The Weekly Bev - 5th Edition

📈 My Investment in Leisure

You guys loved when I walked you through my Whims investment in the Inaugural Edition, so I figured it’d be cool to dive into another one of my investments: Leisure! In my humble opinion, there’s an awesome learning at the end of this one that goes like this:

🥇As a creator, you should always be striving to align the value you’re capturing with the value you’re creating. 🥇 

What does this mean? Let’s get into it! Alex and Steve, the founders of Leisure who also happen to be brothers, reached out in early 2022 because Alex was a fan of the vlog (early days too). We got together a few days later at Erewhon and had a great conversation. They told me about this drink they were launching and let me try some samples…It was love at first sip. A couple weeks later, they gave me several jugs of Leisure to help with hydration while I was at Coachella. I did my best Kool-aid Man impression all weekend long, providing Leisure to any and all who wanted some, and the verdict was clear: Leisure was an incredible product. Only a couple days after that, I went to Las Vegas with Alex and Steve to see Leisure’s first ever large scale manufacturing run (as seen in vlog 203). I was a fly on the wall for the entire process: I saw the quality of the ingredients, the scale of the opportunity started to hit me, and most importantly it became extremely obvious how great Alex and Steve really were at running a company…I knew I needed to find a way to get more involved! Here’s a nice little recap video:

What that video does not mention is how I broached the subject of investing in Leisure. While sitting in a conference room during another one of their manufacturing runs (vlog 589), I said to Alex and Steve (verbatim!) “I want to let you guys know, I believe in what you’re building, and my goal is to be an investor in this company one day.” A rather simple sentence, but I think it achieves two main objectives:

1. It made my intentions clear! Closed mouths don’t get fed, and silent investors don’t get an allocation. Always ask!

2. It outlined my timeline; I was not asking to become an investor right that second and I am a long term player. Flexibility and a long term orientation are key, in my opinion.

Alex and Steve were super receptive, and they appreciated the idea. Five short months later, when the timing worked on their end, Steve hit me up to discuss in greater detail what an investment would look like. We met up at Dialog (naturally), agreed that a combo of regular responsibilities (aka sweat equity) and cash (aka equity) made the most sense, and the paperwork was done shortly thereafter!

So, the takeaway here…Distribution is key for all companies in 2024 but especially consumer packaged goods companies. If a CPG brand cannot 1) get their product in front of potential customers and 2) create an identity that allows the customer to easily understand the products value, then it’s very unlikely they’re going to be successful. It’s just too crowded of a space to not invest in distribution.

Luckily, there are a ton of exciting ways to do so, including (of course) partnering with creators! So why should a creator turn down upfront cash and prioritize equity? Because product distribution isn’t “one-off” in the same way that a cash payment is. There is misalignment there. For a start up, product distribution underpins the entire success of the company both today and in the future. If you’re creating long term equity value and believe in the product and team, try to capture some of that long term equity value. That’s what I have prioritized with the select people that I feel passionate about, and it’s been an incredible experience all around. Emphasis on people because I believe the team behind the product to be the real indicator of what you are investing in. Put your faith in people you can believe in and trust :)

Quick disclaimer: none of this is investment advice and you should always consider your entire financial situation before deciding to turn down a cash payment! As always, reply to this email and let me know your thoughts on this! 🙂 

❓️ Mystery Links

Einn, tveir, prir, fjorir

🥐 Cooking

Ok it’s about time we address this as a group…we’ve received a lot of requests that I include breakfast tacos in the vlog. This always makes me laugh because 1) the breakfast taco is arguably the most featured character in the vlog and 2) it’s also maybe the most straight forward thing that I cook 😂

Nevertheless! The Weekly Bev is here to serve the people. Please see recent vlogs 914, 907, 905, 900 and many more to see my beautiful breakfast taco skills in action and below for my extremely complex recipe…

• Vista Hermosa Flour Tortillas

• Tofutti cream cheese

• 3 Happy Eggs (Heritage Breed of course)

• Diced green onion

• Exciting/optional add-ins: hash browns, chicken sausage, salsa, dill, bacon, chorizo, rosemary potatoes, avocado, guac, the list goes on…