We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Ben Morgan. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Ben below.

Hi Ben , thanks for joining us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

The idea of Tanto Vodka was originally brought to us as a whiskey brand. Kris “Tanto” Paronto and I discussed doing a whiskey, but felt there were already several Veteran-owned whiskeys out there, and we didn’t want to do the same thing as everyone else. Plus, friends of ours owned some of those whiskey brands, and we didn’t want to be in competition with them. We looked around at other spirits on the shelf and thought there were no interesting stories or brands in the vodka space. There are plenty of brands, but none of them had a story like Kris’s.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

We felt that people deep down like to support veteran-owned brands, and since there weren’t any veteran-owned vodkas out there, we could set ourselves apart. We believe customers like to have an interesting story behind the products they buy. I know Kris will never say this, but what he and his teammates did that night in Benghazi was very heroic, and I think that story resonates with people. They could have chosen not to get involved or just left when things got hairy, but they chose to go and ultimately save the lives of around 30 people. That’s 30 dads, moms, sons, daughters, and friends who got to come home because of their sacrifice. We felt that by starting a business, we could generate money to give back to the members of the veteran and first responders community who may need a little help. There are a lot of big foundations out there, and they are doing great things, but Kris and I both know a lot of men and women struggling, and some charitable organizations out there doing great work could use some financial help. If we can offer a great product with a great story at a fair price, we think people will be happy to purchase it from us and, in turn, allow us to help our community. Kris and I both served in the Army’s 75th Ranger Regiment and then we both went on to do contract work overseas for the US government. We share a love for our country and those who served and want to continue to do something that helps people.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

Kris and I had our careers cut short because of events beyond our control. Kris lived through that life-changing event in Benghazi, and I suffered an injury while working at the US Embassy in Iraq. You think you have everything planned out and know what the next 5-10 years will look like. In Kris’s case, that all changed in one night, and in my case, it all changed in a matter of seconds. It took some time to realize that my work, as I knew it, was truly over. You think, “I’ll be back, I just need to rest up or give it some time,” but in my case, I physically could not be who I was or who I needed to be to excel in my job anymore. It was a very difficult pill to swallow. You lose your sense of self. You have to find a new path or a new challenge.

We’d love to hear about how you met your business partner.

Kris and I have known each other since we were in high school. We went to different schools in the same town and really just knew each other by name. Then, we ended up in the same Army National Guard unit in Colorado during the summer of 2001. I saw his name tape on the back of his patrol cap, and he had cat eyes indicating he was from 2nd Ranger Battalion. I asked him if he was “Kris Paronto from Grand Junction.” It turned out he was, and we have been close friends ever since.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.tantovodka.com/
• Instagram: @realtantovodka @real_kris_tanto_paronto
• Facebook: Ben Morgan Tanto Vodka , Kris Paronto
• Linkedin: Ben Morgan
• Twitter: @tantoVodka