Capitalism Incubator Pitch Week - August 2022!

How's everyone doing?

And ladies and gentlemen.

The man who wears a shirt greener than that stack of money you're trying to pursue.

He's the man only man here arrogant enough to talk about himself in the third person.

He owns a one word domain name. Ladies and gentlemen, give it up for the terrifying and handsome Ryan Daniel Moran.

And finally, it's your host.

The man who left his religion faster than you could leave your best. Your last bad business idea.

The only Mormon with less than six children.

He is the president of capitalism.com, the man who built you and made you possible. It's Stanway.

Oh, thank you, Ryan. Thank you.

Now, Stan, while you're taking over, I just want to. I just want to announce something. Tomer, can you come here?

Because ladies and gentlemen, this isn't just a pitch week. Business deals are made here. Look at this man right here. Look at this Israeli. This guy started as one of you peons, making his pitch and his vision, and now he's my business partner. Knuckle it up.

This isn't just where you present your pitch. This is where your life is made. Yesterday, the fund came to verbal terms to give one of you incubator members $500,000. You're being streamed to 110,000 people on YouTube. Not just that, but we invited all of the capitalist pigs, NFT holders to have first pass at all of your miserable deals. Ladies and gentlemen, this isn't just an opportunity to pitch your vision. There are people here who want to make a deal with you. So don't screw it up. All right, Stan, who's up first?

Whoo.

Oh, Ryan, I love. I love the fire. The green shirt brought it today.

Okay, welcome, welcome everyone to pitch week. This magical event that happens every quarter here@capitalism.com the ability where someone with a clear vision and a clear path just comes to pitch their idea and find the investors and the strategic partners to help them get from where they are to where they know they are going. So today we will be hearing from three amazing capitalism.com incubator members. We're going to start with one of my newest but best friends, a gentleman named Daniel Vasquez. A gentleman who not only has started off a brand, but has a deep, deep passion to build it and build it quickly. So Daniel, my good friend from Spirits Cohort, please go ahead, share your screen and let's hear what you have for the investors.

All right, thank you.

Go get them, champ.

So, hi, I'm Daniel. I'm co founder of Spirits Cohort. Let me introduce you to our brand with a short video.

We're four normal guys who love tequila and we wanted to find a tequila that we enjoyed sipping like we do a whiskey or a bourbon. But we were overwhelmed by the cost and the shopping experience that it took to find our favorite. So we decided to do something that has never been done and involve you to help us create the tequila with us.

We started by finding a distillery in Jalisco, Mexico, one of the five regions where tequila comes from that liked our idea and was willing to partner with us. Then we worked with our master taster who bought into our mission and he started to send us samples. And as you can probably imagine, this was a lot of fun. It was exciting to taste and rate. But we had to select one of these to be our favorite. And if we chose one, we would just add it to the thousands of options that are already out there. And we haven't solved our original issue. And apparently plenty of celebrities are already doing this. But we want to involve you. We want you to receive a tasting kit and select a tequila that will be the official release of Tequila de la Gente. So we've narrowed down the options from the master taster to the last three. We want you to experience what it was like to receive a package of unreleased tequila just like we did, so that you can sit down with your friends and family and rate and then vote for your favorite. After all the votes are in, we'll have selected the tequila that will be crowned Tequila de la Gente. It truly is a tequila for the people, by the people.

That's at the spirits cohort. We put together a great team. We're all Mexican American and this is a true passion business celebrities are capitalizing on tequila and it's an amazing spirit. But we're going to highlight the heritage and the culture that we're so passionate about. Albert, he's our chief financial officer and he knows what it takes to run a successful multi million dollar business. He brings his business expertise to the team. He took a $200,000 investment and created a 5 million dollar oil and gas trucking business. Albert and I have also patented an oil and gas technology that covers us, Canada and Mexico.

Jorge, he's our operations officer and he brings his attention to detail and he runs our logistics alongs with along with QCing our product experience.

He's managed with tight deadlines involving a complex list of inventory like shipping containers with a thousand plus items to 27 different countries. Adrian, he's our sales officer, he's been involved in the alcohol industry for 15 years and has been involved in two alcohol startups. He is our industry insider and he's managed and grown brands throughout the Southwest US with over 20 million in yearly sales. I'm a Chief Marketing Officer and with my technical background and experience in launching products to the market, I'm bringing the technical and marketing expertise to the team. I've created branded and brought to market software which has led us to working with Austin Eastsiders, Lone Star, Pass Blue Ribbon, Houston Rockets and the LA Clippers.

So what have we done so far? We've acquired debt and still maintain 100% equity. This has allowed us to have a successful pre launch phase. We've hosted several different tastings to help us improve our copy customer experience and refine our packaging. We've produced packaging and it's in Mexico ready to be filled with Anejo Tequila. We've launched our custom built rating technology. More on that to come where we'll talk about the data that we plan to capture and how that's going to be valuable.

We put into play the owner's model and implemented our marketing systems. In fact, if you go to our Instagram page you'll see those systems already in action. We've also nailed down some really great partnerships that we believe are going to be crucial to help us scale and this is where we're putting our focus on and here are just some of those examples.

Okay, now what I'm about to tell you is hard to believe, but it's true. The Rock is holding hostage the name Tequila of the People even though he's launched his brand under the name Teremana. That's right, the Rock Dwayne Johnson is trying to steal our registered trademark and this is going to be a PR gift from the holiday from the Hollywood Gods to build a true David and Goliath story, to create a common enemy and position ourselves as the unlikely hero. We've attempted to reach to the Rock directly and amicably. We have a full marketing plan in place to make sure that this is a huge win for TDLG and we've already reached out to tmz.

So here's the quick and dirty details of our path forward and how we plan to come to market. As we planned, we've submitted our trademark for tdlg. These are the initials of Tequila de la Gente and we already use these initials to identify the flavor profiles which you can see on the profile stickers. This aligns with our current branding and allows us to go to market quicker. We do eventually expect to get the original trademark, but we don't want to wait that process out.

So how do we plan to sell it? Let's look at our go to market strategy. This is the beauty of selling spirits via e Commerce. Our partnerships will enable us to launch in 39 of 50 states in day one. Our research shows that California, Texas and Florida represent the highest sales of Tequila. So this is going to be our focus areas at launch. Those three states combined purchased 98.4 million bottles in 2020 and some of these states offer same day delivery. It also allows us for rapid growth to easily add new products new brands with the same partnerships and we plan to leverage partnerships with accompanying brands influencers along with paid ads.

So who are we planning to sell our kits to? Well, we're focusing on those that care about experiences and stories over products. We started with eight Personas and we've narrowed it down to four focus Personas but with one common thread. So let's talk about our customer's journey. The steps on the right are analogy for our customer's journey and as the customer moves up the steps, the offering increases in value and cost. We'll start off by offering informative and entertaining content on our Instagram page. Our PDF is a book that we've written of all the tequila knowledge that we've gained with the focus on blind tastings.

And those are going to be offered for free with the goal of building our email list and following which we're successfully doing today. 20% of our Instagram followings are signing up for our email list.

And then we'll launch our tasting kit and begin accepting votes throughout a yearly campaign. And we'll introduce the winner and begin the sales of the full size bottle. After that we reignite La Gente, that's our customer base, by introducing them to a new tasting kit and start the process all over again.

So why spirits and why Tequila? Well, because spirits is an $800 billion industry globally. Why Tequila? Because it's the fastest growing category. In the past decade, Tequila volumes have grown over 235% with an average rate of 6% increase a year.

The tasting kit will fit in the high end category which has grown 831%. The winning bottle will be in the super premium category which has skyrocketed to 1330%. See, we're positioning ourselves in the highest growth categories and people are ready to buy online. Drizzly is an e commerce retailer and delivery app. Think like Uber eats for alcohol. Well, Drizly reported 350% increase in 2020 sales and spirits are predicted to represent 39% of all E commerce sales in the US by 2024. And we want to make sure that we're ready to capture that.

So how do we plan to do that? Our two year projections show that we're going to generate $13 million in two years. Each order from our distillery produces 10,000 kits which generates $825,000. And we plan to have six orders, which is 60,000 kits in year one and 10,000 orders in year two. So to put these sales into perspective, let's compare our projections to these well known tequila brands that these well known tequila brands that sold in 2020. As an example, Salza sold 12 million bottles. Jordanitos sold 22.8 million bottles. Our plan is very attainable and being that we're starting off very conservatively. So let's look at where we fit in and why we're excited for you guys to join us. We look at the market size. 250 million consumers are buying spirits online and they're generating 5.7 billion here in the US and tequila represents 1.2 billion of those sales.

Now our tasting kits are going to be sold with a 50 to 55% gross profit.

Our tasting kit is going to sell at $107. With cart add ons and bundles such as tasting glasses and merch. We can increase the cart price by 30 to $100.

And we'll be able to introduce new products to our customer base to create a very scalable model. And that's why we love being here in the room with smart investors like yourselves. We're merging a traditional spirits market with E Commerce. And when looking at product releases, we plan to release Anejo and Blancco next year and add extra Anejo the following year.

Okay, let's talk about market activity, specifically acquisitions. We're positioning ourselves to be acquired with an eight figure exit. Here are some examples of the acquisitions in the past few years. Diageo acquired Casa Amigos for a billion dollars. Bacardi bought Patron and lately Uber acquired Drizly for $1 billion.

So let's talk about competition. Are we the only ones? Well, we're creating a new category. TDLG is the first crowdsourced brand now post pandemic. All major brands are moving to E Commerce. And this is the reason why we need to move fast. We plan to expand our crowdsourcing model into adjacent categories like Mezcal, Sotol, even Whiskey. And we want to position ourselves to be A acquired by one of these national brands.

So how do we attract this acquisition? Well, this is what's really excited about what we're doing. We're building scale and growth into our strategy. Here's how. First, we're offering direct to consumer convenience and experience.

Two, we're building a loyal fan base with our custom developed crowdsourcing platform which enables our customers to participate on product creation. Third, we're collecting consumer data. This is another differentiator.

We're doing something so different from traditional spirits company. See the way that traditional spirits company work today is they just know which regions are buying a product so they ship more product to those regions distributors. But we're getting to know our customers and we're developing a product with them which allows us to collect valuable data that traditional and large spirits companies would love to have. All three of these combined are our secret sauce. And this is the asset that we're creating. This is our proprietary system that enables the explosive growth. It will allow us to have future product launches in high growth sectors with higher than average margins.

So when looking to value what we're building, we base it on the first three years of projected revenue to create a valuation of $23.9 million. With each order we create a revenue of $825,000. You can see here that we project to start with two kids in year one and add another kit and add another each year after that.

So how are we going to accomplish all this? Well, we want to add some smart money to our team. We are here to partner with you. What we're looking for is 2 million in funding in return for 20% equity in spirits cohort. We're also open open to partnerships for equity. We already have the proper people, marketing channels and distribution in place. And we know Spirit's cohort with the additional funding simply allows us to move faster and move and have first mover advantage.

So let's look at how we plan to use that funding, production cost, growing our team and marketing because we want to continue implementing the owner's model.

Successful businesses have the right product at the right time. And with the boom of Celebrity Tequila, people want a voice to affect the products that they buy. There's a movement happening and with our focus on data and direct consumer approach in an old industry, now is the time. Join us in this movement to give the people the voice that they want. You can contact me using the email on the screen but my team and I are here to answer questions.

Capitalism.com community please give your love if you're live with us here on zoom To Daniel in the chat. Give him some. Hashtag it up. Thank you so much, Daniel. I, I love watching the faces of investors and people when there are pitch decks being presented. And I saw Stacy taking notes voraciously. So I'm going to ask to hear from Stacy first. What questions or thoughts do you have after hearing Daniel's pitch deck?

Yeah, it's really funny. I actually went to Capcom last year and I was actually thinking of starting an alcohol brand. So I explored the space both to start a business and also to invest. So I'm really interested in this, in this space. And you did a really great job on the deck in terms of. I love that tasting idea. That's brilliant. And I was wondering, my first question is, is that going to be a thing that you're going to continue to do? So you're going to like have them pick the, the tasting like their favorite one, and then they're going to pick it, create that bottle and then are you planning, if that works, you're planning on redeploying that same strategy with different tequilas? Or is that a one and done kind of a thing?

No, exactly. You've got it exactly right. So we plan to, to have that experience and enable them to have that in home experience that we had. And then we relaunch with a new spirit, for example, blanco tequila. And they do the same tasting with blanco. And then we launch with the, with the winner with the winning bottle and 750 full size.

And then at this point in your trajectory, are you not planning on doing any tastings at all in the stores? Are you just going online? Is that your, your first plan?

That's correct. Yeah. We plan to have a direct to consumer experience and we plan to have lots of great content on social media so that they can see what this experience is like.

Okay.

And then I think my biggest concern. Well, sorry, let me tell you the other good thing that I loved first was the rock. I love that you're using that as an opportunity. I think as an investor that's like a really good thing to show. Like, I think most people would be, oh my gosh, you know, he's coming after us. But instead you're showing your, your grit, you know, by actually being able to present it like that. So I really liked that. And then, but as a, as an investor, my biggest concern was I didn't see any alcohol experience on your, on your list. I saw a beverage startup, I think it was Adrian. And I was wondering if you've if you've considered having someone on your team that has experience with alcohol or if.

There is someone, yeah, I'm here.

So been going on upwards of 20 years now in alcohol space. Traditionally, beer on the distribution side.

Nowadays, everybody's acquiring everything.

So a lot of my wholesalers are.

Liquor, spirits, beer, wine, non alk.

So, yeah, absolutely.

One of the startups, again, anybody remembers, not your father's root beer, but that.

Was probably the biggest one that we.

Did that was with Pabst Brewing Company back in 2015.

Huge success again.

It was a great experience. And then I'm currently, like I said, just left another startup. So, yeah, I'm here. We got a lot of experience just around the table.

Okay. And then I want to keep it open for everyone else, but I would have more questions offline, like, in terms of spreading it nationally in the beginning. We don't need to talk about it now. But in terms of, like, I've heard that with alcohol brands, it's better to start in one location and then spread it, you know, like logistically, just legally and all that kind of stuff. But that could be more of an offline kind of a thing afterwards.

Sure. That's the beauty. That's the beauty of using the partnerships that we have with online distributors. They're connected and they, they, they know about the local regulations. So I'll leave it at that. Okay.

Awesome.

Thank you so much, Stacy. I love. No wonder you were taking voracious notes over there. Ryan, I would love to hear from you.

Yes. So I think in your pitch, your best slide was the $800 billion opportunity. This is where this was actually your pitch. Your pitch was showing the market size, it was showing your comps, and that was a very effective slide.

I just sat through 20 minutes of your pitch and I don't know what your business is. I don't know what your product is. I don't get it. So you started with a video showing this, like, campaign idea, and then you went right into the team, completely skipped over the big idea and the product line and the opportunity. I sort of have an idea of what your business is after 20 minutes, but you have a gigantic hole in your pitch of saying, this is our big idea and this is our play and this is our go to market strategy. Gigantic hole. So I'm a little confused because I just heard you talk about these opportunities and this team and the industry size never clearly said, this is our product. You think that you did it in your video and that's why you went from video Right to market size. But your video was more like, let's get the people involved in tequila. And as an investor, I'm like, well, okay, well, that's a marketing video. What's the business? So you've got a gigantic hole that you've got to fill. There is what it's easy to fill, but you made assumptions that we all knew what your business was, and you cannot make that assumption. Now, there's one thing, just as an investor, I groaned and it was your $13 million in projections and you saying at conservative estimates, you gave projections on what you're going to order, not what you're going to sell. So I'm looking for what your secret weapon is when it comes to how you're going to sell. This thing you kind of skipped over, like you mentioned this thing of that influencers and celebrities are partnering with brands and bringing them to market. You should milk that and you should talk about the relationships that you have that you're bringing to the table. Now, I can relate it to the other brands in the space that are launching. And then the last thing that I would say, I think you assumed we got that. I think you need to bring to the table is your why behind it. So this. This was a very. How heavy? Or I should say, what heavy deck. I think you need to spend more time at the beginning talking about why and why you're different before you go into projections and team and all of that. That's my feedback.

I. I would love. Typically, we. We don't do this, but I. Daniel, I would love just to hear your short response to what Ryan just said.

Okay. Yeah, thanks. So. Thanks for the feedback, Ryan. So what we're selling is a tequila tasting kit. They order the kit. This is our product, and they get this, and they rise in their home and they taste and then they rate. And we launch with the winning bottle. We collect the votes, we collect their tasting profiles. And so that is our product. And we do that over and over again with launching a new spirit. So that enables us to, you know, to. To capture this data and build new products with the people that are interested in the. In. In tequila, interested in the in home tasting experience.

So the first product, that. That was the. That was more clear than what was in the presentation. So the tasting kit is the first product. Is that correct?

Correct.

Okay, so you take the winners and you scrap the losers.

Yep.

So does people change every quarter?

Do every year different recipes change every.

Every year we launch with the new. With a new spirit.

Every year you launch with A new spirit or a new group of spirits?

A new. Well. So the first year we're launching with Anejo and Blanco. So in the time where we're collecting the votes for Anejo, we launched with the Blanco so that we could continue to capture the sales and continue to develop the brand with our consumers.

What happens to the ones that get scrapped? You just don't bring them back again. And then you have hero skus that you publicize.

Yeah, that's the plan is we have the people to choose and that's it. That's what the beauty of this is. We could use those and we do have plans to use those other ones that maybe. Maybe the votes are like so close and we save this one and we just bring like the close winners, the close seconds in another and another kit.

So. So the plan is to get the data and then choose the ones that stick around for a long time based on the votes.

Correct.

And they. And they order this one time and you do it based on that.

Yeah.

Like they. So the kit is the first product. I'm. I'm catching up, but. But obviously this is a hole if I'm not getting it. There's a hole here that needs to be stated right at the beginning. And once again, I think you think you explained it in the video, but that was more of a marketing campaign. That was very well done, but there needs to be driven home what the big idea is and why this is different and why you stake your claim here.

All right, thank you. All right, awesome.

Thank you so much. Ryan. Alicia, I also saw you taking notes over there. What feedback or questions would you have for Daniel?

Yeah, for sure. Well, first of all, the biggest thing that really caught my eye, just because obviously I love Community, is that your brand is focused on putting the people in charge of developing the products. I thought that was, like, the coolest thing because that is. Is like, I've seen a lot of power in when your customers feel like they have ownership of your brand and your products. So I think that model, like, having them sample and everything and then pick the product based off of what your community has picked is extremely powerful because it, like, it gives them that ownership and the excitement that it's their brand too. So I think that's really cool. But kind of playing off what Ryan said, I got really excited because I kind of understood that, but then I didn't see that elaborated on. I thought that was like the biggest thing that, like, set you apart from just being another Tequila company is that you have this really cool model that makes your customers be a part of it in the sampling and everything like that. So I think if you would have elaborated a lot more on that, that would have been super powerful for like Ryan and being just a little bit more clear on that model. So my two biggest questions I had based off of that and having your customers involved is one, will you have like a place like a, like a Facebook group or something that you facilitate to have your customers that are sampling your product share their experiences together like sampling and like being like this one's great, this one's not great. And kind of go through that experience to build that comrader camaraderie around your products. And my second question is, will there be some sort of exclusivity or like a launch to those that actually do the sampling? So like they go through the process, they sample it, they're like VIPs, they build your product. Will there be some sort of extra benefit for being like in that process too? I think those two things are my biggest question on how you plan to, to, to do that with your brand.

Yeah, thanks. Thanks for the questions. So to answer the first one was we definitely want to build a community with our, with our audience and we want that connection with them. So those groups are definitely in some way going to be created. Whether we build a custom app or something like online community, whether it's on our domain or whether we use Facebook groups is still tbd. But that's, that's definitely our plan is to build that community and that camaraderie.

Cool, cool.

And then will there be that like exclusivity? So they do order the sample and then it's like they get a pre launch or something before it goes to market to everyone. Is there something like that in place for you?

So that the exclusivity that we want to build is we actually want them to take part in designing the final bottle.

Oh, that's cool.

So those that take part are going to be able to like contribute their ideas on how this final bottle that they, that we Launch with, the 754mil for 750ml bottle will be designed by the community that participate in the votes.

Okay, cool. Cool. Yeah, I think if those things were elaborated on because that is the thing that separates you like that model when, when I, when you started going into it, I'm like, that's really cool. I wish I liked tequila because I would, I would do that if it was a wine company. I'm all in. And I'll sample All of those. But, but I like that model of having your community be a part and taste it and share with it and just kind of go back and forth with each other and that would be extremely powerful. So good job on that.

Absolutely. Thank you. Yeah, we hope to convert you, by the way.

I'm sure. I just. When I was 19, or not 19, 21, I had too much tequila in my day.

Yeah. This is so different from what you had in 19, but I'd love to share that with you.

Perfect.

I'm excited to try it.

All right, excellent. Alicia, make sure you get your address over to me and I'll make sure that Daniel sends you some. That's how conversions happen. That's how conversions happen. All right, Daniel, thank you so much for sharing with us. Uh, there, there is a small cringe among the masses when Ryan says, I don't get it. And I, I loved seeing that on speaker view, but I know that that also makes Daniel and his next version of his pitch deck all the better. So thank you so much, Daniel. And anyone who is watching who is interested here in the chat, obviously reach out. I'm more than happy to put you in touch or you have Daniel's information if you caught it off the screen. So thank you, Daniel.

Good work, Daniel.

Up next, we have a man who has become one of my favorite members of our community. A man who collectively, I think, has millions of followers online, but also an amazing, amazing physical product brand. Our next presenter today is Evan Van Alken from Scorch Marker. Evan, you should have the ability to share your screen and begin your pitch.

Awesome.

I really appreciate this opportunity. I put a lot of thought into this and yeah, thanks for having me.

Hi there. My name is Evan and I'm the CEO and founder of Scorch Marker. We're a wood burning marker that is shaking up the craft industry. We help crafters by making things easier. Let me show you what I mean with a quick story.

I come from a family of firefighters. To get my dream job, I had to be tenacious. It took five years, 48 tests, 22 interviews, 26,340 miles on my truck, and two years of paramedic school. So when I finally got the job as a firefighter, it was a big deal.

33 of us were put through an ass kicking 18 week academy. Have you ever done a thousand push ups in a day? It's where I learned discipline. It's where I learned how to be part of a team. It's where I learned how to lead one. When we graduated. It was a big deal. We were real firefighters. It was an accomplishment to commemorate.

Of course, I was chosen to make the plaque that would hang at headquarters. After all, I do have a wood shop. This thing was beautiful. It was made entirely out of walnut. I was going to wood burn. Our motto right into the wood in true firefighter fashion. So I grabbed my soldering iron, I plugged it in, and I went to work. I got this.

Nope.

The whole thing was ruined. It looked terrible. I couldn't get a straight line and the tip kept digging into the wood. I had to start over. I was devastated. I was going to fail my team. Honestly, I was embarrassed that I couldn't do something so simple. I even burnt my fingers. A fireman burning his fingers while playing with fire. Come on. Why was this so hard?

I couldn't use stencils. I didn't have $250 for a nice tool, and I didn't have a thousand hours to practice. There had to be a way to make wood burning easier. My wife and I started experimenting. It took us weeks and hundreds of hours of research just to make the first formula. I wanted to tear my hair out at least three times. I'm not kidding when I say that. Then we nailed it. We invented a new technology.

All you have to do is draw on wood, apply some heat, and the wood will burn. Only where you drew a wood burning heat activated marker. Finally, a cheaper, faster, safer, and easier way to wood burn. Did I mention that it works with stencils? And yes, I did end up completing the plaque. It was the very first scorch marker project ever and it still hangs at headquarters today.

My wife and I spent the next three years building this product into a company. While working full time, we bootstrapped it with $500 of our own savings. We made a ton of mistakes, and we lost over 63,400, $450 of our own money in the process. But we learned some very valuable lessons. The biggest lesson was that we aren't just a wood burning tool. I mean, let's be honest. We're never going to be just a one hit wonder. That's just not good enough for us.

We're a crafting company. We learned who we were, so we connected with crafters. We learned about their needs, and we began serving them. This was a huge lesson because it led to success. Let me touch on that success for a moment.

2020 was a big year. 2021 was even better. We did this with three channels, one audience, and some Facebook ads. We were finally able to replace my firefighter salary.

So I quit. I left my dream job. I left a career that little kids dream about. But I had found a dream that was even bigger than being a firefighter, a dream that I was absolutely obsessed with.

Shiny object syndrome is real, by the way. At the same time I left the fire department, I found success on TikTok, sharing business tips with other entrepreneurs. I amassed just under a million followers in less than a year. So I entertained the shiny objects, and I went hard on all the things. But what do I mean by that? I created a personal brand. I built a TikTok, grew an Instagram, started an email list, launched a YouTube channel, digital products, business course, brand deals, and a ton of affiliate marketing. I earned over a quarter of a million dollars in that first year. And I share this with you because I learned new skills, skills that I could use for Scorch Marker.

Especially content creation. But I realized very quickly that I was average at a lot of things and not great at one thing. To get to the next level, I had to focus on that one thing.

And just then, an investor offered to buy our company for seven figures. It inspired us, but it also put us at a fork in the road. Do we sell? My wife and I had a talk. What's the next move? And the answer was right in front of us. Don't sell.

Go all in on Scorch Marker and make it great. Use the skills that I learned to become the face of the brand, the leader that the company needs and deserves. So I put down the shiny objects, and I put all of my focus on. On Scorch Mark. But I don't know what. I don't know. That's literally the only thing that holds me back. Luckily, this guy, Ryan, wrote a book, enter the capitalism.com incubator. A training program for people just like me. I jumped in headfirst. I devoured the trainings, and I took massive action. I didn't wait for the money. I didn't wait for investors. We had $200,000 in retained earnings. We went all in with our own money.

But just as we were making these changes, I got hit with a new challenge. 30,000 defective units forced us to stop selling. We had to recall all of our stock. It hurt, but our cash reserve saved us. Between that and the new hires, we were tapped.

Luckily, we invested in people, new systems, and new products. We proved that our business model is strong and our team is solid. We can handle a challenge. Our sales have bounced back higher than ever in a Matter of months. Our run rate has never been better. The owner's model works. But what do I mean by the owner's model?

Vision, people and capital. Our vivid vision is very clear. We have the right people and they're bought in. All that's left is capital, and that's my job. Now let's stop for a second though, and address some burning questions. What about the market? Has anyone done this before? Who are your competitors? And most importantly, who are your customers?

The craft market is $45 billion and we are a craft company. Cricket is a great example. They created a technology just like us. Specifically, though, they created a vinyl cutting machine. You put in sheets of materials and it cuts it out. They have recurring back end and front end products all centered around this core technology. They went public for 6.6 billion last year. Silhouette is similar also with a cutting machine. They earn over $46 million a year and are still privately held with only 30 employees. Once again, an ecosystem of products that centered around a technology in the craft industry. Just like us. Just like Scorch Marker.

What about retailers? Michaels has over 1200 stores in North America. They're the leader in craft supplies. They went private in 2021 for 3.3 billion. And we have 35 purchase orders on hand from them. Hobby Lobby is another huge player. We've all seen them. They do over 6 billion in sales a year. We have purchase orders from them too.

So where's the rest of the market? It's in the hands of the crafters. The market is dominated by Pinterest Polys and Crafty Carols. In fact, they are the market and this is who we serve. I know this personally because of the thousands of survey responses, the thousands of conversations, years of purchasing data, and the constant engagement with our people.

Let's start with Pinterest. Polly. Polly is a Midwest suburban house mom that loves to craft. She got a cricut for her 40th birthday. She hasn't stopped using it. She loves selling her homemade crafts on Etsy. Crafting is her happy place. It's where she defines her creativity and her independence. Did I mention that she has two teenagers and a husband that works full time?

Crafty Carol is one generation up from Polly. She's retired, kids are gone. She's built a happy life with many grandchildren. But Carol is 79 years young. She's crafty. She's the type to make ornaments with the grandkids on Christmas Eve just for the memories. She reads all of her emails.

It's Polly and Carol that we Serve Crafty. Carol is on Facebook Pinterest. Paulie is on TikTok. They both learn from YouTube and they both get ideas from Pinterest. But it doesn't end there. Polly and Carol have more in common than you think. And it's not that they both live in the Midwest and it's not that they both have spending power. It's the fact that they both want to hear one thing.

Oh my God. This is incredible. You really made this.

That's why we do what we do.

That is our vision.

I know that feeling.

And it's that feeling that we create for our customers. And we do it by making crafting easier. Let me show you the products that are making this happen and then I will introduce you to the team. The top row is our Scorch marker and its bundles. We have ludicrous 90 plus percent margins on these. The second row was released in July. A 10 pack of wood slices, vinyl stencils, food, safe wood finish. The data is really promising. I'm confident that the stencils will become an eight figure success by themselves. It solves a very painful problem. The third row releases this month. A sanding kit, $109 mega bundle and our new fine tip Scorch marker. By the way, we tested the Mega bundle and it sold out in 10 days. I'm seriously pumped about these. They are going to crush. Our customers have specifically asked for them. Here are those ludicrous margins I mentioned. Our Scorch Marker is made for less than a dollar and it sells for more than 15. Soon that price will drop even more. Our subscription boxes will have over 80% margins. In fact, we don't have a single product below a 75% margin. And this isn't even at scale. We have a reliable supply chain for all of these. Here's a look at the products that will arrive in Q4. We've already ordered them. We're dead serious about giving our customers what they want. But this is what excites me the Most. We sold 55,564 markers in the last 12 months just on Amazon. When we replicate the same success with our new SKUs, it will take us to an eight figure valuation very quickly.

Let me introduce you to our team of doers. I have a badass chief communications officer that takes on chaos and helps me stay out of the weeds. She is literally the definition of dependable. My social media and customer service manager has been with us for two years. She talks to our customers, manages our community. Our formulator has 41 patents. He's invented items that every single one of us has used and works very closely with me on these new products.

My Amazon team left a full service agency and took a pay cut to come work for me because they believe in me and my vision.

Our 3 PL was hired from the incubator Rolodex. Shipping is an afterthought because it's so reliable and literally the most affordable option in the industry. Our markers and intellectual property products are all made in the usa. We have patents and trademarks. Our wood is sustainably sourced from a husband and wife in South Carolina.

Our back end products are currently being sourced by our product sourcing manager in Taiwan. He meets with every factory and the rest of our team lives all over the world. They've grown with us and we've developed wood wonderful relationships. Video editors, copywriters, designers, printers, developers and more. With their help I can step back and focus on three things.

Leadership, content creation, new products. These are my strengths and I'm all in. So what's in it for you?

10% of our company for $400,000. We are going to use this money for three specific things. Product development, Media Buy and partnerships. Here's some more info on those specifics.

150,000 is going to new products. I have the team. I just need to spend strategically so I can roll out the monthly subscription bundles. 150,000 is going for Media Buy. After testing Google, Facebook, Pinterest, Amazon and TikTok, we found a lot of clarity. Our spend will be focused on Amazon and TikTok. We are also going to purchase exposure on an existing email list to leverage our strengths. Our goal is a return on ad spend above two and a half and a customer acquisition cost below $20 while maintaining an average order value above 60. We're already there. We just need to spend more.

The last hundred thousand dollars is going towards partnerships. 60,000 is for my team. 40,000 is for user generated content so we can leverage it on social media.

So why are we raising at $4 million when our profits last year were 250,000? I mean that puts us at a valuation of 1.25. I'll tell you why, because a lot has happened since then and we are valuing ourselves on the improvements that we've made and the new products that we have released.

This is where we were last year. Spread thin. We had a few variations of one product and we drove traffic with Facebook ads. We did 1.2 million in sales like this.

This is where we are now. Recognize this diagram? Ryan channels have been delegated and teams are in place. Back end products have been created. Recurring products come out this year. New front end products were rolled out last month.

Polly and Carol find out about us through paid ads, organic content and TikTok and then they're nurtured and inspired with emails, live streams and YouTube. I keep tabs with them in our superfans Facebook group and on our livestreams.

We took massive action. We implemented the owner's model. We did it just like we were taught. I casted a vision, I found the people, we did the work and we supplied it with our own money. It works. So we're going to eight figures. It's not an if, it's a when. That's why we are valued at 4 million pre money.

Look, I have successfully invented a product and created a seven figure company. Now I'm pitching my vision to investors like you so I can raise money and multiply it. I want that win. I want to learn this process and I want to dominate it. It's about the challenge. It's about growth. We are going to achieve a valuation of $33 million. Once we get there, we can look for the right buyer that will carry on our mission or we can continue to reap the rewards of a high profit margin business. And that's when you will see a return. Our plan is very simple. Double sales four times. Based on our profit ratio, your $400,000 investment will become $3.3 million when we reach our target valuation. When you join forces with me, you become part of the team. And you know exactly what that means. Together in, together out.

Thanks for your time and attention. I would love to answer any questions you might have otherwise. You can contact me here. Have a wonderful day.

Great work, Evan.

Thank you very much.

Proud of you, dude. Super proud of you.

Evan. That was phenomenal. Thank you so much. I'm not sure if you got the chance to see it the chat there, but said you were fire and no pun was intended, but you were fire. Sir Samuel Prentice, one of my favorite people in the world.

After we went on and moved on to Evan, Sam was like, yes, Daniel Converse or something over here in the chat, Samuel controls the purse strings at the capitalism fund. I would love to hear first from you, Sam. In regards to what?

First off.

So I usually look, Evan, to find places I can get like good constructive criticism and I might have just had like the blinders over my eyes because I love the pitch so much that I don't have a ton for you. Really, really well done. I really like everything you put together there. I did have one question I just wanted to just clarify in my mind a little bit. What Is there anything with this that is proprietary? Did you mention is there any kind of like blend or anything with this that is proprietary?

Yeah, yeah. Our formulation and method of application is proprietary and we have issued patents.

Have issued patents on. Okay, are those, Are those like provisional or where we at? Like, let's say those all the way through.

We had a provisional with the PCT and then we have a non provisional in the United States.

Awesome. Love it.

We also have a trademark on the word scorch marker.

Awesome. Outstanding. Yeah, no, this very, very well done. It was kind of like. It reminded me of one of those commercials, you know, remember the ones with the guy goes on, he's like something, something, something, but wait there more. And so I was into it like three minutes in and then you kept going. And I kind of didn't want it to stop. And then I kind of did want it to stop, so I could just tell you to take my money.

The only thing with this I would say is that I think when we discuss a little more, you may be looking to grow a little bit bigger. If you have your test rank with numbers with their average amount, grow a little bit bigger to build that moat wider. Because while I know this is splendid and everything is patented, that's one of those things where there probably is the risk that a bigger player could come along and use bigger knowledge. The same advice I was going to give to Daniel is anytime you have something that is a market innovator, that's there. If you can build your moat legally to protect yourself there, that's one thing. The other way to build your moat is to build a good business model and stay ahead of your competition. So love it. All in all, very, very well done. I appreciated. One thing I'll give to other pitchers is bringing your numbers to the table of what your margins are and those things. That's always very helpful because she'll kind of demonstrate what price point you're at. Because as an investor, I like people to see like, is this an easy purchase like your hero sku? I can see it's an easy purchase for someone that they like it, they can make that acquisition quickly. I don't want to go back to previous pitches, but that is helpful to see like, what price point we're asking the consumer to interact with our brand at. So all in all, though, like, seriously love it, love the story. All the things like, I don't I'd probably buy whatever you're selling, to be honest. But really well done.

Thank you, Sam. I appreciate your feedback.

Thank you so much, Sam. Alicia, I see you smiling over there. I would. I'd love to hear what questions or feedback you might have for Evan.

Yeah, I don't know much about feedback, honestly, because same thing. That was like, the coolest pitch ever. And the whole time, like, your graphics, everything. I don't even know if the graphics are, like, matter, but it was just so well done that I was, like, super sucked into your brand and, like, enrolled into your whole mission from, like, the first slide, honestly. I would love to get your information at the end of this, by the way, because that's really cool. But the biggest thing, I guess the only question I really had, especially when after you talked about your profit margins, which were so impressive because that's something we struggled with personally a lot. So I can just see the potential with those margins. But what is your reorder rate? Like, how often will somebody need to purchase a marker? Like, and how long do they last? And do you get a lot of repeat customers for them?

Currently, our returning customer rate is 15%, but I don't have a lot of data and I won't be able to accurately answer that unless I dig in a little bit. So I would prefer to wait until later to give you the right answer, if that's okay.

No, yeah, for sure. And as you're in building phase, it's normal for that to be lower. I was mainly curious, like, how often, like, how long does your marker last for somebody? And when could you expect, like, as your business grows, when could you expect people to come back to buy another one?

That's a good question. And I've noticed that there's. Our core group of customers are reordering two, three, four times. Usually. I've seen orders. It varies. But the short answer to your question is we have the same amount of liquid in our marker that are in almost paint markers on the market. So they last a considerable amount of time, like a handful of projects, and then they come back to get more out when they're. When they're done.

That's really cool. No, no, really cool. That's really the only question I had, other than that you killed it. Like someone said, you're on fire. So love to get information after this, but great, great job.

Thanks, Alicia.

Thank you, Alicia. Yeah, we will get you in touch.

Stacy.

I'm curious to just hear from you.

Yeah. That was amazing the way you presented it too on top of the presentation was really good. And I really love the greatness with inside. I thought, thought that was really powerful to have as, as you were talking. And I loved how you did the learning lessons where you lost money in the 30,000 detect defective units. Because as an investor, that's what I'm looking for, that you know how to come back from like problems like that. And so that was really great. I was curious a couple things with the 10% and Hobby Lobby and Michaels, you kind of glossed over it and probably because it's only 10%, but you did mention having purchase orders. And I was just wondering how come that's not something you're focusing on more?

That's a great question. What we realized last year after looking at the numbers that a majority of our business was coming from 80% of our activity and that was on Amazon. And yeah, we were devoting, you know, 60, 70, 80% of our time towards channels that weren't bringing in the requisite proportion of revenue. And so we focused on what was working and put less emphasis on growing channels that we hadn't done. Very little experience, and I'm not going to lie to you, Michaels is challenging company to work with. It's challenging to fulfill for these retailers. So it's a channel that we've kept open, but we haven't invested more into because the lower hanging fruit is Amazon and then shopify until we have the right team member to help us with it.

Okay, and then as far as the subscriptions box, I noticed that too. And you didn't talk too much about it, so I was curious what you're like, how soon is that strategy? Because I've seen some huge exits with subscription box models.

I'm very excited for that. And so we have the, the manufacturers in place. And the hardest part is coming up with where to reliably source the products at scale. And so that's the first challenge that we're solving. Then only thing that needs to happen after that is literally the designing process to come out with a box for each month for 20, 23 and get that in process this year so we can begin with those boxes and slowly ramp up from there. So they're being worked on is the short answer to your question.

Okay, and then for the 500,000, how many investors are you looking for?

Just to clarify really quick, my original ask was 10% for $400,000. And we're open to any combination of partnerships. We just, we just want to be better. And I don't know what that Looks like, to be honest with you, until I start to have those conversations.

Okay.

I'm interested too, so we can.

Thanks, Stacy. I really appreciate that.

We will facilitate conversations for you. Evan, thank you so much. I, you know, they're, they're valuable panelists here on our panel, like Jason Franciosa. Jason, I'm going to give you a chance after this next pitch because I, I know, I love hearing from Jason. But next, guys, we're going to hear from our next presenter, Evan. Thank you. Thank you so much.

Work out.

Thank you.

Great work.

Absolutely phenomenal, guys. The next presenter here is someone that once again, like everyone else, has become a dear friend and a brand that I absolutely love. I'm totally biased. I'm not going to lie. I use their product, the sampling of their product. Morning. My wife uses the sampling of their product every morning. By the way, we're out. Please send us more. And my son uses the other flavor when we let him drink decaf coffee. So our next presenter is going to be Tristina Tim, along with her husband Ryan will probably assist her with questioning. They have an amazing brand. And the floor is yours, Tristina.

Thanks, Dan.

All right.

Okay.

Finally, there is a better way to savor life's sweet moments. I'm Tristina Tim and my husband and I are the owners of Miss Mary's Mix, a beverage company specializing in cocktail mixes and coffee syrups.

For adults striving to limit their sugar intake, it's a constant challenge to enjoy the sweet moments. Every morning, they deny themselves delicious cups of sweet coffee in order to set their blood sugar for the day. Every cocktail party, these people stress over the sugar grams in their drinks in order to maintain a low sugar lifestyle. Now there is a better way for people to stick to their low sugar goals where they can indulge in their favorite beverages, including coffee and cocktails, leading to healthier adults who feel empowered by being able to stick to their lifestyle goals.

Ryan and I have been married for 16 years and have always had a passion for fitness and health. Ryan, a weightlifter and former crossfitter, was the area developer in a restaurant called Salad Creations. Before Moving on to Ms. Mary's mix, I was a professional cheerleader for the NFL and NBA and founded my own dance and Pilates studio which we went on to sell in 2015. We are both high achievers, know what hard work feels like and know how to make our dreams come to fruition. However, when I retired. When I retired from cheerleading, we had dreams to start a family. I was in the best shape of my life and thought I was the healthiest I had ever been. My friends were getting pregnant so easily so I started buying onesies and little baby shoes and we were going to announce our pregnancy to the family. However, after a year of trying being on liver damaging prescriptions and getting our heart broken month after month, I was considered infertile by doctors. To say we were devastated was an understatement. I wasn't sure how to move on from this soul crushing diagnosis so we started to dig into the problem ourselves. It wasn't until we went to a few naturopaths and chiropractors that we found out like so many other people, I had a wheat allergy and my diet of so called healthy food and artificial sweeteners were shutting down my organs. Finally putting an answer to our problem felt euphoric. We quickly made changes, learned a crazy amount about nutrition and everything that we put in and on our bodies and got pregnant six weeks later and again two years later.

We knew we had to start sharing our journey to help others and this has had a huge impact on how we started and branded our business. I'd love to introduce to you Miss Mary's Mix your next investment into a brand that can help solve a common problem for millions of people. Now anyone can celebrate moments and ditch the guilt. Ryan and I have quite an advantage in this industry. Not only do we have over eight years experience in the beverage world with Miss Mary's, but we are also the owners of Fresh Bev Solutions, a private label company that develops beverages for Target's own brand Favorite Day. Further, Ryan has fantastic relationships with manufacturers, ingredient suppliers and flavor houses which gives him a huge edge in this business. Our first financial investor, Bill Holst, owns 20% of Ms. Mary's, is the owner of five golf courses, has exited eight figure companies in the past, and is currently the owner of one of the biggest caviar production companies in the world. His entrepreneurial experience has proven to be extremely beneficial throughout the years. Our organization is comprised of three main components that set us apart from other young companies in this space. We have trusted relationships with the top beverage manufacturers, formulation experts and ingredient suppliers. We aren't just taking off the shelf formulas and slapping our label on them. We build our formulas from the ground up, which means we own them and have control over the manufacturing process. Second, we have a network of rep groups that touch virtually every major retailer in the country. And lastly, we have a streamlined distribution process. This brings us to our Big Idea. Life is about celebrating the small moments. How many of you have gone on a diet or head to the gym or just eat as healthy as possible? You know what? We're doing great. And it's not just us. 56% of Americans are on a keto, low carb or low sugar diet. 80% of people are trying to limit their sugar intake and 81% of people look for foods without artificial ingredients. Now how many people do you know that try to eat healthy but also fail these diets? Sometimes we also want to indulge and satiate that sweet tooth. This is where we can help. Our goal is to be able to celebrate the small moments whether it's a cup of sweet coffee in the morning or cocktail hour in the evening, without the guilt or sacrificing health. We proved that sugar free and low calorie mixers and syrups can taste like the real thing and not be full of toxic ingredients. By using quality ingredients in our products, we are redefining this huge industry one delicious beverage at a time. Ms. Mary's uses all natural sweeteners and flavors so you don't have to worry about what they'll do to your gut inside or out. You see other low sugar beverage companies use extremely unhealthy ingredients to get their desired flavor profiles. We've all heard the dangers of aspartame, but even sucralose is considered dangerous. They both create problems in the body that lead to many terrible health issues.

Issues.

These other sugar free products are full of artificial flavor sweetener, sweeteners, colors and preservatives that researchers say can actually lead to long term weight gain as well as inflammation, high blood pressure, heart disease and diabetes. 37 million Americans have diabetes. 96 million Americans have pre diabetes and more than 8 in 10 don't even know that they have it. Diabetic patients have learned from their doctors that they should reduce the patients consumption of sugar sweetened beverages. Most Americans are already trying to avoid sugar, but they want to enjoy this new lifestyle and not feel like they're constantly on a diet. We are offering people a healthy solution to be able to celebrate and enjoy their coffee or cocktail but also crush their low sugar goals.

Currently, Ms. Mary's operates with six low sugar cocktail mixes in two different sizes. All of our mixers use better ingredients and love sharing their favorite drinks with friends and our fans are loyal. We do many events with our traveling Miss Mary's trailer. We have tailgated at Green Bay Packer games. We host an annual Bloody Mary walk trying thousands of people to vote on their favorite Bloody Mary and our homeschool kids even sell our mixes at farmers markets. Ms. Mary's has already proven in top retailers and we keep adding to the list. Some expansions we look forward to this year include a huge Walmart and Safeway Albertson store increase, a massive gift basket online retailer and we are currently under review with Delta Airlines and Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines.

World trends and 2022 which are expected to gain speed in 2023 are very important to us. Again, our current products contain no major allergens, we are low sugar and keto friendly. Because of the capitalism.com incubator program, we are pushing hard into the direct to consumer space which believe it or not, is not a common path for traditional mixer companies. Alcohol sales for direct to consumer increased 400% post pandemic and cocktails in the age of social media point us towards new trends, fun experiments and an avenue of sharing our own creations that help us feel connected to a community of people online.

Further, if you've been on TikTok lately, you've probably noticed that gut health is taking over and is wildly trending. Our products don't cause havoc on the gut microbiome like the other sugar free beverages and our new products even contain a prebiotic fiber that helps your body build healthy bacteria. Also, everyone around the world right now is worried about an upcoming recession. Luckily, alcohol is a category that's generally protected from economic downturns. Further, while people are less likely to eat out during a recession, they aren't about to give up their yummy cocktails or coffee drinks, but more likely to make them at home.

After literally calling hundreds of our current customers, conducting different surveys through email, in person and on social media, and and sending out over 100 samples, we feel like that we know our market better and more personally than our competition. We found that they're over the age of 40, lead an active lifestyle, enjoy spending moments with good friends and family, and prefer health and happiness over the busy rat race lifestyle. 86% prefer low sugar cocktails over full sugar options and are ready for more low sugar products to use throughout their day. And Miss Mary's mix. I think that you should be able to wake up and savor your first sip, appreciate the afternoon pick me up and enjoy happy hour with friends at the end of a long week without feeling guilty for indulging or sacrificing your health.

Introducing Miss Mary's Sinless Syrups Finally, a way for people to enjoy their sweet cup of coffee while maintaining their low sugar or keto diet. Currently we are in development of a simple syrup to be used in cocktails, coffee, yogurt and even baking. And a classic collection trio including vanilla, caramel and mocha.

Ms. Mary Similar ups are a delicious sugar free treat with just the right amount of sweets. High quality natural ingredients give her syrup assortment the rich aroma and taste of real vanilla, caramel and mocha. And finally, a coffee syrup with no artificial anything. Our natural ingredients won't diminish gut bacteria and they even contain a prebiotic fiber for improved gut health. And most importantly, our syrups are keto lifestyle friendly. People who are limiting their sugar intake can live their best keto life with our sugar free syrups. And so far their reviews have been great. We even did an in person syrup tasting session and got feedback from many different people with many different backgrounds. Each syrup Trio launch is four SKUs, a three pack of each flavor and a variety pack.

This is a perfect line expansion opportunity for our current customer because they fulfill the same attributes that our customer craves. First, there's a lack of competition in the market. There are only a few coffee syrup companies and they're all using the same toxic ingredients. Further, this is a huge market and it's forecasted to grow thanks to low sugar trends. Consumers are increasingly citing sugar reduction as one of their top health priorities. And lastly, our syrups are different. Our zero calorie sweeteners aren't using the same old gut wrenching ingredients that all the other major players are using. Jordan Skinny Syrups, our largest competitor uses the artificial sweetener sucralose, causing gut microbiome disruption and inflammation. And they use artificial colors, flavors and preservatives. But just check out some of their reviews. Digging into their one star reviews further validates a need in the market for cleaner, better for you version of sugar free coffee syrups. Here's a review where they explain a situation again that doctors couldn't figure out what her problem was. But after one week of eliminating syrups out of her diet, her problem was solved. If you knew everything that you know now about artificial ingredients, would you still purchase them?

We are planning to launch at least one new syrup trio every quarter. Each trio can be executed and brought to market extremely quickly because we can take our unique base formula and quickly create new flavor profiles. Further, we have a lot more in the works. Because Ms. Mary's mix is much more than a product company and is positioned as a lifestyle brand. The line extension opportunities are virtually endless. Soon we'll add more cocktail mixes, cocktail syrups, gift items like Bloody Mary Trio or a Margarita Trio, Digital products and other offerings that will satisfy the sweet tooth for millions and give us massive expansion opportunities to sell to our raving fans. And as it just so happens, our manufacturer also produces our competitors cocktail mixes and syrups as well as ours. They once disclosed that once this company switched from cocktail mixes to skinny syrups that their sales increased by four times in just the first year. The US Cocktail market hasn't always been what it is today, but since the pandemic, making cocktails at home has become commonplace. The US cocktail mix market is expected to grow to 1.4 billion by 2026. Zing Zang is valued at 140 million. However, most of their sales are still done in retail. Their Amazon annual sales are only at 1.17 million. Mr. And Mrs. T, another leading cocktail mixer brand, generates approximately 42 million in retail sales a year and they're only at 720,000 annually on Amazon. This shows us that there's plenty of room for us in the online sales market. The US Coffee syrup market is leaps and bounds above the cocktail mix market and is expected to grow to 17 billion by the end of 2026. With sugar free varieties leading the way. Jordan skinny syrups is 32 million annually and Da Vinci sugar free syrups to over 10 million just on Amazon. By following our plan of launching a new trio and reaching the minimum of 25 sales per day, we will easily reach 14 by 14.5 million in sales by 2026. Just in the E commerce space. And this is just with our syrups. Our competitors with the unhealthy Ingredients are selling 100 to 200 per day per SKU. Add in our cocktail mixers and the numbers rise even more. With new mixers added to the lineup and more sales per day, we are very conservatively looking at reaching 20 million by 2026. And let's not forget about retail. Our retail numbers for only our cocktail mixers rise every year. We are already pitching our syrups to our current retail partners and the response has been so overwhelming that one major retailer requested exclusivity upon lunch. Again, very conservatively, we believe that growing to 25 million by 2026 is very attainable today. Ms. Mary's is valued at 5 million before the launch of our syrups for any real effort into the E Comm space. Based on our numbers, the valuations of similar companies and help from an E Comm expert, we believe that in the next four years our value will reach upwards of $75 million.

So this brings us to your next opportunity. We're looking for a strategic partner to help guide us as we scale in E Commerce who has a vested interest in helping us scale quickly and can advise in a path to exit. We are asking for $750,000 for 10% of our company within the next four years. Your investment could multiply by 10.

The roadmap is set. We have the brand, the products, infrastructure and relationships. We have secure terms with our manufacturers and and ingredient suppliers to be able to sustain the growth of future product opportunities. We are only missing a strategic E Commerce partner with investor capital. We plan to free up cash flow to pay for marketing agencies. We will continue working with Be Interactive who has driven over 25 million in sales for Facebook and Google Ads and email marketing and start using turnkey product management for optimizing Amazon marketing. We will also be using investor capital for professional content creation videos, digital product lines and hiring a customer service rep. Also, we have identified an influencer partner that has a massive audience loyal following and can help us with our educational assets. Join us on our mission to help millions of Americans celebrate moments and ditch the guilt. By using healthy ingredients and offering a plethora of low sugar and zero sugar alternatives, we are on the way to be the next huge brand in your portfolio. We're doing this to get involved. Contact Ryan for more information.

Thank you so much Tristina.

Great job Tristina.

Thank you Ryan.

What, what what are your feelings after watching that?

So first of all.

I love the food and beverage space and I love the low sugar space and I love the better for you space. So I am biased. I love this space and I think you're absolutely right that you're filling like on one of the very few spaces that has not already been tapped in all these spaces. So I'm totally intrigued. I would like for you to recap the sales and the current audience for me. The current sales like trailing 12. If you hit them, you went over them very quickly. Solidify the numbers for me, the sales and the audience and how you're growing that audience.

Sure. So our trailing twelve is about 1.2. That's always been traditional brick and mortar. The last two years buyers have kind of had a moratorium on bringing in new products. So we've been kind of stuck at that million to million two mark for the last two years. I'd say we haven't really done much on with respect to E Commerce quite honestly. Until we started following your podcast we never really looked at that as an opportunity. Plus we were in Glass and Glass does not lend itself well for direct to consumer. So now we've shifted our production.

Everything, everything's in pet, so it survives the UPS shipment. And so where, where our audience is, you know, we, we currently don't have a massive database because we haven't been doing the E commerce side of the business. The audience is. A lot of it in the beginning is going to come from cold traffic with ad spend. So we budgeted out about 395,000 for the first, about seven months of AD spend. And that would be for Facebook and Google. Google Ads. And so we're going to start building that audience and then additionally with our potential influencer alignment, you know, with her audience space, I think we can scale up an audience quite fast. So.

But, but the, but the audience doesn't exist now. And your last, your trailing twelve is about 1.2. Correct.

Okay.

You mentioned towards the end of your presentation that your current valuation was $5 million and then the next slide it changed to 7.5. Right?

Yeah.

What was that?

You noticed that?

So it's, it's based on two things. We have new sets that are coming online this year with Walmart and Safeway Albertsons that's gonna, that's gonna get us to closer to that 7,5 valuation. Plus with the launch of the, the syrups for October, November, December, we should be at that 1.5 mark, which we think will get us.

Next year. A lot of the work we've done, we're not gonna realize a lot of these sales until calendar year 2023.

Why did you tease me with $5 million and then raise it by 50%.

Then I got you because of the growth potential. You know, we really think that by using this money we can skyrocket this brand. We know how to do it now and you know, we've of course love an advisor to help us along the journey, but it's everything that's in the works. I mean we, like we said we're in talks with that one 800 flowers and another gift basket company, Delta Royal Caribbean. There's so many different things. Like every day I feel like we've, we talk to new people who are online for the next production run. They, they want to get in on this. However, you don't always see it until 2023 or until.

But why did the valuation jump by 50% in two slides?

So if you're going to say we're raising it a seven and a half, just say you're raising it a seven and a half and then Justify it rather than say, today we're valued at $5 million, and if you want to buy in, it's seven and a half.

Okay.

Yeah, we got it.

What the French toast, guys?

Yeah.

Yeah.

So the biggest piece of feedback I have for you is I don't think you need to sell the natural versus artificial war. So strong. Like, there was a long. A lot of slides at the beginning of, like, why it's a good idea to have to be naturally sweetened. Just show the numbers of brands that are growing that are already doing that. Because. Because half of your audience of the people who are watching this are going to be in the camp of, like, circulus is fine. Stop trying to sell me on. On why Cirillos is bad. Like, I'm one of those people, like, pump me full of sucralose. It's fine. So. But. But you show me the numbers of Xevia's growth and their IPO versus artificially sweetened soda and how the trends are moving in that direction, how fast Monk Fruit is growing, how fast allulose is growing. That's all I need to see. Right? It's like, I don't. I don't need to be bought into why natural? You just need to show me the. Like, the market already agrees with this and, like, let's go. Like, that's all the proof that you needed. And when you. When you. When you had your introductory side of introducing the company, that's actually when your pitch got much stronger. So you kind of summarized some things where you threw some shade at competitors, like, and they're the ones pumping them full of nasty and greed. That was like. That was perfect. It's like, that was the perfect amount of sprinkling in, throwing shade at other people. I didn't need all the warmup getting there, so I thought. I thought from there on, the pitch was wonderfully done, minus the 50% jump in valuation in the last slides. Okay, last point. I would really like to see you go deeper into the audience growth strategy. You very briefly mentioned that you were speaking to an influencer, but you didn't mention who they were or how it would change things. So I have to just kind of pretend that you guys know what you're doing here. I would like to see a stronger strategy of how that works. Great work, guys.

Great work.

Thank you so much, Ryan. I. I would love to hear from Stacy, who once again was voraciously taking notes. I think Stacy might be my favorite panelist because I know she's prepared.

I loved your story. In the beginning I wanted to just like jump up and shout for you. So congratulations on your kids and that whole experience that you guys went through. And I feel like it connected directly with the product. So I thought that was really well done. And I like your scrappiness with the tailgating and then the fact that you guys are getting sales, like who's your salesperson?

Oh my gosh.

Like that's amazing.

Are you guys going to continue that strategy while you're growing the E Commerce?

Yeah.

So we're gonna, we'll parallel traditional brick and mortar retail sales with the E commerce space. You know, traditionally brick and mortar, it's, it's kind of a pay to play game where ultimately you want to expand out your widest footprint possible. So then what happens is a larger player comes in, picks you up, buys you and then they slide you into their distribution system and it scales rapidly for them. That was the game we were kind of playing to try to grow.

The footprint as wide as possible. With that said, we identified some of the pitfalls within that, within that model. And quite honestly, it's easier working with the Walmarts and the Targets and the big national retailers than it is the regional local chains. So I think our, our. Well, I know our main strategy is to work with the national players out of the gates because we have the relationships with them and then the smaller ones we'll focus on at a later time. But the ask for with a lot of these smaller retailers is always so high. It's usually slotting or pre fills and you know, the marketing dollars and everything else that goes along with it. And we're going to avoid that with the syrups. We're just going to go back to our profitable, you know, highly profitable accounts that we do well in and pitch them the syrups. We've already, right now Target seems like they are on board. We just need to get them retail ready samples. We feel like it'll go into Whole Foods pretty quick. We have Publix, you know, that will be pitching. I mean name the large retailer, we will go after it. The problem with brick and mortar is you work on the review schedule. So we might have the product they may love. And they say, well, we're not reviewing the category until next September and which means the set date might not be until spring of 2024. So you work that far out where the E Commerce side. We can scale it fast, but we'll work down the retail road as quickly as we can. It's just going to be a matter of you know, you're at the mercy of the review schedules.

And then just one more quick thing. You guys should totally use Alicia for building out that community with your cheerleading background and your CrossFit background. Those are tribal, so I think she could really help with that. So I'm just throwing that there.

All right, thank you.

Awesome segue, Alicia. I would love to hear what feedback you may have for Ryan and Tristina and Christina if you could go ahead and stop sharing your screen as well.

No. Awesome job. And just kind of piggybacking on what Stacy said of your at the beginning, your guys story. Congratulations. I thought that was the coolest story that definitely like enrolled me in your mission and your why And I feel like you like spoke to my soul the whole time of natural gut microbiome. Like it's all the stuff like I care so much about. So I definitely am your customer. One of my biggest questions was I don't have a lot of experience with retail and what you guys have done just sounds incredibly impressive to me and I'd love to pick your brain. But on the direct to consumer with E commerce, I was really curious what exactly you have mapped out for your customer journey. Like, because the syrups, coffee syrups and beverage mixes are such different customers. And I was kind of curious which one is the stronger one you guys plan to kind of go after first? Like get people enrolled in your mission and your brand with the syrups and then kind of upsell them the mixers or is it vice versa, I guess you guys have mapped out?

Yeah, good question. So it's, it's going to be the syrups all the way. Not everybody drinks a Bloody Mary every day. Not everybody's drinking margaritas every day, but those who are drinking coffee are. And if they're going to be putting a syrup in, they're going to be using it daily. So it's, it's the usage, you know.

And then through the customer journey. I mean we're, we're going to try to capture all of those emails and, and really get them involved in our brand and our story so that when every time we launch a new syrup, they want to try that one and you know, they're not going to have a new syrup and then try the next one next quarter. They're going to keep on buying that probably every two weeks until the next one comes out. And then they're like, oh, it's a holiday one or it's, it's the fall, it's all, everything's pumpkin. So I really think that those will be a lot of upsells. We're also working on right now a digital cookbook for viscerals to do like a simple syrup with like 10 different cocktails that you can use that. And so then we can do digital upsells as well.

Yeah, like an order bump where, you know, we just don't have cost of goods against it, but we can unique ways to use our product.

No, I love that. That's. I was hoping you guys would say the syrups first because at least for myself, that's like the hardest thing for me to find is sugar free coffee mixes and syrups. Like, I look everywhere in Publix is one of the only places that consistently has it for me. So I do see like that the potential of the market out there because I'm honestly looking especially like what we're traveling on the road and all the marketplaces or all the grocery stores don't have it. And I'm like, I misspelled. So I can't wait for your products to hit the shelf. And then with the, with your customer journey, will you have a subscription in place where they can subscribe to your coffee mix thing as well?

Yeah.

Right?

Yeah.

Okay, perfect.

You know, if they want a new one every quarter, every month, or if they want to keep on, like, if they really like that vanilla that they'll get the same one every. Every month as well. They can choose.

That's cool. That's cool. I'll buy your pumpkin for sure.

But no. Great job. I loved it. Thank you.

Thank you.

Awesome. Thank you so much, Alicia. Jason Franciosa, the most pragmatic and simple of our panelists. Jason, if you were sitting in an investor seat right now, what would be your number one question for Ryan and Tristina? First, I loved the pitch. I actually have the least amount of questions for them compared to the other pitches before.

Around the valuation. Of course, my biggest question is, if all of the competitors you showed were multi billion dollars, why is your potential growth only like 20 million?

I think our potential growth is a lot higher. But our plan is to scale in like three, four years and sell. That would be our plan right now.

Okay, so if you're going to value justify a $7 million valuation as an investor with 1 million in sales right now, and there's a lot of risk involved in scaling.

Right.

So if you're going to justify 7 million, if you tell me, hey, there's a potential that we're going to hit 4 billion because this competitor is just this Much more. I'm like, oh, wow, okay, seven million sounds great. If you tell me it's going to take us four to five years to get to 20 million, I'm kind of like, I don't know about that.

Yeah, okay.

And the biggest red flag for me, it was already brought up before is.

The lack of audience.

And then the other red flag that I heard in your pitch was you said that your competitors use the same manufacturer. So what is your unique value proposition that your competitors literally can't just go to your same manufacturer and say, hey, this thing's selling crazy for them.

I want the same product to answer that. It's a manufacturer that we use on a limited basis. Our main manufacturer used to produce Jordans, our manufacturer at the time. Their line speed was not fast enough to keep up with Jordans. Jordans ended up going to a faster factory. That problem's been fixed at our current factory, you know, but they've increased, you know, their line speed dramatically. So ultimately, we still use where Jordan's is using for one of our products off and on, you know.

So.

Yeah, to me, that's a red flag is like, okay, well, you start getting success with this, and their sugarless syrups are selling crap.

These are going to not be produced at the same factory as Jordan's. It's.

Do you have any, Any, I guess, unique or any sort of protection on the product itself?

We own the formula. Ultimately, you know, you have an NDA with the manufacturer. The only people that know the formula are you and your manufacturer. There's got to be a trust level there that, you know, they're not going to go out and, you know, release it to one of your competitors. You know, that's. That's all you can really do. Cool.

I love it, guys. I really enjoyed the pitch. Love the why? You know, I just think you're not looking at the potential big enough. I think at, you know, four to five years to get it. 25, 26 million you projected.

Was cutting yourself short. And it's also gonna make your decisions different. If you have a billion dollar valuation.

In your head, you're gonna different decisions to make.

Sure.

Yeah, you're right. Okay, thank you.

Yeah, thank you.

Thank you. I love that the most pragmatic person on the panel just told you guys you weren't thinking big enough.

I love you, man. Samuel Prentice, I would also love to just hear from you in regards to this pitch we just heard.

Yeah, absolutely. I'll keep it quick here. But guys know, I really, really like the pitch. I actually dropped you my feedback in the chat there because I was afraid I wouldn't get to give the feedback and don't want to forget it.

But no, no, really, really well done.

I, I have had some similar businesses we reviewed that did. Anytime you have like you're shipping liquids, I know that that can be a challenge. Do you have to work around like. No. Downloading your customer acquisition cost and things because you're trying to get your product in the hands of people. Just a more costly thing. I'd like to chat about that a little bit. I like the ebook mention of ways to build the audience. I think you are in the really unique position of having the retail presence which is going to go great for your audience. Build on the E. Comm side. But those two things definitely want to play in tandem. So getting that customer acquisition side dialed in is going to be really the key. I think it's going to be really, really. There's a lot of potential behind that as well. I also love the this space. I would echo Ryan's feedback that a lot of people are aware that the clean label, low sugar, gut, healthy type stuff that is very much trending. I think you can hit that pretty quickly and then just jump into like what your action plan is and how to acquire those customers. But all in all, really, really love the pitch and yeah, I'm sure we'll catch up more offline. I really, really enjoyed it.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

Yeah, awesome. Thank you, Sam. Thank you to all of our panelists. Guys, this is, this is a magical experience where once a quarter we get to come together as a capitalism.com family and especially here in the incubator and build out pitch decks. I can't speak highly enough of the brands that we've heard from today, the literal hundreds of hours that have been put into these pitch practices. I know that from a couple of these panelists I've received multiple times a day updates to their pitch decks. Small nuanced changes. And, and I would invite anyone who is considering dreaming big in the same way that Jason just reminded us all that we should be in our business. Remember, it takes work and it takes commitment. Capitalism.com incubator is a great place to do that if you want an opportunity like this. It's capitalism.com and look at the incubator. But thank you everyone for joining. Ryan, could you please round us out from this?

Amazing. Well, first of all, we need a round of applause and hashtags for Stanway, who also gives hundreds of hours to reviewing these pitches, to mentoring you on a week to week basis, to advocating for all of you of basically choosing between his favorite children at the end of this process and having to choose who gets to present and who still needs more work. So he deserves a round of applause and a public honoring as well. But we all know that you put blood, sweat and tears into this and this is just the beginning. You feel like, hey, finally presented, but now your inbox gets flooded. People reach out to you for partnerships and for those of you who are watching this.

This is part of your future too. There are tons of relationships here in the incubator, watching on YouTube, sitting here on the panel of people who have resources and relationships to help you. I'm really proud that the visions were big this time around. Sometimes people say, I'm going to have a $5 million exit or I'm going to have a $4 million exit. This is the first time that everyone who presented had a legitimately appropriately sized vision. Very, very good work. It shows that you have been active in the incubator. Stay at it. We're super proud of you guys. Congratulations. We'll see you next time. Take care, everybody.