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

Johnna, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What was it like going from idea to execution? Can you share some of the backstory and some of the major steps or milestones?

In 2018, my future business partner and I were dreaming at our corporate jobs about starting our business. We wanted to create something that sparked joy — both for ourselves but for our customers. We were brainstorming over drinks and Megan said “what about cocktails?” In that moment, we both knew that was something we could be passionate about.

We soon realized that the cocktail mixer category was full of junk — bad ingredients and boring flavors. We talked about creating mixers that were inspired by craft cocktail recipes, but that would take too much time to make at home. But was most critical for us was an inclusive brand. We wanted mixers that could appeal to everyone — whether you drink alcohol or don’t, we wanted a mixer that could create an easy, delicious drink for everyone at the party.

As dreaming became reality, we started to pull in our other business partners. Megan’s college friend, Stuart, who had mixology and distillery experience and Megan’s dad, Rick, who is a seasoned operations leader. With my experience in CPG marketing and Megan’s in design, we had a well-rounded team.

The early days started with making mixers in our homes. We even did a tasting party with friends and family and had them provide feedback. Once we had the recipes, it was all about commercialization — how do we get this on shelf? We toyed with the idea of selling it refrigerated, but soon learned the many challenges (and costs) associated with that channel. When we decided to go shelf stable, it took months to get the proper trainings and certifications to make fresh juice shelf stable without adding preservatives. This whole process from concept to manufacturing took over a year.

When we finally had the certifications ready, COVID hit. Our initial plan was to start small and sell Mixly at local farmers markets. With those events being closed, we decided to go big and commercialize for retail and selling direct to consumer on our website.

While we knew a lot of things about the beverage industry, selling into retail and starting an ecommerce business wasn’t an area of expertise in our group. We braved through the unknown and just jumped in. We quickly learned that with many retailers being honest about what you don’t know and asking for advice worked to our advantage. We were surprised by how many retailers really want to help startups like us.

When it came to the website, we learned how many free resources are out there and how intuitive some of the ecommerce platforms, even for people with zero experience.

To sum up our experience from concept to launch, our keys to success were forming a great team of subject matter experts across disciplines, being nimble and having fortitude when things don’t go as planned, and being brave enough to ask for help when you need it.

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?

Our business is Mixly, and our brand premise is quite simple — we make mixers, made simply.

At Mixly we’re on a mission to bring people together to celebrate the every day, and every one. For far too long, the mixer category has been filled with the same old flavors, products full of sugar and artificial ingredients, and frankly bad taste.

We think it’s time to mix it up.

At Mixly, we believe everyone should be invited to the party. Whether you drink vodka, tequila, or don’t drink alcohol, we want to help make it easier (and more fun!) for everyone at the party to have a delicious drink. That’s why all of our mixers are crafted to be versatile — pairing with multiple spirits, and so good it can be a mocktail with a splash of soda water.

Started by a group of friends in 2018, we are proudly woman and LGBTQ owned and operated.

Any advice for managing a team?

Starting a business is a marathon, not a sprint. So maintaining high morale takes discipline, patience and empathy. As a leader and entrepreneur, you clearly have a lot of passion for your business and see so much opportunity and ground to cover. In the beginning, I wanted to chase everything. But what I quickly learned is that if you don’t evaluate the size of price and how it ladders up to your business plan, you can quickly run everyone, and yourself, ragged. In start up mode, patience is also critical for a leader and managing a team. However long you think something should take, especially when disrupting a category, it will take longer, even with a dedicated and passionate team. And empathy is also the most important. I work with the most incredibly talented and dedicated team members, but we are all humans. I think it’s important to make sure you’re connecting with your team members personally and coming with an understanding that the business is just one part of their full lives. We all need to make time to do things in our personal lives that help rejuvenate us and bring us joy. These things are not a distraction, they keep us motivated and energized for the long journey ahead.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

I think it’s incredibly important for founders to have direct connections with customers. When our retailers and consumers meet our team personally, and hear our story, it has made all the world of difference. We create meaningful connections that ultimately have driven our business.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.mixlycocktailco.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mixlycocktailco/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MixlyCocktailCo/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZvjTJwCDckwz6htSAuVlLw
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@mixlycocktailco