Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Peter Greco. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Peter, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

A little before lockdown my little sister came home from college, I think it was, to visit and told the family she learned how to make kombucha. Right before she left, I asked if she would make me one little mason jars worth. She set up the ferment and texted me however many days later when it was ready to drink and I took one sip and it was easily the best kombucha I have ever had. I had to try it out. I made two batches and they tasted absolutely awful. They were super vinegary and just horrible. I decided to just not do kombucha because I think I just didn’t care enough to time out the batch right or something. So time went on. I wasn’t interested in making anymore. Then one day my dad gave me 40 bucks and told my sisters and I needed produce from this vegan market. He didn’t care what, we just needed some produce. So I’ve got the 40 bucks I drive over to the market with two of my sisters Tess and Hallie and were walking around the market and there was a rack in the back with a Kombucha starter kit. I checked the price. It said $40.
I made another batch.
I followed all the directions and what not and made a black tea kombucha. It was awesome. My whole family loved it. In the directions, it showed how to do a “second ferment” where you add fruit. I added strawberries, waited the few days and it also came out great. I kept making more kombucha for the family trying different fruit combos. Pineapple mango, strawberry peach, etc. I just kept going.
In college, I was on a track team. November came along and the team was having a potluck-style tracksgiving. The day came and I didn’t have any food to bring but I did have five swingtop bottles of strawberry peach kombucha in the fridge. I figured “eh they’ll drink like 2 or 3 bottles and I’ll still have some left”.
They drained all five. And asked what it was, who brought, what’s in it and all these questions about it.
I walked to my car after that tracksgving going “hey ok I could sell this I think.” Then lockdown happened. I brewed a during lockdown a lot and made I think four flavors or something. I posted on my Instagram story a video of me asking if anyone would like to buy some kombucha I’ve made. My inbox flooded. It was a weird but entertaining feeling. So, I saved, cleaned and sanitized a good amount of kombucha bottles from the store and filled them with each of the flavors and told my Instagram story “ill be delivering this day” my Instagram got even more messages. So I loaded up the trunk and drove around Denver just doing a mobile lemonade stand essentially that day to friends who ordered online. I sold each 16oz bottle for $3. I came home with $70 in my pocket and decided to give it a shot. I kept doing deliveries throughout lockdown and I have not stopped brewing a day since. It has been three years.

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?

My first thought was that I just wanted to try something different. Not necessarily product wise but life wise. I knew, even before the first time I brewed kombucha at all, that I didn’t want to be an employee under anyone. I have heard and experienced too many stories of crappy bosses power tripping, not liking me for not being a robot of an employee basically, etc. Also, many jobs I’ve had were either boring or way underpaid. I like being my own boss. I knew before starting that I would be failing, tripping and messing up a ton but in all of it a would learn a ton and be successful if I kept to it. I knew I would enjoy the mental challenge of it all. It’s similar to putting a puzzle together but each puzzle piece you either have to make yourself so it’ll fit or you have to go find it.

What sets me apart? I am a Juggernaut. About 7-8 years ago I was studying with a very close buddy of mine, Hayden Murphy, for a calculus test and he told me something along the lines of, “Peter, you are one of the few, if not the most persistent person I have met. You don’t not stop. You just keep going.” He was talking about my 6+ hour long study sessions in a sense of “are you mental?”. We would call each other Juggernauts. During my second semester of junior year of college I averaged 4 hours of sleep per night according to my sleep tracker and I was on the track team too. In a nutshell I keep going and people know this about me. Stopping isn’t a thing. I will say I am much more healthy about how I go about my work now but in all honesty I’m pretty sure I was just really bad at calculus and I didn’t want to fail again. Losing sleep like I was is not a flex but it definitely showed my drive.

What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?

Talking a lot. Networking itself is a given but how much I talk is what has brought ideas to people I know of how they can help me.
My hair stylist and a vendor friend of mine both gave me kegerators for free. I talked a ton to them about my company. They both asked me what I needed to move forward. Now I have two kegerators they needed to get rid of.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

About 7-8 years ago I was studying with a very close buddy of mine, Hayden Murphy, for a calculus test and he told me something along the lines of, “Peter, you are one of the few, if not the most persistent person I have met. You don’t not stop. You just keep going.” He was talking about my 6+ hour long study sessions in a sense of “are you mental?”. We would call each other Juggernauts. During my second semester of junior year of college I averaged 4 hours of sleep per night according to my sleep tracker and I was on the track team too. In a nutshell I keep going and people know this about me. Stopping isn’t a thing. I will say I am much more healthy about how I go about my work now but in all honesty I’m pretty sure I was just really bad at calculus and I didn’t want to fail again. Losing sleep like I was is not a flex but it definitely showed my drive.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: instagram.com/peteskombucha
• Facebook: facebook.com/peteskombucha
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/peter-greco-770670109/
• Twitter: twitter.com/peteskombucha
• Youtube: youtube.com/peteskombucha

Image Credits
Image Credit: Beni Kusulas