We caught up with the brilliant and insightful EFFIE PANAGOPOULOS a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi EFFIE, thanks for joining us today. Let’s talk legacy – what sort of legacy do you hope to build?

The word KLEOS actually means fame or glory attained through good deeds and hard work.

My goal with creating the brand KLEOS , was multifaceted.

1 –to create the new global Greek spirit brand and become a standard on backbars everywhere to represent Greece in the world of bars, global Spirit brands, and Cocktail culture. I am confident KLEOS will be around long after I’m gone and that I’ve created a brand for the ages–a new Greek icon.

2–Activate the brand via charitable efforts. We did the first #earnyourkleos initiative in Boston where 10 bars signed up to donate $1 from every Kleos cocktail to the Dorchester house –a woman’s shelter for women displaced due to spousal abuse, addiction, and unemployment. We matched $1. As a a woman start up brand with the hefty challenge of raising enough capital to stay afloat and keep scaling, I want to do activations like this on a larger scale in the future

3–I am the first Greek woman to self start a spirits brand. Greece ranks the lowest for women owned business in the EU. I hope to be able to inspire, mentor, and invest in other woman owned business.

EFFIE, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’m Boston born and raised, first generation Greek american—parents were Greek immigrants from Tripoli and Megalopoli. I majored in French, Spanish, and Italian in college, taught HS spanish, and worked at Univision as a copywriter while moonlighting for liquor brands doing tastings and events in my early 20’s–so collectively I’ve been in liquor industry over 20 years now. I’ve worked for Bacardi, Remy, consulted for countless start ups in the space.

My eureka moment was in Mykonos summer of 2008 when I was at a beach bar and everyone around me—american tourists–were doing shots of this type of spirit—mastiha.

I immediately thought this is f*cking delicious and I have to bring this to the US.

It is a greek botanical spirit made from a superfood tree sap that comes from trees that grown only on one island in the entire planet. It is low cal, low sugar, low abv, tastes like cucumber, mint lemongrass, herbal tea–and mixes 1:1 with every base spirit on the backbar. Been called “bartender’s olive oil” for its versatility.

What I am most proud of is my persistence. Not only do I love the brand I’ve created and get validated by all the wonderful consumer feedback, but it took 10 years after my eureka moment for me to launch a brand. It took 6 months to raise a friends and family round of capital to get started in 2018 off my mom’s couch. It took 15 months for me to raise a Seed round of $1.8m. COVID has delayed my initial rapid expansion plans, and being patient and unwaiveringly persistent and strategic so as not to run out of capital is my superpower. Overnight successes don’t exist. Easy come, easy go. The universe tests you in ways you’ve never been tested before with entrepreneurship, and it is survival of the fittest, and not for the faint of heart.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

Raising money is a numbers game. The more people you pitch, the more you are going to close. My friends and family round started in late 2015. I signed up to do a bodybuilding show to get myself laser focused and disciplined for the capital raise. I placed 3rd and 4rth in the show, and then closed my first $280k in 6 months.

It started with a spreadsheet of people—highly connected, networked, high net worth, other entrepreneurs, and of course Greeks. My brand is Greek and is a PDO product that only comes from Greece. Creating the new global Greek spirit is something that fellow Greeks could get emotionally behind. My first $10k was from a personal friend who I didnt even pitch—-but she knew the whole story start to finish, and said “I want to invest in this.” Then in speaking to another girlfriend, it was like “meet this wealthy couple from Chicago I know who just solf their business.”…. And I kept chipping away like that. I did something like 120 emails and pitches to close 8 friends and family investors.

The more astute you get at culling leads–understanding their investment needs (sectors/verticals they invest in, how fast they want returns, what their check size is) the better you get at raising and pitching. Also, watch a lot of Shark Tank. It is the best example of what an elevator pitch is , and how to think on your feet when handling objections from difficult “sharky” investors. End of the day, someone says, no, on to the next. You have to remove the emotion from the rejection.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

The COVID pivot was an intense one. 90% of my business was on-premise (bars and restaurants) pre COVID. Lockdown happens and firt concern was running out of capital. Went back to my original investors, and one had a lead for a female investor who I met in my empty WeWork space and closed her on $50k to literally continue to scrape by because we actually went out of stock during COVID.

I started doing “cocktail-making” zooms. With countless Greek organizations, bartender groups, corporations, and next thing you know we have a robust online business, and I sell out. The misery of not having product for almost 4 months, while rehabbing a torn acl when hospitals were not open (torn doing workouts in my room) is something I wouldn’t wish on my worse enemy.

But we got back in stock, and the minute restaurants started to re-open I was in “let no stone go uncovered” mode. What also helped tremendously was doing what I could I do to support accounts when they were closed—donate to out of work bartenders, I even led “fitness fridays” at home workouts on zoom just to boost morale. I think showing people as a brand –that you were there and actually cared when they were NOT making any money for you—made a big difference once things rebounded.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.drinkkleos.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drinkkleos/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/drinkkleos
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/effiepanagopoulos
• Other: https://www.instagram.com/greekspiritmuse/

Image Credits
Guillaume Jubien–cocktail photos Anthony Nader-headshot