James Morrissey

We met in Vegas.

Five years ago, in the depth of COVID, through mutual friends, we're in the space of building brands in joint venture with well-known individuals in entertainment, brands that they want to own, not just endorse.

And we wanted to go into the tequila space for a long time.

We liked the category.

We thought it was very compelling.

The celebrity tequila space is completely oversaturated.

At the time, it was very noisy.

We needed something really compelling to break through and to make it right for us.

And when myself and Kev started talking during COVID, it became very clear very quickly that we matched each other's energy in terms of understanding the responsibilities of being not just a face for the brand, but being a business partner and the responsibilities of owning a brand and building one of these businesses for the long term.

So there's a lot more that goes into this business than meets the eye for the consumers, right?

So to your point earlier, the liquor business, the alcohol business, it's a very complex industry to navigate based on the three-tier system dating back to the years of prohibition.

So there's certain criteria and ways you've got to navigate, and ultimately to build success, our perspective on it within consumer products and goods, and particularly within alcohol, where we saw the biggest opportunity over the last five years, is large corporations typically do not disrupt.

They innovate.

They innovate well with liquids.

They innovate well with package.

But generally, they're not disruptors.

And that's not saying the alcohol industry alone.

It's every large industry.

So it takes independent entrepreneurial companies to be real disruptors.

Like you guys were speaking to the guy from Grunes the other day.