Are female entrepreneurs facing different challenges compared to their male counterparts? In this episode of The Angel Next Door Podcast, host Marcia Dawood sits down with Marian Leitner-Waldman, the founder of Archer Roose, a brand challenging the traditional wine industry by offering premium quality wine in cans. Marian shares her journey of building a successful brand in a predominantly male-dominated industry, her innovative approach to packaging and marketing, and the hurdles she faced as a female founder in the world of entrepreneurship. From her experiences navigating the wine industry to securing partnerships with major players like JetBlue and Elizabeth Banks, her story is an inspiring testament to resilience and the power of disrupting established norms. Marian's entrepreneurial journey began with a passion for building, from founding a nonprofit in high school to working with impactful organizations like the Gates Foundation. Her dedication to fostering social impact led her to challenge the status quo of the wine industry, where she identified a lack of options for consumers who simply wanted a single glass of wine without the snobbery often associated with the traditional wine culture. This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in the intersection of entrepreneurship, social impact, and innovation. Marian's journey serves as an inspiring example of how questioning established norms and pushing through obstacles can lead to transformative changes in traditional industries. Her insights into the challenges faced by female entrepreneurs provide valuable perspectives for both aspiring business owners and investors, offering a compelling narrative of resilience, innovation, and the pursuit of creating positive change.
Are female entrepreneurs facing different challenges compared to their male counterparts?
In this episode of The Angel Next Door Podcast, host Marcia Dawood sits down with Marian Leitner-Waldman, the founder of Archer Roose, a brand challenging the traditional wine industry by offering premium quality wine in cans. Marian shares her journey of building a successful brand in a predominantly male-dominated industry, her innovative approach to packaging and marketing, and the hurdles she faced as a female founder in the world of entrepreneurship. From her experiences navigating the wine industry to securing partnerships with major players like JetBlue and Elizabeth Banks, her story is an inspiring testament to resilience and the power of disrupting established norms.
Marian's entrepreneurial journey began with a passion for building, from founding a nonprofit in high school to working with impactful organizations like the Gates Foundation. Her dedication to fostering social impact led her to challenge the status quo of the wine industry, where she identified a lack of options for consumers who simply wanted a single glass of wine without the snobbery often associated with the traditional wine culture.
This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in the intersection of entrepreneurship, social impact, and innovation. Marian's journey serves as an inspiring example of how questioning established norms and pushing through obstacles can lead to transformative changes in traditional industries. Her insights into the challenges faced by female entrepreneurs provide valuable perspectives for both aspiring business owners and investors, offering a compelling narrative of resilience, innovation, and the pursuit of creating positive change.
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Marcia Dawood
Well, hi, Marian. Welcome to the show.
Marian Leitner-Waldman
Hi, Marcia. Thanks so much for having me.
Marcia Dawood
Well, I am really excited to hear about your journey and what you've accomplished. You've accomplished so much as an entrepreneur and really built an amazing brand in Archer Roose from the ground up in an industry that is very, very predominantly male, which I know we're going to get into. But before we get into that, let's start by just having you tell us a little bit about how you even started to build your own company and what was your background?
Marian Leitner-Waldman
Absolutely. Well, so my background is that I've always loved to build things. So going all the way back into high school, I founded a nonprofit called Save a Village in India. And from there, in college, I was constantly doing entrepreneurship competitions and volunteering for acumen fund. I was really obsessed with this idea of consumer how do we change and tackle world problems? By leveraging consumer behavior, if that makes any sense. But then I graduated during the financial crisis, and I college loans to pay. And so I took the job that was offered to me, which was working for AXA Equitable. And it was actually an amazing opportunity because I got to work on the innovation side of their business and I got to help launch a micro insurance product in the Persian Gulf.
Marian Leitner-Waldman
And from know, I really kind of decided to reconnect back with my roots, know, believing in kind of social impact. And I ended up working for the Gates foundation for the Global alliance for Vaccines and immunizations to help them bring vaccines to the developing world. And it was an amazing job, but it was probably the biggest eye opener for me because what it really taught me was that real change, yes, comes from policymakers, but it's really the funders who get to decide what ideas get to be tackled, like, what are the problems and issues that get to be tackled. And that really reaffirmed for me that I wanted to be on the other side of the table. And so one night, I was sitting around my dining room table, and I had a big business meeting the next day. And I had always been super passionate about wine. And I'd lived with a winemaker when I was in high school in Spain. And my husband had helped build a natural winery in the Republic of Georgia that he transitioned out of when Russia invaded Georgia.
Marian Leitner-Waldman
And so he came home. He's an American from western Maryland. But we were kind of just wanting to have a glass of wine on a Monday night and lamenting about the fact that we didn't want to open up a bottle. And that really sparked the journey of Archer Ruth because we realized that there were no options out there that really just let us have that glass. But what's more was that there really were not great solutions out there for consumers if you weren't a wine collector. Like, the industry was really built to serve wine collectors, and it's marketed that way as well. And I really wanted to build a brand for the person who likes to have a glass of wine, who cares about quality, cares about story, really wants to have wine with a soul, but at the same time wants to do it without the snobbery and hottiness that is kind of attached to the typical wine industry. And that's really where the story of our trues was born.
Marcia Dawood
Amazing. Wow. You have such an interesting background. Oh, my gosh. So many things. You could probably tell stories for days. That's so cool. You call yourself the chief feather ruffler.
Marcia Dawood
Tell us more about that.
Marian Leitner-Waldman
Well, as we started to ask ourselves, why can't we just have a glass of wine? Why do we have to have this 750 milliliter bottle? It led us on this journey that there's really no reason why wine is put in a 750 milliliter bottle, because most of the wine that is produced in the world is actually consumed within 72 hours after purchase, and it's less than two years old.
Marcia Dawood
Wow.
Marian Leitner-Waldman
But up until the 1970s, only 2% of wine globally was put into a bottle. And that was wine that was meant to be bottled, aged. So in reality, putting wine into a glass bottle was about upselling Americans. And then later, kind of the global consumer on wine that really didn't need that extra packaging. And the result of that was that they pay more for the shipping and the packaging than the wine inside the bottle. So not only does it not fit great for consumers lifestyle, but it also made it more expensive. And so I kind of loved that. This kind of is an interesting kind of fertile territory to dive into.
Marian Leitner-Waldman
And on top of all of that, climate change is a truly existential threat to the wine industry. And 60% of wine's carbon footprint comes from packaging and supply chain. So going back to kind of that start of my story around, how do you leverage kind of consumer behavior in order to drive change? To me, this was a great individual way to help kind of drink your way to a cleaner planet was by reaching for wine in alternative format.
Marcia Dawood
So how did you come up with putting it into cans?
Marian Leitner-Waldman
Well, that particular decision gets credit for being on a chairlift. My husband was enjoying a beer on a chairlift, and I really wanted to have a glass of wine. And again, it just came back to, if it's the right style of rind in the right format, it should be able to go with you wherever you do. And that's really where the can came into play, because the can is infinitely recyclable. Most aluminum has been in circulation since the 1950s. It's not breakable. And so it's perfect for either cracking and pouring into a glass when you're at home, or having a vessel to drink out of on the go.
Marcia Dawood
Amazing. So what was it like trying to market that to your customers? How's that journey been?
Marian Leitner-Waldman
Well, it was really difficult because the traditional wine industry was really built in the image of collectors. And this is why it's so important in my mind, to really fund people with different perspectives. Because one of the things that we realized was that daily wine drinkers were often women who were really trying to moderate what they drank because of all the responsibilities they had. And there was nobody talking to them. There was no brand out there that didn't condescend to them if they were trying to market to them. So it's like mommy juice or jewel box wine. And instead, we wanted to treat these women respectfully and seriously, and build a wine brand that was for them. But that was like a real threat to the traditional establishment, both of the people who like to fund the development of new alcohol brands, and of the people who distribute and are the true gatekeepers of the industry.
Marian Leitner-Waldman
And it was hard for them to really understand this, because it was so different from their own perspective, which is just such a reminder that, frankly, a lot of people kind of lack imagination and an ability to really understand the challenges or perspectives of others. And that's why you have to include as many diverse voices around the table as possible to ensure, frankly, that all consumer needs are met. And that's kind of been the argument that I have consistently made over and over again with Archer Roose, which is that helped us break through to the traditional establishment. Now we've been written up by wine Spectator, we have national distributors on our side, where we're kind of served all over the country. But it took really an economic argument to break through, which was to demonstrate that this actually wasn't a threat to the traditional wine drinking world. This was about opening it up to incremental opportunity, whether creating an incremental occasion for somebody to have a treat who didn't want to otherwise overindulge, to open up new occasions, and then to kind of introduce people through this more accessible packaging to the world of wine and potentially convert them to lifelong customers down the line.
Marcia Dawood
That's so interesting. I've seen so many more cans of. And you could just fill in the blank, but most of it's like, craft cocktails or what do they call. I don't drink them.
Marian Leitner-Waldman
Rtds.
Marcia Dawood
Exactly. Yeah. Or the trulies and all that of the world. So what other companies are actually canning wine? Anybody?
Marian Leitner-Waldman
Yeah. Well, first of all, just to kind of touch on what you just hit on, there is a wide industry trend towards consumer focus. So making the drink of choice, whether that be a beer or a cocktail, much more friendly, accessible, and fit into the consumer's lives. So, honestly, canned wine is really just a natural extension of that trend. There are other companies that have gotten into the canned wine space, some bigger strategics and some other smaller brands. And I would say there was sort of a first wave of entrants into the category, many of whom have left. And that's because they didn't pay attention to the quality of the product, which is that they were so focused on the convenience of the packaging that they didn't recognize that this would only be successful if it was a true replacement pour for a bottle. And that's been our differentiator from day one, which was our dedication to quality.
Marian Leitner-Waldman
Not just dedication to the quality of the wine before it's packaged, but after it's packaged. We have partnerships with the University of Cornell and Enartis, which are industry leading wine labs, where we have studied the process behind how to kind of make adjustments in the packaging process to ensure that our wine shows up really well. And the result is that we can bring a delicious low intervention. So wine with very little additives, that is a great expression of wine itself when it's poured into the glass or enjoyed straight from the can.
Marcia Dawood
Wow. Amazing. So you have had this uphill battle just trying to get the consumer to want to purchase wine in a can. And I can only imagine that fundraising for a company like this as a female founder was a little challenging, too.
Marian Leitner-Waldman
Definitely was. I mean, I have stories that I could tell, particularly because when I launched this company, I was newly married. So, frankly, I remember pitching to a group of male investors, and one of them asking me when I intended to start a family, because I was newly married and just the type of questions that would never have been asked by a male entrepreneur. And it's actually probably then not surprising at all that the first check we received was actually a friend of mine from the all girls summer camp I went to growing up, who actually worked in the alcohol industry and understood what we were trying to do and just got it. And to me, that's just been then emblematic of who really we partnered with to fund our journey was, if we're going to do something that is this different and pushes people this outside their comfort zone, then we really need to fundraise from the people who would directly benefit from this product, like who would be the consumers of this product. And that's why, frankly, we've had so much success. So many people on our cap table are female consumers or female investors rather, because they really understood what we were trying to do and build this brand.
Marcia Dawood
And then have you gone to any venture capital funds or angel groups?
Marian Leitner-Waldman
Of course. Yeah. So on this know, we met Elizabeth and Pocket from Sogal Ventures, who were our first institutional check. From there, we have connected with other great angel groups, whether it be Boston Harbor Angels, but also, again, some of the biggest game changers for us have been female led or female focused, whether it be the Hollywood actress Elizabeth Banks, and then ultimately the largest wine company in the world, constellation brands, who invested in us because of the traction that we had gained with female consumer.
Marcia Dawood
Wow. That's then, so tell us more about how you met Elizabeth Banks and how she became part of the company.
Marian Leitner-Waldman
Well, it was during COVID and I had known from the get go that if ever we were going to know somebody, truly embody the feather ruffler spirit, which at its core is about shaking up the industry and changing an industry. I needed somebody with a truly irreverent sense of humor, but who had sophistication beyond reproach. And to me, that's always been Elizabeth's mo. And so when we really felt that the brand was at a point where we could truly benefit from a alignment with an influencer of her, you know, sent product to her, and she just got it immediately. She was in Utah, floating down the river with her boys, and she's two young children, and she just totally understood what we were trying to do here, which was fundamentally make wine more accessible, allow people to really choose their own portion size for wine and incorporate it into their day to day. And from there, the kind of rest is history.
Marcia Dawood
Amazing. And then how did you end up. I know a lot of our investor listeners and entrepreneurs will be really interested to have you talk about how JetBlue became one of your distributors.
Marian Leitner-Waldman
Well, JetBlue is actually not one of our distributors. They are our airline partner in the alcohol industry. We have a very kind of convoluted process called the three tiered system. But JetBlue is a really fantastic customer of ours, and that process actually started back in 2019. So we pitched JetBlue on this idea that if they wanted to lower their carbon footprint, they also needed to look at kind of the weight of glass on board and the fact that glass isn't actually recyclable in 60% of the municipalities in the United States. And that, frankly, cans were a great option for on board because they were lighter, because they were recyclable anywhere they had a catering station, but also because they were more stackable and easy to kind of use in flight. And so they were really impressed by this pitch, and they invited us to submit our wines, and they granted us a small test, which debuted in January of 2020. And to be honest, Marcia, I really thought I had it made getting our wine on a major airline.
Marian Leitner-Waldman
But then, of course, two months later, Covid happened, and so our wines were pulled off because everything was grounded. But we continued to nurture that partnership through the pandemic. And basically, in 2022, they started pulling our wine back on board, and they invited us to pitch to take over their whole wine program. So we've been really proud partners of JetBlue as the only wine available on board since January of 2023.
Marcia Dawood
Amazing. Wow. That's fantastic. And then do you think other airlines or even sporting arenas and all kinds of places like that, where it would completely make sense to have a canned wine would come on board?
Marian Leitner-Waldman
I mean, we're already seeing people reach out and ask us to pitch them. And, of course, in stadiums. Stadiums is one of our best channels. We're at bank of America Stadium, Rose Bowl, Toyota Shell Stadium, Texas a M. Stadiums, truly across the country, from California to Texas to Georgia to New York and Massachusetts. So it's one of these things that once somebody has started to adopt them and the fact that the quality of the wine is there, they're seeing the repeat purchase. It's not just a novelty item. We've just gotten increased opportunities ever since.
Marian Leitner-Waldman
It's been a wonderful ride.
Marcia Dawood
Amazing. So how can people buy it now? Do they go online? Can you get it at any store?
Marian Leitner-Waldman
Absolutely. Well, you can always purchase it directly from us@archer.com. So that's archerroose.com. And we have our full portfolio available there, but we're also available at Kroger, Target sprouts, total wine, and a number of other great retailers near you, which is also available on our website. You can just hop on and type in your zip code, and we'll let you know where we are closest to wherever you live.
Marcia Dawood
Wow. That's fantastic. And yes, we'll put all that in the show notes to make sure everybody has the proper spelling, all that. So, as we wrap up here, Marian, tell us a little bit about what is some of the advice that you would give to investors out there who are looking at companies that at first might not seem like they might not get it at first, but what is it that you'd like investors to know about investing in a company like Archer Roose?
Marian Leitner-Waldman
Well, there's really two things. The first of all is you've got to look for product market fit. And that really comes down to asking yourself, is this a problem that's being tackled by anybody else, or does this person have a unique perspective in order to tackle this problem? The second thing you need to look for is grit of the entrepreneur. It's not easy building a company, and I think that, honestly, business continuity is truly the goal. Like, you can be successful if you just hang on and continue to fight and grow. But the biggest thing that I think I would love for any investor to kind of know about companies like Archer Roose is just that there are really great arbitrage opportunities out there, and there's a lot of different ways to make a difference in the world. If you're somebody who's really passionate about change, you can write a check to charity, but frankly, that dollar will go a lot further if you're investing in somebody who would not have gotten the opportunity to speak their voice or bring their product to market otherwise. Because only by having truly diverse voices around the table and diverse perspectives can we really develop innovative solutions.
Marian Leitner-Waldman
And my particular solution, at the end of the day, is just about ensuring that somebody can have just a glass of wine and moderate their own wine intake and kind of make the world a greener place in the process. But some of these companies are truly tackling generational challenges, and it's a very exciting time to be an investor because you have the opportunity to be part of that change. So it's more than just a strong return, but frankly, an opportunity to change the world.
Marcia Dawood
You are speaking my language.
Marian Leitner-Waldman
I love it.
Marcia Dawood
Excellent. Well, Marian, thank you so much for coming on the show today.
Marian Leitner-Waldman
Thank you so much for having me, Marcia.