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Eleven years after investing in SpaceX, Founders Fund is focusing on something more tangible: canned rosé wine.
The venture capital firm recently led an initial $ 7 million investment in Bev, a women-led brand, directly to consumers. This is the first investment in alcohol from the Founders Fund.
While going to Mars and spinning the rosé may seem incongruous, Funders Fund Operations Director Lauren Gross told Business Insider that the company's investment strategy was simply to bet on entrepreneurs with adequate resources to disrupt an area.
"Some of our most convincing bets have started with ambitious young founders," Gross said. And Bev's founder, Alix Peabody, checked all the boxes, she said.
"Founders Fund is proud to be intellectually honest and open to all founders in all sectors, in which case Alix created a powerful women-focused brand in a space that had not seen so much. "
Peabody, 28, had no experience in the alcoholic beverages business when she started Bev in 2017. After the emergency surgeries left her unable to Starting a headhunting job and paying expensive medical bills, Peabody started a high-school activity by organizing "low-flying" parties, according to Peabody, in Sonoma.
She realized that the alcohol brands she worked with were mostly run by men and that she did not give a particularly flattering image of women in their commercials, and she said that she thought to be able to do better.
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Since Peabody was not particularly familiar with the offer of alcohol, she entrusted a man from the wine sector she had been with two years earlier, hoping to help her progress in the closely connected industry.
"He was literally the only person I knew in the industry," Peabody said. "I told him that I wanted to buy some rosé, he told me to go to the grocery store and I thought to myself:" No, I want to buy a lot, so he m & Put someone in touch with someone who introduced me to someone else, and it was literally a phone call after another that picked people's brains out to know how to achieve it. "
"The makers of the alcohol industry have not changed"
Bev sells rosés in 8.5-ounce cans (available in six packs, 12 packs and 24-beverage "party packs") online and in Los Angeles retail stores. Commentators on Bev's website describe the mix as a "dry and crispy rose – not super sweet" and as a "most unobtrusive can". Another critic underlines Bev's lack of supercarbonatation and his "no great after-taste".
Despite all the merits of his wine, Peabody says the outdated laws and policies of the liquor industry will continue to be a challenge for the young company. A patchwork of interstate laws makes it difficult to sell and ship wine between states.
"The makers of the alcohol industry have not changed, but those who buy alcohol have done it," Peabody told Business Insider. "You have all these laws and regulations that result from prohibition, and women barely worked, much less, ran and started businesses at that time. Many of the big liquor companies belong to families, have been pbaded on from generation to generation and are predominantly male. "
Peabody believes that the best way to change an obsolete sector that some consider problematic is to change it from the inside out. Her company's mission of "breaking the glbad," she says, goes far beyond the culture of alcohol and alcohol consumption. Peabody would not explain the company's additional projects, other than its intention to strengthen the 12-person team and invest heavily in developing new product offerings based on the wishes of its main customer.
"We're really like," build the plane as you fly it, "said Peabody." It's also just that you have to be in the game to play, is not it? "
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