This Side Hustle Spotlight Q&A features JW Wiseman, founder of non-alcoholic craft cocktail company Curious Elixir.
Image credit: Nick Kova. JW Wiseman, Founder of Curious Elixir.
Launched in 2015, Curious Elixir made $2.2 million in its first five years and has soared to more than $50 million in the past five years. The brand has served millions of customers at some of the world’s best restaurants, including Daniel and the French Laundry. At nightclubs like House of Yes. And it’s available at home through our direct-to-consumer business. The brand is projected to generate $176 million in revenue by 2030.
Answers have been edited for length and clarity.
What was your primary or full-time job when you started your side hustle?
Through my marketing company, Good Business, I helped clean food startups like Daily Harvest and Chomps reach their first million customers, and I opened a bar and nightclub called OUTPUT called The Whiskey Brooklyn. It took about five years before I had enough stable cash flow to work on Curious Elixir full-time.
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When did you start your side hustle and where did you get the inspiration for it?
As someone who works in nightlife in New York City and is a huge cocktail nerd, I’ve always loved entertaining and ended up drinking way too much. One winter night in 2012, I had over 20 drinks and didn’t even have a hangover the next day. It was really scary. I changed my relationship with alcohol and started drinking less. However, I was still sociable and wanted a more advanced cocktail experience. Back then, nothing like that literally existed. So I decided to create it.
What we did was to take inspiration from cocktails old and new, use the world’s best ingredients, and create complex cocktails that don’t contain alcohol. We collaborated with bartenders, food scientists, and herbalists. And Curious Elixir was born.
Image credit: Provided by Curious Elixir
What was the first step you took to get your side hustle off the ground?
Why not tinker in the kitchen, read a book about herbs, or take a chance to create something that hasn’t existed before? Relaxing, booze-free craft cocktails made with herbs and adaptogens.
One Sunday morning, while creating an early Hibiscus Negroni recipe, the name “Curious Elixir” came to me out of nowhere and I worked on it until I was finally ready to test it at parties in Brooklyn and Queens. I continued.
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At the time, there was a hotel in Rockaway Beach called the Playland Motel, and we made Curious Elixir during its opening weekend. It wasn’t even labeled as non-alcoholic, but people continued to drink far more than alcohol. I knew I was on to something.
To learn more about the non-alcoholic space, I sought advice from hospitality experts and also studied with food scientists. I learned how to adapt Bartender’s Craft Mocktails to the scale of beverage production using the highest quality clean label ingredients sourced from around the world.
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What was the biggest challenge you faced when building your side hustle and how did you overcome it?
When Curious started as a business in 2015, many of the alcohol-free ingredient extracts that add bitterness and spiciness to drinks didn’t yet exist, such as Curious No. 1’s Gentian and Curious No. 2’s Ancho Chili. . Creating these extracts and blending them to create sophisticated non-alcoholic cocktails takes years of effort and experimentation.
Another challenge was filming “Shark Tank” in 2018 and that segment never made it into the show. Curious Elixir was ahead of its time, and the Sharks didn’t realize what a huge opportunity the non-alcoholic segment would be. Even though 10 years have passed, it’s still early. At the time, there was often a shortage of products to sell, so it was actually a blessing that it wasn’t aired.
Image credit: Provided by Curious Elixir
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How long did it take you to start earning a steady income every month? How much did you earn from your side hustle?
From my experience taking Daily Harvest nationally, I launched Curious Elixir, a monthly subscription called The Curious Cocktail Club. People loved the drink right away, so there was consistency from the jump, but it was small from the get-go. In the first five years of our side hustle with Curious Elixir, we made $2.2 million.
Curious was also ahead of me as I was making a curve. It took five years for Curious to pay me enough to focus on it full-time…and that was in January 2020.
When the pandemic hit, there were two waves of newcomers to non-alcoholic options. There is a second wave of people who cut down on alcohol soon after lockdown began, and those who drank too much during quarantine and decided to become “sober curious”.
What is your current growth and revenue?
Curious is almost 10 years old. In its first year, the company generated approximately $176,000 in revenue and now generates easily over eight digits at a 30% CAGR (compound annual growth rate) each year. Curious Elixir is proud to have achieved 20.8x brand growth and over $50 million in revenue over the past five years without any outside investment.
Image credit: Provided by Curious Elixir
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What do you enjoy most about running this business?
Our mission has always been to change the way we socially drink, and in recent years that has really accelerated. People are beginning to realize that life with less alcohol can be more enjoyable, creative, and memorable.
What advice would you give to people who want to start their own side hustle and be successful?
Get started today. Right now. Take 5 minutes to build your side hustle with small consistent actions. And always stay curious!