w/ Aaron Nosbisch, BRĒZ founder
What if your Shopify brand could sell 16 million cans and hit $28M in its first full year? Aaron Nosbisch did just that with BRĒZ, a microdose drink brand that taps into the decline of alcohol, the rise of wellness, and a smarter ecommerce playbook. In this episode, he breaks down the entire journey—from ignored category to household name.
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Kurt Elster
This episode is sponsored in part by Viralsweep. Thinking of running a giveaway or contest? Meet ViralSweep, the app that makes it easy to build and manage campaigns that drive traffic and boost brand visibility. With Viral Sweep, you can engage customers through Instagram giveaways, automate winner selection, and ensure smooth prize distribution. W also keeps you compliant with legal regulations, so you don't have to stress about the details. Plus, you get helpful analytics and seamless integrations to make campaign management a breeze. Need a hand with setup? ViralSweep support team and managed services are ready to help. Start engaging your audience today. Download ViralSweep on the Shopify App Store and watch your brand grow. New customers can get 50% off the annual plan. Just tell them in the live chat that the unofficial Shopify podcast sent you. That's viral sweep. Today on the show, we are joined by a brand that last year did, let's see, let me check my notes here, 28 million in 2024 and will close to maybe more than is on pace to do 50 million this year is quite incredible and what they sell is a beverage But not just any beverage, a beverage in a space that is unusually competitive and difficult. They have uh that we're talking about breeze. They sell uh something that's age restricted, but doesn't have alcohol. It has, well, you know what? We'll let their current CEO, Aaron Nosbish, tell us about it. Aaron, welcome to the show.
Aaron Nosbisch
Thanks, man. I'm super stoked to be here. I love your podcast and it's exciting to be on. You've had some really cool all-stars, including like Harley Finkelstein, I think, was on here, president of Shopify, and some others. So I'm honored to be on the show.
Kurt Elster
You know, I I appreciate the shout out. Uh okay, so let's start at the top. Breeze. What is it?
Aaron Nosbisch
So Breeze, uh, at the end of the day, is a f Feel good tonic. Um we make and not just one, we at now we have quite a few actually of different drinks that allow you to feel good in a variety of effects. Uh we're most known for our OG blend, which is a microdose cannabis and mushroom beverage. So we use low-dose THC, CBD, and Lion's main mushroom to create a happy euphoric feeling that you feel within five minutes and it lasts for about 60 to 90 minutes, which makes it very comparable to alcohol. And it's used primarily as an alcohol alternative. So people that are looking to cut back but still have fun and still find that sense of relief and enjoyment and connection and celebration. can do so in a way that's um generative for them uh and not harmful to them.
Kurt Elster
So we've got all right I heard there's a a mushroom ingredient in here but it it's lion's mane. Yeah yeah this is not the one that makes me see colors right
Aaron Nosbisch
No, maybe if you drink enough of them, but it's a no. So psilocybin is what people know as like magic mushrooms. There's also a couple others out there like Yamonita miscaria that are a legal form of it. There's a few analogs that are also But we we don't use any of those. Um we use uh what we call functional mushrooms, and these are not necessarily psychoactive, uh, although they do have therapeutic and physiological benefits to them. Lions mean specifically is the most studied cognitive enhancing functional mushroom in the market. Uh it's generally regarded as safe by the FDA. Um and it's a really cool looking mushroom. It's like uh it how you can remember it is it it looks like a brain, like a big white brain. And so that's how you can kind of remember that it's good for your brain. So We combine that specifically through a nano emulsify process. So really unique uh extraction and process that makes it very bioavailable. So you can actually feel the effects uh of it. And
Kurt Elster
Uh, I find it gives me a sense of clarity, uh, a sense of sharpness.
Aaron Nosbisch
Um, I find that it's helpful with like anxiety as well. Um, and so And that's that's about my experience. So then combining O THC, we find that they're very synergistic. Uh, you know, you get more than just that THC buzz. And You know, the thing about THC even, you know, THC is not really the same depending on how you're consuming it. You know, if you go to your dispensary and you get a joint and you like that, you're gonna get a really high dose of THC very quickly that you feel quickly and kind of falls off fairly quickly as well. Um so those people get stoned, you know. Um now an edible, you might take an edible and it's gonna take thirty to sixty minutes to hit you and then it's usually lucky. If you're lucky.
Kurt Elster
Yeah, otherwise I go, this didn't do anything. Then I take another. Now I'm I'm hosed.
Aaron Nosbisch
Exactly. Exactly. And then it's like a four to six hour experience. So I'd say, you know, and they're great. A lot of people like edibles, but the troubles are just a little too unpredictable, I I think. And so The thing about breeze and kind of the whole category of these new THC beverages is that we're using nano emulsif nano emulsified uh cannabinoids, nanoemulsified THC. And You know, in simp more simple terms, the particles are a lot smaller, and because they're a lot smaller, they you feel them quicker. They're more bioavailable, so your body metabolizes them very quickly. And then it wears off quickly as well. Also due to that metabolization process, it doesn't go to your liver as much and it doesn't turn into another compound called eleven hydroxy, which is what you typically get with an edible. That compound is a natural conversion in your body, but it makes for a heavier, more psychedelic feeling that you don't really get with breeze. So You know, so it's not really just like a gummy in a can. It's far more of this type of new wave of an experience. So much more comparable to alcohol's effect curve, just uh a little less groggy, a little less heavy, um, and but very clear-headed, you know, like you don't drink a breeze and like feel super inebriated, like you don't know what to do. It feels very comparable to one beer or or a couple beers if you drink a couple of them where you know you've had something and you feel nice and you have a nice buzz going, but you don't feel disconnected from the party or from each other.
Kurt Elster
What's the THC content here?
Aaron Nosbisch
So we have a few different options. We have a small can. This one is two and a half milligrams, which is a fairly low dose of cannabis. Yep. And then this one is five milligrams. We also have an extra strength version, which is 10 milligrams. You can tell because the black cap there. Um, you know, and the goal was like I enjoy having a few drinks when I'm out and about, you know, when I I don't drink anymore, but I I used to drink uh quite a bit. And I really enjoyed it and I didn't really just want to have like one drink at the bar and go home or sit in the corner. You know, I wanted to have sessionable drinks with my friends on a and on a night out, uh whether That's, you know, uh out at a restaurant or a bar or at home with grilling or what have you. So the goal was to make a sessionable drink that would give you that buzz, something you can control the effect and, you know, turn it up as you'd like or let it wear off as you'd like. And I think that that's that's kind of the sweet spot of kind of uh therapeutic and recreational uh compound culture.
Kurt Elster
There's all right, there's there's a shift happening here. One You're able to sell this legally online and ship it to a number of states. And two The it it seems, according at least to the headlines of studies I scroll past on Reddit, that Gen Z is drinking significantly less than previous generations.
Aaron Nosbisch
Yeah. Yeah, we hear that a lot. So it's like, how can you sell THC and it can't? How can you ship it? You know, like we're, you know, like your podcast uh suggests, like we're a e-commerce first brand, or at least we were when we started. And uh so we ship this product uh to across the country to many different states, some of which don't even have medical marijuana programs. So how is that possible? Well, I'm sure uh many of your listeners and yourself included have seen the C B D wave that's happened over the last five, ten years now. Uh and essentially what happened is uh Congress in the US decided that um cannabis Sativa, so most people know Indica and sativa. Indica is like in the couch. Sativa is a little bit more energizing. So cannabis sativa below 0. 3% THC. uh is considered hemp. And so the Farm Bill in 2018 made that law. So it essentially made a variety of cannabis federally legal, uh and thus legal in the states as well. So that's where the whole C BD boom uh came. They were taking hemp, they were extracting C B D out of it and then selling C BD products. But you know, the thing is people were enjoying C BD, but they weren't really getting that light cannabis buzz that I think a lot of people were hoping for or expecting or you know I've heard it called a a diet weed experience is a is another way to say that.
Kurt Elster
Diet weed. Yeah.
Aaron Nosbisch
And you know, just but that wasn't happening. And so so what people realized, uh the industry realized is you could actually extract THC from hemp because it's the same cannabis plant, it's just a different variety of it. And as long as it it was as long as the content of THC was below point three in the final product, uh it was still legal. Um now whether this was a loophole or intentional is debatable. But the reality is a five hundred million dollar industry, uh just in the THC beverage space alone, uh was created in it.
Kurt Elster
How long have you been at this? When did you how did you get involved with breeze? When did that happen?
Aaron Nosbisch
Yeah, so um I've been in e-commerce for a long time. Uh I started my first e-commerce store when I was 13 years old and 31 now, so kind of like 18 years of a traditional experience there. Um, but I started on Myspace and BigCartel. So, you know, I got into e-commerce way back when, cut my teeth with a brand called Monk. It was a portable aromatherapy diffuser and uh it was in the top 50 fastest growing companies two years in a row. It was full D to C. It was one of the biggest. And Uh and unfortunately got pushed out of that uh company. I didn't really know how to dot my I's and cross my T's, which I'm sure is a story of, you know, many of us have been through in the past and But that was my real kick in the teeth uh moment as an entrepreneur. Um I thought I was on top of the world and kind of fell off. I started a few brands after that. Um and eventually I started a C BD brand in 2018. And I tried to advertise it on Facebook and Instagram. uh because I had this experience with Monk and these others and I was just running into roadblock after roadblock. You mentioned her earlier, but cannabis and hemp is probably the most challenging, if not if not one of the most challenging industries to advertise and market uh online.
Kurt Elster
Not not only is it an age-restricted good, it's also it it has all these compliance and regulations and just like social hangup that gets attached to it. And so, you know, trying to navigate that, if you have a big player in PPC like Meta and Google, their answer is just no, we're not dealing with this. And so Then what do you do?
Aaron Nosbisch
Yeah, exactly. They they don't want the additional liability. You know, if it's not whether or not it's legal. It is legal. The question is uh that they have policies that prevent it. Why do they have policies that prevent it? I don't know if you heard that recent Zuckerberg interview that he did on Theo Vaughn, but uh he talked a lot about how he doesn't use any common compounds at all. Like uh he doesn't even drink coffee. And so I think some of it's a little personal bias if I'm being honest, but who knows? Um like they so I think it they it's an unnecessary liability for them for a potential revenue. So that these companies have kind of just like pushed it away while the government and these different uh regulated parties kind of like sort it out. Uh I don't think that they're necessarily anti. I just don't think that they're trying to be at the edge of it. So anyway, I guess You know, what when I had the C B D brand, I just kept running into these challenges and I realized like, wow, this is a really tough thing. And I started to figure it out. I started to figure out how to advertise these and sometimes in compliant ways, sometimes in a little bit of gray hat strategies. Um
Kurt Elster
And and I'm not sure if you're uh n not yet not yet regulated methods.
Aaron Nosbisch
There you go. What you know and primarily so we were doing things like educating consumers about C B D, which was allowed. You could educate consumers. about CBD and then we would have that click over to a landing page or whatnot. So so I did that and I realized that this problem I was experiencing with my CBD prompt brand was not just my brand. It was the whole industry. And so I started an agency that did nothing except focus on that.
Kurt Elster
What was that one called?
Aaron Nosbisch
Uh Lucid. Uh yeah, Lucid. And we started Lucid in 2019. So I did that for a while. And you know, I knew I wanted to get back in the D2C game. I knew I wanted to launch a new brand. But I also uh I realized some of the last projects I built before Lucid that, you know, coming and trying to start a D V C brand without much money is not always the wisest thing. You know, it's uh it's an expensive game and you need options and adaptability. So So Lucid started spinning off some cash and it started giving me this perspective. You know, the thing is by working with so many clients in the cannabis space, I was able to see kind of what's working and what's not working. And I were able to apply my experience in e-com and my team's experience in e-com. Uh and then uh it got to a point in 2022 that I saw some of these new beverages coming out that were talk that were putting hemp drive THC in their in their products and I tried a few. And most specifically, I tried can and I remember thinking to myself, holy cow, this is just gonna be the future of drinking. Like it's so so obvious. At the time though, that the dr Th those other drinks just had THC and C B D maybe, but they didn't really have much else going on and they felt like not exciting enough. They didn't like you know, when you drink alcohol, You get this kind of like dopamine hit, this like happy energy, even though it's a depressant and it calms you down, ultimately it relaxes you, you initially feel excited.
Kurt Elster
This is per even in alcoholics. you still get that initial buzz when you initially start drinking. And so that's really the thing you're competing with.
Aaron Nosbisch
Absolutely. Well and that you know the thing is like Like I was saying with alcohol, you get this like happy buzz and then it kind of relaxes you. So and I tried these THC products and I'm like, okay, I feel good, but I felt a little like introspective. Uh and I felt kind of relaxed, which is fun, but like it didn't really have that celebratory connection vibe as much. So I started going to some cannabis and psychedelic events and just looking for people and spreading the word that like I think that these, you know, these alternative drinks that allow you to feel good without feeling worse are the future and that I that I was building a brand in this space and that I had a you know this at this ads agency and Um, and I just started spreading the word looking for some partners. And I met this guy, Travis uh Duncan, who came to me and he brought this uh really unique extract of lion's mane uh that was nano emulsified. He said this is the first time that anyone's ever made this. Um he goes, we should use this in a in a in a drink. So we started formulating a product and uh went back and forth a bunch. And the first variations were Not that good. They were very effective, but they didn't taste that good. And they were they kind of hit you too hard. You know, it was like very overwhelming. And so we just kept working on it, kept working on it. And eventually we got to this product that was just clean. and crisp and refreshing and exciting but also relieving. And I was like, oh man, this is just, this is, this is it. So um so we decided, uh I decided like I'm gonna launch this thing. And and I uh and so on 420 of 20 uh three, uh we launched this product. Um and uh which is kind of funny 'cause it's the cannabis holiday four twenty. Um and uh first I passed it out at two to uh 200 cans at a cannabis conference and people really uh into it. And then we launched it online. Um and you know I emailed uh my clients had told them, you know, hey, we're launching a brand, you know, just to get ahead of it. I didn't want anyone to feel like we were doing anything shady here and that, you know, if they you know wanted to keep it clear. And everyone was very encouraging of us, which was rich which is was nice to hear. And then we just leaned in. And, you know, like I knew that because I was building this product for myself, uh, and I knew that whatever part of me that I was building that for wasn't really Aaron, but more so the part of me that I think is the same in UCurt, the same in anyone. uh which is that desire to uh ascend, that desire to find relief, that desire to to to smooth out, to get a little bit of relaxation and connection. I I think that that's inherent to all humans. Um and I think it's almost criminal that we have so few options to do that in in socially acceptable ways. And so so we did that and launched it and and it just took off. You know, we went from I think it was uh 8,000 in our first ten days. Our second month was like 15,000, and then 30,000, then 80,000, 200,000, and 400, and You know, it uh by the end of uh twenty three, I think we in December we did four hundred and twenty thousand dollars in revenue uh in December, which was kind of fun. A little bit of a wink and nod to having a throttle on this thing. And then uh 2024 was our real breakout year. So we went from 1. 25 million. our first uh eight months and then in twenty twenty four our first full year we did uh twenty eight million and then uh last quarter we did twelve so it's been a while.
Kurt Elster
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Aaron Nosbisch
Hmm, formulation.
Kurt Elster
Formulation. I guess regulations you've kind of or you know, regulations you've already solved and branding you have experience with. Formulation, that's the thing that's new to you, isn't it?
Aaron Nosbisch
I've never even done beverage before. You know, this is my first rodeo. And honestly, I think if I had beverage experience, I probably wouldn't have done it. Because like beverage is challenging, like very challenging. It's It's expensive. It's heavy. It's hard to ship. You know, it's um there's a lot of like it's really big expenses. Um, there's not that creative ways like It's so much competition, you know. In the tradition see, beverage is not really an e-commerce thing. Like people don't really start e-commerce beverage brands very often. They're very far and few between. And the ones that do exist are usually not very large. Um, so So usually it's like you have this much shelf space and you have a thousand brands competing for this much shelf space. So it's very, very competitive traditionally. But our my approach was I'm starting an e-commerce wellness product is what I'm doing. And I'm building the infrastructure around that um from my experience in e-com to be successful no matter what that product was. It just happened to be uh beverage. And so that allowed us to break out in this way that we didn't have to compete. And in fact, we could just support the collective category at scale by by just uh by by broadcasting how we were doing it and by um and by advertising at scale to teach the k to teach the the mainstream market what this product is and what this category is and so So that was kind of how we went about it. And I think I think if I if I would have known more about beverage, I probably wouldn't have done s done it at all. But because I didn't, we were able to break out in these like unique and compelling ways that were true to us and not necessarily the industry. And then that gave us a really good
Kurt Elster
There is often some advantage in being ignorant of the thing you're about to attempt. And that's what I'm hearing here. It's like, okay, had you known more about were you more educated on what it takes to develop a beverage product, then it would have been easier for you to talk yourself out of doing it. Whereas like you know you were familiar with two of three and you're like, well, how hard can the formulation be? We'll figure it out. And you did, but you know, that was an advantage in not knowing.
Aaron Nosbisch
And it's both easier and more challenging than you think. Like at the end of the day, we're making lemonade. You know, like at the end of the day, we're we're mixing different ingredients together, we're making it, tasting it, make sure it comes out right. And that's it. Now the more complicated it is, it's not really limit aid. You're dealing with big VATs and large scale and uh of of ingredients and you gotta make sure it's perfectly dosed and carbonated the right way. But You know, uh I think something that um that I've been blessed with is just really smart friends and and like finding smart people and finding ways to align them. And so, you know, thankfully we found Travis who He's really an expert when it comes to all things making beverages and formulation. And then I have a partner and Breeze who has a PhD in pharmacology actually. And I worked with him previously at Monk. And so he came on just to be the scientific backing, make sure that all the interactions of the different compounds we were using was safe and efficacious, which are the two things that we're always looking for. uh and scalable and sustainable. And so so yeah, we've been blessed, man. Um I the more I learn about beverage, the more I learned that the beverage industry is really kind of like a lottery. Like If you do succeed, you usually succeed at scale. Like it gets really big. It's one of the biggest industries in the entire game. So it's like some of the biggest companies in the world. But the trouble is like 99% of beverages fail. Like it's a very, very tough industry to get to break through. It's very expensive. You typically need a lot of investors. Most grains are not profitable for a very long time. So there's a lot of y like to your point, the ignorance was definitely uh a blessing.
Kurt Elster
And thankfully we broke through fast enough where if we could get to the other side and so when you you say broke through, what's the threshold there? Like w at w you know what how many units, revenue, whatever? Like how do we know, like, okay, yes, this has traction?
Aaron Nosbisch
It's a good question. I think there's a couple variables. One is so like I think after you sell a million cans of something, you're kind of in the game. After selling 10 million cans, I think you're kind of guaranteed a spot. Um I think that's kind of that that's kind of how it works loosely. The trouble though is is like if you prop up a million cans and sales that cost you, you know, uh five million dollars uh loss, like did you really break through or did you just force it through? Uh it's kind of a and sometimes that works and sometimes it doesn't. I've I've seen some really beautiful, cool brands that had good investors and good distribution and they were able to get on the shelves and sell their products once and they were able to get through a lot of uh a lot of product but it wasn't actually it was kind of more forced than really market demand And you know, and I think this is what's so unique about what we're doing at Breeze, is because we have this advertising engine where we're spending millions of dollars in admin that turns into direct-to-consumer revenue. So we can keep doing it. It's a flywheel of investment into brand awareness. We're able to uh really efficiently build a brand and create that awareness in the consumer's mind. And I think a way that's not typically then possible in beverage. So by the time that we are on the shelf, people already know who we are.
Kurt Elster
So all right, let's talk about twenty twenty-four, because this is the year you see big growth. That's would be year two or year three? Year two?
Aaron Nosbisch
2024, yeah, it was almost um so we turned to 420. So it was like, yeah, so it was the first full year, the first full year of business was uh 2024.
Kurt Elster
28 million in revenue and you get into 2,000 retail stores, which you incredible footprint. What's the big growth driver here? I know it's like a see it a series of things compounding, but like what's the well, you know, what's the one you're most proud of?
Aaron Nosbisch
I I think there's two things that matter in business, innovation and distribution. So I think that we had a really great product, that was the innovation arm. Is that, you know, um, because of my my and my team's experience, we knew how to build an e-commerce brand that could fly high and fly far. And the key to that is, you know, really good fundamentals, strong unit economics that lead to a high AOV, subscription first, right out of the gate. Really strong but uh but simple website that's fully focused on conversion. Um customers as the top priority all the time, anytime. Uh amazing customer service where we're given the sheriff our back uh type situation. Um so I think that we really built an infrastructure for a really strong e-com brand uh that that was really helpful. And then, you know, we're we're all experts in digital advertising, a lot of the team. So we we knew how to make, you know Like we were really quick with like um very low production, high quality content. You know, like I think that the ads that I want to see on Meta Today is actually just like our conversation right now. You know, it's like just keeping it real. Like people are so there's so much noise out there and there's so much distraction. So many people are trying to take, take, take. You know, it's like Instead, our focus was like, let's just make ads like we're FaceTiming our friend, telling them what we are up to and see if that hits. Um, and it did. You know, we I have a bunch of videos from just sitting in front of the fireplace recording talking about like hey this is breeze i founded this product and this is what we were doing and you know all the team members do the do the same thing uh those i think were key aspects one other key aspect is Um, you know, I always hoped uh entrepreneurs would just build in the public. They would just share what was working, what wasn't working, how it was working. Uh so something uh that Nick and I decided at the very early days was like let's just share everything. Like let's tell exactly what the revenue is, let's tell where we're spending money, how what's working, what's not working. Uh and we've been doing that now for the last two years and it's been uh been very effective.
Kurt Elster
You know, there's like well that's what got me interested. Like I've been watching the story unfold on X. And it I'm familiar with it. I it months ago I went like I this I gotta hear this story, I gotta share this Because had you not been sharing that stuff, had you been, you know, working in the dark, which it it's easier to do, just not post, right? This opportunity would not have materialized. Other opportunities would not have materialized.
Aaron Nosbisch
I think so. I think people want to be part of a winning story is what it is at the end of the day too. Like, you know, it's like the people who do follow along, the people who give us feedback, whether that's a congratulation or an edification or a disagreement. are all part of our story, you know, and like and now this podcast is a part of our story. And like I I I think that we just have a broad view on that. Like um I think that You know, and and really again, it's the same thing with the with the drink. Like we built what we want. Like we wanted, you know, it's like I I wanted to watch entrepreneurs like share how they were actually doing it. I wanted to feel part of that rise. I wanted to learn. I wanted to express and I think a lot of people operate out of so much fear that they're so scared that if they share the revenue numbers, or if they share what they're up to, then everyone's gonna rip them off and you know I just don't think that way. I think it's a very short-term way of thinking. I think it's an old way of thinking. You know, like yes, people copy breeze because we share our information in the public, but as long as they're copying us, they're always behind us. You know, it's like the thing is like we have a North Star vision of what we're trying to accomplish and and fundamentally are after making the world a better place and trust that when we do that unselfishly that we will profit, as Ezra Firestone might say.
Kurt Elster
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Aaron Nosbisch
I like so we use stay. ai for subscription. They're really strong, uh, really smart, smart group there. Uh we use uh after sell for upsells and cross sales, which are really nice. Um we were using I think we're using no commerce for post-purchase surveys. I really like those guys as well. I'm pretty sure we use hot jar, um a lot of like little things like that. But you know, one kind of major kind of procedural process that I think I go through that I'm not sure everyone goes through with web website is we're very focused on a design first build. So like, you know, when Brie started, I first find a r amazing designer that uh and ideally I actually look at outside categories outside of e-commerce and look for like artists that make websites for art galleries or make websites for tech companies or whatever. And then so find an amazing artist, then bring them in have them design an e-commerce website uh with the principles that we share with them and then you get something net new that's typically not in the market. Um so that and then we get that to a pixel perfect layout. Like I want it to be ex I so we get exactly where we're going to design. And then my next step is rather than be like, okay, this is what's possible with Shopify. I go and find a developer who can make it look exactly like that, no questions asked. Like, and I don't want to hear that that's not possible. I don't want to hear that we can't do it that way. I want to like Like how can we get it to look like that? And then let's do that. And I th I found that that actually works. Like if you come with the designs and you find the developers and say, like, I need a pixel perfect, can you do that? you know, as long as you find the right person, they usually can. So that worked for us. Is it is so I go through that process. It doesn't always work. You know, we're doing like a bundle app now that's like has some crazy restrictions and bundles are kind of weird on Shopify. So I'd have them go back and forth a little bit there, but that's kind of the MO. Um, you know, and also with the brand and design separate of the process, like you can kind of see my video here that it it's it's a very interesting looking can. Like it in You know, the thing is, I like that quote that's like, people don't remember uh what you said to them or even your name. They m they remember how you made them feel. You Yeah, I always liked that. So like what causes that? I think it's a variety of factors, but my thought in the in the in the branding and design of the product was like, can we make a product that makes you feel something before you ever drink it? Like, can we create uh an aura, an association to it where if you just saw it, you kind of were captivated by it? And I think I think we did that.
Kurt Elster
And I I wondered, you know that rainbow reflection it does.
Aaron Nosbisch
It does something. You know, I in I I think at the primal level it's like shiny object syndrome. You know, it's like, ooh, shiny rock, you know. You know, it and so the other idea was like, okay, uh if it beverages were often on shelves, so or or in people's hands. So the idea was like Okay, if someone was holding a breeze, we wanted it to be that if you saw someone drinking that, you would be like forever wondering what that was that they were drinking and kind of like have it almost be like um like a brainworm or an earworm where you kind of feel like I have to know what that was. Uh and so that was the goal is can we make something so curious that people just feel like the need to inquire about it. And two, can we make something that makes people feel something just by the design alone and then follow through with that on an effect that was um beyond their expectations and very positive?
Kurt Elster
You've built something really cool. Uh in building in public and sharing on X, I saw that you met with Post Malone.
Aaron Nosbisch
A little bit. I actually met with Post Malone's management team. So there's a guy named Yeah. It's very cool. Yeah. That was a crazy experience. So um I had got reached out to by um this uh group called Electric Feel, which is a VC arm and I I actually knew a f a friend that knew them and they were telling me like What he was telling me, I don't know if it was true, is like, you know, Post Malone really likes the beverage, the crew really likes the beverage. I'm like, okay, cool, cool. So then uh he said, What do I gotta do to get you to Miami? So he sent a car to pick me up. Um and I was thinking it was gonna be like an Uber Black or something, which would be cool, you know, but It was not. It was a brand new Maybach, which is like, you know, for those who don't know, it's like a $400,000 car, like super fancy, nice cars. Um, and so we got into that car. Uh I got into that car, I drove to Miami, and then I met up with the um I met up with the the electric field management team, which is the which is Post Malone's management team. And Had a really good conversation with them and and we're still in talks about them making an investment into Breeze, which would be kind of fun. Um, but uh yeah, so that so that was cool. So we'll see how it goes. So it wasn't post-millone direct, but it was his people for sure.
Kurt Elster
So what's the what's the long game then? Are you building this to sell it or run it forever, or you just don't know, which I think is an honest answer.
Aaron Nosbisch
I think um I don't have any near-term goals of like selling the whole company. I think the smart thing to do, like I guess to that point of satisfaction, I would be very comfortable running this company for a long time. I'm 31, uh a young guy. I think there's an opportunity to to to run it for a while and and I and I and I would like to. Uh so so I'd like to run it for a while. I think the wise thing to do though is sell pieces of the company along its rise. So, you know, um There's we're talking about raising a financial around now where we're looking at like a two hundred to three hundred million dollar valuation uh today, which is pretty good. It has. Yeah. I put 250,000 in uh at the early days. Um uh uh 100 from me, 100 from Lucid, 50 from Nick, and so that was able to kind of get us going. Um, and then uh and then we've been profitable after six months. So we've been kind of in a a a green zone for for a bit now. But you know, as we get bigger and we start taking on bigger challenges, having just a little bit of capital. Um feels better. It's a little bit more fortifying. There's going to be changing regulations that make breeze more available in some states and less available in other states. And so having the funds to be able to navigate that effectively feels Feels smart. So so uh so yes, so we're talking about raising some money now and my intention is to sell uh both raise some money now to put into the company to affortify it, but also sell a little bit of my shares at different tranch points along the way. And this is what I would advise to other entrepreneurs in a similar situation. It's like You know, you might regret one day selling some of your shares at $200 million valuation if it's going to be a $2 billion valuation a year or two from there. But like there's always the possibility it doesn't. And so being able to take a few chips off the table while still having, you know, the most of your chips on the table uh and investing in the company, I think is is smart. So my intention is to sell. small pieces at different points along the scale, but to own the majority of it uh long term. Um, you know, now that being said, if someone offers uh me and my team uh a five billion dollar check, I guess we'll have to reevaluate that conversation. Um by but um but my intention is to run it long term and and um But it's also involved really cool people, you know, like I don't think I think that after companies start getting to a certain size, they they stop being your company. Like, you know, it's it becomes an artifact of of of society, of existence. And so I think I'm really excited to bring in the more of the right people over time.
Kurt Elster
If you were to go back five years ago, you're giving yourself advice. What is it?
Aaron Nosbisch
Um have more faith and trust in yourself. Um you know that doesn't mean like not questioning or or whatnot, but You know, I think for a long time I felt like I had to have this level of certainty over what I wanted or that I needed to know everything to to to do anything. Uh and I think that put you in a place of analysis paralysis. And I think it puts you in a place of like closed offness. I think when you become comfortable with the words I don't know, you tap into the magic powers of them. And the magic powers of the words of I don't know is that the infinite possibility of what could be. Uh i in in in more simple terms, it's like if you don't create the space to be uncertain, to be unclear, to to operate with the unknown. You never create the space to ever know. And so I I wish I had more trust and more faith and more confidence in not knowing exactly what I wanted, not knowing exactly how it was going to look or which way I was going to go. by just trusting and having faith in the process and continuing to walk uh forward into it. That'd be one big one. I have one other one for you, which is the concept of winning and losing. I, you know, I had some several setbacks in the past, whether it was monk where I got kind of kicked in the teeth and didn't know how to dot my eyes across my T's and you know, these different things, but one thing I learned probably over the last five years is um that failure is a state of mind fundamentally. Like if you decide that you're going to either win or you're going to learn then you always stay in the place of winning. It's that simple. And like, uh, you know, I think I think when I stopped letting go of this idea of like, oh, I could lose or I could fail or it all could go wrong. And I started thinking instead, like I'm gonna be successful. And sometimes I might trip and I'll learn about that and how to not do that in the future so I can keep being more successful. Um, another way you could say that is the only way you lose is if you give up. Now that doesn't mean you should keep running into problems and projects that are just going into the ground, but it means that you should continually be evaluating, iterating, learning, and pointing yourself and aligning yourself with success. And when you do that, uh, you just start winning like a lot more um because it it it it there's almost like a metaphysical aspect to losing that comes to Whether or not you're gonna decide to hit to learn and iterate from it towards success, or you're gonna uh sit and saturate in that failure.
Kurt Elster
Man, that's really good advice. the magic of I don't know, which like that's a thing we all have to learn. I I think especially as young adults. Because let's say my teenagers know a hundred percent of everything I tell them. Um but and like eventually you If you're mature enough, you grow out of that. And there is gro there's great power in it. Um and win or lose, oh my gosh, not everything is a z or win or learn, not everything is a zero-sum game, right? It is good advice. Uh okay, I was on on your site and they've got you got a store locator. I clicked it. And my local, I'm in Chicago, so Benny's our big local chain. You're in Benny's. Oh my gosh, I gotta go. I haven't been to Benny's in a while. I gotta go check that out.
Aaron Nosbisch
We just rolled out in Benny's uh just recently. They're doing really well.
Kurt Elster
It's a good place. But okay, if someone wants Breeze, where could they find it?
Aaron Nosbisch
Yeah, so you you can either go to our website uh drinkbreeze. com breeze is B R E Z as you can see in my sweater here. um and you can order the order online or on our website there's a store locator you can hit that store locator find whatever shop is closest to you and and order from there and then you can follow me along on uh aaron a r o n j N-O-S-B-I-S-C-H. Aaron J. Nospish on social media and kind of follow along as we continue to build this thing.
Kurt Elster
And I will include those links in the show notes. Aaron Nospish, thank you so much. This has been great. I really enjoyed it.
Aaron Nosbisch
Absolutely, man. Thanks for having me.
Kurt Elster
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