How Liquid Death founder, Mike Cessario, created a billion dollar water brand

Today I'm joined by Mike Cessario, the founder and CEO of Liquid Death, a water brand worth $1.4b. With the use of creative brand marketing and punk aesthetic, Mike was able to break into the biggest beverage category in the US and disrupt market dominated by huge brands such as Coke and Pepsi. This is a truly inspirational story on how you can defy the odds, break convention, disrupt a category and do it all on a shoestring budget. If you're a challenger brand, this is a must listen. Timestamps

00:00:00 - Intro

00:01:10 - Mike’s background

00:06:24 - Mike’s brandy startup

00:10:33 - Navigating regulation

00:12:46 - The benefits of being an outsider distrupting an industry

00:14:57 - Coming up with the idea for Liquid Death

00:19:30 - How to create an innovative brand

00:23:48 - Selling the Liquid Death concept

00:27:08 - Raising money for Liquid Death

00:29:50 - Launching on Amazon

00:30:52 - Generating demand in the early days

00:31:46 - Figuring out distribution networks for the drinks industry

00:35:45 - Why limited budgets helped Liquid Death grow

00:44:11 - Why D2C was pivotal for Liquid Death

00:46:12 - Liquid Death’s unique Super Bowl campaign

00:49:54 - The power of the Liquid Death merch

00:53:00 - Innovation for the future of Liquid Death

00:54:15 - Scaling and exit

00:56:02 - Having famous investors

00:57:29 - Maintaining the challenger spirit

01:01:58 - Mike’s advice to aspiring founders