Why Most Beverage Brands Fail (And What These Founders Did Differently)

Why Most Beverage Brands Fail (And What These Founders Did Differently)

From Hunt Gather Nurture by Jason Burke

April 30, 2026 · 1h 0m

About this episode

The episode explores the challenges and strategies in building a successful beverage brand with insights from the founders of Blackleaf Organic Vodka.

Why do most beverage brands fail? In this episode, I sit down with Kevin Larkai and Monte Burrow, founders of Blackleaf Organic Vodka, to break down what it actually takes to build a brand in one of the most competitive categories in CPG. This isn’t a highlight reel. We get into: The biggest mistakes they made early on Why great products don’t sell themselves What “entrepreneurship is a contact sport” really means How they bet on organic before it was tr...

People in this episode

Host: Jason Burke

Guests: Kevin Larkai, Monte Burrow

Topics covered

  • beverage brands
  • entrepreneurship
  • CPG
  • branding
  • organic products

Keywords

  • beverage brands
  • entrepreneurship
  • CPG
  • organic vodka
  • branding mistakes

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Blackleaf Organic Vodka

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