Built from Scratch: How a rented kitchen and hand-squeezed fruit became a versatile mixer
Johnna Rossbach never expected to become an entrepreneur.After spending 15 years in a career that left little room for creativity, she found the motivation to build something of her own after becoming a mother."I wanted to show my daughters what it looks like to be empowered, and that if you’re not happy with something, change it," Rossbach said.Rossbach loved cocktails, but she was disappointed by the mixers on store shelves.
They often featured similar flavors, contained ingredients she wanted to avoid and required too much preparation.CEO SUNDAY: AVELO AIRLINES CEO REVEALS THE HABIT HE CREDITS FOR HIS SUCCESS That's when she created Mixly.Rossbach drew on her background in marketing and communications and teamed up with Megan Sather, who brought design expertise to the venture.Together, they created a line of fruit-forward cocktail mixers made with real ingredients.The team behind Mixly Beverage Co.
created a line of fruit-forward cocktail mixers made with real ingredients.(Mixly Beverage Co.)The very first night the team began working on Mixly, just about everything that could go wrong did.
They started at 4 p.m.and didn't finish until 3 a.m. When their juicer broke, they squeezed limes by hand.
Then their labeler stopped working, forcing them to apply every label themselves.Around midnight, Rossbach remembers looking at Sather and realizing they still had hours of work ahead of them.They had a choice: Call it a night and try again the following week or push through.
The answer was clear.They turned up the music and kept working.BUILT FROM SCRATCH: HOW A FAMILY TURNED CRAFT BEER INTO A HOLIDAY TRADITION"That was the moment we realized we made the best business partners," Rossbach said.
"We had the same determination and the same willingness to roll up our sleeves and figure things out, even when nothing was going according to plan."That night set the tone for building Mixly — and it's a big reason the co-founders have always handled their own manufac...