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LeslieF.

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  1. At this point I'd rather not divulge our fundraising goal, only that it is more than $100,000! We've done it through friends and family, and have learned a lot along the way. I definitely would do some things differently. Leslie
  2. Tufted Turtle -- I would welcome a discussion about marketing to the public -- I certainly would benefit, and no doubt others would as well. I think you are being a little thin skinned. No where do I say the post is representative of the forum, I say this is one response I got. Can't get more factual than that. And I can pretty much guarantee that my readers are not in the distilling business (unless they've come to the blog out of curiosity from this forum) so no one is going to the blog and making the connection to the ADI forums. I'd also be happy to talk about raising money from investors, as we've raised over $100,000 and I could share my insights into that whole process -- and learn from others -- as well as other topics relevant to starting out. Best, Leslie
  3. You guys are funny. Thanks to those who "get" what we are doing. What I've found is that some distillers (that I've met in real life, as well as here) don't understand that these are two very different business models. I am on these forums because there is a lot of great information for me -- about certain regulations, bottle suppliers, even marketing and much more. In my opinion, if you are passionate about distilling, you should distill! If you are not, you shouldn't. Many brands are started as I am starting mine -- and the success rate is quite low, as it is for lots of startups. However, read the history of Hypnotiq, on the smaller end, Svedka Vodka, or the more recent Pinnacle -- which, although the owner was named "White Rock DISTILLERY" did no distilling, but bought in and flavored vodka, then did the bottling. Do I love their vodka? No. But I don't sneer, because they were just sold for $600 million, and personally, I would not sneer at that. Now, I realize I am on a distillers' forum. But besides learning things, dare I say it, but I can perhaps offer some value as well -- as I've been quite a student of marketing, graphic design, bottle shape too, which are thinks distillers absolutely need to think about. I have talked to MANY people, from distillers, to those who've done what I am attempting and been very successful. Best of luck to all of you -- we all can thrive as we are not really in competition with each other.
  4. Erm, thanks? for the welcome?! Mash, thanks for your questions. We are not doing the distilling ourselves -- as you point out, it takes a great deal of expertise that we don't have, and don't have the budget to pay for. Also, in NY the number of farm distillery permits is exploding -- there's been a 270% increase in licenses in the past 32 months. We can't compete with the investment bankers who've decided to open distilleries -- there are two, each in neighboring towns, where the founders have spent millions. Since we haven't launched, I can't give details of our product. We've visited several distillers, and the response is like yours. If I might be brave enough to reply -- I find that many/most distillers are, in a way, too focused on the product. Yes, you need a great product! But -- that's not all you need. Great product does not sell alcohol. Great product + great marketing is what is successful. We know we have a great product -- we've done taste tests against two premium vodka brands already on the market (Stolichnaya and Grey Goose) and ours beats them 100% of the time. But, as I said, you can't stop there. We have a marketing plan that I know no one has ever done before. So that means we'll either look like fools (very possible) or will be wildly successful since no one else has thought of this approach. And before you scoff too loudly, we've had the new brands person at a national distributor tell us there is nothing like what we are doing on the market, and if we can get launched they want to test us for national roll out. *That's* what makes us think we have a chance of being successful. That said, I'd love all the advice anyone can give.
  5. I think the problem with this approach is that you would have to give out too much proprietary information in order to attract investors. In other words, you'll have to spell out exactly why your product is better than what is already out there -- what differentiates you, what your marketing plan is, etc. Any investor is going to want to know these things, and I would not be comfortable sharing them with the wide world. Also, I've found that our investors are all people who know me. As one said, "there are a lot of good ideas out there. That's not a guarantee of success. You need good people too." In other words, an investor has to know that the good idea is going to be executed well, and that the people doing the work are going to work hard (not just a vanity project, e.g.) and do excellent work. It would be a harder sell for strangers to get comfortable with management, I would think. (though, it could be done for sure, just that it might be a bit harder). We are halfway through our raising capital phase, so this is very much on my mind!
  6. Hi, I thought since I've started posting I should introduce myself. My partner and I are not actually distilling ourselves, but have hooked up with a small distillery who will be making the vodka for us. We've been working on our plan for a year now, and have gotten fairly far along in the process. You can follow what we are doing on our blog: Threemeadowsspirits.blogspot.com. Right now we are in the "Raising Capital" phase of things -- we've raised more than half, and are hopeful that we'll raise the rest in the next six months. I've learned a ton from the forums and would be happy to share what I've learned so far.
  7. Flavormatic in Wappingers Falls NY does flavors for alcohols and coffees. We are working with them and have had a great experience. I disagree that you can come up with something like this on your own -- unless you are exceptionally unusual! Not only to concoct the taste, but to make sure it is shelf stable and the color is right (if there is color) etc. is not something someone can just do on their own.
  8. Bluestar has given good advice. I think you could probably register your marks on your own, if you spend a bit of time on the USPTO's "how to" videos. To answer your question, yes, I trademarked our business name (Three Meadows Spirits). The name we are thinking of for our product was rejected as "descriptive". For example, "Vanilla Vodka" -- vanilla is describing the vodka and lots of people want to use it. When we have a logo/label design I will go back and register that. I think the main pitfalls you want to avoid are being too descriptive (as I was!), being too broad (e.g. registering Three Meadows Spirits for clothing, or legal services or anything -- instead you want to limit your area as much as possible (to bourbon, or to the various kinds of spirits), or being too similar to someone else's mark.
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