Duke & Dame's Unique Whiskey Experience

This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Bloomberg Quick Takes Tim Stenovic on Bloomberg Radio.

It's after five o'clock Thursday Thursday.

I didn't know that that was a thing, Okay, Thursday Thursday here in New York City and elsewhere, so we thought it might be nice to sample a whiskey.

But we're going to get into that in a moment.

Amana McCauley, Amani McCauley, and Schima Bury is here with us, so the co founders of Duke and Dame. It's an award winning salted caramel flavored whiskey here in our Blueberg Interactive Broker studio. So welcome, welcome, Nice to have you both here with us. But what's interesting too is also your background. You both come from finance, so money start kick it off with us. Tell us a little bit about your background.

Well, I started my career at Lehman Brothers many years ago, remember.

Them, drink I do, I do, I do?

And uh.

You know, after about eleven years on Wall Street doing investment banking, got to a point where I realized it was time for change.

You know.

I wanted to go work different parts of my brain. I wanted a different type of adventure and challenge. I wanted a new life.

So I left.

Investment banking behind and packed up all my stuff and went traveling for a little bit, and then ended up in Miami hanging out with Chima. And you know, we'll get into we'll get into that point.

And you have a finance background too, talking about.

Be a commodity and currency trader for many years as well, so we both loved finance. We actually met through a mutual friend at her going away party who also worked in finance. So I had recently moved to New York and the MONI was here working and she's like, you

That's pretty cool. I mean, how do you make that leap from we like to travel and we like to.

Drink Because I like to travel and I like to drink and I love my job.

I mean, it is it is, you know now, I guess in twenty twenty three you could look back and say, man, people are making so much money in liquor. Yes, but that wasn't the case then that was it. So how did you decide like we could do this better or there's not you know, I like this whiskey and that bourbon, but there's nothing that really hits it for me, and I'm gonna need to make it myself.

By the way, it's not the case now like some people are making money in liquor, but it's a it's.

A yeah Ran, Yeah, Ryan Reynolds and yeah, definitely definitely celebrities.

And if you've got a great product like we do, you know, I mean, you definitely have the potential to make a good amount of money. So the idea to answer your question, we I was at dinner one night when I was working and with a bunch of buddies and this was when Fireball first came out, that whiskey and.

I've done a shot ski.

We all we all have, we all know it very well, and it had just come out. So it was the biggest craze and we're at dinner and when my buddies brought around for the table, so we take the shot. Starts well, it starts a conversation. If you could start your own flavored whiskey, what would it be. Conversation comes to me and I say I would do something reminiscent of a Werther's original sugar Sugar Daddy's candy. And everybody's like, wow, what a great idea.

But of course we all went back to work.

Nothing happened. Many years later, I had left New York, moved back to South Florida, whe I'm from. As a money mentioned, he had quit, traveled around the world, came to hang out with me in Miami, and hey, remember this idea, Well, let's look into it. He went back to New York. Our kitchens look like chemistry labs, you know, beakers, pipettes and things like that. Come You're playing in the kitchens, literally sampling with our friends. Everybody's like, what is this

How difficult, though?

Was it?

From taking it from your kitchen coming up with something that everybody's like, hey, this is really cool, then to actually the bottle you brought in and the kitchen, how do.

You do that? That's anytime you.

Have an idea and you're considering, you know, taking it from the idea stage into something actually actually tangible.

Yeah, it's it feels difficult.

But do you just play around with the recipe? Is it literally?

It?

So? Yeah, And even when Shema first proposed the idea, I was like, huh, that's that's interesting.

Uh, you know, salted caramel whiskey.

But I think you know, one of the first things we did we found a distillery, as Juma mentioned, and went to go hang out there. We spent four hours, they opened their doors to us, spent four hours, asking every question under the sun. I remember walking out of that building. We looked at each other like, hmm, this might not be as impossible as it might have thought a week or so ago. And so that's really when we started thinking, all right, let's let's keep exploring. So

I was shocked when I read that, And that's amazing, right, and it's in.

How we formulated it really kind of leads to how we're able to accomplish that. And you know, to put in perspective, Jack Daniels, Tennessee, honey has five grams of sugar preserving five times.

And the world is aware of it. And then and then I'm going past the body. I'm going to open it up and start.

But so money, what you're saying is initially it's daunting, but you put one foot in front of the other.

And so by the time, okay, you can tell so by the time we started playing around in our kitchens, and you know, we weren't, you know, just full disclosure.

We were not breaking the law.

We did not have little this, you know, little distillery sets in our kitchens. But we were sampling different types of whiskeys, different types of flavorings, kind of formulating what we imagined our whiskey would be.

We did it, but he constructed.

Not officiently.

But a couple of a couple of months later and I'm in New York teams in Florida, we were taking notes. We're like, all right, man, try this one milli liter of that one middle of this, and then eventually we got to a point where we're like, oh, I think that's it. Then you know, we took some old whiskey bottles, scraped off whatever label was on there, made of batch, filled it up, and then we run around and have

Dude, you made this in your kitchen. Dude, you have to make this.

And we get on the phone We're like, waitmen, you're getting the same feedback, well, what do you want to do? And and it was at that point that it actually became real.

All right, it smells delicious.

Money, we're smelling it to tell us.

Okay, before.

You walk you through the give about a minute and a half and then we're gonna take a break and then we'll come back.

So the nose you're getting that really robust came. You want to describe it a little bit.

It does smell like camera.

Really smells delicious. And by the way, this this flavor has gotten very big. Also, probably wasn't as big when you started as it is now because now the caramel.

Is a thing. It's a thing.

So your first cameral.

Alright, let's take the first step.

Very smooth, very smooth.

There you go, getting that harsh whiskey. A lot of people to whiskey.

Yeah.

I was actually worried that I was going to look a little bit more feminine because I have a difficult time drinking whiskey.

I don't know. I always tell people. Notice you just took very soon. You're smiling, and yeah.

Right, not like you don't get that bike exactly.

So take your second ship and we'll talk about it. Mm hmm. Less sweet. You're getting more tenants from the from the bourbon that we use, so we don't hate me.

But this would be great. All support over vanilla ice.

Absolutely, we have a lot of customers that love it over and an old fashioned Yeah. Well, actually one of our many of our accounts are switching from using vodka to us in the espresso martini.

It has such a nice like after feel and warmth.

Yeah, I like it.

I forgot this.

Are you okay? I like it now?

Are you getting the oakiness and a little spice on that second ship?

Yeah, it was definitely a little different.

So it was this beautiful layer taste profile that really makes Duke and Day unique.

I want to get right back to our guest Amani McCauley and Jima Bury.

They are co founders of Duke and Day.

It is a salted caramel flavored whiskey which Matt and I can contest to. We have tried it and it's really lovely. And they are here in our Interactive Brokers studio.

So one of the things we.

Wanted to talk to you about. We had a great conversation off air while we were doing.

Some news funding. You guys bootstrapped it yes, yes, talk to us about that.

How hard was it?

Yeah?

Well our plan was to you know, you know we're not seck right, But in the VC world nowadays, no one's just giving you a check.

For one idea, right, they need proof of concept.

You have to go build it first, show that it works.

Yeah, the income ask for money. So we took the same approach.

Let's you know, we didn't feel comfortable asking our friends and family for money on just some crazy idea. Okay, let's go build it first. We created this great product. We you know, we got some validation from the market that it was good. Just wasn't us that thought it was good. And we created a business and a few years later we were able to go to friends and family door a raise and it was much more successful

It's good because the two of us, like shooting the breeze.

We can show the retailers that we got into whether it was Total Wine, ABC in Florida, Mark Classico at the time, right, So we could show that, hey, look at what we've done a cruise. So that made the raise easier. It happened a little bit later than anticipated because of COVID. Right parts to ask people for money when this stock before you.

T twenty seventeen. Was that when you guys, we.

Started a business in twenty seventeen.

We launched a product in twenty eighteen.

And then during the pandemic, did you think, oh my god, this is it, We're going to be killed.

No, everybody was drinking well or was that a boom?

Well, the global brands and the big guys were doing great, right. The lifeline of smaller companies were craft spirit companies like ours, especially just a year and a half in, is what we call liquid tilips. So when you go into liquor store and you see the brand ambassador giving you samples, that shut off. We couldn't do events and activations because that shut off. So people couldn't sample this new bottle, this spirit. If they knew Tito's, they would go and

It's really forced us to transition to digital.

Yeah, that's awesome, which we had.

Not done or now that was a.

Part of it, but really just how do you reach the consumer?

Yep?

Yeah, so we had to pivot and do that instead of relying on the traditional way of introducing customers through experiential marketing, and that was the big thing. So for us, we could tout the awards. We won a bunch of awards actually before we launched, so in fact, we had this great product, but we had to compete against Tennessee Honey and Crown Apple and things like that. Now I'm on and I we were talking.

We're like, all right, we need to.

Hang a medal on the bottle similar.

To this, you know.

So we applied to four contests. We actually won were placed in all four, which was insane.

We actually got the top award at the.

Consumer Choice Award, which is the SIPs Award and when we hit the market right away, within two weeks we got in the total wine.

That's pretty cool, which is huge.

Did you apply for any funding, I'm a small business, loans or anything like that.

No, no, no, no, we we.

Had a couple of.

Right, so we were fortunate that we were able to do something while we were working.

And say, can I ask you are you profitable?

No?

Not yet?

Okay. Liquor industry is.

Very tough, as we as we continue to expand our distribution. Yeah, yeah, yeah, but but the model will prove yeah that way. But right now, when five market is Florida, New York, Michigan, Maryland, DC, as I mentioned, and we shipped the thirty eight states, seven Caribbean markets, every corner of a.

Cruisiro in the world. We just started with the Woryal Caribbean.

They drink a lot.

Yes, we like the fact that they drink. It helps.

Yeah, So what's next?

Do you expand the line or how do you think about it?

So I think we're at a point now where we're really ready to invest in that next stage of growth. So we were able to bring in a large investor earlier this year and so we're really now starting to do all the things you wish you could have done that you couldn't do BEF for so investing more marketing and promotional activities. Of course, Chiem and I have done

You're in the kitchen.

To find a distiller or did you have to go through many.

Or well it was funny, so before we started on research, you know, you think it's hard, right, but then once you get into it, you find out that, oh, you know, buy versus build. You can go build your own, but there's a lot of capital investment required for that if you wanted to work with a third party distiller. We were very surprised to learn that, oh, some of our favorite brands actually don't distill.

Their own whiskey is amazing.

Wait a minute, what you can do that?

So were we were able to find We spoke to a few and we found one who was actually based in Florida that they make amazing whiskey, and they make amazing whiskey for us.

Well, we've got to wrap up. I'm Czechoslovaki and Slovan.

So I have a good holiday and good luck and let us know how things are going.

Absolutely, what do you say?

Yeah, no, I would definitely what I just say, cheers.

Cheers, I have to say really lovely cheers.

Thank you so much for having us.

It's a great way to what is this Thursday? Thursday?

Thursday Thursday. It's a great way to bring in the holiday of the course.

Yeah, I'm definitely. I mean, I'm going to bring a bottle of this out. I have four brothers. They're going to be out on the beach with my parents this weekend. I'll bring this bottle. I'll be gone and it will.

Disappear rather Amani McCaulay, Shima Bury, co founders of Duke and Dame.

Thank you so much.

Look forward to hearing more in the future. Carol Mass Matthew Miller, And this is Bloomberg,