May 27, 2025 • 47 mins
Come along with us as we explore sampling as a marketing strategy. Host Jimmy Moreland and MHW’s Brigid McCabe welcome Flaviar SVP of Strategic Partnerships Josh Jacobs to talk about how brands can capitalize on this oft-underutilized customer touchpoint. Josh also talks details about Flaviar’s acquisition of Speakeasy, which he cofounded.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
Welcome to the MHW Mark podcast, where we take deep
dives into various aspects ofthe alcohol industry.
My name is Jimmy Moreland.
Mhw is a US and EU beveragealcohol importer, distributor
and service provider.
Today we have an excellentdiscussion lined up for you.
We'll be talking about someinteresting approaches that
brands can add to theirmarketing and distribution
(00:27):
strategies, and we take anunexpected but fruitful detour
into acquisitions, and it sortof echoes the three-part series
we did on M&A back in Octoberand November of last year, but
with some detailed specifics butwith some detailed specifics.
Now.
Normally, you'd hear my MHWco-host with me during this
introduction, but the team hasbeen extra busy with a full
(00:50):
events calendar.
Hopefully they got to take abit of a breather this Memorial
Day weekend and I hope you didtoo, dear listener.
Mhw's Bridget McCabe will jointhe discussion, which we may as
well get started.
All right.
Our guest today was theco-founder and CEO of the
e-commerce and fulfillmentplatform, speakeasy, which was
recently acquired by Flaviar,where he is now senior vice
(01:13):
president of strategicpartnerships.
Welcome to the show, joshJacobs.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Thanks for having me, Jimmy, and Bridget Welcome Josh
.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
It's great to have you here.
Thanks for making the time.
Can you tell us a little bitabout Speakeasy, about Flaviar,
about yourself, how this allcame to be and why you're here
on the podcast today?
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Absolutely Well, jimmy.
In today's crowded market,consumers are overwhelmed and
brands are fighting to stand out.
Flaviar solves this with aunique funnel that turns
discovery into a revenue driver,converting curiosity into
premium spirit sales.
Across our multi-channelplatform, we generate and very
few people actually know thisover $100 million in alcohol
(01:54):
sales alongside over 500 brandpartners that we have, from
global leaders like Diageo,pernod, ricard, constellation,
to the most innovative emergingcraft brands, and this is all
powered by six interconnectedgrowth lovers that I'll quickly
hit on.
The first is marketplaceexposure.
We have four marketplacesFlaviar, wine Searcher, kaskers
(02:18):
and Mash Grape that connectbrands with over 65 million
premium spirit shoppers annually.
So really enormous ecosystemdelivering unmatched visibility
across key discovery touchpoints through a single
partnership, all under theFlavio umbrella.
Second piece sampling anddiscovery.
This is what Flavio was reallymost known for and the program
(02:43):
that got the company off theground in 2012.
And we've ultimately sold overor shipped over three and a half
million tasting vials since ourinception.
We've turned product discoveryinto a powerful sales engine
through this, and what's evolvedto become our flagship is our
advent calendar, our whiskeyadvent calendar.
Last year, we shipped 888,000samples through that program
(03:07):
alone and completely sold out.
So this is about placing ourbrand partner spirits directly
in the hands of high intent,curious consumers.
It's a proven way to sparkbrand love and drive full bottle
sales.
The third pillar that I wantedto hit on is memberships and
subscription depletions.
We have Flaviar Black, which isthe Amazon prime of spirits,
(03:30):
offering members free shipping,special pricing and early access
to exclusive allocation drops.
It's a powerful way to keepbrands in front of tens of
thousands of highly engagedconsumers within the Flaviar
community.
On the subscription side so themembership side you pay an
annual fee and then you getaccess to certain things that
you have to buy into.
(03:51):
With a subscription, youactually get bottle or liquid
directly and we can guaranteelarge-scale repletions.
Right now we're currentlyoffering up to 4,000 bottles for
our Bourbon of the Month Cluband we place this again directly
in the hands of high intentspirit enthusiasts.
It's a turnkey way to drivetrial and what's great about our
(04:12):
subscription program iscurrently this is focused on
full-size 750 ml bottles.
So we're driving trial but alsodepletions.
The next pillar is brandede-commerce and fulfillment what
we call Flavio Checkout, andthis is what Speakeasy folds
into on the white label side,and our checkout solution powers
(04:33):
direct sales from the brandwebsites in a three-tier
compliant fashion and is trustedby over 500 brands alone with
this one offering and we havethe industry first hybrid model
offering both flexiblefulfillment through managed
warehouses and also thetraditional network of retailer
fulfillment, all optimized toour brand partners goals.
(04:55):
The fifth pillar I wanted to hiton is data and insights, really
powered by WineSearcher, whichgives us real-time visibility
into almost 37,000 globalretailers, and every single day
we're pulling productavailability and price points so
we're able to tap into productand demographic trends and
(05:17):
really understand consumerbehavior across such a big
ecosystem.
And then the last piece is ourmarketplace amplification.
So top partners are seeingseven-figure sales annually in
campaigns across the Flaviarecosystem, leveraging placements
, sponsored content, emailsampling something we call hubs
(05:38):
that we can talk more about andit's all about being front and
center with our community.
Campaigns start in thefour-figure range and really
scale from there into the highhundreds of thousands, and it's
about giving our brand partnersa flexible, high-impact way to
amplify visibility whereconsumers are already existing
(05:59):
rather than having to find themthemselves.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
That's a great overview, josh.
It's a really, reallymultifaceted and integrated
system and I think you guysreally own the market on data in
terms of all of these differentfacets.
So many MHW clients utilizedSpeakeasy, many utilized Flaviar
.
Can you talk a little bit abouthow Flaviar and Speakeasy
(06:21):
really complement each other, aswell as possibly even some of
these others that you mentioned,like Wine Searcher, from a data
perspective, and how has thisacquisition immediately
benefited your clients?
Speaker 2 (06:32):
Great question, bridget.
The motivations underlying themerger were really three main
dimensions.
The first is from a fulfillmentperspective.
Speakeasy, we were winningbrands because of our warehouses
, our managed fulfillment andsome of those unique
capabilities which I'm surewe'll delve deeper into.
(06:52):
And then Flaviar and otherplatforms would occasionally
beat us on some opportunities,specifically on the white label
side, what we now call FlaviarCheckout.
Because of the network ofretailers and to bring all of
this together, the industry'sfirst hybrid model as I hit on
in the opening segment all underone roof, has proven to be
(07:12):
extraordinarily valuable.
And this isn't just offeringindependent solutions.
This is creating one fusedsolution whereby SKU we can
determine whether or not hey,this is a widely available
product, let's get it to theconsumer as fast as possible
with the least expensiveshipping option.
Versus.
(07:33):
This is a merchandise bundlewhere liquor stores.
They lack the warehousingcapacity, the trained personnel
and the infrastructure tosupport that.
Ultimately, let's have thatfunnel through the warehouses so
we can optimize the best routeto market.
Not just let's have that funnelthrough the warehouses so we
can optimize the best route tomarket, not just by brand but by
SKU, which is proving to beexceptionally powerful and thus
(07:54):
far, the amount of existingbrand partners that are opting
to leverage.
That has been really, reallyhigh, and then, as we're talking
to new potential partners, thishas been a major differentiator
for Flaviar.
The second motivation behind themerger was the fact that
Flaviar grew up as adirect-to-consumer company with
(08:15):
the sampling program and thenacquired Kaskers and started
building up the marketplace andthen started offering all these
different memberships andsubscriptions.
And then started offering allthese different memberships and
subscriptions, but as theycontinued, as we continued to
grow our consumer base, all of asudden there was a really
appealing opportunity for brandsto tap into it, and thus a B2B
(08:37):
side of the business was born.
But building that from scratchand not having the
infrastructure takes time.
There's a lot of learningsthere.
On the flip side, speakeasy wedidn't have a marketplace.
We didn't have our owndirect-to-consumer business.
Everything we did was what wecall B2B, as in Speakeasy, was
supporting other brands.
You could really think of it asB2B2C.
(08:58):
We were helping other brandsget to the consumer, so our
entire business was modeledaround supporting brands, and so
we were able to come in and bethis part of the Flaviar
business that is not just afulfillment engine, but an
entire team, with accountmanagers, with marketing
(09:18):
services and other aspects ofthe business that Flaviar didn't
have or that we could bolster.
And so all of a sudden, now wecan take advantage and this is
the third piece of it of theentire Flaviar flywheel and
offer this to brand partners ina way that we couldn't
necessarily before, since wedidn't have the full team
(09:40):
supporting it.
And your other question Bridgetaround some of the other
acquisitions.
So Flaviar, I mentioned,acquired Kaskers and then, most
recently, wine Searcher andBarcar, and this is really about
creating the most diverseecosystem where we have an
(10:00):
offering for brands of everysingle shape, size and stage
which is really exciting andreally powerful.
And a lot of people, as we weretalking about at the beginning,
don't necessarily havevisibility into the diversity of
the Flaviar ecosystem and wetend to blow brands' minds when
we get into all these differentpieces, and the toughest thing
(10:22):
is not whether or not they wantto work with us, it's where do I
get started.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
Right, there's so many options and there's a fit
for every single brand out there.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
It's amazing, this success story, that it's quite
the journey from co-foundingSpeakeasy to an acquisition that
took place, I think, inSeptember is when it was
official.
Can you tell us, can you walkus through, I don't know, maybe
a peek behind the curtain, atjust the psychology personally
yourself, josh Jacobs, of whatit was like for a lot of people?
(10:51):
That's it.
They exit and they personallyexit.
They're out.
Thank you, cash the check, butyou know you have chosen to stay
on and take on this new role.
How has your day-to-day changed?
How has your, you know,personal involvement with the
operations of your company andyour sort of your career?
(11:11):
How has that changed?
Speaker 2 (11:33):
Absolutely, Jimmy.
So for me personally, as youmight imagine, to then scaling
the team from zero employees to45 employees, to just having
that be part of my identity.
The name Speakeasy andSpeakeasy sure people refer to
it, but now it theoreticallyfolds into Flaviar Checkout.
So the business doesn't reallyexist.
(11:53):
It's really been incorporatedand fused into Flaviar.
So you can't necessarily tellwhat was Flaviar, what was
speakeasy, and that was part ofwhat was so alluring about the
merger to begin with.
But that required some grievingand some mourning and that's
not necessarily a bad thing.
But that's just a chapter of mylife that I had to take the
(12:16):
time to sit with and acknowledgethat there was going to be a
really big change.
But on the very positive side,this was actually a mostly stock
transaction and that's becausewe saw so much potential to
continue scaling the speakeasyside of the business, but as
part of Flaviar, and also toturbocharge the existing Flaviar
(12:40):
business.
So I'm as committed as I everwas before, but of course in a
slightly different role, I willsay as an entrepreneur.
Your role is always in flux andyou're always growing and
evolving as an individual and aleader.
But over the last six, sevenmonths, however long it's been
since the merger was announced,since the acquisition was
(13:03):
announced, that has beenaccelerated and the amount of
flux has increased significantly, as you could imagine, but at a
very high level.
My role has remained quitesimilar, where I continue to
focus on all things externalBrands, wholesale partners like
this, media relations, investorrelations.
So at a very high level, I'mfulfilling a similar role, but,
(13:27):
of course, there are some bigchanges and what's really
exciting for me, since I'm nolonger the CEO, I have a lot
more time to spend with brands,which is what really gets me out
of bed in the morning and alsothat's where I can have the most
value as a leader in theorganization.
Speaker 3 (13:45):
Absolutely, and I just have to say we are so proud
of you over at MHW.
I mean, if any brand listeninghas ever been at any trade show,
any webinar, podcast, I meanJosh has really been in the mix
and is super involved on thefront lines with brands and I
think that goes a long waybecause you can experience sort
of what they're experiencing andobviously, with today's
(14:08):
competitive market, I meanthere's a lot of edge that
brands need from thatperspective.
So to have Josh so plugged inwith everything that really all
three tiers are doing within thebeverage alcohol system, it was
really cool and we were all soproud of you to see that
acquisition.
And I think it's reallyexciting for us to see you, you
know, taking the, the largerFlaviar brand, to the next level
(14:31):
and being able to seamlesslyintegrate all these different
parts of the business and andcreate an offering for brands
that can really help them.
Obviously, you know MHW we're aservice model, so we don't do
the hands-on field, sales andmarketing for brands.
So brands like yours are reallyimportant for us because that's
what helps everybody win at theend of the day.
(14:52):
So just wanted to mention that,that we're really proud of you
and before we kind of pivot hereinto the next conversation
about sampling and merchandisingand all the things, Josh, can I
ask?
Speaker 1 (15:03):
you know we did on this podcast God, about a year
ago.
We did a multi-part series onmergers and acquisitions and I
understand if there are thingsthat you cannot get into, but
I'm curious about that process,like, how long did that process
take?
Did you actively shop aroundfor someone to acquire you?
Did you you know?
(15:24):
What kind of legal orconsultant type assistance did
you contract with to helpfacilitate these kinds of things
?
Can you just give us maybe whatyou can share in a nutshell?
Speaker 2 (15:37):
Absolutely Happy to.
And first I want to just say,bridget really appreciate those
kind words.
It warms my heart.
It's comments like those thatreally help me take a moment,
take a breath and feel proud ineverything we've accomplished.
Everyone, no matter who theyare, they're so busy and it's
(15:57):
very easy to just get caught upin the flow of life and not stop
and smell the roses.
So thank you for sharing that,bridget.
That truly means a lot to me,and I also want to take a moment
to recognize MHW as a reallyintegral partner, not just
cheering from the sidelines, butactually we've been deep
partners since the very earlydays.
(16:18):
Mhw was one of the firstorganizations to really buy into
the idea and trust the visionthat we were building at
Speakeasy, so I'll always hold aspecial place in my heart for
MHW.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
Thank you so much for that.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
Yeah, of course.
And Jimmy, awesome question onthe merger.
Happy to share.
I would say this is probablysomething that isn't talked
about enough.
Just because mergers andacquisitions a lot of times are
pretty hush hush in terms ofthem coming together and then
everyone's focused on thebusiness models, but not
(16:51):
necessarily what led to thatmoment.
I'm happy to share as much as Ipossibly can.
The first person I want to callout is Mark Levitt.
He was our investment banker.
Without Mark we would haveundoubtedly not gotten this deal
over the finish line, and Ialways tell this story because
it's such a stark memory for me.
(17:12):
In one of the firstconversations with Mark he said
buckle up, just know, everysingle deal will die at least
three times before it gets overthe finish line.
And I kind of just laughed itoff.
I didn't understand what itmeant at that time.
Oh, my goodness, was he right.
This was a full test of our gritand determination and, at the
(17:37):
end of the day, mergers thatcome to fruition only do because
there is enormous motivation onboth sides.
Otherwise they would fall apartbecause our deal died at least
three times.
And as an investment banker, Ithink you feed off of that type
of energy and rush, but, as anentrepreneur, when all your eggs
(17:59):
are in one basket and you'vebeen focused for months on
bringing something together andyou don't see a path forwards,
it's extremely disheartening andI'm sure I lost several years
of my life through the process.
But it was definitely a greatprocess of learning.
Just not sure I want to gothrough it again.
(18:20):
And the last thing that I wantto mention is whether or not we
shopped around, and the answeris yes.
So Flaviar is really this underthe radar giant.
Even myself, being as plugged inas you possibly could be into
e-commerce, Bev Alk, I wasn'tfully aware of the depth and
(18:44):
breadth of the Flaviar business,and so we had conversations
with every single player andwe're considering a transaction
from every angle whether thatwas us acquiring, of course,
being acquired, looking atmergers and we initially
approached Flaviar with theconcept of a strategic
(19:06):
partnership, where we kepthearing that marketplaces were
really suffering because offulfillment and that was a core
competency for our business.
So we said, wow, we really cancome together in a unique way.
So we started talking with themarketplaces and Flaviar was the
first one to say you know what?
We probably are too much ofcompetitors for us to be
(19:30):
strategic partners.
We've built this muscle ofacquiring businesses.
What do you think?
And initially we said nope,absolutely not.
We're having an absolute blast.
We're on a tear.
Why would we mess with that?
And Fred, who is the CFO andCOO of Flaviar and who comes
from the M&A world, he saidlet's just spend a couple of
(19:52):
weeks together, let's give me afew hours, let's put it on paper
and go from there.
And so we put it on paper.
I was happy to do that becauseI just instantly developed
rapport with Fred and when weput it on paper after those
couple of weeks, it wasimmediately clear that being
(20:13):
acquired by Flaviar was theright business move.
So my head got there first, butit took a while for me to warm
up to.
That idea of actually giving upthe keys was my initial thought.
No longer am I going to be incontrol of Speakeasy.
But flying to Slovenia, wherethe two co-founders are from and
where the real headquarters ofthe business is, and spending
(20:35):
time with Fred and the otherleaders, especially ones that
had been previously acquired, Irealized it's not about giving
the keys of the business.
It's about expanding the braintrust where it was.
My co-founder, Michael Bowen,and I running Speakeasy.
And now all of a sudden we'regoing to expand that with a
bunch of high-poweredentrepreneurs who have a crazy
(20:57):
successful track record.
And all of a sudden we realizedand that was the turning point
that it was about workingtogether with a very exciting
team.
And we realized at that pointall right, we got to get this
deal done.
And then it took almost anotheryear from that point in time,
so it was about almost almost a18 month process from soup to
(21:21):
nuts.
So it takes a while and, as Imentioned before, you have to be
fully in it, Otherwise it's notgoing to materialize.
Speaker 3 (21:29):
I love that.
We took that deep dive, though,because it is so interesting
and I was curious about it too.
How can brands, whether they'renew or experienced, utilize
Flaviar in their marketingstrategy?
If they have a digitalmarketing strategy, how can they
pivot it to include andoptimize utilizing Flaviar?
Speaker 2 (21:48):
Something that was always a challenge at Speakeasy
was that we had one mainoffering and we really only
catered to a very narrowspectrum of brands.
But what's been so energizingbeing part of Flaviar I
mentioned this before is we canconfidently go into a
(22:09):
conversation knowing that wehave something to offer that
brand, something for brands ofall shapes, sizes and stages.
And the way that we typicallyapproach it is we try to
understand what is that brand'sbudget or, even better, what is
that brand's goals, and then,given the breadth of
opportunities and solutions andofferings that we have at our
(22:32):
disposal, we typically like tocraft bespoke proposals for each
brand.
In general, we recommend havinga consistent presence and
really thinking about all thedifferent offerings throughout
and across the funnel, fromdiscovery to sampling to
conversion, and it's really funto not just over and over again
(22:55):
pitch speakeasy which was reallyfun but to go into a
conversation and be much moreconsultative, learn about what
that brand is focused on, whatare those 10 pull moments, and
then we can pull from a bunch ofdifferent products that we have
up our sleeve to thenultimately help amplify that
(23:16):
brand and help them hit theirgoals.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
You mentioned up top a whiskey advent calendar.
Holiday season prior to lastyear, I believe, I got one of
your whiskey advent calendars asa gift from my partner.
So I want to say thank you forthat first of all, and I'm just
curious about how a brand getsto be in one of those little
(23:38):
windows that opens up.
You know, is it something thatthey pitch themselves to you?
Do you?
Is there someone who's like thelead sort of tasting or product
designer who curates theselection according to X, Y, Z?
How does that work?
I'm just interested.
Speaker 2 (23:53):
Yeah, I love that you've experienced the Whiskey
Advent Calendar yourself.
It is such a cool product, sucha cool experience, an amazing
gift, and a lot happens behindthe scenes to pull this together
.
We used to joke at Speakeasythat there were two seasons.
It was OND and preparing forOND, and with the Advent
(24:14):
calendar I think it's just oneseason.
We're always working on theAdvent calendar, whether we're
trying to bring up brands,whether we're working on the
production, the design.
Every single year has a reallysignificant change and there's a
ton of focus into the backstoryand all of the unboxing
experience and the videos thatgo with it.
(24:35):
So it's a massive, massiveproject and curation is
certainly part of that.
So we work with our productteam and Grisha in particular,
one of the co-founders, who'sheavily involved this was really
his brain baby and we worktogether on, for example, last
(24:55):
year was Hotel Flaviar and wewere really focused on having
certain types of products incertain regions covered in the
hotel.
But one way to sum it up is weare looking to cover a bunch of
different countries, a bunch ofdifferent types of whiskeys and
bourbons, and we've even startedflirting with the idea of going
(25:19):
to adjacent whiskey.
Of course, the vast majoritywill be whiskey, but what are
some other products?
At the end of the day,consumers are looking to Flaviar
, to be the tastemakers and tokeep the finger on the pulse of
what's cutting edge and not justhave very mainstream brands
that they might be familiar with.
(25:40):
So we spend a lot of time andenergy into the individual
products and then, from a brandperspective, it is an amazing
opportunity.
So last year we sold 37,000advent calendars and, based on
our surveying, maybe up to 50%of consumers are sharing their
(26:02):
samples.
So 37,500 purchased them.
Maybe 50% more had also sampledit.
So 50,000 plus samples lastyear.
You can't really name a singleopportunity in the industry
where in one swoop, you're gonnaput your brand in the homes of
50,000 people.
So brands are clamoring to getinside of the advent calendar.
(26:27):
Such an amazing opportunity,not just for sampling.
But we do very much focus onthe conversion to selling
full-size bottles as well, andso we have all this gamification
and all this interaction andengagement with our consumers to
continuously promote those 24brands, and part of it is
(26:50):
in-person experiences.
Other part of it is traditionalPR and digital marketing.
I mentioned videos that weworked with.
So it's this whole experienceand this whole world really that
we've built around the AdventCalendar it's this whole
experience in this whole world,really, that we've built around
the advent calendar.
Speaker 1 (27:05):
I will give you one point of data that you converted
two full-size bottle sales outof that advent calendar.
There were two that we justjust knocked our socks off, that
we'd never heard of the brandsbefore and we were just like,
yep, those are the ones let'slet's buy two 750s out of out of
those.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
So it works music to our ears, ears, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
I'll take my check after we can.
Speaker 2 (27:27):
Okay, I love it.
I love it.
And we've seen so much successwith the Whiskey Advent Calendar
that last year, under the winesearcher name, we rolled out our
inaugural wine advent, andthere's something up our sleeve
for later this year.
That is another new categorythat we'll be introducing, so
(27:51):
keep an eye on that.
Something cool is on its way inan emerging category that's
really on fire.
Okay.
Speaker 3 (28:00):
Well, excellent.
What is your advice that youwould give to brands to optimize
their sampling strategy viadigital methods?
Speaker 2 (28:06):
So one thing to comment on is we have the advent
calendars, of course, but thenwhat we have is what we call
small format as well tastingboxes we have curated which a
brand can be part of a box withother brands, and this is
usually three or five 50 mlvials.
(28:26):
We also offer custom tastingboxes where a brand can solely
feature their own skews.
For example, if an agave brand,a tequila brand wanted to have
a Blanco, a Repo and an Anejoand no other brands, we can work
on that as well and we havethese for sale not just during
(28:47):
the holiday season but yearround.
We have these curated andcustom tasting boxes.
So there's always samplingopportunities and we recommend
thinking about not just theadvent calendars, the Big Bang,
but also some of these othersampling opportunities.
But it's important to bethinking about a holistic
strategy beyond just sampling.
(29:09):
We've already talked about aspart and built into our own
sampling efforts.
At Flaviar.
We're focused on sellingfull-size bottles, but what we
really see is their synergisticeffect.
When our brand partners are inan advent calendar, they might
be in a small format tasting box, they're advertising on our
hubs, they're in oursubscription as well.
(29:30):
When we see brands just focuson one of these verticals,
there's certainly success andit's worthwhile.
But when we see two or three orfour, the amplification of this
is really, really exciting.
Two or three or four, theamplification of this is really,
really exciting.
And that's when we start seeingbrands completely take off and
start separating from the restof the pack.
Sort of an extra wide funnel, Isuppose, to convert from more
(29:52):
sources, exactly, and there'salways that marketing adage that
it takes seven touches with aconsumer to convert them.
And so if we can get yourproduct in their hands and they
sample it, well, not everyone isgoing to be like Jimmy, you and
your partner and they go onlineand they take that immediate
action.
(30:12):
Some people might forget aboutit, even though they really
loved it in the back of theirmind, and then all of a sudden
they see a different ad orengagement or activation on
Flaviar and that reminds themand they ultimately purchase it.
Then and there Maybe they evenforgotten about what they had,
but in the back of their mindthey're drawn to that product
(30:33):
because they had actually tastedit previously.
So that's where we start seeingsome of the synergistic effects
.
Speaker 3 (30:39):
That's great, and I'm thinking a little bit about
like the data side of things,because even with Speakeasy,
that was always such a strongpoint and now with WineSearcher
and all of these integrated thecapability for brands to have
multiple touches.
Is there anything that youoffer in terms of like industry
report or purchasing data?
(31:00):
Or, I'm a little bit curious interms of like the data side of
things, what can brands ungateand get access to?
Speaker 2 (31:07):
Yeah, I always.
One of the first observations Ihad as a BevAlc entrepreneur,
coming from a data backgroundand a data science background,
was how brands are forced toessentially scale in the dark
with no first party data and noaccess directly to the consumer.
And my mind was blown andthat's ultimately what gave
(31:29):
birth to the idea for Speakeasy.
But with Speakeasy we've reallytried to silo our partners'
data and they own theirindividual customers.
But we always knew there was anopportunity that we could
aggregate the data, that wecould look at it in different
ways, but we never ultimatelygot a product off the ground.
(31:50):
Fortunately, flaviar has alreadyinvested in their data program
and we have such greatvisibility through Weinsters we
talked a little bit aboutearlier in the episode 37,000
retailers that we crawl everysingle day, and through these
37,000 retailers we're lookingat product availability and
(32:15):
price points, and so for a brandto understand where they're
carried, where they're notcarried, where their competitors
are carried and how theirproducts are being priced is
really really valuable data.
And what makes wine searcherdata especially unique is it's a
different slice of the market.
Nielsen, for example, isheavily focused on major chains,
(32:39):
wheresearcher is predominantlyfocused on independent retailers
.
So it's a very differentperspective, and what's also
very neat about WineSearcher iswe are much more approachable in
terms of pricing, and thatenables partners to go more
granular A lot of times withother data sellers, people,
(33:04):
early emerging brands.
They want to pay the leastamount possible, so they get
very high level data where, aspart of our offering off the
shelf, you can drill down notjust by country or state, but
get all the way down to the town, to the individual merchant,
and understand what's going onat each of those individual
(33:26):
levels.
So that's really reallypowerful.
And what that doesn'tnecessarily have is the actual
conversions.
But that's where the Flaviarmarketplace comes into play.
Flaviar Caster, the Flaviarecosystem comes into place,
since we actually have theconversion data as well, and so
we have all these differentunique data points that we can
(33:48):
look at to pull together to tellthat full story.
Speaker 3 (33:51):
How can brands stand out from the pack in terms of
merchandising to increase sales?
Speaker 2 (33:56):
Yeah, I'd really bifurcate this and think about
how to activate the marketplace,how to drive sales through the
brand's website, and what we'reseeing is that these can have a
great effect in conjunctionrather than just focusing on one
or the other and starting onthe marketplace side.
It's not about reaching out andensuring, yeah, your product is
(34:20):
being carried.
Yes, you want to check that box, but there are thousands, tens
of thousands.
Or, in the case of WineSearcher, we have about a million SKUs
on WineSearcher, so thelikelihood that someone's just
going to stumble upon yourproduct is not necessarily very
high.
Brands need to be thinkingabout an advertising and
(34:41):
marketing, sponsorship andstrategy with the marketplace
that they work with.
So we really encourage brands.
Yes, reach out, make sure wecarry your products.
But let's also have aconversation about advertising
to ensure consumers actually seeyour product, because if it's
on page 27 on a search, thelikelihood that a consumer gets
(35:03):
there is not very high.
And then, on the white labelside, we have a hypothesis that
consumers are going to go tobrand websites.
Yes, maybe for convenience, butwe really think Instacart and
Uber Eats really themarketplaces own the convenience
space.
We believe that consumers aregoing to go to a brand's website
(35:24):
to access something unique, andaccessing something unique can
be the bottle itself, somethingpremium, craft, hard to find.
But the other piece of this isthinking beyond the bottle
custom packaging, merchandise,cocktail kits, engraving.
What we're seeing is this majormindset shift with our top
(35:44):
partners from being spiritbrands, from being bevel
companies, to being lifestylebrands that sell alcohol, and
with the high cost of shipping,selling merchandise is a great
way to bring in some extramargin, offset that shipping
cost, to juice up that averageorder value.
And the other thing is to thinkabout is all this great AI and
(36:07):
upsell checkout technology, atool called Rebuy, for example,
we typically recommend ourpartners leverage.
If you only have three SKUs andthey're all $50 bottles, the
likelihood of someone checkingout and deciding last second.
They want an extra $50 bottle,not necessarily high, but if you
have a $30 t-shirt or a $20 hator a $20 maple syrup in the
(36:30):
case of Whistlepig that theyhave from their farm in Vermont
glassware, all these uniquethings, that is something that a
consumer is far more likely toadd and you can create bundles.
And what we're seeing is thevast majority of dollars still
flowing through the platform,through the brand websites, is
still the alcohol, but asignificant percent up to 50% of
(36:53):
orders with our top partnersinclude products beyond the
bottle.
Speaker 1 (36:57):
What else can brands do or what can they offer in
terms of, you know, the samplingstrategy that we've talked
about, or collaborations?
What other sort of advice orthings can brands do?
Speaker 2 (37:09):
Yeah, we've talked a lot about the marketplace, so
diving a little bit deeper andspending an extra second on the
white label side collaborationsis absolutely something that
we've seen be extremelysuccessful.
An example would be Whistlepigand Traeger Grills.
Everyone wants to partner withthe alcohol industry.
Don't blame them.
We're cool, we're fun, we'redifferent and, as an alcohol
(37:31):
brand, if you can lean on anexisting brand outside of the
industry that has already builta customer base and has their
own email distribution list andyou can tap into that, that can
be really really valuable where,all of a sudden, overnight, you
can drive thousands, tens ofthousands, hundreds of thousands
or millions of new potentialbuyers to your brand and to your
(37:55):
website.
And so we've seen a lot of verycool unique offerings with
celebrities, with other brands.
There's a lot of different waysto play this.
A couple other strategies thatwe've seen be successful.
One spirits clubs.
So Westward Whiskey is one inparticular that I'd want to call
out that they've really been achampion where every single
(38:16):
quarter set it and forget it.
You receive a bottle of someinnovative experimental skew,
and what you also have theopportunity to do, since that
bottle is already being shipped,is to add some of the evergreen
bottles as well.
So it's not just drivingdepletions of this experimental
SKU, but also of the core SKUsas well.
(38:36):
What we're also seeing is areal big focus on barrels over
the last 18 months, and there'stwo different flavors of barrels
.
One is doing single barrelpicks Frey Ranch I'd want to
specifically highlight as achampion, where they focused on
filling the top of the funnel.
They have an enormous CRM, anenormous database, and what they
(39:01):
do is they'll, every month ortwo they'll pick a new barrel
and their fans are justsalivating waiting for the next
barrel to drop.
And the recent barrel they justsold out in 18 minutes entire
barrel boom, 18 minutes, justlike that.
The other approach is sellingentire barrels and, yes, for
(39:22):
years brands have been focusedon selling entire barrels to
accounts, but we're enablingthat direct to consumer as well
and, to be candid, I was prettydubious on the potential of
individual buyers buying anentire barrel.
But between whiskey clubsaggregating together to buy a
barrel, whether it is a weddinglooking for gifts, if it's
(39:46):
corporate gifting or acharitable organization, we are
seeing that there is asignificant thirst for buying
entire barrels and we have oneof our top partners who, since
launch has sold close to 100barrels, and these go 15, 20
grand a pop.
And then we have anotherpartner who's focused on very
(40:07):
premium, high-end barrels.
They sold a $590,000 barrel.
Yep, you heard me right$590,000.
There was a handler, so wedon't actually know who the
buyer was, and we had to buildthis secure special website.
And then their whiskey cavewasn't finished with
construction, so we had to holdon to the barrel for a little
bit longer until the whiskeycave was complete.
(40:29):
But they've sold over a milliondollars of barrels since
launching their program now.
Speaker 1 (40:35):
Forgive me if this is a dumb question, but it's a
very funny picture in my head,I'm sure.
I'm sure, when you sell abarrel, what you're meaning is
that okay, you've bought thebarrel and now they're going to
bottle it all for you inindividual bottles that maybe
have a cool like oh, this isbottle number X of Y of this
(40:55):
particular barrel.
But in my brain I'm tickled bythe idea of a customer taking
delivery of a barrel.
I'm tickled by the idea of acustomer taking delivery of a
barrel.
Speaker 2 (41:05):
Is that an option?
I wish, jimmy, but forcompliance reasons the liquid
has to be in the barrel.
But to make you happy, we dosend the empty barrel with the
bottles.
Are consumers then pouring itback in?
I don't know.
Are they keeping that as akeepsake?
We're not sure what necessarilyconsumers are doing with it,
but we think it's super cool.
(41:25):
Yeah, a pallet shows up withall the bottles and then that
empty barrel sitting on top.
Speaker 1 (41:30):
And the barrel's there too.
Yeah, such a cool experience.
That's cool.
That's cool.
I want the—if I bought thebarrel.
Speaker 2 (41:34):
I want the barrel too .
Speaker 1 (41:36):
Yeah, I want the liquid.
That's cool.
So we've been talking sort ofbroadly.
You have mentioned a couple ofspecific brands that have these
cool ideas no-transcript.
Speaker 2 (41:48):
We work with, as we've talked about 500 different
brands Diageo, pernod, moetHennessy, constellation, remy,
cointreau, and then lots of funexciting craft brands with Frey
Ranch, westward Whiskey, we workwith Westland so many different
players, whistlepig, and what Ido want to highlight are it's
(42:13):
just some data, because a lot oftimes brands will approach me
hey, josh, yeah, there's somereally cool projects that you've
shared, but at the end of theday, is it driving depletions?
Are we moving bottles?
That's the most important thing.
And last year, on themarketplace side of our business
, our top supplier investednearly a million dollars with us
(42:36):
on just the marketplace side ofthe business and, of course,
they drove into the millions interms of total bottle sales.
So really, really, you candrive a lot of volume on the
marketplace side without eventhinking about your own white
label website, marketplace side,without even thinking about
your own white label website.
On the white label website,there is really an opportunity
(42:56):
to drive sustainable growth andscale.
And to give you a sense, ourtop partner, a single brand last
year, a single brand supplierlast year, eclipsed over 5
million in sales on the platform.
Truly, truly incredible.
And then the fun success storythat we always like to share the
feather in our cap is TeslaTequila over $10 million sold on
(43:19):
the platform of those lightningbolt shaped bottles.
So yes, ecom BevAlk is amaterial sales channel and it's
one of the bright spots and onlygrowing segments of the
industry in the current climate.
Only growing segments of theindustry in the current climate.
Speaker 1 (43:36):
All right, we'll jump into our final fun question
that we like to ask everybody,and that is what is your
favorite adult beverage?
Speaker 2 (43:43):
If you want to make my day at the bar, jimmy,
introduce me to a new SivinMescal.
I prefer Mescal Neat and I'malways exploring new brands and
agave strands, but I would sayTobala is typically a winner for
me.
Speaker 1 (43:59):
And you just take it neat.
Speaker 2 (44:00):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (44:07):
All right, that's such a common answer nowadays,
and I think I've just beenburned too many times.
A tequila or mezcal sherpa,someone who can guide me through
the valley of the shadow ofdeath that is tequila for me,
anyway and can explain to mewhat I'm looking for, what I'm
trying to notice as I'm tasting,rather than just bad memories.
Speaker 2 (44:24):
Yeah, I fall in that bad memory bucket and I think so
many of us had that badexperience one night in college
and I was really turned off fromtequila for many years because
tequila for me was plasticbottle tequila Not that there's
anything wrong with that, butwhen you drink too much of it at
(44:45):
a young age it just has anegative effect.
And ultimately it was mezcalthat really brought me back into
the agave world.
And it was because it was sodifferent at least the first
mezcals that I was introduced to.
It was so different thantequila that my brain wasn't
thinking about tequilawhatsoever.
(45:06):
And then as I tried and thefirst mezcals that I tried were
espadins, they're very, verysmoky, but there are mezcals
that are not very smoky.
Yes, they have some elements ofsmoke, but on the spectrum it
is very wide.
And once I started enjoyingsome not very smoky mezcals, I
said hey, it's time to make theleap and try tequila.
(45:28):
And when I started tryingtequila for the first time in
many years, I quickly fell inlove with it as well.
So I really enjoy tequila atthis point I can point you to
some of our partners to try andultimately Mezcal stole my
preference, but I do enjoy both.
Speaker 1 (45:48):
Very good.
I will say I have a little bitof a barrier to entry as far as
acquiring things locally herebecause I live in Maine and not
a lot of tequila drinkinghappening up here in Maine.
But thankfully we've gotsomeone like you providing some
lovely e-commerce options forpeople like me.
So thanks for that.
Speaker 2 (46:05):
Gotta get through the winter somehow.
Speaker 1 (46:10):
Well, josh Jacobs, thank you so much for coming by
the podcast and sharing yourknowledge with us For listeners
who want to follow up, find outmore, maybe even try to get
their whiskey brand involved inan advent calendar or something
like that.
You can check out Flaviar.
We will put links in the shownotes so that you can do some
follow-up and some researchthere.
(46:30):
Josh, thanks for stopping by.
Speaker 2 (46:32):
Jamie Bridget.
Thank you so much for having meand anyone listening.
Feel free to reach out to medirectly, josh at flaviarcom.
I'll get back to you and let'smake something happen.
Speaker 1 (46:43):
There you go.
Thank you, listeners, forjoining us on the MHW Mark
podcast, and thanks again toBridget McCabe for joining me in
hosting this podcast isproduced by me, jimmy Moreland,
with booking and planningsupport by Cassidy Poe and
Bridget McCabe.
It's presented by MHW.
Find out more at mhwltdcom orconnect with MHW on LinkedIn.
(47:03):
Lend us a hand by subscribing,rating and reviewing this
podcast wherever you listen.
We'll be back in your feed intwo weeks.
We'll see you then, cheers.
Welcome to the MHW Mark podcast, where we take deep
dives into various aspects ofthe alcohol industry.
My name is Jimmy Moreland.
Mhw is a US and EU beveragealcohol importer, distributor
and service provider.
Today we have an excellentdiscussion lined up for you.
We'll be talking about someinteresting approaches that
brands can add to theirmarketing and distribution
(00:27):
strategies, and we take anunexpected but fruitful detour
into acquisitions, and it sortof echoes the three-part series
we did on M&A back in Octoberand November of last year, but
with some detailed specifics butwith some detailed specifics.
Now.
Normally, you'd hear my MHWco-host with me during this
introduction, but the team hasbeen extra busy with a full
(00:50):
events calendar.
Hopefully they got to take abit of a breather this Memorial
Day weekend and I hope you didtoo, dear listener.
Mhw's Bridget McCabe will jointhe discussion, which we may as
well get started.
All right.
Our guest today was theco-founder and CEO of the
e-commerce and fulfillmentplatform, speakeasy, which was
recently acquired by Flaviar,where he is now senior vice
(01:13):
president of strategicpartnerships.
Welcome to the show, joshJacobs.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Thanks for having me, Jimmy, and Bridget Welcome Josh
.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
It's great to have you here.
Thanks for making the time.
Can you tell us a little bitabout Speakeasy, about Flaviar,
about yourself, how this allcame to be and why you're here
on the podcast today?
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Absolutely Well, jimmy.
In today's crowded market,consumers are overwhelmed and
brands are fighting to stand out.
Flaviar solves this with aunique funnel that turns
discovery into a revenue driver,converting curiosity into
premium spirit sales.
Across our multi-channelplatform, we generate and very
few people actually know thisover $100 million in alcohol
(01:54):
sales alongside over 500 brandpartners that we have, from
global leaders like Diageo,pernod, ricard, constellation,
to the most innovative emergingcraft brands, and this is all
powered by six interconnectedgrowth lovers that I'll quickly
hit on.
The first is marketplaceexposure.
We have four marketplacesFlaviar, wine Searcher, kaskers
(02:18):
and Mash Grape that connectbrands with over 65 million
premium spirit shoppers annually.
So really enormous ecosystemdelivering unmatched visibility
across key discovery touchpoints through a single
partnership, all under theFlavio umbrella.
Second piece sampling anddiscovery.
This is what Flavio was reallymost known for and the program
(02:43):
that got the company off theground in 2012.
And we've ultimately sold overor shipped over three and a half
million tasting vials since ourinception.
We've turned product discoveryinto a powerful sales engine
through this, and what's evolvedto become our flagship is our
advent calendar, our whiskeyadvent calendar.
Last year, we shipped 888,000samples through that program
(03:07):
alone and completely sold out.
So this is about placing ourbrand partner spirits directly
in the hands of high intent,curious consumers.
It's a proven way to sparkbrand love and drive full bottle
sales.
The third pillar that I wantedto hit on is memberships and
subscription depletions.
We have Flaviar Black, which isthe Amazon prime of spirits,
(03:30):
offering members free shipping,special pricing and early access
to exclusive allocation drops.
It's a powerful way to keepbrands in front of tens of
thousands of highly engagedconsumers within the Flaviar
community.
On the subscription side so themembership side you pay an
annual fee and then you getaccess to certain things that
you have to buy into.
(03:51):
With a subscription, youactually get bottle or liquid
directly and we can guaranteelarge-scale repletions.
Right now we're currentlyoffering up to 4,000 bottles for
our Bourbon of the Month Cluband we place this again directly
in the hands of high intentspirit enthusiasts.
It's a turnkey way to drivetrial and what's great about our
(04:12):
subscription program iscurrently this is focused on
full-size 750 ml bottles.
So we're driving trial but alsodepletions.
The next pillar is brandede-commerce and fulfillment what
we call Flavio Checkout, andthis is what Speakeasy folds
into on the white label side,and our checkout solution powers
(04:33):
direct sales from the brandwebsites in a three-tier
compliant fashion and is trustedby over 500 brands alone with
this one offering and we havethe industry first hybrid model
offering both flexiblefulfillment through managed
warehouses and also thetraditional network of retailer
fulfillment, all optimized toour brand partners goals.
(04:55):
The fifth pillar I wanted to hiton is data and insights, really
powered by WineSearcher, whichgives us real-time visibility
into almost 37,000 globalretailers, and every single day
we're pulling productavailability and price points so
we're able to tap into productand demographic trends and
(05:17):
really understand consumerbehavior across such a big
ecosystem.
And then the last piece is ourmarketplace amplification.
So top partners are seeingseven-figure sales annually in
campaigns across the Flaviarecosystem, leveraging placements
, sponsored content, emailsampling something we call hubs
(05:38):
that we can talk more about andit's all about being front and
center with our community.
Campaigns start in thefour-figure range and really
scale from there into the highhundreds of thousands, and it's
about giving our brand partnersa flexible, high-impact way to
amplify visibility whereconsumers are already existing
(05:59):
rather than having to find themthemselves.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
That's a great overview, josh.
It's a really, reallymultifaceted and integrated
system and I think you guysreally own the market on data in
terms of all of these differentfacets.
So many MHW clients utilizedSpeakeasy, many utilized Flaviar
.
Can you talk a little bit abouthow Flaviar and Speakeasy
(06:21):
really complement each other, aswell as possibly even some of
these others that you mentioned,like Wine Searcher, from a data
perspective, and how has thisacquisition immediately
benefited your clients?
Speaker 2 (06:32):
Great question, bridget.
The motivations underlying themerger were really three main
dimensions.
The first is from a fulfillmentperspective.
Speakeasy, we were winningbrands because of our warehouses
, our managed fulfillment andsome of those unique
capabilities which I'm surewe'll delve deeper into.
(06:52):
And then Flaviar and otherplatforms would occasionally
beat us on some opportunities,specifically on the white label
side, what we now call FlaviarCheckout.
Because of the network ofretailers and to bring all of
this together, the industry'sfirst hybrid model as I hit on
in the opening segment all underone roof, has proven to be
(07:12):
extraordinarily valuable.
And this isn't just offeringindependent solutions.
This is creating one fusedsolution whereby SKU we can
determine whether or not hey,this is a widely available
product, let's get it to theconsumer as fast as possible
with the least expensiveshipping option.
Versus.
(07:33):
This is a merchandise bundlewhere liquor stores.
They lack the warehousingcapacity, the trained personnel
and the infrastructure tosupport that.
Ultimately, let's have thatfunnel through the warehouses so
we can optimize the best routeto market.
Not just let's have that funnelthrough the warehouses so we
can optimize the best route tomarket, not just by brand but by
SKU, which is proving to beexceptionally powerful and thus
(07:54):
far, the amount of existingbrand partners that are opting
to leverage.
That has been really, reallyhigh, and then, as we're talking
to new potential partners, thishas been a major differentiator
for Flaviar.
The second motivation behind themerger was the fact that
Flaviar grew up as adirect-to-consumer company with
(08:15):
the sampling program and thenacquired Kaskers and started
building up the marketplace andthen started offering all these
different memberships andsubscriptions.
And then started offering allthese different memberships and
subscriptions, but as theycontinued, as we continued to
grow our consumer base, all of asudden there was a really
appealing opportunity for brandsto tap into it, and thus a B2B
(08:37):
side of the business was born.
But building that from scratchand not having the
infrastructure takes time.
There's a lot of learningsthere.
On the flip side, speakeasy wedidn't have a marketplace.
We didn't have our owndirect-to-consumer business.
Everything we did was what wecall B2B, as in Speakeasy, was
supporting other brands.
You could really think of it asB2B2C.
(08:58):
We were helping other brandsget to the consumer, so our
entire business was modeledaround supporting brands, and so
we were able to come in and bethis part of the Flaviar
business that is not just afulfillment engine, but an
entire team, with accountmanagers, with marketing
(09:18):
services and other aspects ofthe business that Flaviar didn't
have or that we could bolster.
And so all of a sudden, now wecan take advantage and this is
the third piece of it of theentire Flaviar flywheel and
offer this to brand partners ina way that we couldn't
necessarily before, since wedidn't have the full team
(09:40):
supporting it.
And your other question Bridgetaround some of the other
acquisitions.
So Flaviar, I mentioned,acquired Kaskers and then, most
recently, wine Searcher andBarcar, and this is really about
creating the most diverseecosystem where we have an
(10:00):
offering for brands of everysingle shape, size and stage
which is really exciting andreally powerful.
And a lot of people, as we weretalking about at the beginning,
don't necessarily havevisibility into the diversity of
the Flaviar ecosystem and wetend to blow brands' minds when
we get into all these differentpieces, and the toughest thing
(10:22):
is not whether or not they wantto work with us, it's where do I
get started.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
Right, there's so many options and there's a fit
for every single brand out there.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
It's amazing, this success story, that it's quite
the journey from co-foundingSpeakeasy to an acquisition that
took place, I think, inSeptember is when it was
official.
Can you tell us, can you walkus through, I don't know, maybe
a peek behind the curtain, atjust the psychology personally
yourself, josh Jacobs, of whatit was like for a lot of people?
(10:51):
That's it.
They exit and they personallyexit.
They're out.
Thank you, cash the check, butyou know you have chosen to stay
on and take on this new role.
How has your day-to-day changed?
How has your, you know,personal involvement with the
operations of your company andyour sort of your career?
(11:11):
How has that changed?
Speaker 2 (11:33):
Absolutely, Jimmy.
So for me personally, as youmight imagine, to then scaling
the team from zero employees to45 employees, to just having
that be part of my identity.
The name Speakeasy andSpeakeasy sure people refer to
it, but now it theoreticallyfolds into Flaviar Checkout.
So the business doesn't reallyexist.
(11:53):
It's really been incorporatedand fused into Flaviar.
So you can't necessarily tellwhat was Flaviar, what was
speakeasy, and that was part ofwhat was so alluring about the
merger to begin with.
But that required some grievingand some mourning and that's
not necessarily a bad thing.
But that's just a chapter of mylife that I had to take the
(12:16):
time to sit with and acknowledgethat there was going to be a
really big change.
But on the very positive side,this was actually a mostly stock
transaction and that's becausewe saw so much potential to
continue scaling the speakeasyside of the business, but as
part of Flaviar, and also toturbocharge the existing Flaviar
(12:40):
business.
So I'm as committed as I everwas before, but of course in a
slightly different role, I willsay as an entrepreneur.
Your role is always in flux andyou're always growing and
evolving as an individual and aleader.
But over the last six, sevenmonths, however long it's been
since the merger was announced,since the acquisition was
(13:03):
announced, that has beenaccelerated and the amount of
flux has increased significantly, as you could imagine, but at a
very high level.
My role has remained quitesimilar, where I continue to
focus on all things externalBrands, wholesale partners like
this, media relations, investorrelations.
So at a very high level, I'mfulfilling a similar role, but,
(13:27):
of course, there are some bigchanges and what's really
exciting for me, since I'm nolonger the CEO, I have a lot
more time to spend with brands,which is what really gets me out
of bed in the morning and alsothat's where I can have the most
value as a leader in theorganization.
Speaker 3 (13:45):
Absolutely, and I just have to say we are so proud
of you over at MHW.
I mean, if any brand listeninghas ever been at any trade show,
any webinar, podcast, I meanJosh has really been in the mix
and is super involved on thefront lines with brands and I
think that goes a long waybecause you can experience sort
of what they're experiencing andobviously, with today's
(14:08):
competitive market, I meanthere's a lot of edge that
brands need from thatperspective.
So to have Josh so plugged inwith everything that really all
three tiers are doing within thebeverage alcohol system, it was
really cool and we were all soproud of you to see that
acquisition.
And I think it's reallyexciting for us to see you, you
know, taking the, the largerFlaviar brand, to the next level
(14:31):
and being able to seamlesslyintegrate all these different
parts of the business and andcreate an offering for brands
that can really help them.
Obviously, you know MHW we're aservice model, so we don't do
the hands-on field, sales andmarketing for brands.
So brands like yours are reallyimportant for us because that's
what helps everybody win at theend of the day.
(14:52):
So just wanted to mention that,that we're really proud of you
and before we kind of pivot hereinto the next conversation
about sampling and merchandisingand all the things, Josh, can I
ask?
Speaker 1 (15:03):
you know we did on this podcast God, about a year
ago.
We did a multi-part series onmergers and acquisitions and I
understand if there are thingsthat you cannot get into, but
I'm curious about that process,like, how long did that process
take?
Did you actively shop aroundfor someone to acquire you?
Did you you know?
(15:24):
What kind of legal orconsultant type assistance did
you contract with to helpfacilitate these kinds of things
?
Can you just give us maybe whatyou can share in a nutshell?
Speaker 2 (15:37):
Absolutely Happy to.
And first I want to just say,bridget really appreciate those
kind words.
It warms my heart.
It's comments like those thatreally help me take a moment,
take a breath and feel proud ineverything we've accomplished.
Everyone, no matter who theyare, they're so busy and it's
(15:57):
very easy to just get caught upin the flow of life and not stop
and smell the roses.
So thank you for sharing that,bridget.
That truly means a lot to me,and I also want to take a moment
to recognize MHW as a reallyintegral partner, not just
cheering from the sidelines, butactually we've been deep
partners since the very earlydays.
(16:18):
Mhw was one of the firstorganizations to really buy into
the idea and trust the visionthat we were building at
Speakeasy, so I'll always hold aspecial place in my heart for
MHW.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
Thank you so much for that.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
Yeah, of course.
And Jimmy, awesome question onthe merger.
Happy to share.
I would say this is probablysomething that isn't talked
about enough.
Just because mergers andacquisitions a lot of times are
pretty hush hush in terms ofthem coming together and then
everyone's focused on thebusiness models, but not
(16:51):
necessarily what led to thatmoment.
I'm happy to share as much as Ipossibly can.
The first person I want to callout is Mark Levitt.
He was our investment banker.
Without Mark we would haveundoubtedly not gotten this deal
over the finish line, and Ialways tell this story because
it's such a stark memory for me.
(17:12):
In one of the firstconversations with Mark he said
buckle up, just know, everysingle deal will die at least
three times before it gets overthe finish line.
And I kind of just laughed itoff.
I didn't understand what itmeant at that time.
Oh, my goodness, was he right.
This was a full test of our gritand determination and, at the
(17:37):
end of the day, mergers thatcome to fruition only do because
there is enormous motivation onboth sides.
Otherwise they would fall apartbecause our deal died at least
three times.
And as an investment banker, Ithink you feed off of that type
of energy and rush, but, as anentrepreneur, when all your eggs
(17:59):
are in one basket and you'vebeen focused for months on
bringing something together andyou don't see a path forwards,
it's extremely disheartening andI'm sure I lost several years
of my life through the process.
But it was definitely a greatprocess of learning.
Just not sure I want to gothrough it again.
(18:20):
And the last thing that I wantto mention is whether or not we
shopped around, and the answeris yes.
So Flaviar is really this underthe radar giant.
Even myself, being as plugged inas you possibly could be into
e-commerce, Bev Alk, I wasn'tfully aware of the depth and
(18:44):
breadth of the Flaviar business,and so we had conversations
with every single player andwe're considering a transaction
from every angle whether thatwas us acquiring, of course,
being acquired, looking atmergers and we initially
approached Flaviar with theconcept of a strategic
(19:06):
partnership, where we kepthearing that marketplaces were
really suffering because offulfillment and that was a core
competency for our business.
So we said, wow, we really cancome together in a unique way.
So we started talking with themarketplaces and Flaviar was the
first one to say you know what?
We probably are too much ofcompetitors for us to be
(19:30):
strategic partners.
We've built this muscle ofacquiring businesses.
What do you think?
And initially we said nope,absolutely not.
We're having an absolute blast.
We're on a tear.
Why would we mess with that?
And Fred, who is the CFO andCOO of Flaviar and who comes
from the M&A world, he saidlet's just spend a couple of
(19:52):
weeks together, let's give me afew hours, let's put it on paper
and go from there.
And so we put it on paper.
I was happy to do that becauseI just instantly developed
rapport with Fred and when weput it on paper after those
couple of weeks, it wasimmediately clear that being
(20:13):
acquired by Flaviar was theright business move.
So my head got there first, butit took a while for me to warm
up to.
That idea of actually giving upthe keys was my initial thought.
No longer am I going to be incontrol of Speakeasy.
But flying to Slovenia, wherethe two co-founders are from and
where the real headquarters ofthe business is, and spending
(20:35):
time with Fred and the otherleaders, especially ones that
had been previously acquired, Irealized it's not about giving
the keys of the business.
It's about expanding the braintrust where it was.
My co-founder, Michael Bowen,and I running Speakeasy.
And now all of a sudden we'regoing to expand that with a
bunch of high-poweredentrepreneurs who have a crazy
(20:57):
successful track record.
And all of a sudden we realizedand that was the turning point
that it was about workingtogether with a very exciting
team.
And we realized at that pointall right, we got to get this
deal done.
And then it took almost anotheryear from that point in time,
so it was about almost almost a18 month process from soup to
(21:21):
nuts.
So it takes a while and, as Imentioned before, you have to be
fully in it, Otherwise it's notgoing to materialize.
Speaker 3 (21:29):
I love that.
We took that deep dive, though,because it is so interesting
and I was curious about it too.
How can brands, whether they'renew or experienced, utilize
Flaviar in their marketingstrategy?
If they have a digitalmarketing strategy, how can they
pivot it to include andoptimize utilizing Flaviar?
Speaker 2 (21:48):
Something that was always a challenge at Speakeasy
was that we had one mainoffering and we really only
catered to a very narrowspectrum of brands.
But what's been so energizingbeing part of Flaviar I
mentioned this before is we canconfidently go into a
(22:09):
conversation knowing that wehave something to offer that
brand, something for brands ofall shapes, sizes and stages.
And the way that we typicallyapproach it is we try to
understand what is that brand'sbudget or, even better, what is
that brand's goals, and then,given the breadth of
opportunities and solutions andofferings that we have at our
(22:32):
disposal, we typically like tocraft bespoke proposals for each
brand.
In general, we recommend havinga consistent presence and
really thinking about all thedifferent offerings throughout
and across the funnel, fromdiscovery to sampling to
conversion, and it's really funto not just over and over again
(22:55):
pitch speakeasy which was reallyfun but to go into a
conversation and be much moreconsultative, learn about what
that brand is focused on, whatare those 10 pull moments, and
then we can pull from a bunch ofdifferent products that we have
up our sleeve to thenultimately help amplify that
(23:16):
brand and help them hit theirgoals.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
You mentioned up top a whiskey advent calendar.
Holiday season prior to lastyear, I believe, I got one of
your whiskey advent calendars asa gift from my partner.
So I want to say thank you forthat first of all, and I'm just
curious about how a brand getsto be in one of those little
(23:38):
windows that opens up.
You know, is it something thatthey pitch themselves to you?
Do you?
Is there someone who's like thelead sort of tasting or product
designer who curates theselection according to X, Y, Z?
How does that work?
I'm just interested.
Speaker 2 (23:53):
Yeah, I love that you've experienced the Whiskey
Advent Calendar yourself.
It is such a cool product, sucha cool experience, an amazing
gift, and a lot happens behindthe scenes to pull this together
.
We used to joke at Speakeasythat there were two seasons.
It was OND and preparing forOND, and with the Advent
(24:14):
calendar I think it's just oneseason.
We're always working on theAdvent calendar, whether we're
trying to bring up brands,whether we're working on the
production, the design.
Every single year has a reallysignificant change and there's a
ton of focus into the backstoryand all of the unboxing
experience and the videos thatgo with it.
(24:35):
So it's a massive, massiveproject and curation is
certainly part of that.
So we work with our productteam and Grisha in particular,
one of the co-founders, who'sheavily involved this was really
his brain baby and we worktogether on, for example, last
(24:55):
year was Hotel Flaviar and wewere really focused on having
certain types of products incertain regions covered in the
hotel.
But one way to sum it up is weare looking to cover a bunch of
different countries, a bunch ofdifferent types of whiskeys and
bourbons, and we've even startedflirting with the idea of going
(25:19):
to adjacent whiskey.
Of course, the vast majoritywill be whiskey, but what are
some other products?
At the end of the day,consumers are looking to Flaviar
, to be the tastemakers and tokeep the finger on the pulse of
what's cutting edge and not justhave very mainstream brands
that they might be familiar with.
(25:40):
So we spend a lot of time andenergy into the individual
products and then, from a brandperspective, it is an amazing
opportunity.
So last year we sold 37,000advent calendars and, based on
our surveying, maybe up to 50%of consumers are sharing their
(26:02):
samples.
So 37,500 purchased them.
Maybe 50% more had also sampledit.
So 50,000 plus samples lastyear.
You can't really name a singleopportunity in the industry
where in one swoop, you're gonnaput your brand in the homes of
50,000 people.
So brands are clamoring to getinside of the advent calendar.
(26:27):
Such an amazing opportunity,not just for sampling.
But we do very much focus onthe conversion to selling
full-size bottles as well, andso we have all this gamification
and all this interaction andengagement with our consumers to
continuously promote those 24brands, and part of it is
(26:50):
in-person experiences.
Other part of it is traditionalPR and digital marketing.
I mentioned videos that weworked with.
So it's this whole experienceand this whole world really that
we've built around the AdventCalendar it's this whole
experience in this whole world,really, that we've built around
the advent calendar.
Speaker 1 (27:05):
I will give you one point of data that you converted
two full-size bottle sales outof that advent calendar.
There were two that we justjust knocked our socks off, that
we'd never heard of the brandsbefore and we were just like,
yep, those are the ones let'slet's buy two 750s out of out of
those.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
So it works music to our ears, ears, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
I'll take my check after we can.
Speaker 2 (27:27):
Okay, I love it.
I love it.
And we've seen so much successwith the Whiskey Advent Calendar
that last year, under the winesearcher name, we rolled out our
inaugural wine advent, andthere's something up our sleeve
for later this year.
That is another new categorythat we'll be introducing, so
(27:51):
keep an eye on that.
Something cool is on its way inan emerging category that's
really on fire.
Okay.
Speaker 3 (28:00):
Well, excellent.
What is your advice that youwould give to brands to optimize
their sampling strategy viadigital methods?
Speaker 2 (28:06):
So one thing to comment on is we have the advent
calendars, of course, but thenwhat we have is what we call
small format as well tastingboxes we have curated which a
brand can be part of a box withother brands, and this is
usually three or five 50 mlvials.
(28:26):
We also offer custom tastingboxes where a brand can solely
feature their own skews.
For example, if an agave brand,a tequila brand wanted to have
a Blanco, a Repo and an Anejoand no other brands, we can work
on that as well and we havethese for sale not just during
(28:47):
the holiday season but yearround.
We have these curated andcustom tasting boxes.
So there's always samplingopportunities and we recommend
thinking about not just theadvent calendars, the Big Bang,
but also some of these othersampling opportunities.
But it's important to bethinking about a holistic
strategy beyond just sampling.
(29:09):
We've already talked about aspart and built into our own
sampling efforts.
At Flaviar.
We're focused on sellingfull-size bottles, but what we
really see is their synergisticeffect.
When our brand partners are inan advent calendar, they might
be in a small format tasting box, they're advertising on our
hubs, they're in oursubscription as well.
(29:30):
When we see brands just focuson one of these verticals,
there's certainly success andit's worthwhile.
But when we see two or three orfour, the amplification of this
is really, really exciting.
Two or three or four, theamplification of this is really,
really exciting.
And that's when we start seeingbrands completely take off and
start separating from the restof the pack.
Sort of an extra wide funnel, Isuppose, to convert from more
(29:52):
sources, exactly, and there'salways that marketing adage that
it takes seven touches with aconsumer to convert them.
And so if we can get yourproduct in their hands and they
sample it, well, not everyone isgoing to be like Jimmy, you and
your partner and they go onlineand they take that immediate
action.
(30:12):
Some people might forget aboutit, even though they really
loved it in the back of theirmind, and then all of a sudden
they see a different ad orengagement or activation on
Flaviar and that reminds themand they ultimately purchase it.
Then and there Maybe they evenforgotten about what they had,
but in the back of their mindthey're drawn to that product
(30:33):
because they had actually tastedit previously.
So that's where we start seeingsome of the synergistic effects
.
Speaker 3 (30:39):
That's great, and I'm thinking a little bit about
like the data side of things,because even with Speakeasy,
that was always such a strongpoint and now with WineSearcher
and all of these integrated thecapability for brands to have
multiple touches.
Is there anything that youoffer in terms of like industry
report or purchasing data?
(31:00):
Or, I'm a little bit curious interms of like the data side of
things, what can brands ungateand get access to?
Speaker 2 (31:07):
Yeah, I always.
One of the first observations Ihad as a BevAlc entrepreneur,
coming from a data backgroundand a data science background,
was how brands are forced toessentially scale in the dark
with no first party data and noaccess directly to the consumer.
And my mind was blown andthat's ultimately what gave
(31:29):
birth to the idea for Speakeasy.
But with Speakeasy we've reallytried to silo our partners'
data and they own theirindividual customers.
But we always knew there was anopportunity that we could
aggregate the data, that wecould look at it in different
ways, but we never ultimatelygot a product off the ground.
(31:50):
Fortunately, flaviar has alreadyinvested in their data program
and we have such greatvisibility through Weinsters we
talked a little bit aboutearlier in the episode 37,000
retailers that we crawl everysingle day, and through these
37,000 retailers we're lookingat product availability and
(32:15):
price points, and so for a brandto understand where they're
carried, where they're notcarried, where their competitors
are carried and how theirproducts are being priced is
really really valuable data.
And what makes wine searcherdata especially unique is it's a
different slice of the market.
Nielsen, for example, isheavily focused on major chains,
(32:39):
wheresearcher is predominantlyfocused on independent retailers
.
So it's a very differentperspective, and what's also
very neat about WineSearcher iswe are much more approachable in
terms of pricing, and thatenables partners to go more
granular A lot of times withother data sellers, people,
(33:04):
early emerging brands.
They want to pay the leastamount possible, so they get
very high level data where, aspart of our offering off the
shelf, you can drill down notjust by country or state, but
get all the way down to the town, to the individual merchant,
and understand what's going onat each of those individual
(33:26):
levels.
So that's really reallypowerful.
And what that doesn'tnecessarily have is the actual
conversions.
But that's where the Flaviarmarketplace comes into play.
Flaviar Caster, the Flaviarecosystem comes into place,
since we actually have theconversion data as well, and so
we have all these differentunique data points that we can
(33:48):
look at to pull together to tellthat full story.
Speaker 3 (33:51):
How can brands stand out from the pack in terms of
merchandising to increase sales?
Speaker 2 (33:56):
Yeah, I'd really bifurcate this and think about
how to activate the marketplace,how to drive sales through the
brand's website, and what we'reseeing is that these can have a
great effect in conjunctionrather than just focusing on one
or the other and starting onthe marketplace side.
It's not about reaching out andensuring, yeah, your product is
(34:20):
being carried.
Yes, you want to check that box, but there are thousands, tens
of thousands.
Or, in the case of WineSearcher, we have about a million SKUs
on WineSearcher, so thelikelihood that someone's just
going to stumble upon yourproduct is not necessarily very
high.
Brands need to be thinkingabout an advertising and
(34:41):
marketing, sponsorship andstrategy with the marketplace
that they work with.
So we really encourage brands.
Yes, reach out, make sure wecarry your products.
But let's also have aconversation about advertising
to ensure consumers actually seeyour product, because if it's
on page 27 on a search, thelikelihood that a consumer gets
(35:03):
there is not very high.
And then, on the white labelside, we have a hypothesis that
consumers are going to go tobrand websites.
Yes, maybe for convenience, butwe really think Instacart and
Uber Eats really themarketplaces own the convenience
space.
We believe that consumers aregoing to go to a brand's website
(35:24):
to access something unique, andaccessing something unique can
be the bottle itself, somethingpremium, craft, hard to find.
But the other piece of this isthinking beyond the bottle
custom packaging, merchandise,cocktail kits, engraving.
What we're seeing is this majormindset shift with our top
(35:44):
partners from being spiritbrands, from being bevel
companies, to being lifestylebrands that sell alcohol, and
with the high cost of shipping,selling merchandise is a great
way to bring in some extramargin, offset that shipping
cost, to juice up that averageorder value.
And the other thing is to thinkabout is all this great AI and
(36:07):
upsell checkout technology, atool called Rebuy, for example,
we typically recommend ourpartners leverage.
If you only have three SKUs andthey're all $50 bottles, the
likelihood of someone checkingout and deciding last second.
They want an extra $50 bottle,not necessarily high, but if you
have a $30 t-shirt or a $20 hator a $20 maple syrup in the
(36:30):
case of Whistlepig that theyhave from their farm in Vermont
glassware, all these uniquethings, that is something that a
consumer is far more likely toadd and you can create bundles.
And what we're seeing is thevast majority of dollars still
flowing through the platform,through the brand websites, is
still the alcohol, but asignificant percent up to 50% of
(36:53):
orders with our top partnersinclude products beyond the
bottle.
Speaker 1 (36:57):
What else can brands do or what can they offer in
terms of, you know, the samplingstrategy that we've talked
about, or collaborations?
What other sort of advice orthings can brands do?
Speaker 2 (37:09):
Yeah, we've talked a lot about the marketplace, so
diving a little bit deeper andspending an extra second on the
white label side collaborationsis absolutely something that
we've seen be extremelysuccessful.
An example would be Whistlepigand Traeger Grills.
Everyone wants to partner withthe alcohol industry.
Don't blame them.
We're cool, we're fun, we'redifferent and, as an alcohol
(37:31):
brand, if you can lean on anexisting brand outside of the
industry that has already builta customer base and has their
own email distribution list andyou can tap into that, that can
be really really valuable where,all of a sudden, overnight, you
can drive thousands, tens ofthousands, hundreds of thousands
or millions of new potentialbuyers to your brand and to your
(37:55):
website.
And so we've seen a lot of verycool unique offerings with
celebrities, with other brands.
There's a lot of different waysto play this.
A couple other strategies thatwe've seen be successful.
One spirits clubs.
So Westward Whiskey is one inparticular that I'd want to call
out that they've really been achampion where every single
(38:16):
quarter set it and forget it.
You receive a bottle of someinnovative experimental skew,
and what you also have theopportunity to do, since that
bottle is already being shipped,is to add some of the evergreen
bottles as well.
So it's not just drivingdepletions of this experimental
SKU, but also of the core SKUsas well.
(38:36):
What we're also seeing is areal big focus on barrels over
the last 18 months, and there'stwo different flavors of barrels
.
One is doing single barrelpicks Frey Ranch I'd want to
specifically highlight as achampion, where they focused on
filling the top of the funnel.
They have an enormous CRM, anenormous database, and what they
(39:01):
do is they'll, every month ortwo they'll pick a new barrel
and their fans are justsalivating waiting for the next
barrel to drop.
And the recent barrel they justsold out in 18 minutes entire
barrel boom, 18 minutes, justlike that.
The other approach is sellingentire barrels and, yes, for
(39:22):
years brands have been focusedon selling entire barrels to
accounts, but we're enablingthat direct to consumer as well
and, to be candid, I was prettydubious on the potential of
individual buyers buying anentire barrel.
But between whiskey clubsaggregating together to buy a
barrel, whether it is a weddinglooking for gifts, if it's
(39:46):
corporate gifting or acharitable organization, we are
seeing that there is asignificant thirst for buying
entire barrels and we have oneof our top partners who, since
launch has sold close to 100barrels, and these go 15, 20
grand a pop.
And then we have anotherpartner who's focused on very
(40:07):
premium, high-end barrels.
They sold a $590,000 barrel.
Yep, you heard me right$590,000.
There was a handler, so wedon't actually know who the
buyer was, and we had to buildthis secure special website.
And then their whiskey cavewasn't finished with
construction, so we had to holdon to the barrel for a little
bit longer until the whiskeycave was complete.
(40:29):
But they've sold over a milliondollars of barrels since
launching their program now.
Speaker 1 (40:35):
Forgive me if this is a dumb question, but it's a
very funny picture in my head,I'm sure.
I'm sure, when you sell abarrel, what you're meaning is
that okay, you've bought thebarrel and now they're going to
bottle it all for you inindividual bottles that maybe
have a cool like oh, this isbottle number X of Y of this
(40:55):
particular barrel.
But in my brain I'm tickled bythe idea of a customer taking
delivery of a barrel.
I'm tickled by the idea of acustomer taking delivery of a
barrel.
Speaker 2 (41:05):
Is that an option?
I wish, jimmy, but forcompliance reasons the liquid
has to be in the barrel.
But to make you happy, we dosend the empty barrel with the
bottles.
Are consumers then pouring itback in?
I don't know.
Are they keeping that as akeepsake?
We're not sure what necessarilyconsumers are doing with it,
but we think it's super cool.
(41:25):
Yeah, a pallet shows up withall the bottles and then that
empty barrel sitting on top.
Speaker 1 (41:30):
And the barrel's there too.
Yeah, such a cool experience.
That's cool.
That's cool.
I want the—if I bought thebarrel.
Speaker 2 (41:34):
I want the barrel too .
Speaker 1 (41:36):
Yeah, I want the liquid.
That's cool.
So we've been talking sort ofbroadly.
You have mentioned a couple ofspecific brands that have these
cool ideas no-transcript.
Speaker 2 (41:48):
We work with, as we've talked about 500 different
brands Diageo, pernod, moetHennessy, constellation, remy,
cointreau, and then lots of funexciting craft brands with Frey
Ranch, westward Whiskey, we workwith Westland so many different
players, whistlepig, and what Ido want to highlight are it's
(42:13):
just some data, because a lot oftimes brands will approach me
hey, josh, yeah, there's somereally cool projects that you've
shared, but at the end of theday, is it driving depletions?
Are we moving bottles?
That's the most important thing.
And last year, on themarketplace side of our business
, our top supplier investednearly a million dollars with us
(42:36):
on just the marketplace side ofthe business and, of course,
they drove into the millions interms of total bottle sales.
So really, really, you candrive a lot of volume on the
marketplace side without eventhinking about your own white
label website, marketplace side,without even thinking about
your own white label website.
On the white label website,there is really an opportunity
(42:56):
to drive sustainable growth andscale.
And to give you a sense, ourtop partner, a single brand last
year, a single brand supplierlast year, eclipsed over 5
million in sales on the platform.
Truly, truly incredible.
And then the fun success storythat we always like to share the
feather in our cap is TeslaTequila over $10 million sold on
(43:19):
the platform of those lightningbolt shaped bottles.
So yes, ecom BevAlk is amaterial sales channel and it's
one of the bright spots and onlygrowing segments of the
industry in the current climate.
Only growing segments of theindustry in the current climate.
Speaker 1 (43:36):
All right, we'll jump into our final fun question
that we like to ask everybody,and that is what is your
favorite adult beverage?
Speaker 2 (43:43):
If you want to make my day at the bar, jimmy,
introduce me to a new SivinMescal.
I prefer Mescal Neat and I'malways exploring new brands and
agave strands, but I would sayTobala is typically a winner for
me.
Speaker 1 (43:59):
And you just take it neat.
Speaker 2 (44:00):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (44:07):
All right, that's such a common answer nowadays,
and I think I've just beenburned too many times.
A tequila or mezcal sherpa,someone who can guide me through
the valley of the shadow ofdeath that is tequila for me,
anyway and can explain to mewhat I'm looking for, what I'm
trying to notice as I'm tasting,rather than just bad memories.
Speaker 2 (44:24):
Yeah, I fall in that bad memory bucket and I think so
many of us had that badexperience one night in college
and I was really turned off fromtequila for many years because
tequila for me was plasticbottle tequila Not that there's
anything wrong with that, butwhen you drink too much of it at
(44:45):
a young age it just has anegative effect.
And ultimately it was mezcalthat really brought me back into
the agave world.
And it was because it was sodifferent at least the first
mezcals that I was introduced to.
It was so different thantequila that my brain wasn't
thinking about tequilawhatsoever.
(45:06):
And then as I tried and thefirst mezcals that I tried were
espadins, they're very, verysmoky, but there are mezcals
that are not very smoky.
Yes, they have some elements ofsmoke, but on the spectrum it
is very wide.
And once I started enjoyingsome not very smoky mezcals, I
said hey, it's time to make theleap and try tequila.
(45:28):
And when I started tryingtequila for the first time in
many years, I quickly fell inlove with it as well.
So I really enjoy tequila atthis point I can point you to
some of our partners to try andultimately Mezcal stole my
preference, but I do enjoy both.
Speaker 1 (45:48):
Very good.
I will say I have a little bitof a barrier to entry as far as
acquiring things locally herebecause I live in Maine and not
a lot of tequila drinkinghappening up here in Maine.
But thankfully we've gotsomeone like you providing some
lovely e-commerce options forpeople like me.
So thanks for that.
Speaker 2 (46:05):
Gotta get through the winter somehow.
Speaker 1 (46:10):
Well, josh Jacobs, thank you so much for coming by
the podcast and sharing yourknowledge with us For listeners
who want to follow up, find outmore, maybe even try to get
their whiskey brand involved inan advent calendar or something
like that.
You can check out Flaviar.
We will put links in the shownotes so that you can do some
follow-up and some researchthere.
(46:30):
Josh, thanks for stopping by.
Speaker 2 (46:32):
Jamie Bridget.
Thank you so much for having meand anyone listening.
Feel free to reach out to medirectly, josh at flaviarcom.
I'll get back to you and let'smake something happen.
Speaker 1 (46:43):
There you go.
Thank you, listeners, forjoining us on the MHW Mark
podcast, and thanks again toBridget McCabe for joining me in
hosting this podcast isproduced by me, jimmy Moreland,
with booking and planningsupport by Cassidy Poe and
Bridget McCabe.
It's presented by MHW.
Find out more at mhwltdcom orconnect with MHW on LinkedIn.
(47:03):
Lend us a hand by subscribing,rating and reviewing this
podcast wherever you listen.
We'll be back in your feed intwo weeks.
We'll see you then, cheers.
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