How Pimentae Built a Cult Brand Without Ads w/ Wynter Karo || GTG S07E01

0:00We wanted to be an experience-led brand. Events for us whenever marketing spend to get eyeballs. We can't do marketing awareness as such a young brand. Everything needs to be kind of like revenue profit generating for us. So we were like, if we're going to activate at taste, we need to make this a destination that people love. They're not just coming here for one drink, like how can we make it super, super sticky? And this is where we built our cult-like community. And we could see that this was the most powerful customer acquisition tool that we could then use to drive people into our listings.

0:24Welcome back to Getting to Grow. Hello, Happy New Year. Thank you so much for tuning in to the latest episode and the newest season. If you're new here, welcome to Getting to Grow. This is the founder podcast chatting to the best founders in FMCG. If you aren't new, welcome back and I really hope that you enjoy all the episodes coming in 2026. Charlie is a three-time founding member of Startup Brands, taking each from 0 to 1 million within 18 months across different categories, channels and countries, including launching operations in the US and Australia. He is now the founder of Plugin Brands, an award-winning outsourced FMCG sales agency working with the fast-growth food and drink brands, and Dive-In Agency, a tick-top shop agency helping brands turn social commerce into real revenue.

1:10With a background in go-to market strategy, brand development and distribution through retail and wholesale channels, there isn't any one better place to help you supercharge your brand. Charlie and the Plugin Brands team work with a host of brands, including Moju, Muller, Clipper T, Who Gives a Crap and Lovecorn. So if you're in need of an extra pair of hands to really step on your growth this year, Charlie is the guy you need to be in touch with. Sam Lawrence Recruitment. We all know that finding the right people or the right job can feel really overwhelming and that's exactly where Sam comes in.

1:44He really just gets it. It's not just about ticking boxes. It's about connecting the right people with the right opportunities. He takes the time to understand you and exactly what you're looking for, whether you're building a team or taking that next career leap. So definitely get in touch. Trust me, you'll be glad you did. Getting to Grow is also brought to you by the Coconut Collab. And full disclosure, as I'm sure most of you are aware, I work there. So I know how much love goes into everything that we make. We're all about creating delicious just dairy-free plant-based treats that do not compromise on taste.

2:15From our creamy yogurts to our indulgent desserts, everything's made with coconuts and a whole lot of care. If you're looking for something naturally good but seriously tasty, and my favourite is just our natural coconut yoghurt, I have it most mornings with granola and lots of honey. Trust me, you're going to absolutely love it. Welcome back to another episode of Getting to Grow. On this week's episode, we have Winta Caro. who's the co-founder of Pimente, which are the most amazing tequila can cocktails out there that you guys can get your hands on. Welcome. Thank you for having me. I'm so excited to have you here.

2:48It's gorgeous. I love it. Your energy, everything. Amazing. Yay. Well, firstly, massive, massive congratulations on your round of investment. Thank you. Honestly, nine months of blood, sweat, tears. It honestly drains the soul out of you, but it's also the most exhilarating thing in the world kind of being able to announce it to the world it's very validating really yeah and what was that process like so we're at a position now in our business where we're at an inflection point where we're starting to scale we've got some really exciting names on the cap table which i think naturally means you've got the credibility you've kind of got the commercial listings behind you so we've got the waitrose british airways co-op all of those guys so it's all about i guess finding the right investors and i guess the macro climate for investment is a lot more challenging this year people are more prudent with where they're spending money vcs are focusing on profitability over growth and things like that so it's navigating a lot more conversations to find the diamonds who you want to kind of be on your cap table because i guess we always say our shareholders are a reflection of the business and know is the most defining thing sometimes so it's an arduous process for sure but landing on the investors that we have for this round i can't even tell you where we've got the best backers it's really it's so exciting and where are the funds going to be spent so this year is really exciting so we're absolutely in scale mode which means that we're expanding into retail so a huge amount of that will go into activating those listings from like a trade marketing digital out of home point of view we're doing a lot in eu at the moment so we've got our first pallets landing in ibiza amazing a q4 launch into the netherlands which is really really exciting nice and just kind of building out those case studies of how Pumente can work in other markets before we go further afield.

4:34We're growing out our team of seven, hopefully 12, by the end of the year as well. So we're in the process of bringing on new talent, which is epic because seven human beings might seem like a lot, but it's really not at all. And then new product development as well. We want to be famous for one thing, which is tequila cocktails. And with that comes MPD. And we've only got four flavors at the moment, which is spicy, Tommy's, cucumber and grapefruit. And we've got two more in the mix, which are coming soon. So fun. Now you mentioned something interesting just then about scaling. And I read a quote the other day, which really like hit home.

5:04And it was like, I'd rather scale too quick than sit still. Yes. And I totally agree. I think the scariest thing in life is sitting still. And I like you am a doer and a go getter. So if I'm not, if I'm not moving, it's terrifying. I couldn't agree more. And I think similarly to you, I'm a salesperson. And I think it's It's born in your DNA to have this kind of like fire inside you where you feel this guilt and almost like a little bit of shame if you're not constantly pushing the business forward. And if you're in a really, really small team, you are the only people shifting the dial. If I don't wake up and like do those outreach emails, if I don't like physically go and hound people face to face, like the work's not getting done.

5:44And as you scale the business and you go from one person to two to seven, the same mindset has to still be instilled with how you grow the business. whilst you've got that momentum, you have to strike hot, which is why hopefully like over LinkedIn, you can see that we are always doing so many different things in every single channel. So we can really build that relationship with the consumer and continue to scale, build those relationships, rate of sale and retail, get all of those listings. And ultimately that's how we've got to a place where we can now start looking further afield to markets like the EU, because we're kind of growing our blueprint in the UK so quickly now, which is so exciting.

6:14But like you say, you need to shoot while people are speaking about you, otherwise you become irrelevant really, really. And what would you say has been your biggest challenge to date with Pimento? You know what? It's definitely the operation side of things. So the really unique thing I guess about our proposition is we offer all of our RTD cocktails in multiple formats. So that's 20 litre kegs, 5 litre bag and box, 50 CL bottles and 125 milk cans. And anyone would think that there was a manufacturer out there who did it all in like a centralised hub. but for the last four years we've had three different manufacturers we've had to manufacture half of our products in two different places which means getting all of our ingredients blended in different places which brings liquid consistency issues and that's been really really challenging because we've always wanted to create this unique halo effect with our consumers and have products in every single sales channel so bars pubs planes restaurants trains and with that comes different formats and it's always been something that we've done since year one of launching the business so being able to streamline our supply chain and operations to manage our forecasts our cash flow growing all of these channels with huge retail accounts it's been a really difficult process to navigate we've now got a head of ops which is unbelievable who can help us manage all things start to finish supply chain forecasting cash flow which is epic but getting to that point has been really really challenging and time consuming yeah i think you don't think about everything that goes into it as a consumer you know you walk down the supermarket aisle or you go out for dinner and you have your cocktail you have no idea how that initially started and got there so like the operation stuff if you if you can't get that right your whole business doesn't work 100 it's the foundations that underpin the whole business if you now thankfully we've got a manufacturer that in-house is everything for us it just saves so much on your cost of goods as well because as you well know if you're not in a positive margin situation you can't scale your business you can't showcase a path of profitability and your supply chain can literally single-handedly turn a margin like accretive product into dilutive which is not what anyone wants yeah no way and going back to the beginning what were you doing before so corporate jungle so I was at IBM I did a placement year at IBM for a year whilst I was at the University of Leeds graduated and went on to the commercial graduate scheme at Sky and I did my grad scheme and commercial propositions so everything from commercial trading, strategy, digital propositions so my whole role was essentially building business cases to launch commercially viable products and then working with every single function of the business from like finance, legal, marketing, go-to-market strategy so all super transferable to what I'm doing now.

8:59I mean like so transferable wow. Yes I loved it but so many parts of me whilst I was there were constantly asking myself like is this it like it didn't feel purpose-led or meaningful and I would walk into work some days and I was I can remember just like so viscerally thinking when I would walk through the gates of sky being like is this it like I'm good at it I can do it but am I fulfilled is this like what I'm meant to be doing and whilst I will never ever regret that I think it was a perfect stepping stone for me to realize exactly where I didn't want to be in order to self-eject and throw myself into this I think actually that sometimes really you know people might not know where they want to go what they want to do but if you if you know what you don't want to do that's also really really really helpful I always say this to people it's equally as valid figuring out what you don't like and I think anyone who tells you they've left university and they know exactly what they want to do is a liar you need to move around so much to figure out what that thing is that like sparks fire in your belly is it like sales is it being client facing is it the numbers and a lot of people get pigeonholed down I don't know whether it's like a corporate job or maybe also they might jump straight into the startup life and they don't try enough they don't move enough and some people get comfortable and they settle but we have one life it's so full of diversity why would you settle for anything ever ever literally don't settle absolutely not genuinely that's terrifying the thought of settling no like the word settling coasting anything where people are just like uncomfortable it terrifies me no you mustn't you always have to be like a little bit terrified a little bit anxious because it shows you care and like that's the fire that will fuel you to continue that journey of self-growth feel the fear and do it anyway exactly exactly that and it feels weird but you're like when you come out the other side it's like yes yeah hi also the more you do it the less scary it does become and I remember going to a um uh an event at the net and seeing the amazing lady who runs fuck being humble oh my god yes and I just thought yeah fuck being humble like don't do that because you then just go with everyone else you're then just a sheep in a field like be the black sheep don't be humble about it be like no I am good at this I'm going to go and get it 100 yeah I want this and like show people if people don't know you're not telling the world people don't know you're good at it and I think unfortunately like women have been brought up in a space where if we do that we're seen as arrogant or whereas men it's like you're super successful whereas if we shout about our wins we've been taught to kind of be a little bit like quietly humble but ultimately to what you said like if you think the same as everybody else you're going to get the same outcomes and I think this is the most powerful thing and any role any startup just like it's just such a good mindset and philosophy to have in everything you do whether it be relationships or your job like it's not saying go out and like start your own business and do something that no one else has I just think it's a philosophy that you should carry with you everywhere and always celebrate yourself yeah always no matter how big or how small no one else is gonna do it no totally agree if you don't like you're your own best like self what's the word self like um cheerleader yeah yeah exactly you're kind of your own hype woman amen every day like when I wake up in the morning I'm always like I've become like a little bit of a morning journaler but I'm just there like three things that like I'm fucking killing this yeah just write it down yeah it really does solidify in your mind like I am so worthy actually I'm above and I'm going to skip to work as a result of this because you just need to remind yourself no one else is doing it.

12:23And I think that's what we need to instill in other women as well. It's so important. Yeah. Oh my gosh. Highlight and echo everything you said. Underline it and bold it and italic it and like, you know, you make something on a sheet. Like that is what I've just done and everything you've just said. So you started in 2021? Yes. With Alice. With Alice. So how do you know Alice? So me and Alice went to the University of Leeds together, lived together in our final year at uni. always been really really close friends but there was never any talk of starting a business at university it's very much something that we just slipped and fell into.

12:53And why tequila? So myself and Alice actually traveled around Mexico with each other I think it was during our second year of university and we actually realized it's this incredibly complex and sophisticated liquid when balanced correctly not something to be shot but something to be sipped and savored and we realized that there was this incredibly negative perception of tequila in the UK, fuelled by our shock culture. I also think the Sierra tequila bottle with the red sombrero hat, everyone just rolls their eyes and thinks to a night they'd rather forget. And little do people know. I can relate to that one.

13:26And guilty as charged for feeling that once upon a time. And I guess we realise that people don't understand that tequila is triple distilled, it's the cleanest spirit, it's made from the agave plant, not sugar and grain as other spirits are. and we really wanted to help people rewrite their tequila story we also had the foresight of having this awareness that the UK is only ever like three to four years behind the US in terms of trends tequila's the most sold spirit out there ahead of vodka and whiskey and we wanted to get our foot in the door before it exploded and people were drinking so house picante the whole time it was hot it was just like tequila was like the talk of the town it still kind of is like absolutely yeah it's here right I was gonna say like tequila has not it's still the drink of choice like speaking of Soho House and I think you're right they they they are they are in my head when I go to her house like everyone's drinking a picante like do they make yeah that is their house serve right and like it is delicious and I really love it like I genuinely enjoy sipping it and being there and then you've got your spicy mark so how do you infiltrate Soho House how do you get that off and you in so really interestingly soho house whilst it is the epicenter of all things aspirational and this kind of they just like ooze cool lifestyle led cool bold brand that very much aligns with what we're doing our product and their product like we would cannibalize their product they have now moved from making it from scratch to making their own in-house rtds so i don't think there are that i don't think there's a collaboration to be had maybe one day like in-house in room farmhouse that kind of vibe but their picante and our spicy margarita are one and the same so there are always bad channels and there have been conversations had but it's not on the top of our list hit list despite the fact there is a lot of alignment in terms of brand yeah because there's another brand isn't there called picante yeah set up by jude and sam yes clothing brand yes but then they brought out the RTDs which I bought in lockdown I want to say but then you got like they were quite cool branded I don't think they've done another drop or I don't remember seeing it although I think he did take it to Glastow a couple of weeks ago and I remember seeing it because I saw it on his story and I was like ooh how did he get that yeah so when these guys launched I thought like really cool I love their clothes I've actually met Sam a couple of times as well and I think they actually it was really interesting I was on their Instagram and they'd actually what's the word like patented the name yeah picante before soho house had and there had been this whole like uh wow because they had the original patent for the word picante which soho house were using for their drink which obviously enabled to them call their product that otherwise there would have been a huge kind of trademarking issue but um i've actually tried their spicy marks they're great the only thing with them is i think they're made out of um fresh lime juice which means they've only got like a shelf life of a couple of weeks right um And ours don't have fresh lime juice in them.

16:24So they've got a shelf life of 12 months, which means they're kind of like more retail ready and aligned to what we want to do. And that's obviously a huge part of scaling a brand. You need to have that shelf life. Yeah, for sure. Otherwise, no one, you know this very well, obviously. Like if you're the lower the shelf life, the less likely people are to list your product. Yeah, it's really hard when you're working. Yeah, absolutely. Especially if you're working with like 15 days sometimes. Yeah, no, that's a lot. We even, people are like, oh, 12 months, is that it? So I can only imagine 15 days.

16:49Yeah. But no, Kante's a really cool brand. They like what they're doing The clothing brand's great You're marrying two lifestyle-led products It's a lifestyle People are buying into that That feeling The aesthetic They associate it with being cool Speaking of lifestyle and cool Yes Every single event I've been at this summer You guys have had a stand And you're always the stand With the most music and people dancing Yes I love it So I saw you at Chesterton's Pulling the pot Yes I then was at Taste To be fair They're the only two events I've been to this summer We've got Henley this week as well Henley this week are you guys in the um carla so vip area carla right so which used to be mahiki i was gonna say okay interesting because i went last year um and i had such a fun but unfortunately i'm not going this summer but i know gutted i could i could still kind of go i haven't really thought about my weekend plans yet tickets my love if you'd like some spare okay yes let's talk about that i would love some tickets on saturday let's go yeah i'm going so are you okay fun um and then um like you guys have smashed brand and this is something that I see a lot with brands and founders that come on the podcast is they have an amazing product like it genuinely is phenomenal like they've they've the taste is amazing um but their marketing and obviously I I can't quite say I don't think that's where because also I'm not a marketer or brand expert so also it's just like opinion of one over here but there's sometimes you think oh you could do so much more with this so much potential but like you guys are also selling that lifestyle like if I have a can of pimenti I'm sat there like yeah this is quite cool like you're sat there being like I could bring a vibe today because I've got this in my hand so talk to me about like the process I know this is Alice's bag as we spoke about just before we came on the pod but like speak to me about the branding and making your your entire brand this like lifestyle and people want to pick you up so really interestingly I think the fact that myself and Alice had zero experience in the alcohol space and coming into it with a blank canvas but you knew how to have a bloody good time exactly I think it was almost this blind optimism and we weren't kind of shackled down by pre-misconceptions of what an alcohol brand should look like on shelf how they should activate all of these other things because in my eyes when we had launched Pimenti the alcohol space was ruled by like market incumbents like the Diageo, Perna, Ricard, all of these kinds of guys a little bit like commercial and clinical and soulless so we knew exactly how we didn't want to show up and we had also created a product that we were marketing to our own demographic and we knew exactly what we wanted to feel and I think people in our generation they buy into moments to connect and experience their things we're not just buying a product on a shelf it's about how it makes you feel how it makes you look what's that elevated sense of lifestyle and I think Taste London's a really good example of where we really learned that we wanted to be an experience-led brand.

19:38So events for us, whenever marketing spend to get eyeballs, like I honestly just like do roll my eyes sometimes when people are like, it's great marketing awareness. I'm like, we can't do marketing awareness as such a young brand. Everything needs to be kind of like revenue profit generating for us. So we were like, if we're going to activate at Taste, we need to make this a destination that people love. They're not just coming here for one drink, like how can we make it super, super sticky? And that's where we've got the branded VW wrapped in our artwork. we got DJ Willie G who was one of our friends at the time Tunde the saxophonist the 360 ratan bar and we were like this is where I would stay for seven hours and not leave like we're teleporting you to a beach in Mexico and this is where we built our like cult-like community and we could see that this was the most this was the most powerful customer acquisition tool that we could then use to drive people into our listings but it also allowed us to create this aspirational lifestyle-led like look and feel where people weren't just buying into the product they were like I'm gonna buy Pimenti because I'm remembering when the sun was going down at taste listening to the sax and that's where this whole immersive IP rich brand world came into play and that's where we were like this is where the money's at because everything out there everything at taste was so commercial and so clinical people just handing out samples and we have the music and we have the vibe and that's intangible you can't put a price on that and that's where the brand affinity builds and you can't shortcut that and that's why for the last four years we're at 40 events and festivals every single year and it's not just for eyeballs they're all revenue generating allows people to interact with the product and the brand and that's where we've built the cult-like community in the following and it's been the most powerful thing we call it our armor because no one has quite been able to replicate that magic and I think it's because it's so authentic and how we build it and it's something that Alice has done phenomenally well she is activation queen she is just all over the visuals I'm there in the background doing the numbers like yes we can do the swim and then also they're dancing and drinking I was gonna say also enjoying it and am I right I think I saw on LinkedIn that someone put a grand behind the bar yes this is wild so somebody said that they were having such an amazing time and they loved the mug so much that they were just going to put a thousand pounds behind the bar and that was the equivalent of 100 margs so willie our dj announced like a very kind anonymous stranger has put a gram behind the bar and i was just like this fills my cup so much because you know who it was um the the the team have his name fine um but he was just like a lovely man just going about his day being like i'm having the best time here and i want everyone who hasn't had a marg to have one because i'm obsessed with your spicy margaritas He needs to be an investor.

22:11We've got his details. I'm all over it. I was going to say, he's clearly your number one fan. Exactly. You can't buy that obsession of your product. He had it and you didn't even ask, right? And it's such a reaffirming energy to have because I'm like, those are the moments. Those are the moments we're trying to create. Yeah. And what is your favorite margarita? Okay. So before we launched our grapefruit, spicy through and through. Like, I'm a spicy margarita girl. but the grapefruit margarita honestly just does something to me it is just so refreshing it smells so good it honestly just makes me want to just cause chaos I have one of those and I also just think I'm not sure if you have this but because I drink so much tequila I'm very aware of like the level of buzzed slash drunk it gets me and it's such a like happy clean drunk versus like a wine origin that's kind of like I'm already hung over half an hour later so the grapefruit it just it smells good it looks good I feel good it's just it's my favorite wait what's yours because I recently sent you you did thank you very much um spicy yeah yeah I I don't know whether that's subconscious of like having so many picantes that's probably like ingrained in me to like spicy mug but when I I think you're right I actually associate having a spicy mug with also a good time so I don't know whether I'm like they're like oh I like this because of this the classical conditioning your body's like oh yeah but I do I do love it but the grapefruit one is delicious maybe I need to have a few more to really understand it a couple more it doubles as a paloma if you dash a little bit of soda into it so it's a versatile one okay nice nice she can do a lot they can do a lot and your packaging yes so speaking about the artwork yes okay so again when we launched Plemente we wanted to make sure that the aesthetic and the label was unlike anything on shelf again I thought everything was like quite commercial and soulless that was on shelf at the time and we use our labels as a blank canvas to tell the story of the ingredients the feelings that we want to evoke in people and the process is really beautiful it's so collaborative so me and alice will start by like collaging imagery that we love so for example if you take spicy you can see frida carlo on there you've got the jim adores it kind of it tells the story of the ingredients but also like the bold heritage and the kind of that feeling that we want to evoke in people and we'll collage it we'll get a graphic designer to kind of put the pieces closer together just to make it look a little bit more succinct than myself or Alice can and then we have an artist who will then take the collage and then we'll hand paint it herself we will then digitize that and then we can wrap it around the labels but for us it's all about storytelling we want people to look at the labels and be like okay like what's going on here and like every single time you look at it it tells a new story or there's a new layer for you to uncover which is why the collage element of it is so important but yeah we love the fact that there's a narrative the front and back label are very different and it takes you on a journey and I think it's really magical I love it I'd love to wrap a sofa in it um so honestly you need a pimento house robes curtains swimsuits we're just about to do a launch um of some new merch which has a lot of pimento wrap all over it you need to get like Tash Oakley and Dev and do like a Monday swimwear could you imagine oh or Hunza or would Hunza work because it's all stretchy it might crinkle a bit but you get the drift you need to do like something oh my god or like a pimento house like the cushions the poofs are all like covered in pimento like I think it would just work so well like from an interior lead point which is why this is why like the lifestyle aesthetic point is so wonderful because it filters into so many different avenues where people are like from drink to this to this to this and being able to have the like a luxury of being able to expand into those avenues is great for brand partnerships yeah for sure oh it is like I love it and how do you tackle so obviously working in alcohol you're obviously drinking a lot of alcohol but I'm assuming also that you're you know into wellness and trying to stay how do you balance the kind of a lot of alcohol with the wellness girly aesthetic too so I have been really good at setting boundaries for myself in the week so like Monday to Thursday I'm like don't look at me don't touch me like I'm a clean queen yes exactly I've got my third space membership I'm doing my spin classes my cold plunges just it's so important because I think you need to you actually need to be in the right headspace if you're going to be running a business and fundraising at the same time whilst hiring whilst doing a million and 12 other things um festival season is a different story because I have to be at Taste London I have to be at Henley and those events are from like Wednesday to Sunday you need to be there to like meet with your buyers you meet potential investors there and like it's always a difficult balance because like I'm wanting to drink and enjoy myself but I have always told myself that you don't I don't know like I personally have never put a barrier around myself in viewing drinking negatively like I'm quite good on hangovers luckily like tequila also doesn't drive hangovers so we've kind of if you drink menti all night I won't feel unwell but it's about boundaries it's saying no saying yes to something else in my eyes like I'm the first person to be like if I don't want to do something on Thursday with the girls I'm just like no and I don't need to give you a reason why if I'm being honest like no is no and that is that and we're very respectful of that like we're all older now when we were younger I think there was that FOMO but I'm like oh I don't I don't have the FOMO anymore I just uh I don't know my head needs to be in the game but it's all about the balance and I think we've we've mastered it and we're very lucky that we see it as a chore that our biggest kind of issue might be having to find a time to have a day off from having an amazing day out at the likes of henley or james yeah sorry don't think that's something yeah i mean like in the grand yeah it's not um but yeah i think it is really important and i'd rather i know and it is really hard but i do and i'm probably going to get some comments on this comment now but i think like if you want to do something you make time for it so in the sense of like yes you might have a really hectic day but like I knew I had to be in this area this morning where we're recording today but I don't live here this is a location but I wanted to exercise and need to wash my hair that's quite like a bit of time that I need so I yeah so I was like right I'm gonna go up a half five it's not I don't want to but like yes of course I can sleep and there are days where of course you do need that sleep and that is also super important but oh I'm tired sometimes like come on yes when you genuinely are you take that time but when you're around like come on you can do it so it's just like making that time or how do you exercise how do you do it all you fit it in if you want to get it done you fit it in and there's also I think a part of us that just operates an autopilot it's like get shit done don't complain like you need to go you need to do xyz and you're just like it's very yeah like I knew what my week was when I started it like I always know what my week is before I start it and like I mentally prepare myself yeah I fit in what I can and if I can't I don't beat myself myself up absolutely we're human at the end of the day like for sure an influencer kind of strategy and marketing has um a lot of pros um like you know they genuinely are incredible influencers i'm totally influenced by influencers all the time how important is that to you at pimenti when we first launched integral now not really so much a part of our strategy um i can tell you more about launch though because i love this story and i think it's you launched with 30 launch for 30 yeah so a week before we launched pimento myself and alice reached out to like lots of incredible influencers and celebrities so like maya jammer grace beverly conor maynard michelle keegan we went with a strap line if you like cantis you'll love this and these are guys that we knew were drinking them and also it was march 2021 like people needed content people were locked in their homes they were a lot more open to these brand partnerships no payment just totally organic outreach created these beautiful bespoke hampers with a pimento bottle like a red wax candle fairy lights so you could upcycle the bottle you name it it was just the most aggressively instagrammable thing like you could not not put this on instagram we hand delivered all 30 parcels between myself alice and her brother and when we were driving home we started seeing people posting and the shopify notifications coming through long story short 30 out of 30 all posted on launch day paired with the fact that all of our friends were kind of like reposting on Instagram we had so many people messaging us like what agency have you got to do this like global marketing campaign for you like it's wild like it's everywhere like we can't not see it and we were like fuck like the power of social media we sold our first 1 ,400 bottles in two weeks we did about 20k in revenue a couple of weeks later Sarah Ashcroft posted it again because she's a spicy margarita girl he absolutely loved it and that allowed us to bootstrap the business and it really put us on the map because we had all of these eyeballs on us we had some really influential cool people that we really wanted to be associated with the brand drinking the product I mean do I think that strategy would work now absolutely not five years later there's so little I guess like a trust in that space now but then amazing and yeah it was one of the reasons paired with events that we were able to bootstrap the business for 18 months yeah influencers are like they have it's interesting now like the shift that you've seen and how it's all like that authenticity like that's what wins and if you are gifted something it's like you have to put gifted now you didn't have to do that before so like that has changed that landscape at all and like people speaking into their camera is way more what sells than you know a picture oh I got sent this because people don't really engage with static posts as much it's more like reels and kind of video content so yeah it's uh it's like a world out there social media in terms of how you do market online constantly have to evolve and the marketing girls emma and alice they are constantly just playing this like a non-stop dance with what's allowed what's not allowed especially with alcohol you can't promote alcohol and tiktok what's engaging with consumers it's a constant game of pivoting changing ads is a lifestyle led as a product like is it ugc led like it's wild it's all just test and learn evolve and be reactive which we can do because we're a small team but my god it's a lot of work for them yeah that's when i'm grateful to be the numbers girl yeah and i'm like i don't have to do that that's not my bag um and you spoke about your retail listings earlier so you are listed in um waitrose ocado co-op oaxaca fire burger gatwick airport um british airways in flight we've got over a thousand listings in the uk which is epic and if there was one listing that you would like oh my god turn around tomorrow and go please take our product who would it be sainsbury's okay and in conversations yes nice we have incredible like and i'm so proud of it we've got the most incredible rate of sale data our spicy margarita is the second most sold margarita in uk grocery on a unit rate of sale category weighted basis which is a mouthful sorry wow um but it sells so so so well and this is from a brand who's only been around for a couple of years we don't have the budget for out of home campaign which is why the events and liquid on lips is so important for us but the spicy mark is just flying paired with all of our other flavors as well right of sale is great but the spicy mark is just the case study speak for itself so yeah I feel like Waitrose has always been our North Star and it's the gatekeeper to land the rest of National Grocery and the case studies off the back of it are just incredible so yeah pressing all fingers definitely and you Waitrose do that do they still do that festival yeah they do are you guys there so they've got a summer one and then they've got the winter one and last year we we were the only brand within the whole of waitrose that had that like a brand room and i think it's because we've become known for kind of being able to create these incredible atmospheres with our communities and we took over it was maybe like i don't know like the size of that outfit area over there and just oceans of people enjoying our mags and it's amazing that when you see it challenge your brands in that way because you've got so many like you've got casamigos like all of this kind of stuff and we were the only one who got branded room which was epic so another another proud moment to have such an incredible retailer champion and see everything we're doing and how we show up yeah and tequila and working in kind of alcohol you know there's a lot of films isn't there with tequila and it's all like cartel-y and it's all scary Mexico drug what is it actually like to work in tequila so tequila is the most protected spirit it's not like a gin or a vodka where you can distill it in your back garden there are so many nuances certifications exams so many loopholes that you have to navigate through to even be able to sell tequila import tequila it's just it's crazy but it's such a small space everybody in the tequila space knows everybody just in terms of like the bulk tequila that you can import we haven't had the luxury of going to our distillery yet we're really hoping at the end of the year we can go there and kind of like build those relationships ourselves because in Mexico with distilleries I would say the best relationships and the best kind of path of scalability with tequila brands comes from building those relationships face to face but it's it's definitely we haven't had any experiences where it's the cartel or like danger vibes or anything like that it's protected it's difficult to work with that's why there aren't a lot of brands solely focusing on tequila which is where I learned high barriers to entry.

35:16A lot of people will have to work very hard to kind of get into the space that we're in. But it's an incredible liquid and it's why so many celebrities are launching tequila brands. Like there's such a hot spotlight on it at the moment for so many reasons. Just, I love, I mean, I love working in the alcohol space, but tequila namely, I think it's such a, we're only at the start of its growth trajectory in the UK. So I can't wait to see how much it scales and grows. And we want to be the gatekeeper of that growth for sure. And does all tequila come from Mexico? yes there are 15 places in mexico that you can essentially distill tequila okay and it's all comes from an agave plant so like vodka for example that will come from a grain neutral grain spirit things like that so that's why tequila is the cleanest of all spirits because it comes from an agave plant basically salad basically one of your fiber day basically healthy would advise drinking one shot for breakfast lunch and dinner exactly perfect sold pour on complex exactly i do delicious i've been doing it wrong this whole time yeah literally hang on get just get the get it straight is that something you guys might eventually like kind of look into when it comes to mpd down the line it's like obviously your rtd at the moment but would there be a like a pimenti tequila i mean we never say never right now the focus is owning the tequila rtd category and as you've probably seen rtd is becoming very saturated like casamigos have just launched their RTD because they know it's just the most in-demand format it's convenience led it's premium like it allows you to scale your business a lot more effectively the I guess the price point for entry is a lot lower as well but I think if we get to a place where we can really grow our footprint in the way that we want to across the UK and the EU and some other international markets and we've got this incredible brand identity never say never say never because it It feels like a natural next step, but for now, the immediate focus is owning tequila RTD.

37:12So that's kind of what's next for you guys. It's owning RTD, more flavors in the kind of same format. Yes, exactly. We've got all the different formats. It's just about bringing out all of the new flavors. So when people think margarita, we want Pimenté to be the household margarita name. I always say we've got so many competitors in the space who are amazing and smashing what they're doing. but in my eyes if for example I hurt my back I go to the chiropractor if I want a piece of meat I go to the butcher if I want a margarita I want to go to the margarita tequila specialists rather than like another cocktail brand kind of like generalists and they're doing everything and I'm like okay cool but we just want to be famous for one thing we want to be specialists yeah in margaritas yeah absolutely I love that my whole world rolls around margaritas I think also like when you own your niche and you do that really really well you know you always think of like your path and like your customer and once you if you've always got them in mind exactly of what your kind of purpose is you don't stray off and do be a jack of all trades like this is what I do well I'm staying in my lane we don't want to be everything to everyone we want to be known for one thing we want to be famous for one thing we have a laser focused strategy our strategy and all of our sales channels are very much centered on being famous for tequila cocktails and don't get me wrong there are some places that are like oh it would be so much easier if you had like a full range and we're like cool we're just not for you then like I don't know like it just makes so much sense to me like why would you have five okay products versus having the specialist take every single line like the beer specialist the margarita specialist I don't know the espresso martini specialist like that's how you curate something truly truly special rather than being like we'll just be okay at everything it's not a philosophy that we've ever or that I've ever personally understood I agree actually I think it's good when you know your niche you're staying in it and going this is what i'm known this is what i want to be known for and forbes 30 under 30 that's insane tell me more about that honestly so my god what goals i this has been on this has been on the list for a while and i never wanted to be somebody who like craves that external validation but this is like the one you know when you kind of like post an instagram photo and you're like oh external validation Yeah, yeah, a lot of strangers.

39:24But this is honestly such a milestone because you push water up a hill for years and years and years when you're running a business. You're constantly told that nine out of 10 businesses fail. You've got so many naysayers, so many haters, so many investors who are like, we don't believe in your proposition or any of these kinds of things. So to be amidst the incredible list of founders who have landed Forbes 30 under 30, it just kind of it's just so much recognition of what we've built. and it was only myself and Alice for the first two and a half years and now we've been around for four and a half and we've got a team of seven and all of our successes in the Forbes 30 under 30 is a reflection of the wider team as well I just happen to be the only one who's still under 30 Alice is also I love that Forbes put in brackets like over 30 now you may as well have just been like old in capital but it's it's so rewarding to have all of the hard work are called out in that way and it's such a huge milestone as well like we've worked so hard we've fundraised when two percent of VC backing goes to women we've got some of the most epic names on our cap table we've landed some of the best grocers and it's only it's only the beginning so it yeah my my cup was very full after receiving that news it was it was definitely on the list for a while it is mental that only two percent of funding VC funding goes to women it is actually mind honestly it's two percent it's it's crazy and then you see like government policy trying to come into place where they're trying to increase the salary threshold for angel investors who are able to put money into businesses and that's the only source of capital that women can rely on sometimes because vcs aren't looking at us so for them to say you have to have a salary of 250 000 to be an angel investor when they full well know that the average bracket for females is 150 ,000.

41:13It's just like, why are we making this so challenging? And it's a systemic barrier. Like it's ingrained in us from all the way from school where we're not giving the toolkit to be able to have the confidence or the autonomy to go to market and be able to fundraise or even start a business. Like even when I think back to my experience at university, so little about fundraising, so little about starting a business, you have to kind of opt onto them as elective modules. And it's like, why are we pigeonholing people from university to go into corporate jobs? don't get me wrong I think there is absolutely a space for that and there are some people who thrive in those environments and it's great but there is no spot like I couldn't even have told you the name of three startups when I was at university if I didn't land Sky or IBM or Deloitte in my eyes I was conditioned to think I was a failure so it's nuts that it is such a systemic barrier and it's absolutely something that needs to change yeah it is it does you're right about schooling and I think it needs to start young because I do I do think kids especially if you are in academic school and you're surrounded by a lot of academic kids and you don't end up at a Deloitte or a Goldman or an IBM or whatever it is you can totally think that you're a failure and it's like not the case and I think the school system's odd because only from personal experience but like I'm not like a I am academic but I was never in like top set top set I'm not like that kind of academic but I was totally business minded and I knew that was for me and yeah completely I was always like chatting on and like constantly like distracting others and like always always in my like report was like she's very distracting and my dad was like that is her like we can't shut her up at home like she's not going to come to school and be quiet so like what tell me like what like that's not a bad thing like let's look at how she can I just remember my parents being so fed up of being told that I was just chatty because like yeah she's a child and she's enthusiastic about stuff like that's not that bad um the classic box of what they want to be that exemplary student who does xyz it's such a tick box thing school always is those yeah but I think it needs to start in education there should be more modules I did business for a level but But back then business was, oh, you cop out A-level because it's like, you know, business.

43:09But actually, like, I'm glad I did that A-level because actually that's what's helped me versus like doing a living in maths or geography that, oh, actually, geography is amazing actually. But I could have never done math. Like my brain just didn't work like that. 100%. And I think the issue with school and university is there is a huge gap between theory and practice. Like, don't get me wrong, very useful knowing Maslow's hierarchy of needs. That's the only thing I remember, Maslow. We need shelter to survive. I'm with you. but thanks for saying them bloody obvious and I think honestly I learned more in my first year than I did on my two and a half graduate grad scheme at Sky I'm working at IBM because like learning is practice and you need to be in these impossible situations where like and this is also where I think your brain created problem solving that is something you can't teach and this is something so so so powerful you have those solutions oriented people who when the impossible is placed in front of you you're like okay cool here is the way out and falling back on like theory and like all of this stuff that you're taught at school and like cell membranes and photosynthesis it's just like we actually need to put people in real situations where they're going to be able to like grow their mindset and skill give them the autonomy and the ability to lead give them the opportunities because i think this is the thing i think people are scared to make the jump because we don't have the toolkit and we were never told that it's okay and that's why people settle and they're comfortable coasting in what they know which is kind of like that corporate life and it sucks because I'm surrounded by so many of my friends now who amazingly are seeing that people can launch a business without having like I went to the same university as you it's just kind of having that tenacity and fire in your belly and there are so many people who are now launching their own businesses which I think is epic but it's also a really sad reminder that it's taken like nine years of confidence from leaving uni to be able to go oh actually this is possible why is that not instilled earlier like why are we not empowered to do that from a younger age I think it's the most powerful tool being able to raise money being able to get venture funds syndicates family offices being able to extract money from them being able to understand the financial infrastructure of a business or different equity mechanics to raise being able to grow a team how to interview someone like why didn't we get to all that at school it like blows my mind that some of the stuff that I'm doing now is the first time I've done it and I'm 29 it's so important we should all have the tools to be able to think I've had an idea let me go out and execute it but we don't and it sucks yeah it is so frustrating I feel like I just don't know how you like how where do you start where do you start because yeah but that's why I think a placement at university was really beneficial for me because I went out to the workforce and actually understood and theory was done you know I put the books back and I was like right let's go do life exactly and that's where you learn and that's where you know how to build those relationships what like how you become a manager all of these kinds of people skills that you can't get taught in a textbook and people just like you say I think it's just like stepping into the discomfort a little bit more and you can just like unlock so much potential like so many people have so much more to give yeah it makes me so excited when I hear anyone who's got an idea I'm like tell me everything let's get it down on a piece of paper yeah let's learn these are tangible steps for like how you can do that and you don't need loads of money and you don't need an agency you don't need any of this stuff like we can be very savvy with very little yeah it's amazing what one can do when they really really like dig deep and want it for sure and if pimento was a person what would they i mean i'm assuming it's you like i'm seeing you and like you are pimento but if you were to describe pimento as like yeah if pimento was a human being and he was she he was walking down the road what would they be what would they like be doing what they'd look like how would their vibe be?

46:48Okay, so I think they are, and this isn't me, by the way, otherwise it sounds awful if I'm describing myself. I'm gorgeous. Okay, so I think they are effortlessly cool. I think they're the person who always rocks up a little bit late to the party, but when they do, they're like a magnet. They encourage people to have really deep, meaningful conversations. They're bold. They don't follow trends. They set them. they're just uh like they've just got that intangible presence they're just like a bit of a radiator and a magnet all whilst being super chill and effortlessly cool i want to be pimento i want to be pimento they sound unreal like i need to learn from i want to be her him wherever they're amazing um and we spoke about earlier about collaborations but if there was a collab from like a really iconic brand who would you like to collab with oh my god it's such a no-brainer for me and I'm probably going to say the name wrong but um Sol de Janeiro yeah yeah yeah that's right yeah okay perfect I think they are just a master class in like multi-sensory branding like their brand identity is so strong like I am teleported to a beach as soon as I see their like Brazilian bum bum cream it's all about like body positivity escapism their brand identity and what they stand for every single touch point is so clear and I'm all for brands that are able to evoke that intangible feeling and make you feel a certain type of way like they transport me exactly I think gone are the days where like mass distribution like solidifies like who you are in the world it's all about how you make people feel and I think these guys have done it with texture with smell with scent like every single sensory touch point I'm just like blown away every single time they're launching your product and there I think they would be amazing to do a collaboration we're gonna get we're gonna make this happen okay we're gonna make this real okay we're gonna co-collaborate on our pages and we're going to tag them and they're going to see this.

48:40They're not going to be able to escape us. Nah, they're not going to want it. Okay. Because Pimenti's unreal. They're going to be like, I want to be like that effortlessly cool Pimenti. Cool girl coming up to party late. The magnet, the magnet effect will be happening. I'm going to hold you to that. Yeah, it'll happen. Manifest. And biggest, like, obviously like, falls under 30, like 30 under 30, I'm assuming is like an amazing, or it is an amazing achievement and that must have felt phenomenal. But was there another kind of moment that you were like, god like this is like what I'm what we're doing is amazing and this feels like really good so another really really validating moment for us was I think it was 12 months into launching Pimenti and we actually got prospected by the Distal Ventures program and their sole investor is Diageo the world's largest alcohol powerhouse and we were at Taste London and this is where it all kind of sent us back to the experience-led thing that nobody really does in the space or were doing at the time.

49:33And they prospected us to join their pre-accelerator program, which essentially meant they would give us a significant injection of capital on a safe note. So cash now, equity later, essentially. And there was this whole process that we had to go through in terms of building out the pitch. And then we had to pitch to 15 global international Diageo heads of. And it was obviously incredibly daunting because we knew if we could land this capital, we would be able to launch our cans we would be able to make our first hire we'd actually be able to like inject some capital into marketing and so much hinged on this moment and they actually ended up putting the pitch on the same like it was the day after like a huge event that we had done and we were running these events by ourselves like driving up and down the country camping all that kind of stuff and me and Alice were like why would I put it on Monday after this event and we did the pitch there was a Q &A then we just had to sit and wait for an hour for them to call and let us know whether we had landed the investment and when they called us and let us know that we had landed it it honestly like every every single conversation that I had had like with my parents trying to convince them that like going into tequila like did make sense and we were going to be able to like build this business and a life around it all of the previous investors who had said no it was too early to then get validation from Distill and their largest backer as Diageo to get to be able to use the name Diageo on all of our literature on our investment decks it honestly was the most validating thing like they're the world's largest alcohol yeah that's like a big fat gold tick yes and every single investor who was warm went to hot and the 200k round closed at 550k 12 months into our journey which is just unheard of and I think that was just such a like we've got this we're RTDs and tequila are hot that is what Diageo wanted at the time and it just it gave us the like motivation that we needed because honestly like every single day it's firefighting it still is but yeah that was such a validating moment that's so amazing thank you so much for coming on getting to grow it's been genuinely fabulous sitting down here talking with you and what an amazing person and pimenta is so cool I can't wait to meet her on the street oh my god we'll go find her in a minute exactly no thank you so much you're just so easy to speak to it's just like you said it just feels like having a catch up with your bestie.

51:52Yeah, exactly. I love it. It's just chill chat. It's just nice to reflect on things as well. I don't get to do it very often. Yeah. Do you know what? A lot of people say that, that they actually don't get to, oh my God. Hello. I had a massive panic attack and I just thought that there was like a gigantic spider hanging out. I was like, oh my God, I can feel it crawling on my neck. I just have to like, can't play it cool? That's petrifying. Generally, it's pretty chill other than me freaking out about a spider. But no, yeah, I do. It's lovely to just sit down with lots of amazing founders and I'm so passionate about this industry and the whole reason I started the podcast was to just you know I when I was I wasn't in food before I was in fashion and I met this whole world of food and Bev and I just hadn't met people that were so passionate about something before like everyone was just like doing their day job going home and I was like no no this is different like people are genuinely so in and I hadn't understood that brain before and I knew I was one of them but because I'd been in fashion I was like yeah I I don't know any of me's here.

52:48Like it was, I flippin' stuck out. And I was like, this is so weird. I don't, stuck out. And I just, I wasn't me. And then I was like, oh my God, this is home. So now I'm here to just share everyone's story, give everyone a platform to basically talk about the amazing brain that everyone has and you, the founders have, because you are the guys that get up and do it. So many people have an idea. Less than 1 % of people action it. So like, let's change that and encourage my listeners to be like, you can do it. I love that. What an amazing platform you've created. And you're just a beacon of energy as well.

53:16like you bring out I don't know I feel like you disarm people to like want to be like super honest and transparent and just kind of like leave the ego and the bravado and you can just talk and it's very refreshing so that's off to you as well thank you so much