June 12, 2025 • 26 mins
Clement Pappas is the CEO and a Co-Founder of Stateside Brands, the maker of Surfside Iced Tea + Vodka / Lemonade + Vodka, Stateside Vodka Sodas and Stateside Vodka. In 2015, Stateside Vodka launched as a premium, American craft vodka brand and distillery in the heart of Philadelphia, PA. Under Clement’s leadership, Stateside Vodka was ranked the top-selling Pennsylvania Distilled Spirit in 2018. The company then launched its first ready-to-drink canned cocktail brand in 2021, Stateside Vodka Sodas, and experienced immediate success in the Philadelphia metro area. Following this success, Clement and co-founders Zach Pappas, Matt Quigley and Bryan Quigley identified an opportunity to create a flavorful, high-quality, vodka-based hard tea with 100 calories or less. This led to the launch of Surfside Iced Tea + Vodka in late 2022 and the brand took off like a rocket ship from the very beginning. In just two years, Surfside has become the #1 fastest growing brand across all alcohol beverages at scanned retail and has expanded its distribution nationwide across all 50 states and internationally to the Bahamas, Grand Cayman and St. Thomas. The brand was named VinePair’s “2024 Rising Drinks Brand of the Year” and earned a “2024 Hot Brands” award by Shanken IMPACT, recognized for the #1 growth spirits brand sales performance worldwide from 2022-2024.
Before the start of Stateside Brands, Clement was CEO of Clement Pappas & Co., a leading national supplier of private brand juices. The company was founded in 1942 by his grandfather Clement, a hardworking U.S. immigrant who exemplified the American Dream. Growing up, the business played a central part in Clement's life, and he later worked in an executive capacity for the company for 15 years. Clement led the sale of the business to Lassonde Industries in 2011 and served as CEO until his exit in 2014. Before Clement Pappas & Co. he worked for Arthur Andersen Business Consulting in New York. Clement was also honored as Ernst & Young’s 2023 Regional Entrepreneur of the Year for his leadership with Stateside Brands.
Clement and his wife Lauren reside in Haddonfield, NJ with their two sons, Paul and Joseph. After tragically losing their premature son Peter in 2015, Clement and Lauren founded the Peter Joseph Pappas Fund with a mission to cure preeclampsia by 2050. Clement is a Henry Crown Fellow at the Aspen Institute, a member of the Young Presidents’ Organization, and has served on numerouscharitable and corporate boards. He earned his BSE from Duke University cum laude and MBA from The Wharton School, where he was designated a Palmer Scholar.
Before the start of Stateside Brands, Clement was CEO of Clement Pappas & Co., a leading national supplier of private brand juices. The company was founded in 1942 by his grandfather Clement, a hardworking U.S. immigrant who exemplified the American Dream. Growing up, the business played a central part in Clement's life, and he later worked in an executive capacity for the company for 15 years. Clement led the sale of the business to Lassonde Industries in 2011 and served as CEO until his exit in 2014. Before Clement Pappas & Co. he worked for Arthur Andersen Business Consulting in New York. Clement was also honored as Ernst & Young’s 2023 Regional Entrepreneur of the Year for his leadership with Stateside Brands.
Clement and his wife Lauren reside in Haddonfield, NJ with their two sons, Paul and Joseph. After tragically losing their premature son Peter in 2015, Clement and Lauren founded the Peter Joseph Pappas Fund with a mission to cure preeclampsia by 2050. Clement is a Henry Crown Fellow at the Aspen Institute, a member of the Young Presidents’ Organization, and has served on numerouscharitable and corporate boards. He earned his BSE from Duke University cum laude and MBA from The Wharton School, where he was designated a Palmer Scholar.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (00:00):
So I grew up in southern New Jersey, a little
rural town called Vineland, kind of halfway between Philly and
Atlantic City, and eventually went off to Duke University.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Great history of basketball. Tough loss for US this year,
but yeah, that's where I started.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
I know Duke reel Well used to live in Raleigh
for eight years, and I always tell people that while
they play in a real hole, it is a classic
place to watch a basketball game. And I was there
during the coach k years, his final years there, and
it's a great school. So I'm glad we have that
in common. Well, listen, we're obviously here to talk about
state side, but also all the amazing drinks that you
(00:42):
have coming up, vodka, sodas and teas and surf side,
and I know that's really big too, But I think
to give context everybody about starting a company, because the
origin story back in twenty thirteen with the family is incredible.
Really no experience whatsoever decided that maybe this is something
we would like to do. So can you share with
our listeners and myself the actual origin story about coming
(01:04):
up with the idea to do this.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Yeah, so I actually grew up in a family business,
which was a juice bottling company. So we used to
make store brand juices, like depending on what part of
the country you live in, maybe it's a Safe Way
or a Walmart or a Target, and we would make
the target brand Cranberry juice. And you know, long story there,
but third generation other family members were interested in selling
(01:26):
the company. But I always had a passion for the
beverage business. I never really wanted to leave. And so
after we sold that company and I exited at the
end of twenty thirteen, I met my now business partners,
Matt and Brian Quigley. And really Matt just had a
dream to start a business and very entrepreneurial, very creative,
(01:48):
and he taught himself to distill actually in his parents' basement,
of all places, he had moved back, and you know,
it was back in the area, and I guess any
part of it. He had all this crazy contraptions, like
a homemade still, and his dad came down. He hadn't
been to the gym in a while, which is kind
(02:08):
of funny, but he he had also been binging, breaking
bad and he thought he thought Matt was, you know,
cooking up drugs in the basement. So he summarily threw
all the equipment out and that's fantastic.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
That came from work. Get the hell out of my house.
What's going on here?
Speaker 4 (02:28):
Oh my goodness.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
But yeah, you know, Matt and Brian are great entrepreneurs
and they kind of had the idea and I had
some business experience, so we teamed up and we really
felt like we could start Stateside Vodka and really kind
of started as a as a regional brand in Philadelphia,
and if we could be successful there, then we could
look to expand it. And so, you know, things took
(02:50):
a lot of twists and turns along the way, but
it's been it's been a really fun ride.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
Okay, when we talk about the company, obviously there's a
lot of different products that you're very proud of with everybody,
and we could go through that where people can get them,
and and we'll get into the weeds on a few
things about the actual business and the competitiveness and and
differentiating yourself from the competition. But when it comes to
just the overall products, what do you offer?
Speaker 2 (03:14):
Yeah, so you know, our original flagship product is our
our state Side Vodka, you know, eighty proof, you know,
really high quality handcrafted vodka that that we make in Philadelphia,
and then you know, we got into the RTD business
and we started out with State Side vodka soda and uh.
Then you know, we thought we saw an opportunity for
(03:37):
you know, a different category which which really hadn't existed
in the past, which was a vodka based version of
tea and lemonade. And so we thought that was a
little different, So we called it Surfside, kind of a
play on State Side, but you know, obviously a more
beachy summary feeling. And so we we have a line
of Surf Side iced teas and lemonades with vodka.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
We have a full line of regularized.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
Teas, lemonades and then green teas as well as of
this year.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
Clem, I think there's something to be said for having experience.
And you talked about the family and the Cranberry business
and the juice that you had put together, and I'm
curious from what you learned back then to what you
apply to today's business model. And I imagine things have
changed dramatically, But can you give us a little insight
on your experience back then with the family and then
starting this new one.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
Yeah, you know, the good thing for me, I had
the benefit of having this family business, and you know,
I was really kind of looking at it as though
I would grow up in the business and then you know,
hopefully take take it over and then pass it along
to my kids.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
So I mean, that didn't exactly work out to plan.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
But the good thing is, you know, kind of being
in that position, I worked in a lot of different
parts of the company, and so you know, we had
a lab where we used to make up, you know,
new products and come up with new flavors. And in
the in the case of doing store brands, a lot
of times your copycast adding the national brands that are
out there. So I had a lot of experience in
(05:04):
the lab, had a lot of experience on the manufacturing side,
working in the in the factories and running the factories.
And then on the sales side, you know, selling to
a lot of the big chains, the Walmarts and targets
and costcos of the world, and so you know, a
lot of those things are applicable to you know, state
side brands, and what we do there, we're selling to
(05:24):
a lot of the same customers. You know, there's a
lot on the manufacturing side that's the same and I think,
you know, from the from the flavor and formulation perspective,
I actually think coming from a non alcoholic company has
given us a leg up over our competitors that are
traditionally you know, beer wine or spirits providers, because they
don't necessarily have that competency. Right, It's a different thing
(05:48):
to make a mixed soft drink type of beverage versus
you know, brewing a beer. Right, It's just a totally
different process. And so, you know, we really approached our
RTEs in particular, like, hey, let's that's the best version
of a regular iced team without vodka in it. And
then how do we just make it taste just as
good and not have all flavors and not you know,
(06:09):
have these fermented bitter notes and after tastes and everything.
And so I think, you know that part of it
is definitely give us some differentiation compared to our competition.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
Hey, clem, if you could do something for me, because
you said something that struck me. And it's advice that
I give my daughter, who's a budding filmmaker in Brooklyn
after graduating last year, and she wants to be a
DP and she's good at that, but in any movie
or TV set, you've got to work your way from
a pa and there's hundreds of jobs and what I've
told her, and you know, sometimes your kids listen, folks,
sometimes they don't. But my point is is that I
(06:41):
said do everything on the set that way.
Speaker 4 (06:43):
When you get the job that you want, you'll know what.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
Everybody's doing around you, and you'll be more centered and
you'll be clear about it and focused. And that's something
that I'd like you to articulate. We have a lot
of young future entrepreneurs that listen to the series, and
you talked about doing a lot of different jobs in
the company. Can you kind of expound on that, know
why that's a great idea before you start running or
coming up with a company.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Yeah, I mean, I think it's just unbelievable experience because
you'll never know as much no matter how much people
can tell you or talk to you or communicate to you,
you're never going to know it like you will if
you walk a mile in those shoes and you actually
did the job. And you know, you don't necessarily have
to do every job for you know, ten years or anything,
(07:24):
but you know, if you know you do the groundworking,
depending on the industry you're in, like my industry. Hey,
I mean I tested wastewater for a while. That was
my job one summer, right. It wasn't a glamorous job
going and collecting samples of industrial wastewater, but you know,
I learned all about that part. And then you know,
I learned about the lab and how do we make
(07:46):
new products? And you know, you retain that knowledge. And again,
there's just no substitute for experience in a lot of ways, right.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
It just you know, I.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
Could tell you what it's like to be a dad,
but it's different if you are a dad, right, And
kind of the same, The same principle applies to a
lot of these areas well.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
You had touched on it a little bit, and I
know you've got all the different products with the vodka,
the SODA's and the teas. And then we're gonna talk
a little bit more about surf side, how exciting that is,
especially on a national level here. But when it comes
to differentiating yourself from the competition, because without any assumptions,
I imagine it's a competitive space, how do you differentiate
yourself from the competition out there?
Speaker 2 (08:24):
We were kind of really first to market you know,
there's been a lot of what we call malt based
products for those that aren't in the industry that that
is sort of regulated and considered a beer, but you're
you're limited and you get a lot of advantages for
that from taxes and availability in different different channels, but
you're limited to having to use a brewing beer type
(08:44):
of process. So there's been teas and lemonades out there
for years in that malt category, but there really hadn't
been one, uh in the in the premium vodka based category.
And of course using vodka you can get to a
lot higher quality.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
Uh and if you're using a malt or a brewd
based process.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
So first of all, we were like the first one
in that, and then I think second of all, you know,
we wanted something that we would drink, and you know,
we're big iced tea drinkers in our area and lemonade drinkers,
but there really wasn't a product out there that we
wanted to drink.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
And some of it was flavor profile. We felt a
lot of the products.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
Out there were overly sweetened, frankly, too many sugars. I
could have maybe handled, you know, a can of tea
that has twenty five or thirty grams of sugar in it.
Maybe when I was when I was twenty one in college,
but you know now if I do that, I'd be
in a diabetic coma. So, you know, I just couldn't
go out and drink a lot of these products. They're
just too sugary, and they also have this kind of
(09:44):
multi taste. So you know, we really, as I mentioned
in the flavor portion, we really worked really hard to
create the best tasting tea we could, you know, and
also had it be something that we would actually drink,
have it taste good, but also have it hit that
calorie profile, that sugar profile, and frankly, you know, not
(10:05):
send us into a terrible hangover or give us a
headache the next day.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
And then I think the one other thing.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
Not necessarily unique to iced tea, but you know, within
the beverage alcohol space, there really aren't a lot of
non carbonated options. So having all that and then also
being able to deliver a non carbonated product that is
really sessionable and delicious, it's just something that really didn't.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
Exist in a big way prior to Surf Side outstanding.
Speaker 3 (10:32):
Well, if you could do this for me, I'd like
to have you explain your business plan when it comes
to putting out your product. And you've got some with
the vodka that's regional, and then you've got Serf Side,
which is national. Now, maybe circumstances that dictated that, but
I'd love to hear your story, along with the co
founder and your teammates about why some are regional and
(10:53):
you've gone national on others.
Speaker 4 (10:55):
Can you explain that for us?
Speaker 1 (10:57):
Sure?
Speaker 2 (10:59):
So, I think you know, if you think about we
started with full proof, you know, eighty proof bottles of vodka.
You know, huge market, highly competitive. If you walk into
any liquor store, you know, the vodka section will be
the biggest one. There's there's hundreds of brands out there,
highly mature, highly competitive, but a fair amount of turnover.
And so we felt like with with our State Side
(11:20):
vodka brand, you know, our first mission was to win
locally in our in our kind of backyard. But you
know that was a problem. That was a business plan
that we look at it as more slow and incremental.
It takes a long time to convert a vodka drinker.
If you talk to you know, quiz one of your friends,
you know what you like vodka what kind of and
(11:41):
people you'll find are very committed to their brand, so
it takes a long They say, oh, I'm a I'm
a Tito's man, or I'm a Grey Goos man or
you know, and they get mad if they don't get
their brand right, so it takes some time. Now we
have a product that we think is better, and it's
American and it's it's handmade, but it's it's super premium
igh quality. It's got really cool packaging if you've seen
(12:03):
described for the audio listeners. It's got the kind of
flip top used to be really associated with grow Spear.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
So there are great bottles.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
You can reuse them as water bottles or iced tea
bottles in your house. But again, you know, that is
more of a slow process where it takes time to
convert each individual consumer. You know, when we got into
Stateside vaka Soda, that took off really really well, but
at that point we only had a pretty small cluster
(12:34):
of distribution kind of you know, let's say Philadelphia to DC,
and so you know, we put it out pretty quickly
in a lot of those markets and it did well,
but a lot of people entered that space as that
category exploded, and we found when we started looking at
markets that were farther away, you know, we.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
Were a little late to the party.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
And you know, it might have been one thing if
we were already in national company, uh, and we already
had built out all of our distribution network and you know,
all of our relationships with big chain stores that carried
these products throughout the country.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
But we didn't have that, and so to.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
Show up the door to the door with a brand
or a product style that is already very saturated.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
Was going to be very difficult.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
And so one of the learnings from that, you know,
you know, state Sidebok and state Sideboca do extremely well
in our home market. When we had when we found
Surfside and that took off right away, we were kind
of an innovator and we were first to the category,
and so we looked around and said, hey, we got
to go fast. We don't want to be late to
(13:43):
the party again. So we totally changed our business model
and said, hey, we got to go out and in
our business you have to use distributors.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
It's just legally mandated. It's the law.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
I can't sell to Walmart or Target directly. It's legally
mandated in pretty much every state that I have to
sell to a distribut So we had to go around
and sign up almost two hundred distributors across the country
to cover the whole, you know, the whole footprint. And
we had to you know, start selling into the chain stores,
which in many states the way the regulations are, they're
(14:15):
the big you know, the big retailers.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
So we really took a different approach.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
Right with the state side, and the state side by
Unesota was like kind of like start locally and then
expand out slowly, whereas with surfside, we said, hey, now's
the opportunity. We got lightning in a bottle or a can,
as the case may be in this situation, but we
said we got to go get it now. So we
feel like we're racing to the finish line.
Speaker 3 (14:40):
With surf side, Well, can you do me a favor
and indulge me because a long time ago in my
business in radio and TV sports, when I was kind
of humming, hang about something, my boss just told me, hey, man,
just run a play and then we'll deal with it.
You guys, were you ran a play, didn't you. I mean,
you had a pivot and then you ran a play
very quickly, yep.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
And you know it takes some gumption, right, you know,
you put money on the line. You know, you go
out and your risk failure. But you know, we felt like, hey,
these kind of opportunities don't come around that often, and
you know, a little a little bit of luck, hopefully
a lot of hard work that led to that luck,
and we made some right decisions, but we really felt like, hey,
(15:22):
we were onto a hit here, and you know, opportunity
is not a lengthy visitor, and like you said, you
got to just take that play and run with it.
And you know we'll make some errors along the way,
but we'll fix them. And you know the worst thing
we could do is sit still and not capitalize on
this opportunity.
Speaker 4 (15:40):
Well, I think that's good advice.
Speaker 3 (15:41):
And I also think too, because I've heard a lot
in this series of co founders and leaders of companies
clem about their intuition and running that play. And sometimes
you just have that feeling in business, so you just
have to take a chance, and that's kind of what
it's all about. If you could do me a favor,
I'd love a little behind the scenes, especially for your
national brand when it comes to you talked about distributors,
(16:01):
but to get into these big stores, you know, marketing
and price point, and of course you know, the taste
of your product.
Speaker 4 (16:07):
There's so many things that go into it.
Speaker 3 (16:09):
But when it comes to getting into all these chains
in different stores, what's the process and what does it
look like from behind the scenes.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
For us, there's some variation obviously, but a lot of
them are pretty you know, standard playbook that they run,
and so, you know, typically they start having meetings with
suppliers and distributors, you know at a at a wal
Mart or a big now you know, pick your name, Kroger, Safeway,
and they'll start taking meetings late summer early fall. They'll
(16:38):
start looking at their current assortment and thinking about what's working,
what's not working. They'll even look between categories and say, well,
you know, I used to have so much space in
this category, but it's not selling, so I'm going to
shrink that space and give it to a growing category.
So they'll take a look kind of holistically at the shelf,
meet with suppliers, hear what's new, and then you typically
(17:00):
get an answer towards the end.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
Of the year, at the beginning of the new year,
and then.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
They have what we call in the business spring resets,
so you know this time of year we're just finishing
up actually resetting what's on the shelf, and so you know,
we have to go in and you know, the hard
part is a new supplier is you don't have an
existing relationship where you know, a lot of the companies
that they're doing business with are you know, big companies
(17:24):
that you've heard of right Anheuser Busch and Diageo and
you know Most and Cores and you know, big companies
like this that you know already have regular meetings and
are already on the books and already have lots of
items and working relationship. You know, for us, sometimes it's
hard for us to even get you know, buyers to
answer our calls or return our emails or find our
(17:44):
way to the front door.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
And so you know we had to you know, hire.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
The right people and beg, borrow and steal and you know,
find our way to get in there. And I think,
you know, eventually, we just had to build up enough momentum,
you know, with our sales data and our track record
that that the buyers you know, started to believe in
a couple of them. You know, you get a couple
of them to take some chances on you, and then
you build the momentum off of that, build up your
track record. Then you bring the track record to the
(18:10):
more skeptical one and say, hey, look what we did.
You know, you guys are missing out and your competitors,
you know, getting these sales, and you know, you keep
building on it from there, but in the beginning it
can be it can be really hard to get you know,
from zero to one. You know that that first part
is kind of the hardest part.
Speaker 3 (18:27):
Yeah, and you know the other thing, Clem, I was
just thinking that, you know, whenever you have a widget
and you're trying to sell it, you can have great packaging,
great marketing. They can either taste good or look good
or it feels good, but unless you're talking to the
right person, it's not going anywhere to your point, right, right, yeah, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
And these buyers, you know, everybody's got to got a dream, right,
so you have to find a way to cut through
the noise because in their defense, you know, they're getting
inbound stuff constantly. Everybody wants to sell them a product,
and everybody's got an idea for a new drink, and
you know, so there's there's always you know, I'm sure
they get a deluge of emails and phone calls every
(19:05):
week and it's like, Okay, great, another another dreamer here
with their you know, with their pipe dream, and you
know you've got to find a way to break through that.
Speaker 3 (19:14):
You do, do me a favor and indulge me for
a second, because in this series, once again, we have
a lot of leaders that listen and a lot of
future entrepreneurs and people that are going to run a
company someday. And I love to talk about leadership, and
I think this is great coming from you because you're
dealing with so many people, so many distributors, so many
working parts. A lot of great communication has to come
under I'm sure it's since trial by fire. Just about
(19:36):
every day, something crazy going on. But when it comes
to leadership and what you do specifically in your journey
and with your team, Clem, what's leadership looking sound like?
Speaker 4 (19:45):
To you?
Speaker 1 (19:45):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (19:45):
I think you know, starts with having the right company culture.
And I'm really proud of the culture we have. And
you know, a company is nothing without the right people,
and so you know, we really I try to set
a tone of a great sports team. You know, we
talked about sports a bit on this podcast, but you know,
you think about what it takes to win a super Bowl, right,
(20:08):
and of course I'm from Philly, so we're we like
to talk about the super Bowl.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
At least this year.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
But you know, you got to have great a players
at every position, and you know, you want players that
are team players. We have what we call a NOE
a whole policy. I'll be politically correct for the for
the podcast, but you know, we got to have team players.
They've got to be competitive people that get results, but
(20:32):
you know they you know, they have to work with
each other as well. So you know that's why we
have that zero tolerance policy piece of it. But I think,
you know, I'm really proud of the culture we created.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
I always, you.
Speaker 2 (20:44):
Know, I want it to be the funnest place anyone's
ever worked, including myself. And if it's not, we're doing
something wrong. I mean, you know, we're selling vodka, you know, vodka,
tea drinks. It's it's uh, you know, if you're not
having fun doing this, what are you having fun doing?
So we try to really keep that balance of hey,
you can come to work and be yourself and have fun.
But you know, we're also competitive and we're trying to
(21:06):
win championships. So you know, that's you know that that's
really the biggest thing that I focus on.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
And then you know, of course from a business.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
Side, there's a lot of a lot of pieces to
the puzzle, but you know, the big rocks that you
obviously have to keep your eyes on. You know, I
always have a phrase, sales, sales cere is everything right.
So you know, sales is really important to stay close to.
That's an area that I spend a lot of time
on and and of course, you know, with with our business,
(21:35):
we have these distributors, so they're an important part, uh
a critical part.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
Of getting sales done.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
And so having that right relationship with the distributor and
then making sure we're doing the right job on the
street level as well as with the national accounts is huge.
So that that's an area I spend a lot of
my time on. And you know, I think we've been
really fortunate to hire some excellent, excellent folks that have
on a great job, you know, handling our support you know,
(22:03):
part of the business right so HR supply chain, legal finance,
and you know it's it's kind of like the chain
is as strong as its weakest link.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
Right.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
You may be doing a great job with sales and
marketing and everything else, but you know, if your finances
are out of whack, game over.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
Right, And the same thing with supply chain. Right, if
we don't deliver product, it's game over. So you know,
those are kind of the big rocks that I focus on.
Speaker 3 (22:30):
Well, I appreciate you sharing and all that, and I
know it's not going to surprise you, but a common
theme in this series is culture, but also your team
members and the team that you work with, making sure
there's a good work life balance and having a great product.
Speaker 4 (22:41):
And having some fun. So I'm glad that we talked
about that.
Speaker 3 (22:44):
I did want to put a pin and work unless
it affects work as well too, And about philanthropic and
charity work, whether it's with a company or with your family.
Speaker 4 (22:52):
What do you like to be a part of.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
Yeah, so we you know, sort of a sad story,
but you know one that one that certainly touched our
you know, my life and my wife, Lauren's wife and
our family very deeply. We lost our first child, you know,
essentially he was born prematurely due to a thing called
help syndrome, which is a version of a syndrome called
(23:15):
pre aclamsia that my wife had, which forced an emergency
c section at twenty nine weeks. And so you know,
that was obviously, you know, a really significant event in
our lives, and we really try to take that and say, hey,
what can we do to turn this tragedy into something positive?
And so we started we started a fund that we
(23:38):
work with foundation called the Preclamsia Foundation, and within that
we started a fund called the Peter Joseph Pappas Fund,
And our goal was really to cure pre aclamsia by
the year twenty fifty so that you know, no one
will go through what we had to go through.
Speaker 1 (23:53):
And you know, a lot of a lot of.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
Research that we fund really trying to better understand, diagnose,
and all cure this disease.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
And so we've made a lot of progress.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
We've funded a lot of research that would not have
otherwise gotten done if we weren't out fundraising and working
with a pretty clamcy foundation to find the best researchers
and the best projects out there. So thank you for
asking something that's really important to me and my family.
Speaker 3 (24:21):
Well I could see why, Clement from a parent. I'm
sorry for your loss, but I'm always in awe of
parents and people that have such a tragedy that can
move forward and turned something that's just horrific into something
where it's helping thousands of other families and people out there.
So I commend you and your wife and your family
for doing that, and thank you for sharing something so
personal that means a lot. I did want to kind
of finish up with some final thoughts from you. I
(24:44):
know you've got some great things happening. Not only you're
a sustainable company, but the growth has been incredible, especially
with Surfside.
Speaker 4 (24:51):
Just get some.
Speaker 3 (24:51):
Final thoughts from you about all that you offer and
all the great listeners out there that maybe haven't had
a chance to sample some of your products and see
where things are for the future.
Speaker 4 (25:00):
So serve. The floor is yours.
Speaker 2 (25:02):
Yeah, no thanks, listen. If you haven't tried surf Side,
please run out and try it. Like I said, we're
in you know, most of the major retailers throughout the
country and you won't be disappointed.
Speaker 1 (25:13):
It's just, you know, an alternative to beer.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
I would say you know it's it's kind of the
same alcohol percentage that comes in a can.
Speaker 1 (25:20):
It's easy to throw it in the cooler.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
Take it to the beach, take it on the golf course,
and it's non carbonated.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
It won't blow you.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
And I'll tell you once you once you go surfside,
it's hard to go back.
Speaker 4 (25:32):
I like that.
Speaker 3 (25:33):
That's a good sales pitch and clem without embarrassing you
and your team. You've got a great website. It's actually
very beautiful. It's easy to navigate. What's the website for
everybody so they can check out all of the drinks
out there and also the history, your story and everything else.
Speaker 2 (25:46):
Okay, so you can find our surfside website at www
Dot drinksurfside dot com. I would highly suggest also to
look us up on Instagram at the handle is at
Drink surf Side and then Stateside Vodka Sodas and Stateside
Vodka you'll find at www Dot Statesidevodka dot com and
(26:07):
again on Instagram at Drink Stateside Outstanding.
Speaker 4 (26:11):
Hey Clym, thank you so much, continue success.
Speaker 3 (26:13):
Give my best to everybody at the team, and we
really appreciate you joining us and featuring you on cels.
Speaker 4 (26:17):
You should know.
Speaker 1 (26:18):
Thanks Dennis, appreciate you having me
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (00:00):
So I grew up in southern New Jersey, a little
rural town called Vineland, kind of halfway between Philly and
Atlantic City, and eventually went off to Duke University.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Great history of basketball. Tough loss for US this year,
but yeah, that's where I started.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
I know Duke reel Well used to live in Raleigh
for eight years, and I always tell people that while
they play in a real hole, it is a classic
place to watch a basketball game. And I was there
during the coach k years, his final years there, and
it's a great school. So I'm glad we have that
in common. Well, listen, we're obviously here to talk about
state side, but also all the amazing drinks that you
(00:42):
have coming up, vodka, sodas and teas and surf side,
and I know that's really big too, But I think
to give context everybody about starting a company, because the
origin story back in twenty thirteen with the family is incredible.
Really no experience whatsoever decided that maybe this is something
we would like to do. So can you share with
our listeners and myself the actual origin story about coming
(01:04):
up with the idea to do this.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Yeah, so I actually grew up in a family business,
which was a juice bottling company. So we used to
make store brand juices, like depending on what part of
the country you live in, maybe it's a Safe Way
or a Walmart or a Target, and we would make
the target brand Cranberry juice. And you know, long story there,
but third generation other family members were interested in selling
(01:26):
the company. But I always had a passion for the
beverage business. I never really wanted to leave. And so
after we sold that company and I exited at the
end of twenty thirteen, I met my now business partners,
Matt and Brian Quigley. And really Matt just had a
dream to start a business and very entrepreneurial, very creative,
(01:48):
and he taught himself to distill actually in his parents' basement,
of all places, he had moved back, and you know,
it was back in the area, and I guess any
part of it. He had all this crazy contraptions, like
a homemade still, and his dad came down. He hadn't
been to the gym in a while, which is kind
(02:08):
of funny, but he he had also been binging, breaking
bad and he thought he thought Matt was, you know,
cooking up drugs in the basement. So he summarily threw
all the equipment out and that's fantastic.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
That came from work. Get the hell out of my house.
What's going on here?
Speaker 4 (02:28):
Oh my goodness.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
But yeah, you know, Matt and Brian are great entrepreneurs
and they kind of had the idea and I had
some business experience, so we teamed up and we really
felt like we could start Stateside Vodka and really kind
of started as a as a regional brand in Philadelphia,
and if we could be successful there, then we could
look to expand it. And so, you know, things took
(02:50):
a lot of twists and turns along the way, but
it's been it's been a really fun ride.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
Okay, when we talk about the company, obviously there's a
lot of different products that you're very proud of with everybody,
and we could go through that where people can get them,
and and we'll get into the weeds on a few
things about the actual business and the competitiveness and and
differentiating yourself from the competition. But when it comes to
just the overall products, what do you offer?
Speaker 2 (03:14):
Yeah, so you know, our original flagship product is our
our state Side Vodka, you know, eighty proof, you know,
really high quality handcrafted vodka that that we make in Philadelphia,
and then you know, we got into the RTD business
and we started out with State Side vodka soda and uh.
Then you know, we thought we saw an opportunity for
(03:37):
you know, a different category which which really hadn't existed
in the past, which was a vodka based version of
tea and lemonade. And so we thought that was a
little different, So we called it Surfside, kind of a
play on State Side, but you know, obviously a more
beachy summary feeling. And so we we have a line
of Surf Side iced teas and lemonades with vodka.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
We have a full line of regularized.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
Teas, lemonades and then green teas as well as of
this year.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
Clem, I think there's something to be said for having experience.
And you talked about the family and the Cranberry business
and the juice that you had put together, and I'm
curious from what you learned back then to what you
apply to today's business model. And I imagine things have
changed dramatically, But can you give us a little insight
on your experience back then with the family and then
starting this new one.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
Yeah, you know, the good thing for me, I had
the benefit of having this family business, and you know,
I was really kind of looking at it as though
I would grow up in the business and then you know,
hopefully take take it over and then pass it along
to my kids.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
So I mean, that didn't exactly work out to plan.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
But the good thing is, you know, kind of being
in that position, I worked in a lot of different
parts of the company, and so you know, we had
a lab where we used to make up, you know,
new products and come up with new flavors. And in
the in the case of doing store brands, a lot
of times your copycast adding the national brands that are
out there. So I had a lot of experience in
(05:04):
the lab, had a lot of experience on the manufacturing side,
working in the in the factories and running the factories.
And then on the sales side, you know, selling to
a lot of the big chains, the Walmarts and targets
and costcos of the world, and so you know, a
lot of those things are applicable to you know, state
side brands, and what we do there, we're selling to
(05:24):
a lot of the same customers. You know, there's a
lot on the manufacturing side that's the same and I think,
you know, from the from the flavor and formulation perspective,
I actually think coming from a non alcoholic company has
given us a leg up over our competitors that are
traditionally you know, beer wine or spirits providers, because they
don't necessarily have that competency. Right, It's a different thing
(05:48):
to make a mixed soft drink type of beverage versus
you know, brewing a beer. Right, It's just a totally
different process. And so, you know, we really approached our
RTEs in particular, like, hey, let's that's the best version
of a regular iced team without vodka in it. And
then how do we just make it taste just as
good and not have all flavors and not you know,
(06:09):
have these fermented bitter notes and after tastes and everything.
And so I think, you know that part of it
is definitely give us some differentiation compared to our competition.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
Hey, clem, if you could do something for me, because
you said something that struck me. And it's advice that
I give my daughter, who's a budding filmmaker in Brooklyn
after graduating last year, and she wants to be a
DP and she's good at that, but in any movie
or TV set, you've got to work your way from
a pa and there's hundreds of jobs and what I've
told her, and you know, sometimes your kids listen, folks,
sometimes they don't. But my point is is that I
(06:41):
said do everything on the set that way.
Speaker 4 (06:43):
When you get the job that you want, you'll know what.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
Everybody's doing around you, and you'll be more centered and
you'll be clear about it and focused. And that's something
that I'd like you to articulate. We have a lot
of young future entrepreneurs that listen to the series, and
you talked about doing a lot of different jobs in
the company. Can you kind of expound on that, know
why that's a great idea before you start running or
coming up with a company.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Yeah, I mean, I think it's just unbelievable experience because
you'll never know as much no matter how much people
can tell you or talk to you or communicate to you,
you're never going to know it like you will if
you walk a mile in those shoes and you actually
did the job. And you know, you don't necessarily have
to do every job for you know, ten years or anything,
(07:24):
but you know, if you know you do the groundworking,
depending on the industry you're in, like my industry. Hey,
I mean I tested wastewater for a while. That was
my job one summer, right. It wasn't a glamorous job
going and collecting samples of industrial wastewater, but you know,
I learned all about that part. And then you know,
I learned about the lab and how do we make
(07:46):
new products? And you know, you retain that knowledge. And again,
there's just no substitute for experience in a lot of ways, right.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
It just you know, I.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
Could tell you what it's like to be a dad,
but it's different if you are a dad, right, And
kind of the same, The same principle applies to a
lot of these areas well.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
You had touched on it a little bit, and I
know you've got all the different products with the vodka,
the SODA's and the teas. And then we're gonna talk
a little bit more about surf side, how exciting that is,
especially on a national level here. But when it comes
to differentiating yourself from the competition, because without any assumptions,
I imagine it's a competitive space, how do you differentiate
yourself from the competition out there?
Speaker 2 (08:24):
We were kind of really first to market you know,
there's been a lot of what we call malt based
products for those that aren't in the industry that that
is sort of regulated and considered a beer, but you're
you're limited and you get a lot of advantages for
that from taxes and availability in different different channels, but
you're limited to having to use a brewing beer type
(08:44):
of process. So there's been teas and lemonades out there
for years in that malt category, but there really hadn't
been one, uh in the in the premium vodka based category.
And of course using vodka you can get to a
lot higher quality.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
Uh and if you're using a malt or a brewd
based process.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
So first of all, we were like the first one
in that, and then I think second of all, you know,
we wanted something that we would drink, and you know,
we're big iced tea drinkers in our area and lemonade drinkers,
but there really wasn't a product out there that we
wanted to drink.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
And some of it was flavor profile. We felt a
lot of the products.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
Out there were overly sweetened, frankly, too many sugars. I
could have maybe handled, you know, a can of tea
that has twenty five or thirty grams of sugar in it.
Maybe when I was when I was twenty one in college,
but you know now if I do that, I'd be
in a diabetic coma. So, you know, I just couldn't
go out and drink a lot of these products. They're
just too sugary, and they also have this kind of
(09:44):
multi taste. So you know, we really, as I mentioned
in the flavor portion, we really worked really hard to
create the best tasting tea we could, you know, and
also had it be something that we would actually drink,
have it taste good, but also have it hit that
calorie profile, that sugar profile, and frankly, you know, not
(10:05):
send us into a terrible hangover or give us a
headache the next day.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
And then I think the one other thing.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
Not necessarily unique to iced tea, but you know, within
the beverage alcohol space, there really aren't a lot of
non carbonated options. So having all that and then also
being able to deliver a non carbonated product that is
really sessionable and delicious, it's just something that really didn't.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
Exist in a big way prior to Surf Side outstanding.
Speaker 3 (10:32):
Well, if you could do this for me, I'd like
to have you explain your business plan when it comes
to putting out your product. And you've got some with
the vodka that's regional, and then you've got Serf Side,
which is national. Now, maybe circumstances that dictated that, but
I'd love to hear your story, along with the co
founder and your teammates about why some are regional and
(10:53):
you've gone national on others.
Speaker 4 (10:55):
Can you explain that for us?
Speaker 1 (10:57):
Sure?
Speaker 2 (10:59):
So, I think you know, if you think about we
started with full proof, you know, eighty proof bottles of vodka.
You know, huge market, highly competitive. If you walk into
any liquor store, you know, the vodka section will be
the biggest one. There's there's hundreds of brands out there,
highly mature, highly competitive, but a fair amount of turnover.
And so we felt like with with our State Side
(11:20):
vodka brand, you know, our first mission was to win
locally in our in our kind of backyard. But you
know that was a problem. That was a business plan
that we look at it as more slow and incremental.
It takes a long time to convert a vodka drinker.
If you talk to you know, quiz one of your friends,
you know what you like vodka what kind of and
(11:41):
people you'll find are very committed to their brand, so
it takes a long They say, oh, I'm a I'm
a Tito's man, or I'm a Grey Goos man or
you know, and they get mad if they don't get
their brand right, so it takes some time. Now we
have a product that we think is better, and it's
American and it's it's handmade, but it's it's super premium
igh quality. It's got really cool packaging if you've seen
(12:03):
described for the audio listeners. It's got the kind of
flip top used to be really associated with grow Spear.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
So there are great bottles.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
You can reuse them as water bottles or iced tea
bottles in your house. But again, you know, that is
more of a slow process where it takes time to
convert each individual consumer. You know, when we got into
Stateside vaka Soda, that took off really really well, but
at that point we only had a pretty small cluster
(12:34):
of distribution kind of you know, let's say Philadelphia to DC,
and so you know, we put it out pretty quickly
in a lot of those markets and it did well,
but a lot of people entered that space as that
category exploded, and we found when we started looking at
markets that were farther away, you know, we.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
Were a little late to the party.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
And you know, it might have been one thing if
we were already in national company, uh, and we already
had built out all of our distribution network and you know,
all of our relationships with big chain stores that carried
these products throughout the country.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
But we didn't have that, and so to.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
Show up the door to the door with a brand
or a product style that is already very saturated.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
Was going to be very difficult.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
And so one of the learnings from that, you know,
you know, state Sidebok and state Sideboca do extremely well
in our home market. When we had when we found
Surfside and that took off right away, we were kind
of an innovator and we were first to the category,
and so we looked around and said, hey, we got
to go fast. We don't want to be late to
(13:43):
the party again. So we totally changed our business model
and said, hey, we got to go out and in
our business you have to use distributors.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
It's just legally mandated. It's the law.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
I can't sell to Walmart or Target directly. It's legally
mandated in pretty much every state that I have to
sell to a distribut So we had to go around
and sign up almost two hundred distributors across the country
to cover the whole, you know, the whole footprint. And
we had to you know, start selling into the chain stores,
which in many states the way the regulations are, they're
(14:15):
the big you know, the big retailers.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
So we really took a different approach.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
Right with the state side, and the state side by
Unesota was like kind of like start locally and then
expand out slowly, whereas with surfside, we said, hey, now's
the opportunity. We got lightning in a bottle or a can,
as the case may be in this situation, but we
said we got to go get it now. So we
feel like we're racing to the finish line.
Speaker 3 (14:40):
With surf side, Well, can you do me a favor
and indulge me because a long time ago in my
business in radio and TV sports, when I was kind
of humming, hang about something, my boss just told me, hey, man,
just run a play and then we'll deal with it.
You guys, were you ran a play, didn't you. I mean,
you had a pivot and then you ran a play
very quickly, yep.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
And you know it takes some gumption, right, you know,
you put money on the line. You know, you go
out and your risk failure. But you know, we felt like, hey,
these kind of opportunities don't come around that often, and
you know, a little a little bit of luck, hopefully
a lot of hard work that led to that luck,
and we made some right decisions, but we really felt like, hey,
(15:22):
we were onto a hit here, and you know, opportunity
is not a lengthy visitor, and like you said, you
got to just take that play and run with it.
And you know we'll make some errors along the way,
but we'll fix them. And you know the worst thing
we could do is sit still and not capitalize on
this opportunity.
Speaker 4 (15:40):
Well, I think that's good advice.
Speaker 3 (15:41):
And I also think too, because I've heard a lot
in this series of co founders and leaders of companies
clem about their intuition and running that play. And sometimes
you just have that feeling in business, so you just
have to take a chance, and that's kind of what
it's all about. If you could do me a favor,
I'd love a little behind the scenes, especially for your
national brand when it comes to you talked about distributors,
(16:01):
but to get into these big stores, you know, marketing
and price point, and of course you know, the taste
of your product.
Speaker 4 (16:07):
There's so many things that go into it.
Speaker 3 (16:09):
But when it comes to getting into all these chains
in different stores, what's the process and what does it
look like from behind the scenes.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
For us, there's some variation obviously, but a lot of
them are pretty you know, standard playbook that they run,
and so, you know, typically they start having meetings with
suppliers and distributors, you know at a at a wal
Mart or a big now you know, pick your name, Kroger, Safeway,
and they'll start taking meetings late summer early fall. They'll
(16:38):
start looking at their current assortment and thinking about what's working,
what's not working. They'll even look between categories and say, well,
you know, I used to have so much space in
this category, but it's not selling, so I'm going to
shrink that space and give it to a growing category.
So they'll take a look kind of holistically at the shelf,
meet with suppliers, hear what's new, and then you typically
(17:00):
get an answer towards the end.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
Of the year, at the beginning of the new year,
and then.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
They have what we call in the business spring resets,
so you know this time of year we're just finishing
up actually resetting what's on the shelf, and so you know,
we have to go in and you know, the hard
part is a new supplier is you don't have an
existing relationship where you know, a lot of the companies
that they're doing business with are you know, big companies
(17:24):
that you've heard of right Anheuser Busch and Diageo and
you know Most and Cores and you know, big companies
like this that you know already have regular meetings and
are already on the books and already have lots of
items and working relationship. You know, for us, sometimes it's
hard for us to even get you know, buyers to
answer our calls or return our emails or find our
(17:44):
way to the front door.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
And so you know we had to you know, hire.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
The right people and beg, borrow and steal and you know,
find our way to get in there. And I think,
you know, eventually, we just had to build up enough momentum,
you know, with our sales data and our track record
that that the buyers you know, started to believe in
a couple of them. You know, you get a couple
of them to take some chances on you, and then
you build the momentum off of that, build up your
track record. Then you bring the track record to the
(18:10):
more skeptical one and say, hey, look what we did.
You know, you guys are missing out and your competitors,
you know, getting these sales, and you know, you keep
building on it from there, but in the beginning it
can be it can be really hard to get you know,
from zero to one. You know that that first part
is kind of the hardest part.
Speaker 3 (18:27):
Yeah, and you know the other thing, Clem, I was
just thinking that, you know, whenever you have a widget
and you're trying to sell it, you can have great packaging,
great marketing. They can either taste good or look good
or it feels good, but unless you're talking to the
right person, it's not going anywhere to your point, right, right, yeah, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
And these buyers, you know, everybody's got to got a dream, right,
so you have to find a way to cut through
the noise because in their defense, you know, they're getting
inbound stuff constantly. Everybody wants to sell them a product,
and everybody's got an idea for a new drink, and
you know, so there's there's always you know, I'm sure
they get a deluge of emails and phone calls every
(19:05):
week and it's like, Okay, great, another another dreamer here
with their you know, with their pipe dream, and you
know you've got to find a way to break through that.
Speaker 3 (19:14):
You do, do me a favor and indulge me for
a second, because in this series, once again, we have
a lot of leaders that listen and a lot of
future entrepreneurs and people that are going to run a
company someday. And I love to talk about leadership, and
I think this is great coming from you because you're
dealing with so many people, so many distributors, so many
working parts. A lot of great communication has to come
under I'm sure it's since trial by fire. Just about
(19:36):
every day, something crazy going on. But when it comes
to leadership and what you do specifically in your journey
and with your team, Clem, what's leadership looking sound like?
Speaker 4 (19:45):
To you?
Speaker 1 (19:45):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (19:45):
I think you know, starts with having the right company culture.
And I'm really proud of the culture we have. And
you know, a company is nothing without the right people,
and so you know, we really I try to set
a tone of a great sports team. You know, we
talked about sports a bit on this podcast, but you know,
you think about what it takes to win a super Bowl, right,
(20:08):
and of course I'm from Philly, so we're we like
to talk about the super Bowl.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
At least this year.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
But you know, you got to have great a players
at every position, and you know, you want players that
are team players. We have what we call a NOE
a whole policy. I'll be politically correct for the for
the podcast, but you know, we got to have team players.
They've got to be competitive people that get results, but
(20:32):
you know they you know, they have to work with
each other as well. So you know that's why we
have that zero tolerance policy piece of it. But I think,
you know, I'm really proud of the culture we created.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
I always, you.
Speaker 2 (20:44):
Know, I want it to be the funnest place anyone's
ever worked, including myself. And if it's not, we're doing
something wrong. I mean, you know, we're selling vodka, you know, vodka,
tea drinks. It's it's uh, you know, if you're not
having fun doing this, what are you having fun doing?
So we try to really keep that balance of hey,
you can come to work and be yourself and have fun.
But you know, we're also competitive and we're trying to
(21:06):
win championships. So you know, that's you know that that's
really the biggest thing that I focus on.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
And then you know, of course from a business.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
Side, there's a lot of a lot of pieces to
the puzzle, but you know, the big rocks that you
obviously have to keep your eyes on. You know, I
always have a phrase, sales, sales cere is everything right.
So you know, sales is really important to stay close to.
That's an area that I spend a lot of time
on and and of course, you know, with with our business,
(21:35):
we have these distributors, so they're an important part, uh
a critical part.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
Of getting sales done.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
And so having that right relationship with the distributor and
then making sure we're doing the right job on the
street level as well as with the national accounts is huge.
So that that's an area I spend a lot of
my time on. And you know, I think we've been
really fortunate to hire some excellent, excellent folks that have
on a great job, you know, handling our support you know,
(22:03):
part of the business right so HR supply chain, legal finance,
and you know it's it's kind of like the chain
is as strong as its weakest link.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
Right.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
You may be doing a great job with sales and
marketing and everything else, but you know, if your finances
are out of whack, game over.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
Right, And the same thing with supply chain. Right, if
we don't deliver product, it's game over. So you know,
those are kind of the big rocks that I focus on.
Speaker 3 (22:30):
Well, I appreciate you sharing and all that, and I
know it's not going to surprise you, but a common
theme in this series is culture, but also your team
members and the team that you work with, making sure
there's a good work life balance and having a great product.
Speaker 4 (22:41):
And having some fun. So I'm glad that we talked
about that.
Speaker 3 (22:44):
I did want to put a pin and work unless
it affects work as well too, And about philanthropic and
charity work, whether it's with a company or with your family.
Speaker 4 (22:52):
What do you like to be a part of.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
Yeah, so we you know, sort of a sad story,
but you know one that one that certainly touched our
you know, my life and my wife, Lauren's wife and
our family very deeply. We lost our first child, you know,
essentially he was born prematurely due to a thing called
help syndrome, which is a version of a syndrome called
(23:15):
pre aclamsia that my wife had, which forced an emergency
c section at twenty nine weeks. And so you know,
that was obviously, you know, a really significant event in
our lives, and we really try to take that and say, hey,
what can we do to turn this tragedy into something positive?
And so we started we started a fund that we
(23:38):
work with foundation called the Preclamsia Foundation, and within that
we started a fund called the Peter Joseph Pappas Fund,
And our goal was really to cure pre aclamsia by
the year twenty fifty so that you know, no one
will go through what we had to go through.
Speaker 1 (23:53):
And you know, a lot of a lot of.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
Research that we fund really trying to better understand, diagnose,
and all cure this disease.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
And so we've made a lot of progress.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
We've funded a lot of research that would not have
otherwise gotten done if we weren't out fundraising and working
with a pretty clamcy foundation to find the best researchers
and the best projects out there. So thank you for
asking something that's really important to me and my family.
Speaker 3 (24:21):
Well I could see why, Clement from a parent. I'm
sorry for your loss, but I'm always in awe of
parents and people that have such a tragedy that can
move forward and turned something that's just horrific into something
where it's helping thousands of other families and people out there.
So I commend you and your wife and your family
for doing that, and thank you for sharing something so
personal that means a lot. I did want to kind
of finish up with some final thoughts from you. I
(24:44):
know you've got some great things happening. Not only you're
a sustainable company, but the growth has been incredible, especially
with Surfside.
Speaker 4 (24:51):
Just get some.
Speaker 3 (24:51):
Final thoughts from you about all that you offer and
all the great listeners out there that maybe haven't had
a chance to sample some of your products and see
where things are for the future.
Speaker 4 (25:00):
So serve. The floor is yours.
Speaker 2 (25:02):
Yeah, no thanks, listen. If you haven't tried surf Side,
please run out and try it. Like I said, we're
in you know, most of the major retailers throughout the
country and you won't be disappointed.
Speaker 1 (25:13):
It's just, you know, an alternative to beer.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
I would say you know it's it's kind of the
same alcohol percentage that comes in a can.
Speaker 1 (25:20):
It's easy to throw it in the cooler.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
Take it to the beach, take it on the golf course,
and it's non carbonated.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
It won't blow you.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
And I'll tell you once you once you go surfside,
it's hard to go back.
Speaker 4 (25:32):
I like that.
Speaker 3 (25:33):
That's a good sales pitch and clem without embarrassing you
and your team. You've got a great website. It's actually
very beautiful. It's easy to navigate. What's the website for
everybody so they can check out all of the drinks
out there and also the history, your story and everything else.
Speaker 2 (25:46):
Okay, so you can find our surfside website at www
Dot drinksurfside dot com. I would highly suggest also to
look us up on Instagram at the handle is at
Drink surf Side and then Stateside Vodka Sodas and Stateside
Vodka you'll find at www Dot Statesidevodka dot com and
(26:07):
again on Instagram at Drink Stateside Outstanding.
Speaker 4 (26:11):
Hey Clym, thank you so much, continue success.
Speaker 3 (26:13):
Give my best to everybody at the team, and we
really appreciate you joining us and featuring you on cels.
Speaker 4 (26:17):
You should know.
Speaker 1 (26:18):
Thanks Dennis, appreciate you having me
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