By Michael Halsey, First Step Beverage
Walk into any liquor store and you’re in a graveyard. Bottles everywhere, each with a story, a hype cycle, maybe even some awards. Most of them? Dead brands. A few are zombies—still technically alive, but hemorrhaging cash while waiting for an acquirer who will never show up.
Here’s the kicker: it’s almost never because the liquid sucked. I’ve tasted some of the best tequila, RTDs, craft lagers, and “functional wellness tonics” from brands that don’t even exist anymore.
They failed for one simple reason: they never figured out how to build a real business.
And that’s the part no one wants to talk about. Beverages are a knife fight in a dark alley. One wrong step—signing with the wrong distributor, going all-in on a doomed DTC bet, letting ops bloat—and you’re done.
But the survivors? They’re not lucky. They’re disciplined. They’ve traded hype for sustainability, vanity metrics for KPIs, siloed fiefdoms for integrated leadership. They’ve built a new playbook.
The Death of “If You Build It, They Will Come”
Every founder thinks their liquid is special. “It’s small batch.” “It’s artisanal.” “It’s grandma’s recipe.” Cute. But look around—there are hundreds of mezcals, thousands of craft beers, and more functional seltzers than anyone can count. Quality isn’t a differentiator anymore.
Winning comes down to:
- Distribution: not just getting a distributor, but actually managing them.
- Branding: telling a story people care about (and believe).
- Operations: scaling without bloating.
- Omni-channel: balancing DTC and wholesale without losing your a$$.
Most founders obsess over the shiny stuff—labels, packaging, influencer deals—while ignoring the boring machine underneath. That’s why their fulfillment collapses, inventory piles up, and the brand flames out before it even gets traction.
The Money Pit No One Talks About
Let’s talk numbers, because this is where brands quietly bleed out.
- Retail space is shrinking. Buyers aren’t adding new SKUs—they’re cutting them.
- Logistics is brutal. Shipping cases cross-country without tight ops? You’re setting fire to cash.
- DTC isn’t cheap. Compliance, fulfillment, CAC—it’s not the magic bullet you think it is. I’ve seen brands drop six figures on direct channels only to realize their repeat rate is trash.
The smart ones? They integrate tech with compliance and logistics. They don’t treat DTC like the savior—it’s just one piece of an omni-channel puzzle.
Those brands win.
Authenticity or Bust
Ten years ago, you could slap “artisanal” on a label, hire a photographer to shoot in a Bushwick warehouse, and call it a day. Not anymore. Consumers can smell the spin. They want real stories, real transparency, real values.
But authenticity without execution is just vibes. You need narrative + logistics = growth. Otherwise, you’re just another founder screaming “heritage” while your supply chain is on fire.
Enter: Brand Stewardship
Here’s the paradox. Founders can’t afford a $250k COO, CCO, or supply chain VP. But they also can’t afford not to.
That’s where fractional leadership comes in. At First Step Beverage, we call it Brand Stewardship.
We don’t parachute in with a PowerPoint deck and bounce. We embed. We sit in your ops. We drive decisions off KPIs. We fix the tech stack before it breaks. We align your team, vendors, and distributors so they’re all rowing in the same direction.
Think of it as getting C-suite firepower at a fraction of the cost.
Same Mistakes, Every Damn Time
I’ve seen this movie too many times:
- The Vanity Launch. Founder spends $400k on packaging, influencers, and a launch party. Orders come in, but they can’t restock because their “warehouse” is a buddy’s garage. Dead in six months.
- The Distributor Dump. They sign with a regional distributor, cases fly out the door. Victory lap, right? Wrong. Product sits in warehouses, sales reps ignore it, cash flow dries, brand dies.
- The DIY Spiral. Founder insists on handling compliance, finance, and logistics solo. They burn 60% of their time wrestling with systems instead of building their brand. Burnout, wasted time, lost category momentum.
What Winners Actually Do
The winning brands aren’t winging it. They:
- Treat direct and wholesale as complementary, not competitive.
- Invest in partners that actually move the needle.
- Prioritize repeat customers over one-off hype spikes.
- Bring in fractional leadership to scale without burning the payroll.
They’re not just playing defense—they’re running smarter offense.
The Cheat Sheet for 2025/2026
If you’re building a beverage brand today, here’s the playbook:
- Track real KPIs. Sell-through, repeat purchase rate, margin per channel. Not vanity metrics.
- Think omni-channel. Balance DTC, retail, wholesale. Don’t over-index on one.
- Outsource smart. 3PLs, compliance, agencies—they’re expensive, but not as expensive as screwing it up.
- Don’t go it alone. Fractional execs let you borrow expertise you can’t afford full-time.
- Tell the real story. Authenticity plus execution—or you’re toast.
Why Now Matters
The industry is in reset mode. Retailers are consolidating, consumers want wellness and transparency, and capital isn’t flowing like it was in 2021. This is the fork in the road where brands either break—or break through.
You can’t half-a$$ this anymore. You need systems. You need the right partners. You need stewardship.
What We Do (So You Don’t Have to Google It)
At First Step Beverage, we:
- Act like your COO, CMO, and ops lead—without the payroll hit
- Fix your tech stack before it collapses
- Turn sales data into strategy
- Align your team and your vendors
- Get marketing, ops, and sales on the same damn page
- Plug in as fractional execs when you’re underwater
Services:
- Brand strategy & stewardship
- Sales + marketing plans built on data, not vibes
- Cross-channel coordination
- KPI tracking & monthly reviews
- Wholesale, retail, and DTC growth support
We don’t care if you’re bootstrapped or venture-backed. If you’ve got something worth building, we’ll help you build it smarter, faster, stronger.
Because at the end of the day, there are only two outcomes in this business: scaling—or sinking.
—Michael Halsey, COO FirstStepBeverage.co
