Steve Yeng, co-founder together with his spouse, Brittany, of Skrewball Peanut Butter Whiskey, was born in Cambodia within the wake of the Cambodian genocide, which left more than 1.7 million people lifeless by the hands of the Khmer Rouge. When Steve was one 12 months previous, he was identified with polio. His proper leg grew to become completely paralyzed, and his mother and father sought medical assist throughout the border in Thailand.
“We entered right into a refugee camp, primarily a jail the place we could not get out,” Steve tells Entrepreneur. “We stood in line for meals and water. After six years, which is sort of a very long time for these varieties of camps, we obtained sponsored to [move to] California by a pair who wished to do a random act of kindness.”
The household settled in San Diego. Steve’s mother and father obtained jobs at a neighborhood donut store a block away from his elementary college, the place he first met Brittany. The pair began relationship in highschool and stayed collectively whilst they pursued completely different paths post-graduation. She obtained her grasp’s in chemistry and attended regulation college. He jumped into the restaurant business.
Picture Credit score: Strolling Eagle Images. Steve and Brittany Yeng.
Steve’s mother and father had gone on to purchase the donut store they’d labored at, and he adopted of their entrepreneurial footsteps. He and his brother Scott opened OB Noodle Home in 2008 and The Holding Firm in 2016.
“We realized we had actually constructed two separate worlds,” Brittany says, “the place [Steve] was getting house at 4:30 within the morning, and I used to be leaving for work at 4:30 within the morning. And we had been anticipating our first daughter.”
“We used that underdog mentality [and said], ‘Let’s do it.'”
The couple had been toying with the thought of a brand new venture that will permit for extra time collectively: beginning a peanut butter whiskey model. Peanut butter, which Steve and his household typically obtained in baskets of meals throughout their early days within the U.S., was a favourite taste. He’d been experimenting with including it to all types of issues: wings, noodles, fried rice — then Jameson.
The Yengs tinkered with the peanut butter whiskey recipe to make it shelf secure, which in the end meant touchdown on one which wasn’t creamy, however mixable and good for cocktails. Regardless of the completely different lives they led on the time, “Peanut butter is the glue that actually introduced us collectively,” Steve says. The duo seized their “now or by no means second” and started a business.
Picture Credit score: Courtesy of Skrewball Peanut Butter Whiskey
The Yengs’ peanut butter whiskey had a stable fan base of their small group of Ocean Seashore, San Diego, however they confronted extra skepticism from traders and analysis and improvement firms. At one level, an business guide discouraged the enterprise altogether, saying they appeared like a pleasant household who should not spend all of their life financial savings on a non-viable business idea.
“All of them laughed,” Steve recollects. “Everyone was a doubter. Nobody believed in us. They noticed us as a novelty, not a phenomenon. [But the] skepticism fueled our drive. We might been profitable earlier than; we used that underdog mentality [and said], ‘Let’s do it.'”
”It lastly clicked with us that the product itself was an outsider,” Brittany provides. “It wasn’t simply us who had been outsiders. It is this peanut butter whiskey. The primary time folks hear it, they’re like, ‘I do not know.’ In order that product and origin story mixed to [perfectly] encapsulate the model.”
“We wished to personal it and put the black sheep main the group.”
Having already honed the model’s recipe by trial and error, the Yengs leaned into their “underdog” standing when it got here to their branding, too. Skrewball’s label options a big black sheep surrounded by smaller white sheep. “We have a look at [being a black sheep] as our superpower,” Brittany explains. “We wished to personal it and put the black sheep main the group.” The founders additionally observe a double that means within the “Skrewball” identify: evoking the odd one out but additionally the hope of discovering your “krew.”
Skrewball formally launched in San Diego in 2018 — and the bootstrapped business was an enormous hit. The model remained solely in San Diego that 12 months as a result of it could not but hold tempo with the manufacturing required to develop. Impartial liquor shops like Keg N Bottle, Newport Farms and Crest Liquor had been essential to Skrewball’s early success, the founders say. So was the San Diego bar and restaurant group, which “instantly introduced Skrewball in and handled it like their very own model.”
Picture Credit score: Courtesy of Skrewball Peanut Butter Whiskey
Nonetheless, some naysayers thought-about the numerous victory a flash within the pan, the founders recall. However when the model went on to launch in California at massive, it replicated its sold-out success. In the end, Skrewball achieved national distribution throughout all 50 states in January 2020. “We had been the quickest to 1,000,000 instances for any model over $20 in historical past,” Steve says. “No one anticipated it.”
“In 2020, the one manufacturers that grew quicker than us in greenback gross sales had been Tito’s and Hennessy.”
In fact, like most rising companies, Skrewball needed to deal with some severe challenges alongside the way in which. Within the midst of the model’s enlargement, the longest authorities shutdown in U.S. historical past floor the method of buying correct labels to a halt. Heading into 2020, the enterprise confronted main manufacturing and bottle shortages that nearly bankrupted it. There have been instances the founders “got here house to no electrical energy as a result of we could not pay the invoice.”
Nevertheless, the Yengs contemplate these very obstacles the catalyst for Skrewball’s eventual lasting success, explaining that they helped them put together for the pandemic years. Skrewball constructed up a surplus of bottles and dry items late in 2019, and that allowed the corporate to develop and sustain with demand when international shortages hit.
Hitting the highway when many main suppliers stayed house was one other key transfer that boosted the enterprise. “I lived on the highway — safely — and personally promoted Skrewball, supporting the bars and eating places that had been open,” Steve says. “It introduced loads of consciousness to Skrewball at a time when few different manufacturers had been current. In 2020, the one manufacturers that grew quicker than us in greenback gross sales had been Tito’s and Hennessy.”
The couple stresses it isn’t luck that is introduced Skrewball this far, however their refusal to surrender and dedication to listening to the model’s clients.
“We nonetheless do tastings,” Brittany says. “We had been simply at a market. Holding that suggestions loop to be sure to’re nonetheless related to your buyer, offering them worth and responding to their wants [is important]. It is simple to get behind a desk and neglect about why you are really doing what you are doing.”
Picture Credit score: Courtesy of Skrewball Peanut Butter Whiskey
“You may have to have the ability to adapt. Adapt to adjustments and overcome these obstacles.”
Now, Skrewball is a multimillion-dollar, globally acknowledged spirits model. By March 2023, it felt like the suitable time to discover a strategic accomplice for the enterprise. “My daughters had been rising up, and I did not need to miss it,” Steve says. The founders determined to accomplice with Pernod Ricard, assured in values that mirrored their very own. The wine and spirits firm acquired a majority stake in Skrewball. The Yengs additionally loved a little bit of a full-circle second: Their model had began with peanut butter in photographs of Jameson, considered one of Pernod Ricard’s spirits.
The Yengs stay up for the model’s continued growth — and persevering with to win over any doubters.
”[We’re still] proving these skeptics flawed,” Steve says. “[When people first hear about it, they’re like], ‘I do not know.'” However then they fight it, their face lights up, they usually introduce it to a different buddy or member of the family, who usually has the identical response — and it is one which “by no means will get previous.”
Each Steve and Skrewball beat the chances they’d ever arrive at this level. ”Once I caught polio, there’s not a lot that is anticipated of you, particularly in Cambodia,” Steve says. “Once I was in that refugee camp, I keep in mind [wondering] Why? I used to be a wholesome child; all I wanted was one shot, and none of this is able to have occurred. [But what seems like] an impediment, trying again, could also be a blessing. You may have to have the ability to adapt. Adapt to adjustments and overcome these obstacles.”
