STORIES FROM A CHEEKY CAPITAL RAISE, PART ONE: "WHY DO YOU THINK THE OPPORTUNITY IS SO BIG?"
Please enjoy part one of this ongoing series on raising capital for my business, Cheeky. For questions/comments/requests to highlight a particular aspect of the journey, comment below or email me at [email protected] :)
INVESTOR QUESTION: WHY DO YOU THINK THE OPPORTUNITY IS SO BIG?
I’ve had some great conversations with investors recently, and more than one person has asked why I believed the opportunity for Cheeky’s products was so big, as no single player in the mixer space has “really blown up.”* The short version is that our products meet an actual need and our customers love us, but the longer answer is….well, longer.
The question got me thinking about how this all began. Flashback to early spring 2015. I had just left my Director of Trade Advocacy role for a small spirits brand, and decided whatever project I worked on next, I wanted it to meet a real need in the industry. I spent two months in a pseudo fugue state, thinking and writing, and listening and dreaming.
In March I emerged with a glimmer of an idea, and went on a crusade making, styling, and photographing “craft mocktails,” on Instagram.
Mid-March, Damon Bolte invited me on the Speakeasy podcast, we had a 30+ minute conversation on the topic, and you can hear us working though through the idea. I’m linking the episode here, as it’s fascinating to hear this knowing everything that has happened since.
I remember feeling like a leper going on a spirits industry podcast talking about drinks without spirits, but Damon was a gracious host, and agreed something should exist for the non-drinking occasion. (For context, Seedlip launched in fall of 2015, so at the time of the episode, there was no framework for non-alch spirits.)
By May 2015 I emerged thinking there were two major opportunities in the space
For anyone who has been following my/our journey for a while, you’d know I decided to work on the second option and took a several year detour launching Swig + Swallow and learning how to be an entrepreneur before launching Cheeky. You also likely know, dear reader, what has happened to the non-alch category, starting mere months later, in 2015.
领英推荐
I gut-check myself weekly on the strength of our hypothesis, and just as with non-alch cocktails, I am positive there’s a massive unmet need hovering just under the surface. Athletic Brewing referred to their business as “a Billion Dollar Opportunity Hidden in Plain Sight,” and that’s what I think we have here.
The conclusions I’ve come to with these conversations is that
a) True innovation has no historical precedence. Someone has to be first, and the fact that something hasn’t happened before does not mean that is can’t or won’t- literally all it means is you’re first. Think Airbnb,?Netflix, the iPod, and so many others. The ideas sounded ridiculous, until they weren't.
b) Pitching to industry experts (in my case) is one million times easier than to folks outside the industry. We all know the way people are socializing is changing, and industry experts see the pain points even if they can’t envision the solution.
c) Disbelief is a protective moat. We’ve made great progress in the capital raise, but like most raises, I have to find, vet, and pitch far more investors than I close. It isn’t ideal for a startup founder to spend a ton of time on things other than running the business, but in the mid to long term, the disbelief about the category will protect us against competitors…for a while.?
Until next time,
:)
April
*It turns out most people don’t know how large Fevertree is, for one, but that’s another story?
Excited to read!