NY Launch Pod: Welcome to the New York Launch Pod, the New York Press Club, award winning podcast highlighting the most interesting new startups, businesses, and openings in the New York City area. I’m your host and New York attorney Hal Coopersmith, and in this episode, we are speaking to David Suk, the founder of Saint Luna Moonshine, again! We first spoke to David almost a year ago and since we last spoke to him, David has grown his sales and distribution substantially. What’s the secret to his success? It’s pounding the pavement. Here’s David.
David Suk: Pounding the pavement is, is key. You know, I try to hit a handful of restaurants or bars to introduce myself every single day. I’m constantly networking because you never know what friend might be able to introduce you to the next, uh, restaurant owner that then becomes an evangelist for your brand.
NY Launch Pod: But before we go to the interview, if you haven’t already remembered to sign up for our monthly newsletter for unique content and insights at nylaunchpod.com and subscribe to the podcast on your favorite listening app. And we have a sponsor RezCue, New York State’s premier residential rental compliance platform. Have you rented out residential property in New York State? If so, odds are, you are not compliant with the Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act enacted by New York State in 2019. And if you don’t follow the law, your tenant may be legally able to stay in the property beyond the length of the lease and many more consequences, RezCue is designed to solve all those problems and more go to Rezcueme.com and enter in some basic information and rescue takes care of the rest. So you can relax and be a more profitable landlord. That’s Rezcueme.com. And with that, find out more about Saint Luna Moonshine on another episode of How You’re Doing.
NY Launch Pod: So David, you are back on the podcast. We know you from episode 73, a lot has changed in a little over a year. Tell us about what’s happening with St. Luna Moonshine
David Suk: It is. Thanks, Hal. Very happy to be here. We are taking on new distribution, getting new distribution partners, and taking on some new states. So despite all the craziness that’s happened with the pandemic, we’ve still managed to grow, which has been a nice feeling.
NY Launch Pod: So, one of the things that you talked about on the original podcast was marketing to restaurants and bars, and that, was difficult at January of 2021. What are you focusing on right now?
David Suk: Pretty much the same, but we’re doing it more broadly across multiple states. So I think when we talked, we were in New York, we had just started to launch into New Jersey and Pennsylvania. So now that restaurants are opening back up more and more, we’re still focused on getting cocktail menus or getting our product on cocktail menus.
NY Launch Pod: And what’s been your technique in terms of doing that, because I imagine that there’s been at least in terms of looking at New York challenges in restaurant and bars, turnover in terms of opening up new restaurants and bars, how are you marketing your product to these restaurants and bars?
David Suk: The turnover’s been pretty extraordinary. The business has always been relatively transient and I feel like now even more so, you know, it’s been really challenging to just get the same buyer to be consistently in the chair. So for us, a lot of what we do is just relationship-based and trying to network with whomever we can. And, you know, I think we’re in a very unique position where people wanna root for the underdog. And that then leads me to new relationships that I may not have found just pounding the pavement on my own.
NY Launch Pod: And how are you finding these new restaurants and in bars and in different states?
David Suk: All different. So we have some great distribution partners. I partnered up with vintage imports and in New Jersey in particular, they have quite a few sales reps that I work with on a regular basis. And a lot of times you just kind of walk in, walk into a restaurant, sit at a bar and go, Hey, I think my product might be a great fit here.
NY Launch Pod: And are you walking in, in different states and fostering those relationships?
David Suk: We are. Hal, a lot of it is just walking into bars, sitting at the bar and grabbing a glass of wine, and trying to talk to the bartender about who might be the person that decides what cocktails go on the list.
NY Launch Pod: And are you doing that for example, in Minnesota, which is one of the states that you mentioned you had added,
David Suk: We will be, so the plan there is to launch in a month or two, and we’ll have a distribution partner there that has relationships at restaurants, bars, and liquor stores.
NY Launch Pod: And part of it, at least in terms of your business, you have the restaurant and bar. And then obviously with any alcohol, you have the home user, how are you targeting more of the at-home user? Because certainly with the pandemic, we saw that alcohol consumption liquor sales at home increased. And I can also speak from that from my own experience.
David Suk: They definitely did well now that we’re allowed to do in-person tastings, I’ll mix up very simple batch of cocktails, I’ll say a mule. And then I just make an appointment at a liquor store and sit there for three hours and try to get you to taste my product. We do that. And then I also partnered up with a handful of influencers and mixology folks to create cocktails that we post on our Instagram page.
NY Launch Pod: And obviously you believe in moonshine, we’ve talked about this, you’re the founder of St. Luna. What has kind of been the market feedback in terms of moonshine and moonshine adoption as a beverage, because people certainly have their spirits and wines, beer that they like to stick to, but it seems like you’re trying to also add adoption for a spirit. And so how are you getting adoption?
David Suk: It’s been pretty encouraging because if I can get onto a cocktail list, I’m normally one of the better selling cocktails. And I think that’s because it’s unique and it stands out and it makes an incredible cocktail. So really our first challenge is just getting them to try it.
NY Launch Pod: What bar and restaurant, are you a best-selling cocktail for?
David Suk: There’s a restaurant that does incredible food, great cocktails in Jersey city called Luna, so it sort of like the perfect match given our namesakes are pretty similar, we’ve been the number one selling cocktail there of all time.
NY Launch Pod: So Luna, even though it’s in New Jersey, certainly a nice synergy for you. And what about just wanna tackle the Moonshine as a spirit a little bit more adoption. How are you educating the market? So right now you have, you’re in a bar, restaurant and gaining adoption there, but how can you get someone at home or what’s been a successful technique for you to get someone the home consumer?
David Suk: Oh, definitely, so one of two ways, seeing it on a cocktail list at your favorite restaurant, having your bartender tell you that, Hey, this is a brand new spirit that I think you’d enjoy is a great way to do that. And what we’ll try to do is have a handful of restaurants in a town carrying us, and then a local liquor store where people can find it. And the other way is really just doing tastings at liquor stores. And, you know, whenever you see somebody set up with their little booth at a liquor store and they’re mixing up margaritas or tasting wines, that’s a really good chance to have a, a one on one connection with somebody, get them to try your product and hopefully become an advocate.
NY Launch Pod: So you’ve talked a lot about the growth distribution for St. Luna, what’s where do you see St Luna a year from now? Obviously, you know, we’re still in the pandemic. We didn’t anticipate that, but where do you see that a year and in the Future?
David Suk: Definitely, more states we are, as we mentioned, talking about Minnesota launching this year but we’re also talking to folks in DC and Maryland. We’re talking to folks in Florida. So my ultimate goal is obviously better penetration within the markets that we’re in. So more in New York, more in New Jersey, more in Pennsylvania and Delaware, but adding more states and getting to a point where I hope in a year, we’ll be able to afford things like bigger marketing PR budgets, things like that.
NY Launch Pod: What have been some of the challenges in the past year?
David Suk: Oh, Macron has not been friendly because unfortunately all of my tastings for January canceled, because nobody wanted to leave the house. You know, I think that’s driving a lot of transiency in the restaurant world. You spend a lot of time trying to curate a great relationship with a buyer and then they leave the industry entirely.
NY Launch Pod: Yeah, I’ve certainly seen that on my end as well. People getting outta the restaurant industry, having challenges, but aside from the challenges, you’ve talked about growth, what are some success stories, that you can sink your teeth into for us, aside from being the best-selling cocktail at Luna’s.
David Suk: Yeah. We’re the best selling cocktail at a number of places, but just, I, I wrote down some statistics, cause I figured you guys wanna hear, you know, our case volume year over year is just about 4000%. It’s one of those sticky things where that’s easy to do when you’re talking about small numbers, but what’s encouraging is that that’s occurring while we’re still in the middle of dealing with this pandemic and the fallout from it last year, we added over a hundred new accounts across the handful of territories that were in mostly restaurants and bars.
NY Launch Pod: And so as you’re growing, doing, having that success, you talked about hitting the pavement. What kind of advice do you give to someone who’s trying to do this? Something similar that has an idea like you and you fostered it that wants to grow a brand. And what mistakes did you make that got you to help you grow in that dynamic way?
David Suk: Pounding the pavement is key. You know, I try to hit a handful of restaurants or bars to introduce myself every single day. I’m constantly networking because you never know what friend might be able to introduce you to the next restaurant owner that then becomes an evangelist for your brand. You know, I think where I went a little sideways at the beginning of this was I targeted like very big established restaurants that have pretty solid bar programs in place already. And I probably could have built a little bit more of a groundswell going, going after craftier smaller places that would’ve been bigger advocates for my brand.
NY Launch Pod: Well, that is a great note to wrap things up on David Suk, how do people find out more about you and St. Luna Moonshine?
David Suk: Yeah, so we are on Instagram at @St.LunaSpirits. We are on Facebook as St. Luna Moonshine, and if you wanted to try a bottle, we are on all of the online platforms, Caspers Reserve Bar, Flaviar.com. So check us out.
NY Launch Pod: And if you want to learn more about the New York launch Pod, you can follow us on social media at @NYLaunchPod, and for transcripts of every episode, visit NYlaunchpod.com. And if you are a super fan, David are you a super fan of the New York Launch Pod?
David Suk: I absolutely am Hal.
NY Launch Pod: If you are a super fan like David, please leave a review on Apple Podcast, it is greatly appreciated and does help people discover the show.
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