present? And I Googled general sales meeting in spirits and sure enough, up pops a GSM. And so that was how I figured out how to outline my GSMs.”

“So I was just using the internet and there were great newsletters, and a lot of trade magazines. Every trade has a trade magazine. So I would read those. I signed up for newsletters and it was through that.”

Listen to the full episode here: 

Utilize Free Resources

Buzzballz an early leader in the current ready-to-drink category, provides another example of an outsider-turned-insider success story.  Launched in 2009, Buzzballz has since grown into a leader in the RTD category, selling over 1 million cases in 2023. As a result, Sazerac acquired the brand in 2024. 

When Buzzballz founder Merrilee Kick, a high-school teacher from Texas, decided to create her brand, she had to build her knowledge base from the ground up. “I got into it by just Googling and researching how to build an alcoholic beverage. I didn’t know what I was doing,” said Kick. “Honestly, I was just fiddling around trying to find a way to make some money.”

One of Kick’s primary objectives when starting out was to build her brand around an iconic package. To do this, she needed a solid understanding of the guidelines for packaging a labeling formats. “I had to not only research the rules and regulations about alcohol and how to get a basic permit with the TTB, but I also had to understand polymers and plastics and the properties of plastics. And so there was a lot of research that went on around that.” 

Kick’s fact-finding mission eventually led her to the TTB’s Beverage Alcohol Manuel (BAM), where she was able to answer key questions and formulate a plan. The BAM “basically goes through the rules and regulations on eting and advertising alcoholic beverages. So, what are the standards of fill? How much headspace can you have? What kinds of things are required to be on the label? What kinds of things can you put on a formula? How do you get a formula?

Hard work and attention to detail paid off for Kick who was able to navigate the TTB’s initial processes. “I was probably one of the fastest people to get a basic permit with a TTB. I ended up from start to finish taking only six months to get a basic permit, but you have to get your basic permit before you can get your winery permit or your distillery permit or your malt permit. So you have to start with a basic permit and I got my distillery and my winery and my basic permit in six months.” 

Listen to the full episode here:

Find Paths to Connect With Industry Members

Ten To One Rum has grown significantly and helped bring new consumers into the rum category. The brand partnered with award-winning singer Ciara who became a co-owner of the brand in 2021. In 2022 the Diageo-backed brand incubator, Pronghorn, bought into the Caribbean-based brand, followed by a $1 million investment through private equity first InvestBev. 

Marc Farrell, founder of Ten To One Rum and former Starbucks executive, initially drew upon his experiences as an engaged consumer to formulate his premium Caribbean rum brand’s distinctive flavor profile.

 “I spent countless hours at rum bars, sampling products and soliciting feedback from knowledgeable bartenders,” he recalls. “I remember going to Rumba which is in Seattle, very famous rum bar, and spent a lot of time in there trying different products, different SKUs, talking to the bartenders about what they liked and didn’t. Then going through it on our side with some trial and error and the creation of our blends.”

Farrell was keen to distinguish between necessary learning that’s done for product development and the knowledge needed to run the business side of things. He also sought out industry members with deep industry credentials to help inform his decisions.

“I think the single biggest thing was surrounding ourselves with the right people who could really make a difference and shine a bit of a light for us. So we’ve been lucky to have an incredible board of advisors… who I think have been great about saving me some of the trouble of getting out there and making some of those mistakes that you otherwise would, you know?”

Listen to the full episode here: