Kaveh Zamanian can't remember how many pitches he gave when he was raising money to establish Rabbit Hole Distillery.
The local CEO said he didn't want to take venture capital, and couldn't find a bank that would lend him the money, so he turned to his family, friends and the commonwealth of Kentucky for funding. He ended up raising $18 million from 110 small investors — who had a nice return when Pernod-Ricard acquired a majority stake in the distillery in 2019.
Zamanian kicked off the Endeavor Food Industry Tour in Indianapolis on Thursday, which brought in entrepreneurs from across the country and around the globe. He recently joined the board for the regional office of the global organization, and said he "owed a debt of gratitude" for what it enabled him to achieve.
"Endeavor came at a time when I needed a lot of business acumen and assistance," he told tour attendees outside Bluebeard, a six-time James Beard Award semifinalist restaurant. "The network gave me an opportunity to tap into a lot of bright, capable, talented people ... It's one thing to make one batch of whiskey, it's another thing to take it to market and build a company around it."
Formerly a clinical psychologist, Zamanian got into the industry about 10 years ago, looking to make something "genuinely authentic." He learned the ropes from the minds behind Wild Turkey, Four Roses and Woodford Reserve.
The distillery opened on Jefferson Street in NuLu in 2018, a year before Pernod-Ricard bought in. Zamanian told the entrepreneurs he had two stipulations when it came to the acquisition.
"Alex Ricard, the CEO, asked me when we first met, he said, 'What do you want?'" he said. "There's two things that I want: One is I want you to help me scale the company and make it an international brand. No. 2 is don't put me in handcuffs. He said, 'What do you mean?' I said, 'Well, I have this saying to just shoot me if I only have one idea. I've got a lot of other ideas.'"
Zamanian hinted at a couple of other projects he has in the works. As Louisville Business First recently reported, Rabbit Hole is also eying an expansion, which would create additional space for added distillery operations, hospitality, retail and office space.
High-growth food entrepreneurs
Louisville was well-represented at the Thursday event.
I briefly had the chance to speak with two other Endeavor board members: Brook Smith, president, Smith Manus (Acrisure), RSLP Ventures and Wabi Capital, and Ankur Gopal, founder and CEO of Interapt. I also saw Ron Turnier, president of What Chefs Want, a national foodservice distributor, and Sean Muldoon, CEO and founder of SAM Consulting, and former chief ingredient officer at Papa John's International Inc.
But I also met several Hoosiers, including Laura Flynn, president and chief marketing officer of Greenleaf Juice, which has grown to seven brick-and-mortar locations and has big plans for a shelf-stable juice mix. Flynn was joined by Rachel Klein, founder and CEO of Revival Food Co., a craft nut and seed butter brand that's already landed a deal with Walmart.
After the Rabbit Hole tasting, I sat down for some appetizers with John Pena, chief growth officer of ZeroCarb LYFE, a startup that's developed the world's first true zero-carb, high-protein pizza crust. The company was in Endeavor's first Scale Up cohort of 2022.
Pena said ZeroCarb LYFE, based in Evansville, Indiana, recently closed on a fundraising round. It was seeking just over $3 million, according to a Form D filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
In spite of the trek from the Louisville area to Indy, it was a fun event. Let's hope Endeavor organizes a round two — this time in the Derby City.
