Founder Feature: Amna Mettmann of Brause

0:02A few years back when I ran a beverage company, we had to launch using those plastic sleeves to put our designs on the cans. But they looked bad. The sleeves get stretched out. They don't cover the full can. And overall, they just look and feel low quality. Lucky for you, digital can printing technology has come so far over the last few years that now you can launch your beverage brand or new SKUs with a fully printed look. And it's at similar pricing to those plastic sleeves. our friends at can works which is the largest u.s based digital can printer are happy to work with our community at very low minimums even one palette they've got locations on the east coast the west coast texas get in touch with them through our contact form it's at canworksprinting.com slash startup cpg

0:59I'm originally from a place in northern Germany, very close to the Danish border. And I grew up with browsers. And browser is basically an old German word for soda. And there are a variety of different browsers, three of which we obviously created now for the U.S. market. But browser is, to me, it's nostalgia. When I hear that word, I think of, you know, back in the day, I used to sing in a choir for like eight years. And every holiday season, we had a big concert. And we would go to our local, you know, brewery and they would have these drinks actually on tap. Interestingly enough, the malt soda and the malt beers on tap in most breweries in Germany.

1:41And we would just have that. And it kind of felt like, you know, you were an adult. You were getting that like foamy drink in front of you. And so when I hear Browse, I think of my childhood, you know, and just enjoying drinks with friends. And that's how it came about. Hey, everybody. This is Caitlin Brooker, editor at Startup CPG. Today, we are back with another founder feature. You're going to meet Amna Metman, founder of Browse. Browse is a German-inspired craft soda brand made entirely in the USA. day. Browse creates organic, no sugar added sodas based on traditional Northern European drinks, offering a clean alternative to typical sodas and NA beverages.

2:26In this episode, you'll discover what Browse means, the history behind these traditional drinks, and the story behind their branding and brand. I hope you love this episode as much as I love opening the fridge and seeing Browse. As always, enjoy. Hey, everybody. Welcome back to the Startup CPG podcast. This is Caitlin, and today I'm here with Amna Metman, founder of Browse. Amna, welcome to the show. Thank you for having me, Caitlin. It is so good to have you here. I finally, after months of watching your brand on Instagram, got to taste Browse for myself at the SF grocery run, and I was blown away.

3:08So for anybody who's not familiar with Brauze, can you tell us what Brauze is? Yes. And I'm actually super excited that you're pronouncing it correctly. I know it's a German word, so not the easiest, you know, feat. But Brauze is basically a premium health conscious take on German craft sodas. Everything is sourced in the U.S. from the ingredients all the way to our packaging. But it is really we took German craft sodas that have been around for centuries in northern Europe. and we wanted to tailor those drinks to the American palate. We use all whole food ingredients, nothing artificial. We don't add any sugars.

3:45We get organic apples and dates do the trick there. And then no alcohol, no artificial flavors, as I said. So I would kind of describe them as honest, high quality, delicious drinks. And I would definitely agree with that. I think something that's so impressive for me is that A, the branding is amazing, But B, you're able to accomplish this delicious flavor without using additives like natural flavors or added sugar, which I feel like are ubiquitous in the beverage market. So that to me is a huge feat. So I'm curious why you chose to go in that direction. Why no natural flavors? Why no added sugars?

4:24I honestly think that especially having a daughter, I think I've become a lot more aware of what is in the food that we consume on a daily basis. And it's been a topic that consumers in particular have become a lot more aware of. And we really ventured out to create these drinks based on the best taste. And it happened to be just very natural. Apples are incredibly powerful. When you bite into, you know, a juicy apple, it can be super sweet. It can be so satisfying. Same thing goes for dates and, you know, the ingredients that we use in general. So there was no need for us to really go the artificial route.

5:00It would just happen to be that we really ventured out to create the most delicious drinks and you can find really what you need in whole food ingredients, I find. I agree with that wholeheartedly. When you set out to create Browse, did you feel like you wanted to launch with just one SKU or did you know that you wanted these three SKUs from the start? You know, that's a good question. Our bestseller is the apple soda. I think there is a lot of consumers are truly looking for, you know, that drink that has sharp bubbles. But at the same time, we use, as I said, these organic apples sourced in the U.S.

5:35and it's incredibly satisfying. It is the SKU that really led me to start Browser because I left Germany 15 years ago or so after school. When I first went to London, then I went to Canada, then I came to the S eventually. And the further I went away from Europe, the harder it was for me to find these drinks that I was super excited about that I grew up with. Apple soda, that's the number one soda in Germany. We don't really grow up with Coca-Cola or Pepsi. We don't even know what Mountain Dew is actually in Germany. So the further I went away from Germany, the harder it was for me to find that apple soda that I got used to and that I grew up with.

6:13And so it really was the SKU that had me start browsing. But when I looked at it and in the CPG space, as you probably know, if you have one SKU, you don't have a business. You have a product, but you don't have a business. And so I thought about what does the market in the U.S. truly need right now? We know that there is a really big push towards, you know, non-alcoholic drinks, modern sodas. And when I thought about it, I thought that the market is ripe to introduce these other two SKUs, which are malt soda and malt beer, which have been the alternative to alcohol for centuries in Germany. But we, as I said, we tailored them to the U.S.

6:50palate, which is slightly different to the European palate. But yeah, to answer your question, the apple soda is what had me started. And it's also what my husband got super excited about because he also missed it. He's also German. But then we thought, you know what, why not start with these three SKUs that are all very different, but truly it's the right time for the U.S. to really be introduced to. So talk to us about your two other SKUs. Can you tell us about the flavors that are behind those? The apple soda is obviously self-explanatory. you'd think until you taste it. And then you're like, okay, this isn't just a soda, but tell us about the other two.

7:26No, you got it right. Actually, it's funny because with the apple soda, it's when people drink it, they're like, wow, this is incredible because it is so flavorful, but it also has the sharp bubbles. It's something that I missed in the US when you think of, you know, these carbonated apple drinks, oftentimes they are too sweet and they're not really satisfying. And the nice thing about, and we don't tout any functionality with our drinks. But the nice thing about apple soda is that it is very isotonic. So in Germany, when you go and you run a half marathon and you come back from, you know, a bike ride or so, the first thing you grab is usually an apple soda because it rehydrates you faster than water.

8:03So I think that was a market for apple soda already here. We just had to change it up so that it really is sharp. When it comes to the other two drinks, the malt soda combines, you know, organic apples with weak malt and with sweet dates. And the interesting thing about using malt in sodas is that usually malt and roasted barley and hops, they're usually reserved to alcoholic drinks. And we've seen that trend around wanting to go for non-alcoholic options. The consumer is looking for that for sure. But you don't necessarily need to take an alcoholized drink and de-alcoholize it. You can use those ingredients as whole food ingredients.

8:43And they've been around for a long time, not only Northern Europe, actually, interestingly enough, the malt soda, which is more of a, it has a similar apple soda flavor, but it is more targ because of the wheat malt. The interesting thing about malt sodas is they also have been around in the U.S. actually for quite some time. Mostly, you know, the Hispanic community drinks it. You find it in Jamaica. You find it in a lot of different areas in Northern America. But more often than not, if you think about the drinks that you find that are already existing in that space. They have high fructose corn syrup or they are really, really, you know, almost thick and people sometimes even use them in their cereals, which is really, really, it sounds strange, but some people will know what I mean.

9:23But we just wanted to create a malt soda that is really refreshing. You know, it's still light and at the same time, it has that kind of tart flavor to it as well, which comes from the malt. And when it comes to the malt beer, which I would say is our most unique drink. The way that I would describe it is almost like you drink a Guinness, but it's a little sweeter and it has zero alcohol. Not even the 0.5 % ABV, but it really has nothing because we use the whole food ingredients, right? And then you get it with a bit of a coffee-like finish due to the roasted barley that we use. So these three drinks are very unique, and I think there is a big market in the U.S.

9:59where. It was so interesting trying them because obviously the apple soda is the one that I gravitated towards, the bright green can, and it just jumped out at me because of that. I tasted that, blown away. It was just so crisp, like you're talking about. Crisp and refreshing. It didn't feel like it was going to weigh me down or dehydrate me. And then I tried the soda. Okay, getting more complex. And then the beer. It was hard for me to believe that it was N.A., first of all, because it had such a beer like flavor. But yes, the Guinness comparison is so good because it it's full bodied for sure, but it's still very light.

10:40And it's it is so refreshing, like it's a treat, but it's also something I could easily drink a can of no problem and not have any guilt about it whatsoever. Absolutely. And, you know, for any founder out there, when somebody describes your drink the way that you anticipated it to really you want it to have it exactly the way that you're describing it, it's that's incredibly rewarding. It's exactly what you're saying. We're trying to create something that is a celebration of life. You drink a malt beer and you get excited about it. Oh, you know, after, I don't know, a motorcycle ride, you're exhausted.

11:11You just take off your gear and you sit in front of the fireplace and you drink that malt beer and you just feel so satisfied. And you don't have to drink anything that's alcoholic because what it does is also it foams just like a beer. It has that, you know, that complex flavor to it. And it is, I would say the interesting thing is you see with Guinness and with other sort of dark beers, especially in Europe, people tend to oftentimes put blackcurrant in it or other syrups. The nice thing about the malt beer that we've created is first and foremost, you don't have to do it because it's already in there with the date syrup that we use.

11:45It's organic date syrup. And the date syrup together with the roasted barley and on top of that, the weak malt just creates this incredibly rich flavor. And that's what we ventured out to do. It has a very familiar taste, but at the same time, it was just something that made my taste buds go crazy. Like it was unlike anything I'd ever tasted, but it was very nostalgic at the same time. Very cool experience. So I love to ask, why Browse? What does Browse mean and where did the name come from? So I'm originally from a place in northern Germany, very close to the Danish border. And I grew up with Browse's.

12:24And Browse is basically an old German word for soda. And there are a variety of different Browse's, three of which we obviously created now for the U.S. market. But Browse is, to me, it's nostalgia. When I hear that word, I think of back in the day, I used to sing in a choir for like eight years and every holiday season we had a big concert and we would go to our local brewery and they would have these drinks actually on tap. Interestingly enough, the malt soda and the malt beers on tap in most breweries in Germany. And we would just have that. And it kind of felt like, you know, you were an adult.

12:58You were you were getting that like foamy drink in front of you. And so when I hear browser, I think of my childhood and just enjoying drinks with friends. And that's how it came about. The other thing is also it is a word that's not easily intuitively pronounced correctly, but that's OK. I think Porsche has existed for such a long time and people still call it Porsche in the US. And so La Croix is actually people pronounce it La Croix. So I think there's also something to it to just kind of find out, like, how do you pronounce it properly? I think that was the first question I asked you when I met you was, how do we pronounce this?

13:34Because there are so many brands out there. Borsche is a great example. An example I like to use is Teva. So many of us think that it's Teva and it is Teva. I wonder if there's any other brands that come to mind for people when we talk about brand names. But it does make it very unique because it's a word that was totally unfamiliar to me. And because of that, it makes it memorable. Yeah, I agree. So you mentioned motorcycles, drinking Browse after a motorcycle ride. I have noticed a little bit of a motorcycle theme in your Instagram. Can you tell us about that? Yes. So my husband and I are, we love riding bikes.

14:14We love motorcycling. It's something I think there was a bit of a trend going towards getting your motorcycle license during the pandemic because folks were looking for ways to get out and, you know, enjoy life. And I am obsessed with motorcycling. When I had my baby, about two months in, I decided to get a motorcycle license because I wanted to do something that was truly selfish and just for myself. And just that feeling of, you know, getting on a bike and getting out there. And it's just different. If you are doing your riding on a road in a car, you just don't get that feeling that you get when you're on a motorcycle.

14:49And when I ride a motorcycle and I want to take a break, more often than not, folks think, hey, you know what? It'll be great to crack open a beer. But we created browsers, especially the malt beer, to be honest, to have something that we can celebrate after a motorcycle ride or put it in our backpacks. And then we stop somewhere to have a picnic and then we open a malt beer. And it's just a beautiful combination of activities. You know, it's our companion now on our motorcycle rides. But it's a hobby I found pretty late. I think most folks, when they start motorcycling, they do this in their early, you know, 20s.

15:22I just love it. It's so great to be out there and ride a motorcycle. It's nice because it's something that you've clearly had time to think about. And now that you're in this new phase of your life in motherhood, which is so different from any other phase of our lives, I can speak from experience. It's cool that you're like, you know what, I'm going to ride a motorcycle. For me, it was reading books, but I like the route that you're taking a little better. I was honestly also looking for something that I can do with my husband that does not involve a baby or a toddler now. And he got really excited about it first.

15:57When he was younger, he rode like a moped back home in Germany. It's obviously not the same. But still, when he came out here, he was the first one to do it. And then I felt like, hey, you know what? I can do it too. And then he took me in all these. We used to live in the Bay Area. And there are some incredible places you can ride. And you can almost ride all year long. And it's just, yeah, it just stuck with us. And now we're looking for ways to get out as much as we can. It's honestly a pretty badass vision picturing you on a motorcycle with Browse in hand or in your backpack. That's pretty cool.

16:29So tell me about your branding. It's very sleek. It's very simple. For me, it would stand out on a shelf, no problem. So where did the idea, where did the conceptualization for the branding come from and how did it come to be? Yeah, I mean, it's funny because you almost sound like a buyer at a retail shop. And because what they have been telling us is, hey, you know what, when we see your branding, it definitely stands out because it's not trying to stand out. What we ventured out to do is we basically created a sleek design that is very German, almost industrial. And so that's what we try to do with it.

17:02The way that it came about is initially when I started thinking about the branding, my husband and I, we have this routine where once or twice a week when we find the time, we have this outdoor sauna. We go into the sauna and we think about the business and we talk about it. And we sometimes feel like we're participating in this ancient old ritual of being in a sauna and discussing business or politics. And that's how this came about. We talked about it and we thought about the branding. And my husband just like suddenly said, what if it's just really industrial, clean, the way that, you know, we're known as Germans in the world.

17:35Kind of reminds you of an Audi or like a BMW. And that's what we wanted to do. We wanted to stand out because right now, if you look at the soda aisle or even the non-alcoholic beer aisle, it's very colorful. And we just wanted something that's sleek and reliable. I think that word comes to mind and I think of our design. Reliable is a very good word to describe it because when you look at it, it's very evergreen. The cans are sitting right behind you for anybody that's watching. Reliable is such a great choice because there's nothing about it to me that would need to change. Everything's there.

18:07There's no distractions. It's you're getting what you see. And I think we wanted to go back to basics, too, with the whole food ingredients, with letting Mother Nature speak for cans, with organic apples, organic dates, no added sugars. And I think we wanted something that isn't touting to be functional in any way, shape or form, but truly just something that is designed to be delicious and honest and health conscious. Yes, but not to the point where we don't have any flavors. And the flavors were really the thing that we wanted to create. And that was something that we went out to do. I love that about the brand that you're not going for functional and that you're just going for flavor because the space is so crowded with functionality that I think it causes confusion or even paralysis for customers because they're like, yes, I want all these things.

18:58But now what do I choose when in reality we just want something that tastes good that might have a good benefit? Like it's a great carb hit after, you know, a workout or before you say, go for a walk or run or swim because it's nice and pure and clean. It's yeah, exactly. I think that's the thing with trends in general. Every year we hear something is the best thing and some ingredient is the worst thing. And we just went back to basics with the way that we just we created these drinks. And then the other thing is also, I think actually, to be honest, consumers are excited about being able to read the ingredients lists and understanding exactly what's in there versus you have to, you know, be a chemist to understand what does that mean?

19:41What's that letter? Like, what's that number? Sometimes when there's an ingredient with a letter and a number in it or more than that, it's just it doesn't get me to buy the product, to be honest. I just want to understand what's in the things that I consume. I am the same type of consumer. I don't want any of my food or beverages to be overcomplicated. Dates are my favorite sweetener. I feel like dates are having a moment this year. I was very excited to see dates as a sweetener in your beverage because yes, dates are having a moment, but also they just taste really good. And they're so good for you and so versatile.

20:17It's so true. It's funny because that's the one thing where my heritage comes in a little bit. While I was born and raised in Germany, my parents are actually from Tunisia, so North Africa. And dates are just as common as really, I don't know, apples in the US. And so you'd have them all the time in all kinds of food, especially in desserts. And so when we thought about how do we want to sweeten it, we thought of the dates flavor and the flavor profile itself and how that ties, how that really works so well with malt and roasted barley and also apples. And so that's how it came about. It's a little bit of a melange of sort of my heritage as well.

20:55We'll be right back. Are you going to crush it on Amazon this year? It's such an important channel, but it's so hard to do alone and most agencies are a total ripoff. We can't afford$5 ,000 a month and a commission on our sales. They just don't get it. That's why I love our partners at Daybreak. They are full service, meaning they do the creative work, the listings, the logistics, and of course, all the ads, all with the most reasonable retainer out there. I work with them personally. I'm so grateful we have such a good partner to recommend out to you, our community. They do evaluate your product first to see if it might be a fit.

21:26So if you want them to have a look, email them startupcpg at daybreak.agency and they'll do a free audit for you. Good luck, everyone.

21:40Can you tell us more about your background, you personally, and then what were you doing professionally before Browse? Yeah. So, I mean, as I said, I met my husband in Frankfurt. What is it now? Over a decade ago. And we both worked at the same investment bank. And back then, I, you know, I was really bored at the bank. It was not my thing. And one of the things that that bank did was they led the IPO of a company called Rocket Internet, which is kind of like an incubator slash, you know, investor out of Europe, out of Germany or Berlin, to be exact. And when we did the IPO, actually, my husband worked on it and looked at the portfolio companies of that company.

22:23And I found a company called HelloFresh. And HelloFresh back then was fairly small, but it was so incredible to see that there was a product out there that did exactly what they did. Now they're the number one meal kit subscription business in the world, actually. But back then they weren't. They were just a small fish out of Germany trying to take over the market, the global market in meal kits. And I remember this was the first time that I got in contact with the food and tech space and the startup world. And I ordered a box and I was so excited about the experience of opening up that HelloFresh box.

22:57I remember there was a purple carrot in there. I had never seen a purple carrot before. But they also, you know, they use whole food ingredients. Everything that's in there is raw and you cook it. And I think that was the most exciting thing about it. So since my husband already knew the founders, I asked him, hey, can you make an introduction? And so that's how I got into HelloFresh. And I said, you know what, I'm a jack of all trades. I can do whatever you want me to do. And so I ended up joining HelloFresh. And, you know, we launched new markets. We insourced production. That was the first time that it was really on a production floor, understanding what that part looks like.

23:28What does distribution look like? How do we, you know, get our products to the consumers? and consumer insights and all of that. So eventually my husband got the opportunity to work out of Mendel Park in California. So we relocated from Germany to the US and I wanted to stay in food. I wanted to stay in food and tech in particular. And so I looked back then in 2017, it was the height of Postmates, DoorDash, Uber Eats, Grubhub, all these companies. And I really wanted to work at Postmates also partially because the founder was German and I thought it would be a great fit. So I did everything that I could to get it to Postmates ended up joining Postmates and became the general manager of our drinks vertical.

24:07And that really was really the start of thinking about Browser. That was several years ago. And I got to work with large conglomerates. I partnered with Enhorzer Bush and Diageo, Constellation Brands, and, you know, all the big ones. And even, you know, on launches of new products, like back then there was this influencer called The Fat Jewish, and he launched Babe Rosé at some point, and we partnered with them at Postmates. And it was just a lot of fun. You know, what's interesting is that was was a 2018, I believe. And back then, consumers were already looking for non-alcoholic options. So what I found to be the most powerful in my time at Postmates and as the GM of drinks is finding out what were failed searches on the app.