Sisterhood is powerful, especially for Kelly Gasnik and Jill Burns, founders of Austin Cocktails. The sisters started the spirits-based ready-to-drink (RTD) cocktail brand in 2012, helping to spearhead the current wave of canned cocktails.
Constellation Brands first invested in the brand in 2018 as part of its Ventures program’s Focus on Female Founders initiative, and followed with a full acquisition in 2022. We chatted with the founders about how they would’ve spent their time and energy differently as a startup, what lessons they learned in the acquisition process, and why building a company is not a straight line.
What were some of the successful strategies that led to your acquisition?
Jill: Beyond the fundamentals, several key factors contributed to our success. Our brand had a compelling and deeply personal story—rooted in our grandfather’s tradition of five o’clock cocktails after long days in the fields. This narrative not only resonated with consumers and retailers but also played a significant role in attracting Constellation. Authenticity and brand soul are powerful differentiators in a crowded market.
Also, we tested our liquid and branding before entering the market but understood the need for ongoing refinements. In the early years, we launched locally, allowing us to learn, iterate and perfect our offerings while minimizing costly missteps. This strategy helped us gain confidence in our brand and a clearer understanding of our target audience.
Plus, taking a risk to overhaul a category like this is a big company’s nightmare but an entrepreneur’s dream. That’s because the best entrepreneurs are risk takers — sometimes bordering on contrarians — who have the confidence to do something outside the norm. Fortunately, Kelly and I were raised to see risks as opportunities, not obstacles.
The RTD market has certainly changed since you founded the company. What are some of the biggest challenges in the market now, and how are you addressing them?
Jill: When we launched Austin Cocktails, the RTD space was dominated by a handful of value brands that lived on the bottom shelf in a dark corner of the store. As consumers became more health-conscious and demanded premium, natural-ingredient options, the category evolved. Major players recognized the potential, leading to the rise of powerhouse brands such as High Noon and Cutwater, backed by massive marketing budgets.
One of our biggest challenges today is maintaining shelf presence and competing for consumer attention with fewer resources. As a family-owned brand, we always scrutinized every marketing dollar spent and remained deeply involved in every campaign. After joining Constellation, we experienced rapid expansion, which made it more challenging to oversee marketing efforts with the same hands-on approach. Given the category’s explosive growth and increased competition, Constellation has taken a step back to ensure that our marketing investments are strategic, targeted, and impactful – focusing on the right retailers and key consumer touchpoints.
What were some of your mistakes that might be helpful for other entrepreneurs to hear about?
Kelly: As all entrepreneurs quickly learn, company building is not a straight line. Growing up, I certainly felt like entrepreneurs were born with some special skill or talent, went to great schools, had a fabulous idea or plan, worked at a blue-chip firm where they worked out the kinks of their idea, and then left to build a fabulous company. If only that were true! In a lot of ways, company building is about just how much zigging and zagging you can manage with intelligence and good character.
While we had perspective on the reality that company building wasn’t a straight line, it took a few years to appreciate that mistakes were both the schoolhouse and tuition founders pay to evolve into the leader your company needs. So, I wish I would have been able to take a longer view a little earlier.
More in the weeds, I believe we waited too long to bring on help in operations. While I believe founders need to be scrappy and know as many facets of the business as practicable and manage payroll fastidiously, I spent so much time managing finance, operations, legal, HR, IT, tax, compliance etc. late at night. In retrospect, after a certain amount of years, my time and energy could have been better deployed.
What were lessons learned in the acquisition process that you can share with other entrepreneurs?
Kelly: Experienced transactional bankers and lawyers are worth every penny. In our case, we were on the other side of one of the largest beverage companies in the world that was a publicly traded, multinational corporation operating in one of the most highly regulated industries. They have interests and needs that we needed to understand and respect. At the same time, we were founders who had put everything we had into disrupting a category that hadn’t seen innovation in decades and building a brand that distributors, retailers and consumers could trust. Our interests were important too. Having good bankers and lawyers who can help you understand the acquirer’s perspective, while also advising you on which battles may or may not be worth picking, was extremely valuable.
If you could wave a magic wand what would you change about the industry?
Kelly: Gosh. What a great question. I would love to see more women in C-suite positions. Across 10 years, we can count on one hand how many C-suite meetings included women. We do not think it is a coincidence that the first large retailer to put us on their shelves included a woman at the decision-making table. With women controlling roughly 70% of CPG purchasing, I think the marketplace in general and bottom lines in particular would directly benefit from having more women in key decision-making positions.