They told her it would take $15 million. Mallory Vaughan Patton built Saint Spritz with grit, Google, and a clear vision. In this episode of Hello Chaos, Mallory sits down with Jennifer Sutton to unpack the raw and unfiltered reality of launching a healthy drink brand in the competitive beverage industry. From testing flavors in her kitchen to landing shelf space in Target, Walmart, and Whole Foods, Mallory shares how she navigated the chaos of startup life, one bold decision at a time. This story is rooted in family business, driven by women founders, and powered by a belief in doing things differently. The team behind St. Spritz moved fast, trusted their instincts, and figured out every piece of the process on their own. They balanced product launches, retail distribution, and regulatory hurdles with relentless determination. For any founder building something from scratch, this is a masterclass in making it happen. No shortcuts. No fluff. Just real talk on entrepreneurship and the daily grind of turning an idea into a movement.
Key Takeaways:
1️⃣ Build before you’re ready
Mallory didn’t wait for the perfect plan or millions in funding. She Googled her way into the beverage industry and proved that execution beats experience.
2️⃣ Distribution is a beast, so own it
Getting into Target and Whole Foods is a win, but staying on shelves is the real game. Mallory breaks down the messy logistics behind retail growth and why founders must stay hands-on.
3️⃣ Family business can be a superpower
Working with family requires boundaries, but it also unlocks deep trust and alignment. Mallory shares how their tight-knit team turned personal connection into professional momentum.
Timestamps
00:00 Welcome to the Chaos
03:41 Navigating Ingredients and Formulation
06:05 Trusting Your Gut in Entrepreneurship
08:48 Transformative Journey from Mother to Entrepreneur
09:40 Direct to Consumer Launch and Challenges
11:49 Scaling Production and Distribution
13:57 Targeting Retail and National Expansion
16:06 Creating a Unique Spritz Experience
19:22 Family Dynamics in Business
21:08 Overcoming Misconceptions in the Beverage Industry
22:26 Building a Family Dream
23:39 Strategic Growth and Compliance
25:16 Retail Expansion and Market Presence
27:05 Learning from Mistakes
29:00 Streamlining Operations
31:14 Mindset and Stress Relief
32:30 Celebrating Growth and Future Goals
35:09 Community and Support for Entrepreneurs
37:00 Advice for Aspiring Founders
38:06 Transformative Entrepreneurial Journey
41:40 The Nature of Creativity
🔗 Follow the fizz and connect with Mallory:
Website: Saint Spritz: A Departure in every Can
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/malloryvaughan/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/saintspritz/
Hello Chaos (00:00)
music
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (00:14)
All right, welcome to Hello Chaos, a weekly podcast exploring the messy and chaotic minds and lives of founders, entrepreneurs and innovators. Each week I have the privilege to speak with founders across the spectrum, founders from different industries at various stages, from startups to mature businesses of all shapes and sizes. Our listeners get to hear the real, the raw, the unvarnished viewpoints and stories, getting incredible insights on what it takes to scale and start a business and or to become a better founder.
a better CEO or just a better business leader. Better humans is what we're shaping up to be. Today on our podcast, on our show, we've got Mallory Vaughan Patton. She is co-founder of Saint Spritz and Italian Spritz in a can. I am excited to have you on. Welcome, Mallory. And you're calling out of Puerto Rico. And beautiful scenery right behind you. So welcome to the chaos. How are you doing?
Mallory (01:03)
Puerto Rico, yeah.
to be here. That's so funny. I didn't connect the dots until you had explained it, but chaos is a great, great word to describe.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (01:18)
the best word
for us, isn't it? We live in chaos, we welcome it, sometimes we hate it, but it is a word that describes our world, isn't it? ⁓ So start us out. What inspired you to start St. Spritz? Talk about that. Because you're just now starting to get ⁓ momentum.
Mallory (01:30)
It's perfect.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (01:44)
You're in Whole Foods, just launched like this week. So exciting, but just how in the world did this all start?
Mallory (01:52)
So we launched St. Spritz really just out of a need that we felt ourselves. We had gone to Italy one summer because my brother-in-law got married over there and we were just drinking so much Aperol Spritz and even at his wedding, the line for Aperol Spritz, it was like a spritz bar and the line was like
50 people deep at all times and the regular bar was just like flowing naturally and we're like, man, everybody loves these things. And then we got back to where we live. Yes, they're amazing. And honestly, like as people are thinking more consciously about their drinking habits, a spritz is just a great beverage that feels light and refreshing and not too hard. ⁓
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (02:18)
I do.
Mallory (02:32)
So it's a great option. And when we got back to Puerto Rico, we noticed like I do a lot of entertaining and I would make one apparel spritz and then immediately everybody was like, I want one I want one. And I'm me and Georgia were making my sister in law who's my other co founder, we're making them so often we're like, man, these would be so much better ready to drink and so many of the drink options out on the market, like we're coming out with great RTD options. So we went to the store and tried to buy some and everything that we bought just didn't taste like those like iconic Italian spritzes.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (02:55)
Yeah.
Mallory (03:02)
are so crisp and refreshing. And we were like, should we start this? Should we try to make our own and make it better for you? Because when we looked into what was in those Aperol Spritzes, were like red dye 40, yellow six, added sugar. And I've got two kids and we all try to live pretty healthy. And those are definitely not things I try to consume regularly.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (03:07)
Yeah
Yeah.
So are you telling me like in my Aperol bottle that's red dye? Is that what's the coloring?
Mallory (03:29)
Yeah, it's crazy
with, if you look on the bottle, says it on there. It's really small, but ⁓ yeah, that's pretty bright red. So honestly, that was like such a huge part of our journey is like.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (03:33)
It's like,
It's what it is. All right.
Yeah.
Mallory (03:42)
in order to make these feel and look like that bright orange spritz, like, are we going to be able to do that naturally? And that was like a big part of the hurdle. And that's what truly took us the longest to get was that bright color. And we did it naturally with natural dyes. And just, I think with so many things that we consume today, it's like, you can easily make these things naturally. Let's move away from the dyes.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (04:05)
The chemicals, yeah.
So what did you, did you guys have experience in kind of this ingredient and formulation? Is this your background?
Mallory (04:12)
No, no, it is not
my background at all. So it's kind of a funny so we're, we're ⁓ female and family founded. So it's myself and my sister-in-law Jojo and then her brother, Ben is also one of our founders. ⁓ But I'm married to Jojo's older brother. So it really is like a family thing. But you know, we had always said,
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (04:30)
It's truly. ⁓
Mallory (04:34)
that I think it was my mother-in-law that wanted the whole family to do a business together at some point. Like everybody was just busy and nothing came up and Jojo, my other co-founder was on the bachelorette and you know, had to
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (04:39)
Right.
What?
Mallory (04:49)
Yeah, she has
a ton of followers and does a lot of work with brands and you know, had always kind of loosely talked about making her own brand. And after that trip to Italy, it was kind of like, is this it? We like start this together. So that's kind of how it came about organically. But my husband and and his brother, Jojo's brothers have started and sold several different businesses. So they're entrepreneurial. Yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (05:03)
Yeah.
So they kind of knew the landscape
a little bit.
Mallory (05:17)
Yeah, so they're familiar with crazy entrepreneurial during journeys. So I think it was that mindset that when we were drinking those drinks, and I kind of looked at Jojo, we said, Should we do this? My husband was like, do it. And the next morning, I woke up and he was like, Did you find ⁓ a place to make it? And I was like, and he really like, every day was like, what do you what are you thinking? When are you gonna have cans in hands? And it was like, it really drove us.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (05:30)
Right.
Our kitchen?
Mallory (05:45)
to the process faster just because that experience.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (05:48)
Yeah. So how did
you guys figure out like the formula or did you find like a partner, a manufacturer that helped with that, like to speed that process along? I mean, that just seems ⁓ unfamiliar and challenging. Like how did you cross that?
Mallory (05:59)
We just got out of the vlog.
got on Google like how do you create a beverage brand I think I watched a YouTube video and then just started calling ⁓ Copackers and
Then I found somewhere either online or from one of the calls that I had that said like, first you need to get a formula put together. And then, I was interviewing formula houses and eventually landed with a great team on the formula side. And that's when we kind of just said like, Hey, we've got two goals. Cause we started with just the Amalfi flavor, which is this one, which is the iconic bright orange spritz that you're used to seeing. And I was like, we have two goals. We want this to look and taste like an apperol spritz, but we don't want to use.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (06:37)
Yeah.
Mallory (06:46)
anything artificial, we just want to do this with wine and juice. So it was just kind of like step by step figuring it out, which I think for a lot of entrepreneurs is the case, they don't know what they're doing. It's just
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (06:55)
Yeah.
No, they're just jumping in. So
what was the biggest or what was the biggest aha kind of in this experience of that you've been in the journey so far, like the biggest kind of breakthrough that you're like, yes, yes.
Mallory (07:17)
So I think, you know, a lot of figuring out this industry was just like calls. And I spoke to anyone that would have a phone conversation with me. But I think at some point, we just realized like we had to trust our gut. And that was like the aha is like, every different expert is going to tell you a different thing. Like you need to be in six packs, you need to be in four packs, you need to be in tiny cans, know, everyone had a different opinion. So the end of the day, we just kind of did our research and then went with our gut.
And that was like a big aha for us because I think at every turn, that's something we've had to do as a Yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (07:51)
stay true to your vision, like
the original vision. What did you discover most or what have you discovered most about yourself in this journey?
Mallory (08:03)
So it's been really, you know, it's been transformative. I mean, before I launched St Spritz, I was at home with the kids. I have a now seven year old, his birthday was yesterday, seven year old son and a three year old daughter. So I've been in the thick of it with just raising them. I've been living in chaos. ⁓ But you know, I think just transforming from mother to entrepreneur has been...
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (08:18)
You are active.
Yep.
Mallory (08:30)
a journey, you know, and that's been really, there's probably things about being a mother that have helped me because I think as an entrepreneur, you're just juggling so much. And it's the same with being a mother that I was able to kind of transform those skills into a different, a different space, which has been cool.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (08:31)
Yeah.
Yeah. ⁓ What has been the most challenging? What's been the biggest barrier? And maybe you're still in it, like, what's a what's a ⁓ shit moment? What have we done? Or how do we get out of this?
Mallory (09:01)
There has been a lot of shit
moments, but I think what I've learned is like everything is tackleable. So like don't panic. That's not going to make it better in any sort of panic situation. Panicking doesn't help.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (09:13)
Right?
Mallory (09:14)
But I think for us, we launched mostly as a direct to consumer brand using Jojo's following from Instagram. Like, hey, we'll do a test batch. We'll test it just direct to consumer because we're wine based. And we're only 5 % ABV. So we're like, OK, we'll do this kind of smaller start test, see if we have product market fit. And I think our big shit moment was like, we did that launch and we sold out. ⁓
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (09:18)
Yeah.
Right?
wow. So you guys
only like manufactured or produced like a very small quantity and.
Mallory (09:45)
I think it
was like, was not, to me it wasn't small. Cause I think we did like 888 cases or something out. The minimum was 888 and we were like, we'll double that. So we did roughly like 2000 cases for this. ⁓ A case is 24. So it was a big run. It was still like a big run, but you know, we were like, we're just going to do this smaller run to start.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (09:54)
my, and.
And how many cans on a case?
my goodness. Yeah.
Mallory (10:11)
And I think this is a huge issue for people trying to start in the beverage industry is it's like really, really difficult as a small producer to get line time. So that, so get getting on in a factory on the line to do your product run, to get product. And so it was really difficult to like meeting deadlines to get your cans pressed and everything is like sprint to finish. then, we finally get to do this run.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (10:20)
Yeah, explain what that is to listeners.
Right.
Mallory (10:38)
And they're telling us the minimum is 888 cases, which is a lot for a small producer anyways. And we're like, all right, double it. We'll do that. This is gonna be ⁓ plenty. And we ended up selling out like.
very quickly. And what we learned there is like our shit moment was like, okay, well now we've launched. And we thought people excited about the brand trying to buy it direct to consumer and now we don't have any product. So we're just sitting on our hands and it's just it's so difficult to get in the factory.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (10:58)
Right.
Ugh.
How fast
like turn on, so you sold all of that? Are they saying like, okay, we can't get you back on the line for another like three months or something? Okay. ⁓
Mallory (11:16)
Yeah, yes. And that's
what we found, particularly like as you know, we're not we're not white claw or high noon, right? So you don't get these this preferential treatment. It's like, you have to book line time. And so we really like moving forward with that. We're like, okay, we have to go all in and our next run has to be big. And we're gonna have to just pitch big retail and go from there because we can't like be waiting for each production run.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (11:24)
Right.
Right? So it's like
DTC to start, but then you're like, now we've got to hit the wholesale and the retail markets.
Mallory (11:49)
Yeah. So we were DTC at launch was, which was summer of 2023. And then that like fall winter, we started conversations with distributors just for Texas. And we launched into Texas only January of last year. We really only had Texas last January and this January we are launching national. yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (12:01)
Okay.
Okay.
Did you find a national distributor or like a wholesaler
or?
Mallory (12:20)
The way it kind of rolled out for us was like we had that great TTC launch, we use that information to have conversations with distributors. We spent all of what the alcohol industry calls O and D. ⁓
of last fall talking and we got with a distributor and in Dallas, Texas and put together the network so we could launch into retail in January. And at that time, we only had total wine. And we only had, luckily, we had a HBB mandate, which was. Yeah. And if you're from Texas, that is like the.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (12:45)
Okay.
of those like the HEP stores. Yeah, yeah.
That is
it. That's the store.
Mallory (12:55)
And so we got like this God given mandate for the Amalfi, which is all we had at that time. And then in the spring, we launched the two other flavors, Sicily and Hugo, because the Amalfi is incredible, but it's that bittersweet, Aperol Sprint that it's polarizing.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (13:06)
Okay.
It's the app wrong. What's the
and you said the Sicily one is the like the limoncello.
Mallory (13:16)
Yeah, so it's like a lemon basil, like we call it our Sicilian sparkling lemonade. It's really light and refreshing. And then the Hugo is like a Hugo Spritz that you can order at a bar. It's elder, elderflower, mint and lime.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (13:20)
Mm-hmm. And then.
⁓ yeah,
yeah, I was like trying to figure out what the Hugo was. OK, OK.
Mallory (13:31)
Yeah. So we
launched those two last spring DTC and then got the opportunity last summer to trial all three flavors within Target and Dallas Fort Worth. And our Sam bar, we got like four or five stores and they did just incredibly well. And the target team approached us that fall and they said, look, like this product is doing really well. We're really excited about the spritz category in general.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (13:42)
Okay.
Mallory (13:57)
We want to roll this out statewide. And that was like huge news for us. We're so excited. Get all set up to do that for Texas. And then the buyer was like, Hey, I know this is really short notice, but we want this to launch national for spring. And we, so we had to align at that. The manufacturing wasn't really as much of an issue because that was just scaling and just more capital. It was more finding distribution.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (14:00)
huge.
Wow, so what did you guys have to do to find a different ⁓ manufacturer and packing partner?
Okay.
Mm.
Mallory (14:27)
So
in October of this past fall, we had to start those conversations with distributors to get basically all of the United States in distribution, which is really, really difficult because if you know the space.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (14:40)
with all the
rules and yeah, every state has a different rule around that.
Mallory (14:44)
Yeah,
and it's just a crowded market. So there's a million drinks that are looking for distribution. So luckily for us, we align nationally with the distribution with R &DC on a national contract and Johnson Brothers and then some beer like beer network and pockets that were strong for us. We put it together and we launched last week and hit the shelves. We're in every target that sells wine basically. Yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (14:49)
Yeah.
That's fantastic.
one of the questions I had for you was, you is this, you said it's in the spritz category, but are you guys like the first of its kind in the spritz category? Or is it, yeah, go ahead.
Mallory (15:24)
So there's, I think there's a few.
There's a
few other spritz type in cans, but I think what we felt there was a real mess on is like after we got back from Italy, it was like everything you saw on social media and like the White Lotus did their whole Italy season and it was this whole vibe of the Amalfi Coast. And we didn't feel like anyone really captured that vibe. And when you look at our cans, we did the stripe to resemble the umbrellas that you see on the beaches in Amalfi. And we really wanted to like package up that
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (15:39)
you
Yeah.
Mallory (15:54)
experience of the Italian, you know, our slogan is departure in every can. We didn't feel like there was a canned product that really grabbed that vibe.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (16:00)
Right?
Is, was the can ⁓ from the vision from the start of we want to be in a can versus like a spritz in a bottle or something like, or was there packaging issues around because of the ingredients? Okay.
Mallory (16:18)
We always try to...
We always wanted to be in a can because we
part of the spritz experience that was cumbersome was like we live at the beach in Texas, a lot of people are on the boats and bringing the Prosecco and bringing that the apparel or the Saint Germain, whatever you're using. It's like, hey, let's just make something that's like ready to crack a can and pour over ice or drink straight from the can. So that was always hands.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (16:30)
⁓ no glass. Yeah.
Right, load in the cooler. Yeah.
That was the vision.
I love it. What? ⁓ No, I like my little my little question here. ⁓ What's been the most rewarding part?
Mallory (17:00)
I think the most rewarding part has been like that we truly have like, none of us on the core team has now we've hired some beverage people, but none of us had any beverage experience. And we just figured it out. And I think that's been really rewarding. And I think it's a good example for other people, other entrepreneurs, or even like for my kids.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (17:20)
Right. You guys had grit. You were bold. Like the phone call, like just
being that perseverance of making those calls and having those conversations and.
Mallory (17:28)
Yeah, I mean anything it's truly testament to like anything you put your mind to you can figure out because I think beverage is pretty complicated.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (19:00)
And the fact that you're a family, family startup, family founded, ⁓ you've got sister-in-law as your co-founder, talk to me about that. How did you guys, how do you work and establish communication, boundaries, ⁓ dealing with, you know...
It's family. sometimes, you know, because they'll tell you, don't get, don't get involved with the family.
Mallory (19:23)
Yeah.
So for us, I know I've definitely
heard that before. But honestly, like, I think because we are such a tight knit family, and because my husband and his brother have been in business together their whole lives, ⁓ there's just like a trust and there's just a trust that you have working with your family. And I think, honestly, it's been a it's been a benefit for us because we are so close. Like, we're all like my brother in law is next door to me. And then my sister in law is like two minutes down the street. And we just
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (19:36)
Right.
Yeah.
Mallory (19:57)
it just works for us. I think we know when one of us is going through something personally, whether if I've got a sick kid, or, you know, someone's spouse is out of town, so they're managing alone, or I we just get each other. And I think if it's when you're working in a corporate environment, when it's really like structured, and you don't know people more personally, maybe you don't understand, there's not as much as a deep understanding that we have. And we can just call each other out. Like, I know, like, Jojo will be like, you're being weird. Why are being weird? Like, it's just, it's, it's
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (19:58)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Alright.
Mallory (20:27)
comfortable.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (20:27)
Yeah, you can
teach lessons on that, think for, you go. So were there any myths, just, know, when you hear you had, you know, the few men that had already done this is kind of like second nature, but were there misperceptions that you had or JoJo had going into this that you were like, you guys, you guys lied. Like this was, this is not what I thought it was gonna be.
Did you guys have any of those moments here at JoJo?
Mallory (20:59)
I think we felt it, because a lot of the beginning was like discovery calls and I think of quite a few of the calls were like.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (21:03)
Yeah.
Mallory (21:08)
y'all are crazy. Like, you're not you need to, if you're thinking about launching a beverage brand, you need to raise at least $15 million to start. And then I remember we had one call where Jojo and I were on and the guy was like, Yeah, there was a brand that scales as fast as y'all but I think they raised $250 million and Jojo and I were like, what?
That's crazy. ⁓ And I've actually spoken with some other founders of other really successful drinks. And they're like, yeah, that's like the same vibe that we got. And we just like, I think you just have to be really scrappy. I think beverage can get really expensive. So, you know, we just do a lot of it ourselves. And yeah, we're self funded. ⁓ So we're just we're really like, careful with our dollars.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (21:43)
Yeah.
I was like, are you guys self-funded right now?
Yeah.
Mallory (22:00)
Yeah, I think.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (22:02)
Are you guys,
what's the end game? Are you guys just gonna grow and keep it as like this is a family business and we're gonna continue with lines or is there kind of an exit plan of, no, we're gonna build this in three years, five years and we're some liquor brand or Anheuser-Busch kinda buys us out.
Mallory (22:26)
I think we're really proud that we have created something as a family. Like that's really like the most of it is like, wow, like we had this dream and we created it we can hold it and it's in target and it's, it's in Walmart and total wine. It's like, that's a crazy, amazing feeling. I think what we are realizing is that I think we're doing a great job where we're at now.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (22:35)
Yeah.
It's so cool.
Mallory (22:47)
But I think in order for us to go to level two, I think for us to work strategically with a larger organization would be extremely helpful. think we're doing the best we can as like a scrappy crew. And I think we're doing an amazing job. But I think our dreams for St. Spritz is that it's everywhere. You know, the way I want to, envision it is like, it's like perrier. Like I want to see it when I'm on vacation in France. I want to see it. ⁓
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (22:50)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Right.
That's right. Come on private equity firms, let's go. Let's
go. They need it. like I think I said at the start, I don't know if we were recording it, but know, congratulations on getting in your pop up into Whole Foods. And you had said that that was also kind of a goal going in of we have to have standards, ⁓ formula standards that are Whole Foods standards. Explain that. didn't know, I didn't realize that Whole Foods had ⁓ whatever.
Mallory (23:33)
Yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (23:39)
like filters and limitations and boundaries of like, you can't come in here unless you meet these qualifications.
Mallory (23:45)
Yeah, have a
full list. It's like called like the Whole Foods. It's just you have to be Whole Foods compliant, right? The whole list of ingredients that you can include in your in your product. And for us, we were like, we want to be Whole Foods compliant. But I think we went a step further where it's like, we want everything on the label that you can read. It's like carbonated water, orange wine, orange juice, white grape juice, monk fruit juice, fruit and vegetable juice. And it's like, everybody knows what those things are.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (23:51)
Okay.
That's right.
Mallory (24:15)
I think that's been pretty cool to do. ⁓
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (24:17)
That's how you got in there. Yeah.
Now you're going to be is is Whole Foods going to be your net like the next national push is to be in.
Mallory (24:25)
we're hoping for because I think what we found a lot like with Jojo's audience, right, like she has this great my microphone to almost 3 million people. But when we were just available in Texas, it was like, it, you know, it's like a tree falling in the forest, forest is like, if we are available in more places, our consumer can go more places. So now it's going to be in every target where you can buy wine, and we have 505 Walmart's the total wines in all the states where we launch target. ⁓
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (24:37)
Right.
Yeah.
Mallory (24:53)
And yeah, Whole Foods right now is just regional in Texas, but what we've been doing as a brand is we start within a retailer and then we really support it and grow. And so the hope is to grow national at Whole Foods. I think it's hard when it's spotty.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (25:00)
and then just branch out.
Yeah,
it's exciting though. so I mean, so when you saw it like in Target, did you go and have your friends go buy some or you were like, what was that moment when you guys were on the shelf?
Mallory (25:16)
I was so excited.
Before we even had our cans produced, took, had like a ⁓ sleeve of this, like it was like the aluminum just in a sheet for approval for artwork. And I taped it onto a Red Bull can and I brought it into Target and I took a picture and I sent it to JoJo and I was like, look, and she was like, I don't think you can do that. Get out of the store. I was like, I need it for my vision board.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (25:27)
Yeah.
Mallory (25:42)
And so like when it launched into target, of course, yeah, I went there and I went to get, you know, all the flavors. I was so excited. But what I said is like target it's like the house always wins. I'm like them bringing me into target was a good move because now I'm in it like every week or every other week just spending target you're like, what happened? I came here to get toothpaste and I have you know,
shoes for my daughter and toys and everything else. They tell you what to put in the car to Target.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (26:13)
That's right, that's
right. ⁓ If you had to hit, if you had to say, ooh, I wish I could do that over again, whether it's because you now are more knowledgeable or informed, is there anything that you'd look back to go, damn, I wish I would have, I wish I could do that differently?
Mallory (26:30)
my first reaction is no, because I'm always like a very big believer in like, every step leads to the next step. And you are where you are for a reason. But I would say, looking back, if I could give myself advice from the future, I'd be like, trust your gut, because I think we made some steps early on where
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (26:39)
Right.
Mallory (26:50)
professionals told us you've got to hire an outside sales team to help you sell into retail. You guys don't have experience. And so we did that and spent like a pretty good amount of money doing that for a couple of months. And it did not work and it was not a good environment. we all
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (27:00)
Yeah, they didn't work.
Was it because
they didn't understand your vision?
Mallory (27:08)
they didn't understand our vision. And also it was this weird dynamic where like another founder would connect me to a buyer and like I would try to reach out and then they would be like, there's too many kitchen chefs in the kitchen, like we're reaching out. It's weird if you reach out. And I'm like, I can't do this. Like I'm trying to grow my brand and this company is now holding me back. So we sat down as a team like as a family, we're like,
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (27:24)
Right?
Mallory (27:29)
Like screw it. Like we're just gonna grow this on our own backs. Like we can't expect anyone else to grow it. And like, no one's going to sell our brand better than we will.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (27:30)
All right.
That's right,
yeah. That's pretty cool. That's a cool story. Because I think you're right. I think there's a lot of ⁓ other founders that get in that stuck. Yes.
Mallory (27:41)
Yeah.
you could burn a lot of money on consultants as a beverage founder.
think the helpful part for us is like, because, you know, our CEO and co founder Ben has run businesses before, like, it's just looking at your PNL. mean, like each month, like, did that give us value? No, we're not doing it anymore. And just like adapting fast, whereas I think sometimes people are scared to like call out that an employee or a system isn't working.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (28:04)
Right.
Mallory (28:16)
And I think you can get down the road and you can just burn through a lot of money.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (28:19)
That's
right, that's right. If you could pick two things, if I give you a little magic wand, you could pick two things that change about the business today. What two things would you change?
Mallory (28:31)
I would say access to like co packer line time and access to like some sort of way. Well, a couple, there's a lot of things I would change, but I would say like more accessibility to like launch a small product and not be like, you had your minimum case run is going to be, you know, a hundred grand to do.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (28:44)
Top two, top two.
Hmm.
Right. So like a small line. Yeah.
Mallory (29:00)
Oh, maybe some more accessibility. Yeah, just like trial
run somewhere. So once you do that. And then a second thing I would say is, um, some sort of more streamlined, uh, systems throughout retail. Cause what it is, like as a small team, when you're not Diageo or constellation and you don't have a team of like 40, you know, under brand each retailer has a different portal and each distributor have as a different portal. it's.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (29:16)
Hmm.
Right?
⁓ yeah, yeah.
Mallory (29:29)
we're, just doing a lot of the same work, like new item forms for every retailer. It's like, I wish we could just like shoot these up into a cloud somewhere and people could see the product and just bring it down if they wanted to. it's heavy. Yeah. If somebody can tackle that, someone will be very successful because there's hundreds of retailers and everybody's
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (29:37)
Right.
There's an opportunity for an innovator right there.
and thousands of brands
that are dealing exactly what you're doing. Yeah.
Mallory (29:56)
Yeah.
And even for the big guys, it's a lot of man hours just like loading all the dims and skew information. And if you get it wrong with, you know, a 12 digit barcode, you could really screw up your year.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (29:59)
That's right.
Right. So what do you do? mean, you guys are running like hair on fire, scrappy, gritty, you know, working as a really cohesive family unit, which is so inspiring ⁓ of what you guys are doing. What do you do ⁓ to blow off steam, to relieve the stress, to lift each other up? ⁓
Mallory (30:27)
Thank you.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (30:36)
Or what do you do individually? Like what are you doing to keep your sanity?
Mallory (30:40)
You know, it is like a lot to manage for sure. Like I feel like each day I'm like wearing so many different hats, you know, from like creative stuff to production stuff to distribution to our relationship we have here in Puerto Rico and Coca Cola. Like it's just a whole lot. ⁓ But for me just
I think mindset is a big thing. Like instead of waking up and being like, my God, I have all these forms to do for Target Walmart. It's like, what if it were the opposite, right? Like that would be worse that I didn't have. So it's really like an opportunity. And for me, I'm like, I'm so grateful because
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (31:01)
Yeah.
Thank
That's right.
Mallory (31:14)
this is like a dream that we're building and some people don't even get that dream off out of their heads. So for me, it's mindset and practicing gratitude. When you're feeling overwhelmed, like just stepping back and be like, all of these are opportunities. this, but also just being like exercising helps too. Me and Jojo and ⁓ play like a ton of pickleball. So that's helpful.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (31:16)
Yeah.
This is exciting, exciting days. Yeah.
Yeah, the surge
of pickle and hitting the beach that's right behind you.
Mallory (31:44)
Yeah, hey, I need to do that for 2025. I need to do more. I'll bring my laptop up there.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (31:49)
Yeah, that's what it would have been fun episode on the beach. If we met a year from now, so next spring I'm coming to Puerto Rico, what are we celebrating?
Mallory (31:53)
You wouldn't see them here.
I think we're celebrating St. Spritz growing like 10X. know, I think our first year was really small, just kind of pocket launch TTC. I think last January was like testing our toes in Texas. And this spring is like launching national with Target and Walmart and Total Wine and make it a big splash. And I think next spring is when you'll see it be everywhere, you know, not just those kind of like key. We're gonna see it everywhere.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (32:24)
We're gonna see it on the shelves everywhere. All
right. That's right, let's put it out there. ⁓
Mallory (32:30)
I manifested that.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (32:34)
So what else do you do? Do you do anything like, you know, surprisingly interesting for your free time? Do you have like a secret hidden gift of, you know.
musician or
Mallory (32:47)
musician I do I mean, I do play a lot of pickleball. But ⁓ I would say I'm very into making little moments for my family special whether it's like a birthday or we're celebrating a dinner like I love setting up and making that special you know, whether it's Valentine's Day like that's I put up for a lot of energy into because I remember that growing up with my mom like
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (32:52)
champion.
Right?
Mallory (33:11)
St. Patty's Day, like all these things that didn't feel big, like she would make feel so special, like make green bagels. So I, hard to do. And a lot of times it's like I'm up until midnight blowing up Valentine's Day balloons. But it's for me, it brings me like the most joy is making magical moments for my kiddos and fam.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (33:17)
You
Yeah, I love that. I was talking to another founder earlier this week and you know, one of their struggles is, know, here they've been working, you know, bootstrap, they've got, but then they got investors and stuff. And she was like, you know, I'm in my mid forties and I realized I really haven't embraced enough joy in my life. And so she's trying to make some, some changes that she can, can infuse. She was like, what am I doing? She's like, I got three young kids and, I'm not having fun.
Mallory (33:56)
Yeah. Yep.
No, you've got to...
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (34:01)
and
I'm not joyous and joyful.
Mallory (34:04)
You got to live joyfully. connected with another entrepreneur a week ago. I was on a really special ⁓ founder retreat through a group called Mavericks. And one of the guys there was telling this crate. It's a too long for this podcast, but this crazy story about he had one of this
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (34:06)
Yeah.
Mallory (34:20)
this journey with a breath worker and he said he like got visited by his mom and it was she told him like from the grave right in this experience that like, hey, I'm gonna give you some advice from what I've been through is like you need to live every day joyfully. And their example he had given was like live like a dolphin like it's like they're not thinking of stopping they're just jumping in the waves and like that's it you got to live joyfully life's too short.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (34:37)
Yeah.
They're just having a good time.
That's right. ⁓ So are you involved in the entrepreneurial community? You said that you're involved in Mavericks. Are there other groups or would you recommend things like that for other founders of finding these retreats or these communities to connect with?
Mallory (35:09)
get more involved, like I would say like our first experience was ⁓ we got Jojo and I got invited out to NBWA, which is the National Beer Wholesalers Conference. And it was a female ⁓ conference and I would say like,
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (35:19)
Yeah.
Mallory (35:23)
connecting with other female founders is so important because there's just such a, it's such a different journey. And I think that you can learn so much from those people. I think Jojo and I credit so much of our journey to advice we got early on. We had connected with Kat from 21 seeds and Katie Beale from ranch water. And they just gave us like so much great insight. So getting access to communities like that, if you can, are so helpful. the entrepreneur stuff that I was talking about with Maverick,
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (35:26)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Mallory (35:53)
is something I was plugged into through my husband because he's an entrepreneur. But it's just so uplifting to be around other people who just, entrepreneurs just think different and they think everything is impossible and it's just a such a positive energy to be around. So I think as a founder, could really, yes, you need to be around that energy.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (36:02)
Yeah.
Right? We're cheerleaders for each other. We have to be. Yeah.
It is amazing when you get in that room of people think differently, they move differently, the energy is different, the air that you're breathing. It feels good. Yeah. What's the best piece of advice, whether it's your husband or some of these outsider entrepreneurs that you've connected with?
Mallory (36:23)
Yep.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (36:34)
like Katie Beale, like what's the best piece of advice that you've received from another founder entrepreneur that you really took to heart and now you like, I need to amplify that.
Mallory (36:44)
mean, there's so much great advice. I couldn't boil it down from from all those great female founders that I would say from my husband. And this sounds super cliche, cliche, but it's it's like, Nike, like, just do it. Like, if you have an idea, just do it. Like, that's
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (36:56)
Yeah. Yeah.
Just
Mallory (37:01)
just move
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (37:01)
act.
Mallory (37:01)
forward and act because I think so many people have these ideas and they want to do them and it's like shoulda coulda whata so I think that's been really like have no fear yeah you can't have fear and you just have to go for it and I think like especially on these production runs with us like it was a big risk like a lot was on the line to do a big run like what if what if those brands what if no one buys it
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (37:07)
Yeah. Like have no fear. Yeah.
Yeah.
No one buys it. Like,
right.
Mallory (37:27)
the reality you have to face.
It's like, but what if they do? What if they do buy it? I think you just need to be positive and go for it. Just do it.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (37:32)
That's right.
Just do it. All right, so if you had to sum up your entrepreneurial journey in just one word, what would that word be?
Mallory (37:45)
transformative.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (37:46)
⁓ why do you choose that word?
Mallory (37:49)
Because my entrepreneurial journey was a transformation from being a mother to an entrepreneur. It's changed everything in my life in a positive way. So I would say that that perfectly boils down my experience as an entrepreneur.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (38:06)
⁓ And then if you look ahead to the next chapter, what word describes that chapter?
Mallory (38:11)
growth.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (38:12)
growth. Let's get it. Get on every shelf. I'm excited. I can't wait to taste it. We're in South Carolina, Greenville.
Mallory (38:14)
Let's get it. Let's get it. Hey, can't wait. Then where are you calling from?
Hey, Target near you, sis, all right. Mm-hmm. Yeah, we're trying to come out there to do a little more.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (38:25)
Is it in there? Okay, well, I will go find it on the, I'll find it on the show. Because we like
to pull those things off, because, you know, we work with other brands and stuff and it's, it's not just, it's hard to get in, but it's also, you gotta make sure you sell out so they continue to buy. Yeah.
Mallory (38:40)
think that's actually the hardest part.
I think it's easier to get in. Like if you have a good product and the product tastes good, yes, but like.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (38:47)
Right? But to
get off that shelf and in a competitive shelf space, is the fact that you guys were flying off the shelf, that just is a testament to ⁓ the, think there was a missing, like you said, there was a missing gap.
Mallory (38:53)
It is tough.
Yeah, I think,
and I think, you know, I think when there's opportunity and a need for something and I think you have a good product and it's made well with great ingredients and the people behind it are good. I think it's all rising times.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (39:17)
The story
is there, that's right. this has been amazing. I've loved hearing the journey. Before we go though, how do you want people to find more information, ⁓ go support you, buy your drinks, get the cans, get them off the shelf?
Mallory (39:36)
Follow us on at St Spritz on Instagram, go to our website stspritz.com and head to our store locator. Like I said, we're national at Target starting this week. We're in 505 Walmart's total wine in Texas, we're in HEB, Whole Foods in particular areas, Tom Thumb, Albertsons, Edelie. So if you go to our website on our store locator, you can find out where we are. We're in almost 3000 locations. And then here in Puerto Rico, ⁓
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (40:03)
Wow.
Mallory (40:06)
We distribute with Coca-Cola here. we're in, I think, 400 locations here. So yes, Italy is our vibe.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (40:09)
You're in everywhere.
Congrats on the Italy too. That, I was like,
kudos to that. That is awesome.
Mallory (40:19)
Yeah, it's a great store.
Hopefully we'll get more placement in their New York and LA locations too because it's definitely our vibe.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (40:27)
It's perfect fit.
That's right. Perfect fit. Mallory, thank you. And it was pleasure meeting with you and hearing the story and tell the rest of your family. Good job. Kudos. ⁓ And for everyone listening or watching this episode, thank you for joining us. Again, the podcast is available on all your podcast platforms. So subscribe to Hello Chaos. Give us that five star review on Apple or Spotify. Share this great content and help us build a more connected entrepreneurial community.
Mallory (40:38)
Thank you so much.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (40:56)
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