They Sold Out their Alcohol Brand in 48 Hours Without Running a Single Ad

How Phung, Daniel and Hanson did it: They Sold Out their Alcohol Brand in 48 Hours Without Running a Single Ad

SipHRD started "10 20 shots in" at a party two years ago. Phung and Daniel were having what she calls a "little D&M session," sitting down drinking, when they decided they should start a business — and alcohol came into play almost immediately. Both had travelled overseas and seen a lot of different alcohols that weren't in the Australian market, and they wanted to bring those in. A few days later Daniel messaged Phung with details on how to start, and she knew he was fully serious.

The original plan was to distribute overseas alcohol into Australia, but the restrictions — cost, contracts, and the time needed to get it running — pushed Phung to ask a friend for advice. The friend's response reframed everything: why don't you just start your own business and create your own alcohol? Phung's reaction was "why did I not think of that in the first place?" She pitched it to the boys, and that became SipHRD: a lychee vodka seltzer, chosen because lychee is a popular flavour in their Asian countries, it's both her and Daniel's favourite fruit, and — unlike the lemon and "very safe flavors" crowding the RTD seltzer space — it's exotic but still approachable.

Two years of development followed, mostly because they didn't want to release a product they weren't happy with. They had roughly 15 trial recipes on the lychee flavour alone — too sweet, too florally, not enough flavour, or a bitter RTD aftertaste. They finalised the recipe, then decided to change the ingredient to fit their branding so it was 100% lychee juice — but didn't test the new samples until it was too late, which pushed them back another three months. Launch dates slipped from end of last year, to 2023, to March 2024, to October 2024, and finally to August. In between they ran a separate cocktail account called Sip Happens to build a following. The team bootstrapped everything: a designer team in Indonesia called Yakuza did the can artwork, a Fiverr freelancer did the logo, and Phung did the cans, branding and cartons herself.

Go-to-market opened with a private taste-test release to the first 150 people who'd followed them on Instagram and subscribed to their EDM — partly a thank-you, partly hype for the launch party. Over a roughly three-day campaign, Instagram followers rose by about 50%, reach by 188%, and email subscribers by 60%. The first 150 cases essentially sold out: they opened it on the Wednesday, did deliveries Thursday and Friday, and were sold out by Friday night while still hand-delivering across the city's southeast and north side — including a 9pm Shopify order they turned around on the spot.

Marketing alcohol in Australia is a minefield. Phung, who worked in alcohol marketing in her first job, explains that models have to look 25-plus even though the legal age is 18, because anyone can flag a brand to a committee that audits content and messaging. Worried their cute drawn mascot might appeal to minors, they proactively reached out to the ABAC for an audit — which came back clean. The three founders cover insurance, operations and marketing between them, say they've only ever had one real fight, and resolve decisions by majority rules. Two of them — Phung and Daniel — are dating, which Hanson says he forgets during meetings because it just feels like a group of friends working towards a goal.

What you'll hear

• The party where it started — "10 20 shots in" at a party, Phung and Daniel decided to start a business, and alcohol came into play
• From importing to making their own — why distribution restrictions pushed them to create their own alcohol after a friend's offhand suggestion
• 15 trial recipes — the two-year hunt for a lychee flavour that wasn't too sweet, too florally, or bitter
• Four slipped launch dates — from end of last year through 2023, March 2024, October 2024, to August
• Sold out in 48 hours — a private 150-case taste-test release that moved followers up 50%, reach 188% and email subscribers 60%
• Dodging alcohol marketing law — why models must look 25-plus and why they got the ABAC to audit their mascot
• Building a company while dating — Phung and Daniel on keeping it professional, and Hanson on not feeling like a third wheel

Key claims from this episode

Chapters

Quotes from this episode

Themes Phung, returns to

• Progression over perfection — pushing content out and being out there beats waiting until everything is curated and perfect
• Don't underestimate yourself — after two years building in the dark, the support overwhelmed them; it can always be bigger than what you think in your head
• Speed of decision-making — in a startup things move fast, so call the shots as quickly as you can even if you make a mistake you can fix
• Bootstrapping everything — from the Fiverr logo to doing the cans and cartons themselves, they kept costs down at every step
• Working with people you're close to — they say don't work with friends and family, yet two of them are dating and the trio has had only one real fight
• Embarrassment is the cost of entry — if you're too afraid to look like a fool, you'll never master a new skill, in business or in life