CPG

#197 - Kevin Wong, Lunar: Breaking into Big Box Retailers With hard Seltzer CPG

August 17, 2022
1
 MIN
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Guest Name:
Kevin Wong
Role:
Co-Founder & CEO
Category:
CPG
Speciality:
alcoholic beverage
Company Name:
Lunar
Revenue Stage:
10-50M
Following:
10-50M
Guest Bio
Kevin Wong is the cofounder of Lunar, an award-winner hard seltzer brand inspired by Asian flavors. But Kevin’s path to becoming the founder of an alcohol brand wasn’t linear. Kevin studied computer science at University of Virginia and went on to work in investment banking at J.P. Morgan for a year. Kevin then spent six years at Yext and worked his way up the ranks from a Senior Analyst to Director of Corporate Strategy. Kevin started Lunar in 2020 and quit his job at Yext in 2021 to focus on building the no.1 hard seltzer brand.

EPISODE SUMMARY

Kevin Wong is the cofounder of Lunar, an award-winner hard seltzer brand inspired by Asian flavors. But Kevin’s path to becoming the founder of an alcohol brand wasn’t linear. Kevin studied computer science at University of Virginia and went on to work in investment banking at J.P. Morgan for a year. Kevin then spent six years at Yext and worked his way up the ranks from a Senior Analyst to Director of Corporate Strategy. Kevin started Lunar in 2020 and quit his job at Yext in 2021 to focus on building the no.1 hard seltzer brand.

EPISODE NOTES

Blaine & Ramon are thrilled to have Kevin Wong as a guest on DTC Pod and dive into building the first Asian American craft hard seltzer alcohol brand - Lunar.  Kevin talks about the early days of home brewing, perfecting the formula, and learning from failed batches and supply chain. He also gets into the business side and talks about selling to restaurants and becoming one of the most in-demand items at Trader Joe's.

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS

2:14 - 5:42 Life before Lunar

9:56 - 13:52 Creating Lunar

14:56 - 17:57 Early days of Lunar

18:21 - 20:22 Navigating regulation in the alcohol industry

20:48 - 30:06 Learning to make hard seltzer

30:57 - 32:37 The first failed batch

34:42 - 42:00 Got to market strategy

47:36 - 50:01  Getting into Trader Joe’s

Episode Transcript & Castmagic Chat

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Ramon Berrios
Founder and CEO at Trend
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Ramon has Co-Founded Trend. It is a curated marketplace of creators and brands. We help brands source high quality custom content. We love working with new, innovative companies that are changing the game.

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Blaine
Co-Founded Seated,COO at Omnipanel
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Blaine Bolus is the Co-Founder of OmniPanel, the first software platform connecting CX & Internal teams.OmniPanel, backed by top Silicon Valley VCs, is building software infrastructure that powers cross-functional work, in an industry projected to be a $641 Billion Market in 2022.