From Basement Cold Calls to Beverage Bosses: The Tequio Story

This episode delves into the entrepreneurial journey of Louis Pascal Walsh and Flick Moradian, from ideating a unique beverage concept to establishing their brand, Tequio, in the competitive beverage market.

1. Starting simple but being open to pivoting based on market feedback and personal convictions can lead to substantial payoffs.
2. Persistence and personal connections are crucial in navigating and succeeding in a competitive market.
3. Direct engagement with potential suppliers and distributors can yield unexpected opportunities and partnerships.
4. Quality should never be compromised for cost, especially when it helps differentiate in a saturated market.
5. The journey of entrepreneurship is as much about personal growth and learning from failures as it is about achieving business success.

1: Introduction

Ethan Cole introduces the podcast and guests, highlighting the theme of innovative founders in LA. Louis Pascal Walsh: "Cold calls are the base of our entire business."

2: The Origin Story

Discussion on the initial concept of a healthy alcoholic beverage and the pivot to tequila-based drinks. Flick Moradian: "It was about creating something better for you."

3: Overcoming Challenges

How the founders tackled the challenges of entering a new industry, including anecdotes of their first sales pitches and scaling production. Louis Pascal Walsh: "We didn't know anything about distilling tequila or doing business in Mexico."

4: Branding and Market Strategy

Insights into their branding strategies and how they approached marketing a premium product. Flick Moradian: "Persistence always pays off, you just have to keep pushing."

5: Future Aspirations

Plans for expanding their product's reach and establishing it as a household name. Louis Pascal Walsh: "We're focusing on making Tequio a staple at bars and homes."

1. Utilize cold calling to directly engage with potential partners and learn from the industry.
2. Always be ready to pivot your product based on market demand and feedback.
3. Invest time in understanding your product's unique selling proposition to differentiate in the market.
4. Build and leverage personal relationships for business growth.
5. Follow up diligently with every contact to maintain and nurture professional relationships.

"Cold calls are the base of our entire business. The first three months we spent in Flick's basement, cold calling, and it's still the best tool that we have. We still do it every day."

Flick Moradian and Louis Pascal Walsh, Co-Founders of Tequio, a premium canned tequila cocktail brand, share their entrepreneurial journey, highlighting their persistent cold-calling efforts to establish connections, secure partnerships, and obtain valuable insights from industry experts on this episode of Founders In LA.

People

Louis Pascal Walsh, Flick Moradian, Ethan Cole

Companies

Tequio, Nearshure, United Club

Books

None

Guest Name(s):

None

Content Warnings:

None

Louis Pascal Walsh

But I'd say that cold calls are the base of our entire business. Like the first three months we spent in flicks, basically cold call and it's still the best tool that we have. We still do it every day.

Ethan Cole

Hey everybody, thank you for joining us and welcome to the founders in LA podcast. I'm your host, Ethan Cole, and this. Is an opportunity to shine the spotlight through a product lens on some of the exceptional founders we have as part of the LA community in an unedited one take organic conversation. With us today is Louis Pascal Walsh and flick Meredian. Thanks so much for coming to studio guys.

Flick Moradian

Yeah, thanks for having us. Thanks for having us. Excited to be here. Yeah, this is our first beverage. I'm excited to have you guys here.

Ethan Cole

But first a word from our sponsors, founders and allies brought to you by Nearshure. Near sure is a trailblazer in nearshur outsourcing and staff augmentation their 15 years of experience offering exceptional latin american software development, data, product and design talent for us projects. Nearshare has revolutionized the way companies scale their teams. They stand apart with 50% female leadership, are trusted by companies large and small, and helping us customers grow since before nearsharing was cool. Discover how nearshare can power your tech goals and help you stay lean while scaling fast.

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Dot Unida Dot Club www. Dot Unita dot Club our guests today are Louis Pascal Walsh and flick Moradian. They are co founders of Tokyo and would one of you fellows please just give us a 32nd description of tequilo? Sure. So tequilo or tequio is the first certified additive free tequila in a canned cocktail.

Louis Pascal Walsh

We have two flavors. We do a tequila soda and we do a blanco. So it's tequila soda made of tequila blanco and a tequila reposado. Both are just sparkling water, tequila, and a hint of lime. We've partnered with the Benuelos family.

They founded Tequila Cazadores, which they sold to Bacardi in the early two thousands. And they have a new brand called Tequilas el Mexicano. And so we've licensed their tequila blanco and their tequila reposado for our canned cocktails. So really, it's a very clean, zero sugar, zero carbs, 100 calories. It's gluten free naturally.

So it's a very clean take on a tequila soda in a can. And it seems to be following the trend of these alternatives to beer and wine and hard liquor that we've seen over the last few years. I know that it feels like the Seltzer market really took off maybe five years ago, and that this canned experience for different ready made drinks is now really taking form. Absolutely. That's definitely what got us into it originally.

And then I think for us, we kind of started to see some white space developing in that kind of hard seltzer craze and the boom of canned cocktails piggybacking off of the hard Seltzer kind of movement. And for us, we were like, it's still, for the most part, low quality when you think about these lighter canned cocktails. And for us, we were like, why isn't anyone keeping that really the focus on quality? Just because it's in a can, it doesn't necessarily have to be of a loaded with sugar and super sweet and made with a low quality spirit. So that was kind of the impetus for us early on, was, like, what if we just brought really good tequila to the can space and, like, didn't hide it behind sugars or sweeteners or fruit flavors, and we just let the tequila speak.

So that was kind of the idea, but that's not how it started out. Also, you know, things change over time. And I think, I mean, what do we start with? Like, a fermented coconut water originally was the idea, but we. I mean, just to get into the very, very beginnings of it all, if you want.

I mean, that's why we're here. Please tell us about. Yeah, we were childhood best friends. We did not have a beverage background. COVID hits.

And I was working in the film industry, and flick was in finance. And we're both from Michigan. We went back there to be with our families, and we're there. We're exercising, we're riding bikes, we're drinking beer. And I don't work for six months.

The film industry shuts down. The industry just disappears overnight. And Flick's working remotely, so we have time to kind of exercise and talk about kind of the landscape of opportunity and in the US market, and we kind of look at canned cocktails. This is 2020, early 2020. And so, yeah, hard seltzers are going crazy.

And we were like, what if we found some way to do something cool and different in there? So that was the idea. But, yeah, it started that fermented coconut water. It was horrible. It was, like, frothy.

It was almost like a milky consistence. Unpalatable. How did that start? How did you decide for the coconut water? It was, like, a healthy, from a health perspective, I think.

Ethan Cole

Yeah. So we were trying to get, like, a better for you spirit. Okay. And June shine, which is, like, a hard kombucha, was kind of, like, better for you at the time. And so we were trying to figure out, like, okay, so beer is, like, totally horrible.

Flick Moradian

And then we're like, well, coconut water is, like, hydrated and nice. And then we're like, we needed to make it alcohol. So we, like, fermented it literally in Louis kitchen for, like, a week. It tasted horrible, and they were like, maybe if we just do tequila and coconut water, that would be better. Ended up not tasting great, and then we just kind of zeroed out.

Tequila is the healthiest spirit. And the seltzers were taking off, so it was kind of just like a perfect opportunity to do a tequila kind of cocktail in a can. Yeah. And then just finding how do you differentiate yourself in a pretty big category? So that was, you know, we had no idea what we were doing.

Louis Pascal Walsh

Conceptually, it's a great concept, just really high end tequila. But we didn't know anything about distilling tequila or anything about doing business in Mexico. So that was literally, we just cold called people in Mexico, and we're like, hey, can you guys put tequila in cans in Mexico? And do you know a distillery that would be open to selling us tequila? And eventually, we found someone who was like, yes, we can can tequila, and we can make a few intros to a few distilleries.

And that was the very. I mean, that's how we met our partner and our now partners just randomly through a tour of lunch. They had us over for lunch. The Benuelos family was one of these distilleries, and they just, like, rolled out the red carpet. They're like, welcome to our estate.

They showed us, you know, gave us a tour. We had lunch with, like, quite literally their entire family and staff at the. At the distillery. And it was just like, a really cool moment. And then they're like, after lunch, they're like, okay, let's go taste tequilas.

And their tequila was incredible. And, I mean, it's a family that's done it before, and they have a new brand, and so they're like, we're going to launch in the US market. We're very excited. And they had been kind of contemplating the canned cocktail market, so we came along at an interesting time. And, yeah, fast forward about a year and a half after that first meeting, they came on board, us, fully fledged partners of ours, and have allowed us to license their certified, additive free tequilas for techio and the canned cocktails.

But I don't know, it was weird. Cold calling and having no idea, and you just show up and you're like, is this going to work? We don't even know. But it was definitely interesting, and it has worked out so far. When that guy told us yes, he could do it, we bought plane tickets the next day.

Flick Moradian

Cause we didn't believe him. We're like, all right, we're gonna be down there tomorrow. And he was like, okay, like, I'll show you. That's amazing. And so what I love about this story is that it's about, like, a lot of what we talk about here on founders is doing and how people are just kind of making things happen, how they're kind of scrapping by and trying to figure out problem solving at an infinite level.

Ethan Cole

So here you guys are in Michigan. You decided, hey, let's do a healthy take on this, on adult beverages, and just go out there and try fermenting your own coconut water. Realizing that that was a horrible mistake, that people would probably not buy what you were building, but then kind of staying with it and trying to figure a way out and then identifying, hey, tequila is actually the thing that was working in this product. We tried many iterations internally. Did you guys give it to other people?

Did you get to that stage? You're like, oh, we can't even try handing this out to our friends. Cause, yeah, I mean, the early stages were closed doors. Like, we knew. Yeah, we were like, this is so bad if we don't like it.

Louis Pascal Walsh

Like, we can't even put it out there. But once we found El Mexicano and the Benuelos family in their tequila, then we literally just bootlegged a couple bottles over the border, brought them back to LA, and did a bunch of, like, at home bench samples. And, like, we. That's where we kind of opened up to friends and family and we were like, hey, do you like this? At 5% alcohol, 7% alcohol, 10% alcohol.

And do you like it with more lime or less lime? That was an interesting phase, too, because that was really the quality component of the balance of the few ingredients that are in there. That's kind of where we landed with good feedback. I don't know. I like to think it's kind of also for us because we like it and it wasn't out there before, but it's awesome and obviously has to be a big part of it that other people really enjoy it, and there's nothing really quite like it out there.

So we're glad to be kind of filling that gap and the tequila forward tequila soda kind of category. And one thing I want to double click into so we don't overlook it. So you guys literally cold call different tequila distilleries down in Mexico because you're like, okay, we have an idea. We need to find a supplier. We don't know anyone in this space.

Ethan Cole

It's not like, you know, it's not. Our family has been doing this for two generations, and you guys just kind of cold called. How did you pick? The family decided, hey, we're going to hop on a flight tomorrow and talk to you. So, actually, we didn't cold call them.

Flick Moradian

We were looking for, like, a manufacturer, like, somebody that could put, like, make cans. And so we, like, co Pac. We didn't have the product yet. We just needed to find, like, someone who could put it into cans. Tequila.

And so we were just, like, googling co packers in Mexico. And one guy answered and said he could do it. So we went down there, and then he introduced us to. We went to a bunch of different distilleries. A lot of them were just kind of, like, factories, not very cool.

Like, we're. They're literally just pumping out, like, hundreds of brands a day. And then we went to this beautiful estate, or he brought us to this beautiful estate, and that's where we met the Benuelos family, and it was just kind of like a match made in heaven. Yeah, worked out perfectly. But I'd say that the cold calls are the base of our entire business.

Louis Pascal Walsh

Like, the first three months we spent inflicts basic cold calling, and it's still the best tool that we have. We still do it every day because we cold called every major branding agency in the US. When we were, you know, we'd gone down to Mexico, we were like, there's this tequila. How are we going to brand it? Like, maybe we hire the best to like, build it.

We literally got on the phone with like the CEO's of these huge, huge marketing agencies and they're like, yeah, like, you're going to need like a quarter of a million dollars. And like, you know, let's, and we have no money at the time for like the business. And we're like, oh, well, you know, we got great feedback. I think that's the cool thing is there was no chance we were going to work with these people. But they got on the phone, we're like open with their time and gave us feedback that allowed us to make the next move, whatever it was.

And so that's definitely, we still do that all the time. So why don't you tell us, can you tell us a little bit more about the cold calling? And I guess, you know, as early stage folks, a lot, there's a lot more selling than I think a lot of people anticipate when they're, you know, when you talk about people who want to start a startup, like generally there's an idea or a niche or a problem they want to solve, and it's not until they actually kind of rubber hits their own, they're like, oh, oh, wait, I'm actually a salesman first. That's the biggest part of my job, at least at this point in the company. And it changes as company grows.

Ethan Cole

Did you guys have experience in cold calling before doing and how did you, how did you, what have you learned? Like, what's worked for you? What didn't work? What was it like making that very first phone call? I look so, like Louis mentioned, I worked at Morgan Stanley, so I kind of cold called, but not really.

Flick Moradian

But what I did learn there is like, persistence always pays off with like, anything you're doing. And I just thought cold calling was kind of just the way to go about anything because it's so much faster than email. We just go on a company website and find someone. I'd be like, all right, well, let's just call them right now and like, get the answer. So it just, I don't know, it just worked out much better for us.

And my advice for cold calling is, yeah, once you start to talk to people and the rubber hits the road, it's just kind of a waterfall effect where it's like Louie was saying, we called all these brand agencies and then they'd be like, okay, we need a million dollars. And then we were like, all right, well, now we need to call VC's because we need to get a million dollars. Just things like that, and there's no barrier once you find a phone number or you just find the company's number to just ask for someone and talk to them because mostly people will talk to you for like 510 minutes. And that's all you need just to, like, get your answers or maybe go in a different direction. And I think, like, also you learn a lot about whether it's the pitch or the cell on those cold calls when you're getting, you know, people are throwing questions that you maybe never asked yourself.

Louis Pascal Walsh

And we're like, you know, we hang up a call and then we're like, wait. Like, that person had a really good point. Like, we didn't think about X or Y. And I think it was really a huge education component because you don't, you don't necessarily know a category that you're going into and you don't know the questions to ask yourself about, you know, category, specifically questions. And I think that was cool.

You know, were these people putting these questions in front of you that you weren't asking or even capable of asking yourself? So it was a big, even if you weren't going to do business, and I'd say 99% of the people that we ever cold call, we never, like, couldn't do business with and, like, it wasn't going to work, but we gleaned some sort of valuable information that helped us move forward. I'm trying to. What's the latest cold call that we've made? I don't know, but we talked to basically every Fortune 500 beverage CEO there was by just cold calling or cold emailing or figuring out how was it.

Ethan Cole

Surprisingly effective to reach that level of. I mean, you think they're unattainable and then you're like, oh, they're just like normal people. It's just there are a few more gatekeepers to get to them, but then they'll spend 510 minutes on the phone. Yeah. And a couple of them roasted us.

Louis Pascal Walsh

Yeah. Very candidly, we'll put, yeah, we're very good about Flick said persistence, but we're also good about, like, following up. The one, this is super early on, the one person we didn't follow up as a thank you after taking time was this, like, mega beverage conglomerate CEO who was super nice to give us the time and we just, you know, you get lost in emails and we totally forgot to follow up. And like three days go by and he emails us and he was like, hey, like, you know, I'm glad we had the chance to do it. It's an interesting product.

I wish you luck just in the future. Like, you should thank people and they give you some time. And we were like, but much more abrupt. It was quite intense. Yeah, I'm sugarcoating it, kind of, but that was the only.

And we. I mean, we learned that lesson. We've never, ever failed to follow up on, like, a thank you for people who give us their time now, but that was a tough. That was a tough one because we were like, that's a rude awakening. Well, and so we have a lot of people who listen to this who are starting out.

Ethan Cole

This may not be their forte. Right. So, like, can you share a bit about the follow up process, too? So you cold call, sounds like you cold calling actually still works as a medium. And that it's.

You can surprisingly get to decent level of people just. Just by picking up that phone. And something else I'll double click into in a minute. But what's the follow up process look like? You guys cold call someone eventually you get through the gatekeepers.

And maybe I'd like to double click on that, too. But then what's the follow up look like? How quickly do you do it after you talk to them? How has that been successful? What have you learned from your follow ups?

Flick Moradian

We usually follow up within an hour or a day just to say thank you and maybe rehash the phone call. And then once you do that, we kind of leave it open. As if we ever have a question, we'll send them a follow up email and be like, hey, we just came across, for example, agave prices. Could you maybe give us a run out of what you're getting? And sometimes we'll get a quick email back, like, yeah, it's this.

Boom. Thanks. Yeah. Like, big tequila companies in the market that, you know, it's just nice to have other people give you. Competitive pricing on agave, for us, is the biggest kind of cost.

Louis Pascal Walsh

And like I said, like calling the CEO of a company that has like 50 spirits in a portfolio and they're like, yep, let me. Let me send this over to you. And then, like, they want to help the small guy. And so I think it all ends up via email eventually. It's just nice.

There's that emotional component to hearing the fluctuation in someone's voice. And I think people kind of buy into that as far as connecting with people. And then it's easier to follow up on an email after that. Or text if somehow, I mean, we've got a crazy Rolodex now via text. It's really cool.

Flick Moradian

That sometimes if you get off the phone with someone, instead of sending them an email, which is a little bit more professional, send the same thing in a text. And then if they respond to your text, it's like, awesome. Cause then you can maybe shoot them a less informal question next time or something and you get a more personal rapport with them. Yeah. It's more of a relationship that you're building versus.

Ethan Cole

I feel like they're responding because you guys are just so scrappy. I'm sure those levels are like, oh, man, I love these guys. How often do they ask you, how do you get my number? Or how are we having this phone call right now? They don't ask that, but I am a wizard at that.

Flick Moradian

I can get in contact with anyone. I'm like, the FBI. That is awesome. But also, sometimes even Louie and I had to check ourselves. I'd be at my house or we'd be separated.

I'd look at my phone and be like, oh, my God. I would text from that guy and screenshot it to Louie big, who just texted me. It's crazy. Yeah. I think early stages when you're just designing it in your head, and it's still that concept we were.

Louis Pascal Walsh

It's just, yeah, it was helping us shape the business. Now, I think it's obviously a lot less. The cold calls we have now are much less about, like, hey, what do you think about this concept? And here's our strategy. And now it's, like, very specific, like, people for some reasons, but at the same time, like, locally in Southern California, we're always connecting with just business people, founders, entrepreneurs, just to grab coffee with no intention.

We want to connect and let's just meet because it's a, fascinating, and b, you never know where that's going to lead later on. And so that's been kind of the latest change from cold calling to more just, like, in person coffees left and right as often as humanly possible. So maybe this is kind of a good dovetail, talking about cold calling. Tell us about how you're able to get into some stores and get shelf space, because, again, that is one of the hard, you're in a very competitive market. You guys are right.

Ethan Cole

And getting that shelf space is challenging, especially when you're a newcomer. So how did you overcome that obstacle? Yeah, so it's actually similar to cold calling. You need the same persistence, but instead of actually, like, picking up the phone and calling these people, you just have to walk into their store. And I think a good story of this is how we got into Erwin.

Flick Moradian

They have a whole, like, kind of corporate process on their website. And I don't even know if I'd really be saying this, but we didn't do that at all. We didn't go through, like, the whole corporate process, anything. I just went into every single one of their stores for, like, three, three months trying to find the buyer, and I'd drop off two samples every time I went in, and I would go in, like, three times a week for, like, months, and I'd run into her maybe two or three times a month. And then she would quickly, like, try to run away from me and, like, not even give me the time, but I'd just be like, if I have 15 seconds, I'd give her the pitch, and I'd kind of tell her, like, what's going on?

And I was, like, so hyper aware of which products were moving in the store and which ones weren't that, like, once a company came across my, like, computer that went out of business, I went in the next day, and I found her, and I was like, I know this company's out of business. Like, there's a spot open. Like, give us a chance. And she ended up giving us a chance. And now we've been the best selling drink there for, like, the last six months.

But basically, same thing as cold calling. We just persistently went into all these stores, met people, and just kind of pitched us our product and asked for a chance. But the first, like, that is the ultimate for us. Show of persistence working. But the first, I think the first sell at the first store was hilarious.

Louis Pascal Walsh

Now, looking back, because we'd never done the in store salesperson pitch. And they have questions that they ask salespeople all day long that they get. It's LA. It's, like the hub for new products. So they get salespeople coming in with new products all day long, every day.

And we come in, and we're just like, hey. Like, we're local. This was our first liquor store was in Venice. It was called Simon's provisions at the time. And we had been schmoozing the guys for, like, three months before we even had a product.

We're like, it's coming. We gave them samples that we had made, like, locally in a bench sample, and, like, they tried it, and they were like, yeah, we love it. Like, let's do it. And so that was. It was great because we had pre sold it, essentially, and we socially kind of gained their trust, and it was more of, like, a.

I don't know a neighborhood kind of act than it was really of, like, a business transaction. And then we went to, like, a few other accounts, and we didn't really know the people. And it was more of, like, just strict business. Like, give me the numbers. What does it cost?

Like, how can I discount it? What's the, like, how many cases do I have to buy to get a discount? And we don't have any of the answers. Again, we're like, we weren't planning for any of this. I had to whip out my phone and do the math one time in front of a guy, and he was like, come on, you need to know this stuff.

And we're like, come on, we just launched. That's a big learning process there on the selling side. But like you mentioned earlier, you don't really realize that you're just a sales game. Yes, there's a marketing component, but especially in the early, the early stages, it's so much just sales focused. And I'm not a great salesperson, and I'll be the first person to say that flick will sell you a broken pencil.

And that's just, you have to just kind of lean into that at a certain point and be like, it just has to be part of the game. So how did you, Louie, go over so flick? I mean, I guess first question, is that natural or is that something, a skill that you built up over time, or is it just kind of, you're in a bigger bank, so maybe that was part of a training that you actually got. I'm not, like, actually great at sales. I would say I'm kind of great at connecting with people, though, sometimes if I want to, or I'd say if they want to connect with me, actually.

Flick Moradian

But actually, like, sales, I'm really passionate about this. So it's, like, easy to sell, but, like, I don't know. Yeah, I don't think I'm, like, the best salesman going into, like, certain scenarios, but if it's something you're passionate about, I think the sales just kind of comes natural. Yeah, I think it's also, which we didn't really touch on, is the positioning of the brand. It's very premium.

Louis Pascal Walsh

So these four packs at, like, let's say they'll average around $26 for a four pack. So where most seltzers and canned cocktails. Seltzers and specifically, well, like, $15, $16 for a four pack were priced very high. Above that. Its really, from a quality perspective, were the only ones using the certified additive free tequila.

Its 100% de agave tequila. Plenty of the brands in the US are using a mixto tequila cut with other sugar alcohol. So its very much from focusing on the quality of the ingredients and it adds a lot of costs, unfortunately. And so for us, selling is hard. Selling a product that's priced so far premium above what is a competitive set makes it like, even harder.

And the cool thing is we can back it up. But there's this notion of like, well, that's really expensive. Like, we've never seen something that expensive. But for us it's like, yes, but you've also never seen something that's made with this high end tequila in a can. So it makes us, the selling component even tougher.

Flick Moradian

But also, besides that, just being persistent definitely pays off. And that's probably something I learned at Morgan Stanley or any of the books that you read, like think and grow rich or all those books that are just basically, you get to the end and it's like, if you're just persistent, it works out, definitely. Is that. And Louie, for you, as not a sales guy, put into a sales position, what got you over the edge or what got you to a place where you're at least sustainable enough? Or I guess persistence.

Ethan Cole

But what helped get you through that persistence? Is it just be flick? Is it? I mean, flick is definitely more persistent than I am. People will say no to me.

Louis Pascal Walsh

And I think, I take it a little personally, but I think someone will be like, ah, yeah, we're not interested. And Flick will be like, okay. And then he'll come back like two days later and he'll just keep doing that until they say yes. And I'll just kind of, you know, I'm sad. I don't know.

I am sensitive, but I'm like, those people don't, why don't they want it? Like, I've worked so hard on designing some of the packaging, and so I think, I think it's a little, I have more creative background, and so I think that's, I think it makes me sensitive. And the sales are, sales are getting told no every day, like nonstop. And I think, and I'm getting better at it eventually. Just being like, no doesn't mean no.

It means no today, but doesn't mean no tomorrow. And like, that's been the biggest lesson, I think, for us in now having bigger conversations with chain retailers and stuff that are like, we're not interested. We now know that, like, okay, you're not interested today, but we're going to email you in two weeks and we're going to give you the update and maybe you'll be interested then. And just working every day towards building that kind of momentum to get those nos and to yeses. But yeah, that's incredible and thank you so much again, the people who are building, I think this is super inspirational and incredibly helpful for them.

Ethan Cole

So thanks. Thanks, fellow, for sharing with Smithos. We hope so, like sales 101.

You'Re doing great. I mean, it's done you guys well. I mean, you've broken to a really hard, really hard location, a really hard space, and you're doing it. So what's next to Kia? For us, we're focused on Southern California, honestly.

Louis Pascal Walsh

So we're just really this year's growth across Southern California. We want to make it a household kind of name. If you like tequila sodas and you're ordering them at the bar, this is kind of the drink for everywhere. When you're not at the bar and you want to have a similar cocktail, the same quality that you can expect at the bar. So for us, growing and making it more widely available, right now it's in like 50 independent liquor stores.

It's in erewhon, it's in total wine. But, like, we're launching in Whole Foods in about three to four weeks. That'll be big. And then just continuing with the other chain retailers, with Bristol Farms and lazy acres and stuff like that, to kind of make it more widely available. So the more stores you walk into, the higher the likelihood that you interface with our product and, yeah, then marketing, I think that's another big part of it, is just driving awareness for the brand.

That's kind of. That's what's next. That's the plan, at least. That's awesome. There's two fellows to make it happen.

Ethan Cole

I think it's you two right here. Yeah. So, groudiness, I mean, you did a good job, La, but we love to talk about your most La moment. I imagine doing as much boots on the ground, walking around as he goes, all right, you probably have one or two LA moments. Yeah, we definitely have a couple LA moments.

Flick Moradian

We run into. We do a lot of demos, so we run into celebrities all the time. We've had a lot. One off the top of my head is when Pierce Brosn came over to me and he was like my childhood hero because he's James Bond. He was super cool.

And he comes over and he was literally James Bond in real life. And he grabs it and tries it and he goes, good luck, mate. And just puts it back. And I was like, all right, thank. You maybe not the response you'd hope for, but yeah, the tastings are funny.

Louis Pascal Walsh

You see a lot of people, the longer you stand in stores, specifically air one, the more you see like an interesting crowd of people, celebrities mixed in. I think the one LA story we were, as a joke, but also kind of out of seriousness, we were like, what if Casamigos, Randy Gerber, George Clooney, they were the, with the big gurus of early tequila, blowing it up, marketing to the masses. And we were like, this is kind of the next evolution of costumigos in our mind. We're like, what if we try and get it in front of Randy Gerber? And so flick, like he mentioned, found the address and then the phone number, and we just, we were like, I mean, they're not gonna take a call or sit down with us.

At least we weren't able to yet. So we just dropped off a package. We dropped off like two cases at his house and we left like a note. That was a chat, essentially. We were like, we're challenging you to a game of pickleball, because we'd read that he really likes pickleball.

And we were like, we'll challenge you to a game of pickleball. If you win, we'll give you a lifetime supply of techio. And if we win, you'll take a coffee with us and you'll share your journey with, with the Casamigos and, like, your advice and, well, we haven't heard back yet. If you're listening, Randy. Yeah, you're still out there.

The offer's on the table, but that was pretty cool. I mean, La is, it's the only place you really have that opportunity. There's so many people and there's so much opportunity here that it's just like, it's hilarious. If you look around and take the opportunity to go jump on it, who knows what will happen? We just have to remind ourselves that every day.

Ethan Cole

That's awesome. Well, hey, thank you all for sharing. Appreciate the stories, appreciate the salesman in one flick. And Louie, it really has been great for folks here. Like to thank our sponsors again, nearshur and Unida.

I'd like to thank you all for listening to us. And if you like what you hear, please smash that subscribe button. Thanks again for joining us and we'll catch you next time on Founders in LA.