What’s the inspiration behind Troop?
I was a corporate consultant for five years before starting Troop. I was traveling five days a week and spending all of my time socializing— both personally and professionally— at bars.
I loved what cocktails meant in terms of connection— they’re the perfect reason to meet up and turn any get together into a special occasion...but I didn’t always love the environment you had to have them in.When I’d get home at the end of a long week, I was craving spending time with my friends, and I was craving fun that wasn’t just another night out at a bar. So Reed and I started planning events and mixing drinks to get our group of friends together. We called them our Troop.
As the events grew larger and more complex, we started looking for something we could buy to serve our Troop. We couldn’t find anything that met our standards for a quality cocktail!
We wanted a real drink for the real ones. So we started Troop.
What do you think is the most important skill founders need to succeed?
I think the most important skill is perseverance. Starting a company can be a total rollercoaster, with major ups and downs happening daily. It’s really easy to let the challenging moments and setbacks overpower the successes. It’s important to have a strong foundation of what you believe in and why you started the company to keep coming back to when times get tough.
How did you meet your co-founder/husband? How do you work together?
My co-founder and I have a pretty great meet cute story. We met in Paris back in 2013 when we were juniors in college. Reed was studying abroad from Cornell, and I from William & Mary, and we coincidentally ended up in the same program in Paris. We met on the first day of class there, and have been together ever since.
We didn’t start working together until we moved to San Francisco and had the crazy idea to start a cocktail company.
What have been the ups and downs of being a business power couple?
Let me tell you, working with your significant other can be (and should be) very different from being in a romantic relationship with them. We had to figure out how to work together most effectively, which meant having a lot of important discussions on how we best communicate, how we best give/take feedback, our professional strengths/weaknesses.
Another challenge has been separating work from our personal lives. Because we are both extremely passionate about what we’re building, it can be difficult to turn off and stop work talk. It’s something we work on daily.
All that said, the ups far surpass the downs. I couldn’t imagine starting a company with anyone other than Reed. We spend so much of our time working together, bouncing ideas off each other, and building something that we’re both so incredibly proud of. I feel fortunate that we’re able to be on this journey together.
How do you handle risk and competition?
The ready-to-drink (RTD) alcohol space — seltzers, cocktails, and the like— is getting more and more competitive by the minute. We could spend a lot of mental energy freaking out about all of the companies that are bigger, better funded, and more experienced than us if we weren’t careful. But we believe that one of our biggest advantages is the fact that we don’t come from a background in this industry.
That’s allowed us to make decisions that other companies wouldn’t because we’re not constrained by the status quo.
Troop has very distinctive branding and marketing, and a clear vision for its customer base. What was the process like for developing the brand?
We’ve been very incremental and purposeful about our brand development. Our original “v0” of Troop was back in November of 2018 when we made just 90 total cases of one SKU, the Rum Mojito. This was back when there were only a few RTDs on shelves and hard seltzer hadn’t yet hit its peak. We wanted to get product out there quickly to see if it resonated with customers, so I learned Adobe Illustrator and designed the labels myself. We sold it out of the back of our car. It sold out quickly from about ten stores, so we moved onto “v1” in May 2019, which was about five hundred cases of Rum Mojito and Bourbon Smash.
We saw these as big opportunities to learn from our customers. Through the end of the year in 2019, I did over one hundred one-on-one customer interviews to learn more about what really resonated with our customers and how to amplify that. The “Official” Troop launch didn’t happen until October of 2020 when we executed a full brand refresh and added a third drink, our Gin Spritz, based on all of our learnings.
We’re really proud of Troop’s brand identity, and we owe it all to our Day 1 customers.
What are the biggest challenges you’ve faced while launching your company?
One of the biggest challenges I’ve faced while launching Troop is being a female founder in a heavily male-dominated industry. Back when we first had the idea for Troop and started networking with people in the industry, it was extremely challenging to get a word in during conversations or even getting some folks to respond to me instead of my male co-founder via email (which I still struggle with daily). I’ve started using it as a motivation factor to be louder and create a spot for myself at the table.
Any advice for other women looking to start their own company?
I have noticed, even since starting just two years ago, that more and more women are demanding a place at the table and the world is noticing. They’re recognizing female founders and giving priority to working with female-founded companies. This is largely due to all of the work that previous female founders have done and is only strengthened by more female leaders.
My advice for women looking to start their own company is to go for it! If you’re passionate about it and see a real need for it, then take the leap. The more the merrier.
The other piece of advice is to join or create a support group with other female founders. There are a lot of us out here, and we’re all looking to build each other up and watch each other learn, grow, and succeed.Have you learned anything new or surprising about yourself through this process?
Before starting Troop, I used to take rejection and negative feedback very personally. It would bring me down for days and make me second guess myself and my abilities.
Over the years, I’ve learned that rejection and negative feedback are necessary in order to build a successful business. I’ve now started taking rejection and critical feedback and using them as motivators to keep working and improving.
Why did you decide to raise from the crowd via Republic?
What Republic stands for— getting more people involved with companies and investing in companies— is perfectly in line with what we’re trying to do at Troop.
Giving people the opportunity to invest in our company and join us in growing reaffirms what we’re doing— building a brand that people can really connect with.
What’s your team culture like?
Our team culture is all about collaboration and working smartly.
We encourage our people to work hard when they need to and fully unplug when they’re off. Being in the alcohol industry means that working hours can stretch over weekends, so we try to compensate for that by giving weekdays off to make up for weekend work and offering unlimited vacation time.
What is your superpower?
My superpower is sleeping. No matter what is going on at work and how stressed I might feel, I have the ability to shut off and get 7-8 hours of sleep every night.
What’s your kryptonite?
My kryptonite is wanting to have a hand in most parts of the business. Having built Troop from the ground up, it’s hard to let go of some areas that I
used to own because there was no one else to own them. Now that we’re starting to build the team up, I’m still working on easing up control and delegating tasks to people who are much more experienced in those areas.Do you have any unusual routines or habits?
When I’m feeling really stressed, the best way for me to calm down and shut off is to do something with my hands. My go-to activities are cooking, painting, and arranging flowers.
What do you like to do in your spare time?
I have always gravitated towards getting outside in nature. Instead of a classic summer internship in college, I led hiking trips all over the world— in Maine, California, Italy, and France. This love of the outdoors is actually what inspired us to move out to California about 5 years ago. When I’m not working, you’ll probably find me outside: trail running, hiking, skiing, picnicking in the park with friends.
I also love spending time with my troop, so hosting friends and family in our apartment is still one of my favorite things to do.
Are there any apps or gadgets that you can’t live without?
Calm and Yoga Glo. Mindfulness practices have become incredibly important to me as a founder. They keep me focused, sane, and balanced (literally!) so I can keep doing my best work. I’ve been using Calm and Yoga Glo for the past two years for mindfulness and yoga practices. It has made such a difference in my ability to identify and manage stress.
If you could give yourself one piece of advice 5 years ago, what would it be?
I would tell myself to take a big step back and challenge my comfort levels. I started out my career at a very safe corporate job that made me miserable.
I didn’t feel like I had ownership over my life and my decisions five years ago. I felt that my only option was to keep working at a fast-paced job that I didn’t enjoy and working for people that didn’t respect me or my time. It turned out that I was, and continue to be, the only person who has control over my life and my decisions. It takes a lot of self-reflection and courage, but it has been the most rewarding feeling to be working on something that I am passionate about every day.
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve received?
A great piece of advice that I recently received from one of our investors is to take a step back and enjoy the journey, because soon these will be “remember when" days. This helped me see the bigger picture and look back on all that we’ve accomplished already.
Do you have a(ny) mentor(s)? If so, what have they taught you?
My dad is one of my greatest mentors.
He has taught me that taking risks is scary but can be rewarding. He has also taught me the importance of surrounding yourself with the best people. If you have a good support system and are working with people who you respect and can learn from, then there’s a good chance you’ll do well and have fun while doing it.
The founders of Troop, CC and Reed DesRosiers