Eric Wentworth and JD Mitchell came from two totally different backgrounds when they first met as MBA students at the University of Louisville.
Wentworth, with more than a decade of experience in the food and beverage sector, operated two local bars (The Hub and The Champagnery). Mitchell, meanwhile, served with the Peace Corps after his undergraduate career, and taught English in Ethiopia before transitioning to HR consulting for a Fortune 500 company.
But the friends, who were both taking night classes to earn master's degrees in entrepreneurship, found common ground in their healthy-ish lifestyles.
"Eric is really great because he has all this bartending experience making cocktails, and I can barely squeeze a lime," Mitchell said. "I was like, 'What kind of mixers can I get at the grocery store?'"
They discovered that there weren't any good, healthy options on retail shelves. If the mixer tasted good, it was usually full of bad ingredients, and the ones with a cleaner ingredient list usually tasted, well, gross.
"Looking at cocktail mixes, they're all full of preservatives, chemicals, artificial ingredients, sugar — tons of sugar — so it's like there's got to be a better way," Wentworth said.
That's where the idea for their own company, Modica, was born. Since its launch in late 2020, the beverage startup has developed a superfood cocktail and mocktail mixer in three different flavors — Cucumber Aloe Margarita, Turmeric Ginger Mule and Tart Cherry Old Fashioned — that are all natural, low in sugar and fortified with antioxidants.
The co-founders spent a year taste testing, striving to find the right better-for-you ingredients to create unique and fun flavor profiles. "Superfoods" generally refer to foods with a high nutritional density, such as broccoli and spinach. But no one wants a broccoli-flavored cocktail, so they turned to ingredients like ginger, tart cherries and aloe vera to develop the three flavors.
"Millennials and Gen X-ers are the ones who are really driving that resurgence in cocktail culture, and they're also the generations that are the most focused on prioritizing health and wellness," Mitchell added. "We were like, 'There's a huge disconnect here for people who really want to prioritize their health, but also want to enjoy a classic craft cocktail at home.'"
During their two-year MBA program, Wentworth and Mitchell competed in about a half dozen "business plan" competitions across the U.S. and Canada, earning $40,000 in non-dilutive funding to get Modica off the ground.
Today, the company's products are in roughly 50 retailers across the Louisville region, and have been shipped to all 50 states through its website. It did more than $100,000 in sales during its first full year, all while Wentworth and Mitchell still held other jobs to pay the bills.
"I think one of the reasons we've seen so much traction in Louisville is not just because it's a beverage city, but also because people haven't seen a quality cocktail mixer," Wentworth said. "They're used to seeing things that come in big plastic jugs that look like they glow in the dark, or margarita mixers in a bucket. I feel like maybe once you get out of college, you don't want that anymore."
This week, Modica publicly launched its crowdfunding campaign on Wefunder. It's raised more than $130,000 so far on a $5 million valuation cap, including $50,000 from lead investor Keyhorse Capital.
Modica is seeking $500,000 in funding to grow its team, in addition to building marketing efforts, operations and research and development. During the remainder of this year and into 2023, it is planning to launch four new flavors and expand to new cities, including Lexington, Kentucky, Cincinnati and Indianapolis.
The company also recently landed a few wholesale deals with retailers in New York, Massachusetts and California. But online sales remain a priority, too, the founders told me.
Mitchell highlighted the support Modica has received from other minority-owned business owners.
Modica is an LGBTQ-certified business through the National LGBT Chamber of Commerce. The founders said while that network of minority business owners is smaller, it has been incredibly generous with connections and advice during the fundraising process. In turn, Mitchell said Modica wants to pay it forward in aiding the next generation of LGBTQ+ entrepreneurs in Louisville.
