Hey everyone, we're super excited to announce the launch of our slack community for D two C pod. This is a space exclusively for D two C founders and operators to connect, share ideas, ask questions and support each other. You'll be able to engage with the best minds and operators and consumer. And currently we're on a waitlist and it will open up the community once we reach 150 members. So apply using the link in the description and we hope to see you on slack. So before we kick off today's recording, I've got one more for you. Keeping up your momentum this year starts with the right selling tools. And if you're looking to increase revenue, grow faster, build more pipeline and close more deals, check out the all new sales hub from HubSpot.

You'll be able to manage your whole sales process. Plus my favorite part, the reporting. It's super intuitive, powerful and customizable. Plus the whole thing is powered by AI, so your teams can spend less time on tedious, time consuming stuff and more time on developing relationships. Also, no one likes a clunky platform that takes months to onboard onto. But getting set up on saleshub is really quick and easy. It's free to get started. The pricing will scale with your business, and with more than 1300 integrations and add ons, you can tune it to your exact needs.

Visit HubSpot.com sales to start selling with sales hub what is going on? DTC pod today we are joined by the founder and CEO of Gorgy, and that is Michelle Cordero Grant. So, Michelle, super excited to have you on the pod today. There's going to be a lot to talk about. You guys are building a very cool energy drink and brand. You guys have started to roll out in different retailers across the nation as well as having a very strong online presence. So why don't you just, before we get all the way into it, why don't you just give us a little quick background about yourself? Um, how'd you find yourself in, you know, the consumer brand building space and then, uh, we can get into how you started Gorgy.

Amazing. Well, thank you so much for having me here. It's such a pleasure. How did I get into beverage and more importantly, an energy drink? Well, started in fashion and I had built a company called Lively in that space. And I start there because the whole idea for that company was, what if I looked at a category that was multi billion dollar in the United States, but felt a little not what I want as a consumer or what I see on social? Enter lively. Everything was crowdsourced community based, and it was a serendipitous hard journey, but ended up working quite well in the end. After that company was acquired, I was like, what's next? And wellness was my greatest passion. However, when I would survey my communities on a Google duck survey on my phone, everyone was like, great, Michelle.

We don't want candy or food. We want to drink. And I'm like, what? Anyway, I find myself in Florida, and everyone is drinking energy drinks, and I'm like, who drinks energy drinks? They're so bad for you. TikTok said there were some that were good for you, so went to Whole Foods to buy one. Turns out there weren't any that were Whole Foods verified. And that's where, you know, the idea for gorgy really solidified. Like, what if we made an energy meets wellness drink and we posted that on TikTok? I was so fortunate that Jason Cohen, a CPG mastermind, was by my side and really helped me figure out the whole idea, the steps to take and so forth. And what was an idea on Labor Day? Basically, like a glass jar that I'm passing out to everyone that would stop and try it on the beach became a full fledged idea by Expo east at the end of the fall and launched in Whole Foods by January 11 of 2023.

Welcome to beverage, Michelle.

Well, that is certainly a fast and efficient way to do it, and I'd love to. I like how you kind of put it in terms of, you saw market opportunity. You said, hey, this is something that I want. I don't see it here, let me go build it, and now let's take it to market. Unfortunately, you were able to do that and pull it off in a really short order. So I'd love to kind of know what went into pulling off such a quick and efficient, you know, rollout. Like, from the time that you had the idea for the brand and the product, like, walk me through a little bit of, like, the brand development side. So what ended, what went into brand development? What went into product development, and then what went into, in such a quick time, getting it out to, like, massive retailers?