Fear of Failure: A Thirty Year Path to Full Time Founder

Join Molly Baker and a nearly thirty year veteran of the beverage industry who spent nights and weekends building a craft cocktail brand while still working full time.This conversation covers the massive generational shift happening in how people drink, why staying focused on one market beats trying to do everything at once, and the surprising challenge of building a company alongside a spouse. They also dig into the fear of failure that held him back from entrepreneurship for decades, and what finally gave him the confidence to take the leap. It is an honest look at building a brand slowly, on purpose, one state at a time.

MB (Molly Baker): Without telling us who you are, what are you thinking about professionally these days?

MG (Mark Giordano): The evolution of the beverage industry consumes me. I've spent close to 30 years in it, and the shifts in just the last five or six years have been exponential. Different generations are making very different consumption decisions, COVID changed the happy hour, and the wellness movement keeps shifting what gets added to beverages. If you're in this space you have to ask whether you want to be Blockbuster or Netflix, because doing what's always worked isn't going to cut it anymore.

MB: Do you think there's a problem with younger generations drinking less, or is this just a moment in time?

MG: I don't think you ever want to call it a problem, it's just different, and you have to meet the consumer where they are. I don't think the no or low alcohol movement is a trend, I think it's real and driven by a lot of factors. I still love a good drink myself, a lot of my generation does, and a lot of younger people do too, they're just doing it differently.

MB: Tell us about your career journey. What's the 60 second version, and what's been the most pivotal moment?

MG: I grew up in an alcohol distribution family, so beverage was always around me. I moved to California after college and got into hospitality. By 25 a wine brand offered me the chance to be their national sales manager, which threw me into the deep end managing a large brand across the San Francisco Bay area. That opportunity, and the people who believed in me enough to give it to me, changed the trajectory of my career.

MB: Do you still keep in touch with the person who brought you into that role?

MG: I do. We spoke a few months ago, and before that it had probably been about a year. She's a great person and we're around the same age.

MB: Did you ever ask her why she gave you that opportunity?

MG: I did, and the answer was funny but one I really appreciate. Early on I spent a day with her packing power bars and water instead of stopping for lunch because we had back to back appointments. She said that was basically the moment she thought, this guy might actually be able to figure it out, so she took a chance on someone she wouldn't have to pay a lot. I'm indebted to her for believing in me.

MB: What's been the most impactful relationship on your career?

MG: Honestly I don't have a single one. My uncle was the patriarch of our family business and gave me one of my first jobs at 15, pulling back stock in grocery stores on weekends. He and my mom both taught me work ethic. Beyond that, I try to learn from the whole population of people around me rather than one mentor, whether that's an executive I advise or someone who manages logistics. If you lean in and ask the right questions, it's amazing what you can learn.

MB: Tell us who you are and tell us about your business.

MG: My name is Mark Giordano, and I'm the founder of TK Mulligan Kraft Vodka Cocktails.

MB: Tell us about TK Mulligan.

MG: It started with friends at our kitchen table asking why canned cocktails always tasted too sweet or had a synthetic aftertaste. I realized it was because a lot of brands cut corners, so if something's exactly a hundred calories, everything outside the vodka is probably artificial. Ours range from about 130 to 145 calories because that extra comes from real juice, not shortcuts. The name Mulligan came from a text conversation with a friend, and it just felt right since golf is close to a religion for the people I wanted to reach.

MB: Have you improved at golf since then?

MG: Not really. I don't hit people with the ball anymore, and I can get the ball out there, but I mostly rely on my putting to keep my handicap respectable.

MB: When you started this company, were you still working full time somewhere else?

MG: Correct, and they were aware of it. What nobody expected was how fast the brand would catch on. I eventually moved from president of that business into a strategic advisory role for them, since it made sense for me to step off the org chart once the tension of running two things became clear.

MB: What do you attribute the fast growth to?

MG: There was a real gap in the market. A lot of the existing seltzer and canned cocktail brands were maturing and showing some fatigue, and we wanted to focus on the craft side without pricing ourselves out of reach. We worked hard on the back end to keep our costs in line so we could meet the consumer where they are without compromising the liquid.

MB: What has surprised you most about starting a company?

MG: My wife is a co-founder, and she runs a successful human capital consulting business. Once the brand started to gain traction she leaned in and said, let's build an incredible culture here, real psychological safety and founder-led decision making for our team. Building a business with your spouse is a lot like being in a pressure cooker together, and thankfully it's amplified what we each do well rather than creating friction.

MB: Was there ever a moment before you started the business where you questioned whether doing this together was a good idea?

MG: We had a couple of trial runs leading committees together in a professional organization, and those experiences are intense. We realized after a couple of those that we not only worked well together, we actually liked it, which gave us some confidence going in.

MB: What's the most important thing you've learned from working in the industry that you've applied to TK Mulligan?

MG: A lot of brands try to play the hare instead of the tortoise, chasing fast fame before the fundamentals are strong. We anchored ourselves in North Carolina first instead of trying to do everything everywhere at once, and today that market is about 42 percent of our business and we're the number five brand in the state by revenue. We're in 15 states in under two and a half years, some of it a little ahead of where we should be, but focus early on has made a real difference.

MB: What's something you wish you knew earlier in your career?

MG: I wish I'd been more entrepreneurial earlier. Fear of failure drove a lot of my decisions when I was younger, and I didn't have the guts at 25 to do what I'm doing now. Getting to the point of hiring our first employee was the wildest moment, realizing someone else was relying on me. I wish I'd taken that leap sooner, even though it would have looked completely different back then.

MB: Could you ever imagine going back to working for someone else full time?

MG: No. I love the people I currently advise for, but having my own business where I can call the shots and see my fingerprints on everything is a completely different, and invigorating, kind of work.

MB: At 21, did you think you'd be doing this?

MG: In a way, yes. I wrote down at 20 that by 40 I wanted to be the national sales manager for a million case wine brand. It didn't happen exactly that way, but I had an incredible career leading up to this. I still have my first rejection letter from a winery I applied to in college, and I've kept it as motivation ever since. I can't really imagine doing anything outside of the beverage space.

Find Mark on Linkedin or visit the the TK Mulligan website!

As for us, follow @namedrop.pod on Instagram & LinkedIn and @molbakes on Instagram for all future episodes and insights.