You’re paying for tastings, winning placements, and sending teams into the field. But can you tell which of those investments are actually driving sales?

For too many drinks companies, the answer is no. The relevant data is buried in spreadsheets, email chains, and program recaps that arrive months after the money is spent.

In this sponsored episode of Business of Drinks, Erica Duecy sits down with Ian Ferguson, CEO of PIÑATA, to explore how brands can connect what happens in the field to the numbers that guide their next investment.

The conversation grew out of our interview with Saint Spritz’s Ben Patton, who revealed that the brand uses PIÑATA to manage its nationwide team of roughly 100 brand ambassadors. But the opportunity extends well beyond scheduling tastings: It’s about helping sales, marketing, distributors, and agencies act on the same information.

One example: Ian says PIÑATA has seen sell-through nearly double when in-store activations were backed by an end cap display. Yet the teams booking tastings often don’t know where those displays are happening. PIÑATA helps surface those details across teams and agencies.

We dig into:

• Why sampling ROI can be misleading: A tasting that helps win an opening order serves a different purpose from one supporting inventory already on the shelf. Measuring them the same way can lead to the wrong conclusions.

• What happens after a national account win: How to turn an authorization into actual placements, communicate expectations to distributors, and spot gaps in execution.

• How to measure trade relationships: Connecting bartender engagement and event guest lists to account performance over time.

• Where lean teams waste resources: From tastings at stores with no inventory to multiple people calling on the same accounts while others go unsupported.

• What emerging brands need to prove next: Working backward from a buyer or distributor meeting to capture the evidence that will help open doors.

For anyone trying to make a limited commercial budget work harder, this conversation gets specific about where to start. For more information, visit www.gopinata.com

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Erica Duecy, co-host: Erica Duecy is founder and co-host of Business of Drinks and one of the drinks industry’s most accomplished digital and content strategists. She runs the consultancy and advisory arm of Business of Drinks and has built publishing and marketing programs for Drizly, VinePair, SevenFifty, and other hospitality and drinks tech companies.

Erica Duecy LinkedIn

Instagram @ericaduecy

Scott Rosenbaum, co-host: Scott Rosenbaum is co-host of Business of Drinks and a veteran strategist and analyst with deep experience building drinks portfolios. Most recently, he was the Portfolio Development Director at Distill Ventures. Prior to that, he was the Vice President of T. Edward Wines & Spirits, a New York-based importer and distributor.

Scott Rosenbaum LinkedIn

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Bizzy Coffee has grown revenue 175% over the past three years, crossing $50 million in annual revenue, producing more than 1 million bottles a month, and reaching 12,000+ stores nationwide.

But the playbook behind that growth is surprisingly unglamorous.

In this episode of Business of Drinks, we talk with Alex French, Co-Founder and CEO of Bizzy Coffee, about how the company built scale by obsessing over product-market fit, pricing, repeat purchase, velocity, and distribution.

One of Bizzy’s biggest breakthroughs came from a conversation Alex had while personally sampling coffee in a grocery store. A customer loved Bizzy’s cold brew concentrate -- but didn’t realize she was supposed to dilute it. That interaction helped inspire a major pivot toward the lower-priced, 48-ounce ready-to-drink format that now anchors the business.

Rather than chase the single-serve cans dominating beverage innovation, Bizzy focused on becoming what Alex calls “the pot of coffee of the next generation” -- an affordable, customizable cold brew designed primarily for consumption at home.

Alex also explains why price promotion has become one of Bizzy’s most important customer-acquisition tools. The strategy: Use pricing and packaging to drive trial, deliver a product people love, and turn that first purchase into repeat velocity. Bizzy is now increasing velocities even as it adds distribution -- with Alex estimating the brand still has roughly twice its current store base left to pursue.

We also get into:

• How Amazon became both a sales channel and consumer-insights engine• Why Bizzy brought manufacturing in-house -- and the risks of doing it yourself• How the company finally reached profitability in 2024, then faced soaring coffee costs and tariffs• The operational push that ultimately improved extraction yields by roughly 33%• Why Alex sees greater opportunity in format innovation than another new flavor• How Amazon search behavior helped inspire Bizzy’s new double espresso shots

It’s a candid look at what scaling a beverage business really requires -- and why sustainable growth often comes down to getting the fundamentals right, over and over again.

For the latest updates, follow us:

Business of Drinks website (sign up for our newsletter!)

Business of Drinks YouTube

Business of Drinks LinkedIn

Instagram @bizofdrinks

Erica Duecy, co-host: Erica Duecy is founder and co-host of Business of Drinks and one of the drinks industry’s most accomplished digital and content strategists. She runs the consultancy and advisory arm of Business of Drinks and has built publishing and marketing programs for Drizly, VinePair, SevenFifty, and other hospitality and drinks tech companies.

Erica Duecy LinkedIn

Instagram @ericaduecy

Scott Rosenbaum, co-host: Scott Rosenbaum is co-host of Business of Drinks and a veteran strategist and analyst with deep experience building drinks portfolios. Most recently, he was the Portfolio Development Director at Distill Ventures. Prior to that, he was the Vice President of T. Edward Wines & Spirits, a New York-based importer and distributor.

Scott Rosenbaum LinkedIn

Subscribe to the Business of Drinks channel for more insights on how brands, retailers, and operators are unlocking growth across beverages. And please rate and review us. Your support helps us reach new listeners. Thank you!

The best investors aren’t just just identifying great brands. They’re identifying shifts in consumer behavior before everyone else sees them.

That’s the approach Jeff Cantalupo, Founder and Managing Partner of Listen Ventures, has taken throughout his career — from a decade in brand strategy at Leo Burnett to investing in companies including Angel’s Envy, Go Brewing, Delta Beverage, and Magic Cactus.

Listen starts with the consumer. The firm conducts its own research — from ethnographies and interviews to literal tours of consumers’ fridges and freezers — looking for changes in behavior that could create the next big category or brand.

One shift Jeff is particularly bullish on is “vice wellness.”

Historically, some of the strongest consumer businesses have been built around ritual, identity, and repeat behavior. Now, as wellness becomes increasingly important to consumers, Jeff sees opportunity in products that combine those powerful behaviors with “wellness permission.”

In drinks, that’s helping fuel what Listen calls the “social beverage” — from non-alcoholic beer to hemp-derived THC and other functional beverages. The thesis isn’t that alcohol is disappearing. It’s that consumers are becoming more intentional about what they drink for different occasions — and that’s creating space for entirely new choices.

In this episode, we dig into:

• The three types of innovation Jeff looks for: Product, business model, and brand narrative• Why repeat purchase, CAC payback, margins, and unit economics matter more than hype• Why omnichannel capabilities have become table stakes for beverage brands• What Listen saw in Go Brewing, Delta Beverage, and Magic Cactus• Why vertical integration can sometimes create a competitive advantage• What made Angel’s Envy investable — and why timing was critical to its success• Why a great consumer business isn’t necessarily a venture-backable business• How founders can conduct meaningful consumer research without a big budget

Plus, Jeff shares one deceptively simple branding question he teaches at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management: What business are you actually in?

You may sell beer, tequila, or THC seltzer. But the brands that break through often own something bigger — an occasion, a feeling, or a consumer need.

For the latest updates, follow us:

Business of Drinks website (sign up for our newsletter!)

Business of Drinks YouTube

Business of Drinks LinkedIn

Instagram @bizofdrinks

Erica Duecy, co-host: Erica Duecy is founder and co-host of Business of Drinks and one of the drinks industry’s most accomplished digital and content strategists. She runs the consultancy and advisory arm of Business of Drinks and has built publishing and marketing programs for Drizly, VinePair, SevenFifty, and other hospitality and drinks tech companies.

Erica Duecy LinkedIn

Instagram @ericaduecy

Scott Rosenbaum, co-host: Scott Rosenbaum is co-host of Business of Drinks and a veteran strategist and analyst with deep experience building drinks portfolios. Most recently, he was the Portfolio Development Director at Distill Ventures. Prior to that, he was the Vice President of T. Edward Wines & Spirits, a New York-based importer and distributor.

Scott Rosenbaum LinkedIn

Subscribe to the Business of Drinks channel for more insights on how brands, retailers, and operators are unlocking growth across beverages. And please rate and review us. Your support helps us reach new listeners. Thank you!