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🥃 The Clever Concept Shaking up the $280B Alcohol Industry

🥃 The Clever Concept Shaking up the $280B Alcohol Industry

You'll wanna sip on a negroni after this one

Joel Hansen
October 13, 2023

Hey, this is Napkin Notes: startups move fast. So we help you spot which ideas and founders are worth watching. So you can join, partner or bribe invest in their venture before everyone else.

Let’s get to our lineup for the day. 🥁

Our Newsletter Menu

📰 News you missed if you were busy buildin’
🍷 How the founders of sipply are shaking up the $280B market
📌 More startup ideas of the week
🗓 RSVP to our AI-themed demo day
📷 Swipes of the week

📰 News You Missed:

The world continues to be heartbroken about the Israel-Hamas war. Atlassian is acquiring Loom for $975 million. Adobe Firefly is tinkering with AI again. BMW is working on hands-free driving. Birkenstock had its IPO. YouTube passed Netflix as the top video source for teens. The IRS says Microsoft owes $29B in back taxes. Our Next Demo day is November 7th. And you still have no flipping clue what costume to wear to that Startup Halloween Event you got invited to. 👻

While you’re thinking, let’s get rolling.👇

🥃 How the Founders of sipply Landed on a Big Idea to Shake Up a $280B Industry

Here’s the facts friends:

🇺🇸 Americans place over 2 billion delivery orders every year
📦 95% of Americans have access to alcohol delivery
📲 10% of Americans order drinks online

If you’re thinking what we’re thinking, you’re gonna love what the founders of sipply are building. 🚀

Cofounder pairs don’t get better than Caty and Verity.

They’ve worked at big billion-dollar brands,
they’ve done their time in startup land and
now they’re ready to take advantage of a startup idea that’s juicier than your best mango Margarita 🍹

Instead of us blabbing away about a market we know nothing about, we’re handing them the mic to hear why they decided to jump all in on this idea. 🎙

🥃 What was the first aha moment for the sipply idea?

“Verity and I were drinking a glass of wine laughing about the night before when we ordered higher end Italian food online and was recommended Smirnoff Ice and Budweisers to complement it. Verity, who happens to be a certified sommelier, and myself were sent down a rabbit hole path where we soon realized a fast, easy to use beverage pairing recommendation engine didn’t exist! In an effort to scratch their own itch, sipply was born.

🥃 Top strategy you used to lock down so many bad-ass team members and advisors?

Relationships aren’t built overnight, and we’re fortunate to have an amazing network of friends and colleagues with unique and valuable skills. It’s been really heartening to see how many people say yes to helping when we ask. We’re clearly not the only ones who could use this tool!

🥃 Can you share what makes your cofounding team the perfect fit to execute on this idea?

We’ve got a killer partnerships person, an engineer who has built complex ML and NLP based products before, the creative director who designed Deliveroo, and a certified sommelier coming together to build a business that starts as a business. A lot of what we’ve seen in the market is for niche enthusiasts. We’re building something for the masses.

🥃 Why are you sharing this idea in public vs keeping it private?

Nothing is more powerful than end-user feedback. The more people see the product, the better it becomes. We know the tech isn’t easy to do and the relationships aren’t easy to build, so there’s little risk in sharing. People have already been so generous with their ideas and time, improving the product before we even get to the consumer facing stage.

🥃 Who’s the #1 person that if you could have lunch with would help 10x your business?

Dara Khosrowshahi - the most successful partnership strategy we’ve seen is to go from the middle up and top down. Getting buy-in from the leaders in the food delivery space would set us on a path for extreme success.

🥃 Any teaser you can share on the $500K raise you’re working on?

We’re moving incredibly quickly. We already have a product in development, user feedback on the prototype of that product, front end designs being executed for the webapp, and relationships being built with the right people in food delivery. Our round is 20% full, but we’d really love active angels who are strong supporters of their investments to join our team.

There you have it folks. The startup idea that’s gonna smash the $280 billion alcohol industry in the USA.

🚨 To close off the interview, everyone who upvotes/comments on sipply’s startup idea will be entered to win a personalized bottle of wine as a thank you from the Founders of sipply.

The winner will be announced in the next newsletter.