Hold My Drink: Owl’s Brew Founders Are Changing The Industry
We asked CEO and Co-Founder Jennie Ripps about her journey building the Owl’s Brew Boozy Tea brand and how she felt about the industry she is in.
Current research shows that men and women consume alcohol at about the same rates in the U.S., but the people leading companies in the adult beverage industry are men. In conversation with Jennie Ripps, co-founder of Owl’s Brew, she shared that only 4% of leadership roles in this space are held by women (compare that to 22 - 25% nationally).
When you think of male dominated industry, the usual suspects typically come to mind, tech, finance, law, but there are many pockets of consumer products where women are buying (and marketing) what men are selling. Jennie Ripps and Maria Littlefield are here to change that.
Thinking big from the start
We were introduced to Jennie and Maria through a partnership with Owl’s Brew Boozy Tea and Rebelle Con 2021, our annual women’s conference. They launched their line of boozy tea in the beginning of 2020, but that is not where their story began.
From the early days, they knew they wanted to build something big. Their first business, Brew Lab, began by creating unique tea blends and selling them into New York City restaurants, literally one pound at a time. Jennie describes her feelings as they were getting started,
“We knew from day one that we believed this was a better, cleaner, more delicious way to consume cocktails, and we always planned on raising capital and building a brand – even in the early days of our first tea company.”
Exceeding their own expectations
In 2018, they sold Brew Lab and used the capital to get Owl’s Brew Boozy Tea to the launch stage. But not all things went exactly to plan. Early 2020 arrived and their product began to hit stores’ shelves. The typical way you introduce a new product, like this one, is through in-store sampling to get consumers to try something that, before Owl’s Brew, didn’t exist.
What could have been a setback ended up being a defining moment for the brand. Jennie explained, “Because of COVID-19 we couldn’t sample.... We were really worried. How would people understand the brand and our position?”
But then something happened that surprised them, Owl’s Brew started flying off the shelves. Consumers were discovering for themselves and coming back for more.
Positioned for growth
At the end of 2020, their growth had taken off and they were ready for investment. “We knew we needed to support it through institutional capital, and raised our Series A.” Jennie explained. They had a great operations team in place that helped them keep up with demand, and credits “redundancy in their supply chain” for setting them up for scale.
In addition to investment, they brought on Jeannie Mai, best known for her role on the television makeover show, How Do I Look?, as their Chief Brand Officer. Jeannie had discovered the product in a Whole Foods store and reached out to the brand about a partnership. An advocate was born and more collaboration continued.
Commitment to quality
Right on the homepage of their website, you see the founders’ commitment to clean ingredients. It states, "We couldn't find a great boozy beverage made with only clean ingredients so we decided to make it ourselves, using fresh-brewed tea as a base."
Jennie described that the alcohol industry has different standards in terms of labeling ingredients that you would assume. The term “natural flavors” is not clearly defined and can include chemicals or even animal byproducts. This is an area important to Owl’s Brew. Jennie says, “We think everyone deserves a great-tasting beverage with a clean label.”
Co-Founder: Jennie Ripps
On the alcohol industry.
In the US, 68% of men consume alcohol and 64% of women. That’s pretty even. Yet, that 4% statistic I mentioned before is pervasive - leadership teams, flavor development teams, sales teams. That means from strategy all the way to the people who ultimately put the product on shelves at your local liquor store – it’s 96% men controlling that process from beginning to end. It’s really crazy, when you think about it.
On female collaboration.
Wise Women Collective is our way to push back against that 4% number. It gives us a voice as a minority in this industry. Our initiatives include supporting charities like Keep Abreast foundation, and Women’s Voices for the Earth. In addition to the serious stuff we try to have fun. There is an area on our website where if you’re having a Mom’s Night Out, you can submit it as an event, and we’ll get some Owl’s Brew “flying” your way! One of our favorite initiatives is #BoozyBookClub, where we interview female authors on Instagram Live every month.
What she hopes is different in the next 10 years.
If you couldn’t guess, let’s at least get us tracking against the US average in terms of roles held by women. 22% sounds much better than 4%, sad as that is.
