Digital Social Hour
Robert Laird : How One Startup Took Over a $19B Tequila Industry | DSH #1568
13 Oct 2025
Chapter 1: How did Robert Laird discover Dios Azul tequila?
Holy shit, that is the best tequila I've ever had. That's our Palazzo, so that's aged three weeks. We do our Reposados aged nine months in a Cabernet. And then our Aneos, which is my favorite. This is aged two years, which is twice as long as most Aneos. You gotta try this tequila, it's the best I've ever had. And I go, yeah, I'll be the judge of that.
All right, guys, we got Robert here, a good friend of mine. Dio Sazul, cheers. Cheers, brother. One of the best tequilas I've ever had. Thank you so much for having us.
Chapter 2: What makes Dios Azul tequila different from celebrity brands?
Yeah, I was just telling him, you could drink this shit straight. How many tequilas you can say that for?
No, you certainly can. That was the whole point and really why we wanted to bring this to market was because it sort of found its way into my life in a really serendipitous way. And I decided, you know what? As a fan of tequila, of what I've been told is the best, right? I told you earlier before the show, good and better. This absolutely outperforms it in every sense of the word.
Chapter 3: How does aging in unique barrels affect tequila flavor?
I mean, to really understand like this is what tequila is supposed to taste like. has been really fun to discover.
Absolutely. And everyone that owns a liquor company thinks they have the best tasting.
Of course.
When we first met, I was skeptical. Of course. And then at Powerslap, you were giving out samples. I was like, damn, that was fire. I know.
Chapter 4: What challenges does Dios Azul face in the tequila industry?
And I took another one right after.
Yeah, it's amazing to actually get to a point where you're like, OK, I can actually enjoy this. And it's one of those, one of probably the most euphoric buzzes I've ever, you know, I've ever had as you decide to indulge. And no hangover because we don't use any diffusers. We use open air. It's really artisan approached.
And more importantly, we grow the agave ourselves, right, with our family and our partner down there. So we maintain the age of that agave when we actually harvest it.
I actually love that because I used to love this. I don't want to call out anyone in particular, but I used to drink this tequila brand, and there was a bunch of PR about them lately about how they add stuff to it.
Chapter 5: How is Dios Azul leveraging partnerships for growth?
Yeah, it's actually a class action lawsuit with that particular group, I think, right now, which is ironically, you know, In Mexico, there's a very small, and this is, of course, something I've discovered and we'll talk about here in a minute, becoming kind of an industry expert, right? You have to if you're going to start any business.
I don't care what side of the market you decide to go into, whether it's media, marketing, AI, pharmaceutical diagnostics, whatever it is, you better figure out how to become an expert in that space. And so, of course, I dove into the space and the heritage and what goes on to actually produce it in Mexico over the last 18 months since I discovered this.
And it's wild that they'll shift distilleries quite often after they're acquired by larger companies, and then they just basically change the whole formula. And that's basically what happened. That's a bummer. Yeah, it is a bummer.
Chapter 6: What role does distribution play in the success of a tequila brand?
Because they try to make more margin?
100%, yeah.
Yeah, because tequila is supposedly one of the healthier alcohols, right?
It is. The agave plant itself is almost like a superfood, right? I mean, whether if you have diabetes or if you're autoimmune, I mean, it's the one spirit you can enjoy. We actually digest agave, right? Like a vegetable, unlike some of our other products. spirit friends like a vodka or a whiskey. I'm a whiskey guy.
Chapter 7: How does Dios Azul ensure a hangover-free experience?
I'm Scottish, ironically, with a tequila company. So usually it's, you know, even if you're doing a really impressive Macallan 18 or 20, whatever, it still leaves you, you know, a little hungover the next day because of the way we digest it internally.
Yeah, I used to be big on wine, but as I've gotten older, I get a headache now. Yeah, real bad.
And the tannins, the sugars, throw the sugars out, it'll do that to you. And so because agave isn't a sugar, right, there's no hangover. And trust me, I've put it to a test.
I promise you. You probably drank damn near a whole bottle.
I'll try more than that.
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Chapter 8: Where can listeners find and purchase Dios Azul tequila?
And obviously, you know, we're doing this day in and day out, you know, and really trying to build the brand in an authentic way by leveraging phenomenal hospitality partnerships and key account markets.
You guys have crushed it with that. Can you name some of your partners?
You're only seven months in. We're seven months in. Yep. You know, I strategically launched this in San Diego. So that market has been phenomenal. I live in Northern California, so not far, Sacramento, east of Sacramento, El Dorado Hills. Father of two, so I'm a little, you know, taking care of not just fatherhood, but also growing a business is not easy.
But this product deserved to be in the hospitality market that was going to appreciate it. And so... I chose San Diego specifically because of relationships with really impressive hospitality partners like Click Hospitality, RMD that owns Hard Rock, groups like Sidebar. And then, of course, we ended up moving in with Insomniac Group. So Nova and Oxford and the club scene in San Diego.
My good friends down there really embraced us early on.
So very lucky. Now you got some major ones in the works. You got Power Sloth.
Powerslap came on, yeah. Our first, I'll mention our most pivotal partnership that obviously opened the doors to create some legitimacy behind the brand. Not easy getting into the space, very competitive, a lot of money. I mean, Tequila does almost $19 billion a year in revenue. So your conglomerates are making a lot of money, spending a lot of money.
was to get in with the MLS team of San Diego, which was an emerging, um, franchise. So they were coming into, um, the limelight and creating their brand themselves the same time that we were. And I was fortunate enough to run in. to Tom Penn, who's their CEO.
And Tom Penn actually founded, I shouldn't say founded, but ran and put together LAFC in 2012 and then ended up partying with them and got kind of touched on the shoulder to launch San Diego FC, which is currently ranked first position right now. I know. I believe they're crushing. I mean, their first position just knocked down The former champions, you know, LA Galaxy just took down Vancouver.
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