786 Jen Hardell: Founder & CEO of Subourbon Life

0:00I am unwilling to give up, but I will start over from scratch as many times as it takes

0:07Kara Goldin:to get where I want to be. You just want to make sure you will get knocked down, but just make sure you don't get knocked out. So your only choice should be, go focus on what you can control. Hi everyone and welcome to the Kara Goldin show. Join me each week for inspiring conversations with some of the world's greatest leaders. We'll talk with founders, entrepreneurs, CEOs, and really some of the most interesting people of our time. Can't wait to get started. Let's go. This episode of the Kara Golden Show is brought to you by LinkedIn Jobs. When you're building a business, having the right people in the right roles changes everything.

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2:22Kara Goldin:That's linkedin.com slash Kara Golden to post your job for free. Terms and conditions apply. Hi, everyone, and welcome back to the Kara Golden Show. Today, I'm excited to be joined by Jen Hardell, who is the founder and CEO of an incredible brand called Suburban Life, and it's a bourbon-based, ready-to-drink cocktail brand, redefining how and when America's native spirit is enjoyed. Jen is a visionary founder with deep operational experience in the consumer and spirit space. And before launching Suburban Life, she spent years working inside and scaling consumer businesses and building systems, processes, and supply chains, required to bring premium products to market efficiently.

3:14Kara Goldin:This is her first startup, so I cannot wait to hear more about what her experience has been like and, of course, a lot more about the brand and really what encouraged her to go and start this and make it happen the way it is. So she set out to change the non-carbonated bourbon cocktails industry. And well, I'll just leave it at that and let Jen do a lot more of the describing and all of the things that go along with Suburban Life. So anyway, nice to meet you and so excited to have you here. I love the brand and love everything that you're doing. Thank you so much. And thank you for having me. Absolutely.

4:02Kara Goldin:So for listeners who are just hearing about Suburban Life, what is the brand? And maybe a few sentences before we dig into sort of the backstory. Yeah, sure. So Suburban Life is a 5 % ABV, light and refreshing bourbon cocktail. So, you know, Suburban, mostly bourbon is, you know, represented much heavier profile. So Suburban Life is a lighter, more refreshing, non-carbonated RTD. Very, very cool. So why bourbon? Was it something that you had followed, enjoyed for years? I mean, what was it that really made you look at this category versus maybe vodka or tequila that kind of dominate the category?

4:55Yeah, well, number one, I'm a bourbon enthusiast. So that's first and foremost. It's kind of like all the stars aligned at the right moment. Like you mentioned, I come from a background of manufacturing and operations on the cosmetic side of things. So for the last 28, 29 years, I've been working with other brands from concept to product on shelf, but in the cosmetic side of things. Separately, I was a bourbon enthusiast. And then thirdly, my life changed, right? I moved out of the city, moved into the suburbs, nightlife, went to daylife, had children. So my social activities changed a bit. Bring all those things together, bourbon neat, which obviously I enjoy as a bourbon enthusiast, didn't really fit all occasions.

5:51So I found myself switching to vodka or tequila when I was looking for a lighter, you know, profile, a 5 % ABV, something that could be mixed as a cocktail versus just a straight spirit. And, you know, what I noticed was that all the RTDs that were out there were also vodka and tequila. So what I started to notice was all the products that, you know, other moms and women and dads and fathers and friends were all bringing over to my backyard barbecues were all vodka and tequila. So I said, let me mix myself up my own cocktail. let me take some bourbon. And I started playing around with different recipes and formulas, which ended up being the pink lemonade as our first skew, making big batches of it, serving it out to my closest friends and family and not really telling anybody that there was bourbon in it, just kind of gauging people's reactions.

6:54And what I found was, of course, all the bourbon people liked it. But what was really interesting was I was watching all my friends that were women that would never touch brown liquor drinking my batch of Suburban and not going towards their tequila and vodka drinks that they brought over. And that was really interesting to me. And I think that's when it connected. And I was like, wait a minute here. Not only can I serve my bourbon friends something more sessionable, I can bring vodka and tequila people into a category that they were normally intimidated by.

7:31Kara Goldin:So that's when I had my moment. So interesting. And so what percent is it to, just out of curiosity? So it's a 5 % ABV, right? So it's the equivalent if you were to have another canned cocktail or a beer, let's say. So a very different delivery system than having bourbon on the rocks or bourbon neat. Now it's mixed in a refreshing flavor profile, similar to what you may experience with Bacca or tequila, right? So I bourbonized margaritas, Arnold Palmer's, pina coladas, espresso martinis, and our original pink lemonade. So the profile is very familiar to someone who hasn't dipped their toes into the brown spirits category, but they're familiar with the flavor profile.

8:28So it's kind of not as intimidating to maybe want to try a spirit that they didn't have the courage to before.

8:41Kara Goldin:This episode of The Kara Golden Show is brought to you by LinkedIn Jobs. When you're building a business, having the right people in the right roles changes everything. And as you look ahead to 2026, whether you're growing your team or tightening it, hiring with intention matters more than ever. That's where LinkedIn Jobs comes in. LinkedIn Jobs AI Assistant helps you identify qualified candidates faster and with greater confidence. So you're not just filling seats, you're building a team that sticks. In fact, LinkedIn hires are 30 % more likely to stay at least a year compared to the leading competitor.

9:22Kara Goldin:And that kind of retention makes a real difference. And finding the right hire doesn't have to feel overwhelming. With LinkedIn Jobs AI Assistant, you can skip the guesswork and jargon. It filters candidates based on your role's specific criteria and highlights top matches. So you're not wasting time digging through endless resumes. When you're running a business, you need a hiring process that's fast and focused. LinkedIn's AI assistant delivers 25 strong candidate suggestions each day, giving you the chance to invite the right people to apply and keep the process moving. It's a smarter, faster way to hire, and it's why I rely on LinkedIn jobs.

10:07Kara Goldin:Hire right the first time. Post your job for free at linkedin.com slash Kara Golden, then promote it to use LinkedIn Jobs new AI assistant, making it easier and faster to find top candidates. That's linkedin.com slash Kara Golden to post your job for free. Terms and conditions apply. So the name Suburban Life, I love how you've played on not only the actual alcohol, but also the suburban and how you've gone out to suburbia, as you mentioned as well. And it's spelled really uniquely. How did you come up with that name? Did you use a naming agency? I mean, how did you kind of decide this is it? No, it was kind of a fun moment, actually.

11:06Again, it's all kind of happened really naturally. It was at one of those backyard barbecues where everyone was drinking Suburban Life but didn't know what it was. And one of my friends said to me, pointed to it and said, Jen, can I have another glass of bourbon? being a bourbon enthusiast I was not happy that she called the mixed cocktail version bourbon so it just came out and I said I said oh honey that's not that's not bourbon that's suburban and in that moment it was it just came into my head because it was a a version of bourbon right it was a more sessionable cat like delivery system so it was a sub version of bourbon so I I said suburban, but then I was like, wait a minute.

11:54This is living in suburbia. This is suburban life. It's a subversion of bourbon. It's a lifestyle. And it all kind of came together with me in that aha moment when I noticed that not only did people like it, now I had a whole name and vision that all kind of erupted at one moment.

12:16Kara Goldin:So was anybody doing anything that was even close to what you were doing? I mean, obviously, you mentioned the tequila and the vodka and some of the other in the market, but it's also it's not only bold to go and launch a an alcoholic beverage or a beverage, but also an alcoholic beverage, but also one that is not only in a crowded space, but also one that you have to educate consumers about. Right. Yeah, I think that it is. some education involved. But in a crowded space, Suburban definitely stands out because like you said, most of the RTDs, which are very popular ones that we all know, are vodka, mostly vodka based.

13:00And there's a few tequila ones out there that are also nationally known. Most of them were carbonated for a very long time until that trend started to change. But as far as the Bourbon category is concerned. There's not many bourbon RTDs out there. Any that I found are mostly whiskey. They're not actually bourbon-based. I have a six-year barrel aged bourbon in Suburban. And if there is bourbon in it or whiskey, they're still very much associated with the traditional marketing of bourbon, right? So they're very much targeted towards their masculine marketing. They're targeted towards nighttime.

13:42They're heavy profiles. So they're taking the profiles that are normally associated with bourbon. They are ginger rails. They are old fashions or new fashions, or they're with cherry or they're with cranberry. They're still the same story with a cocktail. No one has really taken bourbon and put it on the same playing field as as vodka or tequila or a white spirit that is light daytime, refreshing, non-carbonated, and you can drink at a baseball game, a football game in your backyard, at the beach, at a barbecue. The cans that are out there, if there are very few and in between, there's still something that you would probably gravitate towards nighttime.

14:33time.

14:34Kara Goldin:Yeah, definitely. So you mentioned Pink Lemonade, which is so tasty. That was your first SKU. Did you launch with more SKUs than one or how many SKUs did you launch with and how has that changed since you launched? Yeah, I kind of moved fast. In one year, I went from one SKU to five SKUs. So that's kind of my, I really have fun with the creative process of all of this. So it's started with the pink lemonade and now we have five. We have the pink lemonade and then I launched the bourbon margarita, the bourbon half and half. And then this November, I just launched the bourbon espresso martini and the bourbon pina colada.

15:19Kara Goldin:It's interesting because it seems like you went from, well, I don't know, you tell me like almost like a flavor profile to known drinks, right? for your second and third SKUs, which I think is really interesting and wise. What was the thinking behind that for any founders who are out there who are thinking about direction in terms of how do you expand your mix? Yeah. So pink lemonade came naturally. Remember the story there. So what I thought was, you know, I think we really have something here that can become mainstream. But how do we do it past this one skew, right? And I was like, kept thinking about it.

16:08And I'm like, I want to continue to bring more of the bourbon curious people into the category. I want to bring more women into the category. I want to bring more of the younger generation to the category. All what I kind of was seeing was happening with the pink lemonade. But how do I continue that? And of course, you have people saying, well, do an old fashioned, a new fashion. Like, no, this is completely different. So my my theory and my idea behind bourbonizing traditional cocktails were I've no problem bringing bourbon people into the category there. They're not intimidated. But how do I make everyone else feel comfortable?

16:44And also, how do I prove that brown spirit can taste really delicious in these flavor profiles that we have never associated with them before? So that's where I started formulating and playing around with bourbonizing traditional cocktails to kind of lure people in that may not have felt so comfortable to come before. Because now it's bright colors. It's bright packaging. Looks very different than bourbon has ever looked before. and it tastes super light and refreshing. So what's happening is they taste it and they get very excited. This is different. I have never had this before and I like it.

17:22So it was really to grow the category and bring more bourbon drinkers that never existed here before and kind of the gateway, if you will.

17:35Kara Goldin:So you came from the cosmetics industry and came from the operations supply chain. What skills did you take from that industry to launch a brand in a totally different industry that you think were really transferable? And maybe also, what were you missing? I mean, what did you find was super challenging for you? Well, I have an operational background. So I was not on the marketing side of things or the creative side of things, although I have that always brewing inside of me, very operational. So I was taking everyone else's ideas and formulations and bringing it to life for them and putting a finished product on the shelf all the way from formulation.

18:22So my skill set, although it wasn't in alcohol, was in makeup and lotions and skincare is that I knew how to take formulation and work with raw materials, raw material vendors, manufacturing plants since I run myself. And I knew all the right questions to ask. I knew what I should be looking for. I knew what formulation should be. And cosmetics is a highly regulated industry, right? So I'm used to working with the FDA. I'm used to working with OSHA. I'm used to GMPs and SOPs. So for me to go after a federal and state license, it wasn't, you know, so foreign to me. I understood regulation and I understood operations.

19:09I understand manufacturing logic. I understand the importance of owning your own formulas and, you know, kind of outsourcing and cost of goods and all of that. So that I really was gifted with that 28 years of really learning behind the curtains. So I took that and then mixed it with my passion and my creative side to create suburban life.

19:34Kara Goldin:So distribution, I would imagine, is slightly different than the cosmetics industry, including some of the regulations. Can you explain some of those things that you had to go through? Yeah, you know, the alcohol industry is really competitive. It's mostly, you know, the boys club as well. And I'm not only going against the boys club when it comes to whiskey and bourbon, but also alcohol distribution. And it's crowded, like you said, you know, RTDs are crowded, even though they're, they're doing much better than most of the other categories of alcohol. You still struggle. So that I would say was my biggest challenge was proving myself, right?

20:17When they have 200 RTDs on their desk, which they are happy to tell me, why should I talk to you? Proving the brand, right? Because I'm doing something different. It's great because I'm doing something different. So I catch their ear, but it's still, I'm doing something different. So there's the challenge there. I mean, I went out myself and I knocked on the first 100 liquor store doors. And, you know, because a distributor, I couldn't find a distributor in New Jersey. I found like, I mostly went out and did it myself. And I proved to the, one of the biggest distributors in New Jersey, look, I got a hundred accounts.

20:56They're all interested in the brand. I went after a national chain, got the attention of them. And they basically said, wherever you have distribution, we'll put your, plug your product in. so I'm like I have something here I got New Jersey a big New Jersey distributor to believe in me and then you know things started started to happen and and the brand started to flow but that was my largest challenge was getting someone to listen to me and and taste a drink once I could

21:25Kara Goldin:do that that was helpful and there so the distributor just for those who are listening and don't know the ins and outs of the alcohol industry. So the distributor really wanted you to sell, right, initially to show interest, right? And that's what you had to do. You rolled up your sleeves and went out and got that initial interest. Yeah, I went out and knocked on liquor store doors because, you know, as an alcohol brand, you can't sell direct to stores. You have to go through a distributor. So every state that you enter, unless you have a national distributor, you have to do that in every state you go.

22:03So it's not just like, oh, here you go. Here's your distributor. You're ready to go. You continue to do that same roll up your sleeves fight in every state you open. So we launched New Jersey. Then I launched New York, May 1st. I'm in Southern California and I'm opening Florida now come January. It's the same, you know, if you go in and you have to do the same thing over and over again.

22:26Kara Goldin:That's awesome. I always tell people, it's one thing to have an idea, but it's that execution. You know, when people have come to me and said, oh, I've got this idea that I'm thinking about launching and been inside a large company, I've seen it all. But you really have to be willing to go and roll up your sleeves and do that work in order to get it going, especially in the alcohol industry. Yes, 100%. It's the sales, the operations, the manufacturing, the marketing, creative. It's if you have to roll up your sleeves and go after it all. Absolutely. So one of the things I read, you have a strong brand philosophy of find your people.

23:11Kara Goldin:Can you explain a little bit more about that? Yeah, I think, you know, suburban life to me, it's not only about the drink, right? Again, it developed out of a lifestyle that I was living. And I think there's a lot of people out there, whether it's suburban lifestyle or it's anything that means something to them, right? I think in life, you go through decades of time as your life is changing and your people change. You're always finding your people. And to me, I found my people when I moved to suburbia and I started living this type of life and raising children out in the burbs. And I found my people here.

23:55I found my people when I was in college. I found my people when I was in high school. And I think everyone kind of lives that journey, right? So for me, it's about just getting out there and finding your people in whatever lifestyle you're living and just to connect and have fun.

24:19Kara Goldin:Yeah, definitely. How do you think about the growth in the RTD category that you're living in right now? And where do you see the biggest opportunities? So when I think about, you know, I think about RTDs, I think about the big category and I think about suburban life inside that category. I think the reason RTDs themselves are growing so large are because people are becoming more responsible with their alcohol intake, right? So there's a lot of occasions where it makes more sense to have something sessionable. And then they're also looking for convenience and ease. And I think, you know, historically, some of these drinks maybe didn't have the freshest of ingredients, right?

25:05There was a lot of malt liquors out there and preservatives and this and that. And I think that the beverage industry, especially RTDs, have come a long way. And that was kind of my vision for Suburban was to make sure that it is an elevated drink, all clean ingredients, all natural, put a six year barrel aged bourbon in there and to deliver something that when someone is going for ease, they're going for comfort. but they also want to put something healthy in their body when they're going to have a cocktail in that moment is why I developed Suburban Life. And I think that that's kind of the outlook that the nation is having, right?

25:50They're looking for convenience, but they're looking for something that's also clean and natural. So I think that with the evolution of RTDs, it's starting to really have the ripple effect. And suburban life is just adding a new layer that didn't exist before because it was only vodka and tequila.