- Family members and friends
when we told them we were originally gonna launch
a whiskey company, they were like, "Really?"
Like, "You guys do finance, right?"
It was something, obviously new and unique to us.
And so they were like, we know you guys are smart
but you guys crunch numbers.
You guys don't make whiskey.
And we took it on as a challenge.
I'm Chima Burey. - And I'm Amani Macaulay
- [Both] And Duke and Dame is our business.
(whimsical music)
- There was a cinnamon whiskey
that just came out into the market that was the craze.
And everyone started talking about,
well, if you had the opportunity
to start your own flavored whiskey, what would it be?
And when the conversation came to me, I said,
I would start something that was reminiscent
of a Werther's Original, so a salted caramel whiskey.
And the whole table was like, oh my gosh.
Yeah, that would be amazing.
- We really wanted to create something, that, hey,
no matter what your into,
no matter what your taste profile is,
here's a whiskey for you.
- The initial reaction that we get
when people try Duke and Dame
for the first time is one of surprise,
because it's not your traditional whiskey.
You don't get that whiskey burn.
And it's really like approachable.
So the reaction is just, oh my gosh, wow.
Like this is tasty and sophisticated and smooth.
- What makes Duke and Dame really unique is,
it has this amazing kind of layered taste profile.
So the first sip is very aroma forward,
very caramel forward.
We walk people through that first sip,
and they're like, "Wow, you're right, it is smooth.
I'm not getting that whiskey burn."
And then in the second sip,
the bourbon now start to round out.
So you start getting more hits of Oak, some spice,
some people get a little citrus.
Men loved it, women loved it.
Young, old, Chima's dad is in his 80s, he loved it.
My mom and dad and the aunties and uncles loved it.
We really wanted the name and the logo to be approachable.
It's a beautiful bottle.
It's not your grandfather's whiskey bottle,
although he'll like it too.
But all those elements really came to create the brand.
We didn't have a lot of interaction with our competitors.
We were in the lab focused on creating our whiskey,
the brand, and launching the product.
But it's interesting, as we started getting out
into the marketplace, we would meet sales reps
for distributors who sold some of our competitors.
And it was always interesting
when they would taste the whiskey
and they kind of paused like,
"Oh, wow, this is really good."
- Almost all of our competitors use high glucose corn syrup.
They use artificial ingredients because it's cheaper.
They don't use bourbon because it's cheaper
to use un-aged whiskey.
And all of these things
that our competitors would normally do to cut cost
because they're not looking at it from a consumer lens.
They're looking at it from just a dollars and cents lens.
We came for into this
looking at it through the consumer's lens.
We wanted to produce a product that our consumers
would enjoy.
We are a premium whiskey
and we aren't on the lower end of our category.
However, consumers don't mind paying a little bit more
because they realize the quality that we produce
with Duke and Dame.
- When I left finance, I didn't
know what I wanted to do next
but I knew I wanted to go build something.
Sometimes when you're in it every day
you don't really appreciate that.
But when you can take a step back and say, wow
look at what we built.
And that's awesome feeling.
- It's worth it to do all the homework.
Initially, build your model, understand the market
understand your industry
and really get to know what's gonna be required of
- You to be successful.
We tend to glamorize entrepreneurship like, oh
you have your own business.
And my advice, just a reality check.
It's not glamorous at all.
Most entrepreneurs are working all the time.
- Constantly.
- You're not gonna have the same lifestyle
you were accustomed to having previously
and it's going to be a whole lot of work.
And so just prepare yourself for that.
On top of the fact
that you're gonna have to make sacrifices financially
most businesses aren't making money right away.
So be aware of those challenges going in and then good luck.