The Hidden Distribution Problem Solved by Drink Distro Co-Founder Josh Ochoa

Buyers can’t find brands = lost sales. Learn how Drink Distro connects suppliers & buyers in real time with data, distribution visibility & faster decisions 🍷📊  @ThirstyThursdaysat3PMEST  

👉🎬 Watch on YouTube → https://youtu.be/wVPVdF4Zr1o

🔥 Engaging Summary

This episode breaks down a major gap in the beverage industry: visibility. If buyers can’t find your product, it doesn’t get sold. Simple.

Josh Ochoa shares how Drink Distro is changing the game by connecting suppliers and buyers in real time.

DrinkDistro solves visibility for Wine & Spirit brands by creating a connection between buyers searching for products and the brands that want to be found.

For Buyers to Search: https://drinkdistro.com/

For Brands to List: https://drinkdistro.com/learn-more

💡 Key Takeaways:

Buyers struggle to find who distributes products
Suppliers lose sales without visibility
Real-time search = faster decisions
Data signals demand before sales reports
Simplicity wins in a complex system

👉 CTA (Call to Action)
If you’re a brand, supplier, or buyer — this is your wake-up call. Watch now and rethink how you drive sales.


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Transcript

Josh Ochoa (00:28)
So Drink Distro at its core level is an online wine and spirits directory that individual brands have the opportunity to list their current distributors across the nation. And then that's all in a searchable database that any bartender, sommelier, beverage manager, retail buyer can go on, type in the brand, type the state that they live in, and it automatically pops out the exact distributor that represents them in their area.

and along with contact information and that kind of stuff. So really trying to kind of like bridge that gap, right? Where now if you have a question at two in the morning, you're not gonna call your sales rep and your sales rep may not even know, right? You're not gonna reach out to a veteran like myself and say, hey, do you know who has this? But you're doing inventory and you can type in this brand and we've seen it with 10,000 users so far in the past year.

Jessie Ott (01:50)
Hello everybody and welcome to Thursday Thursdays. I am Jessie Ott and I have an exciting guest today. Josh Ochoa, founder of drinkdisco.com. Welcome Josh.

Josh Ochoa (02:00)
Thank you so much. Appreciate you having me on.

Jessie Ott (02:03)
Yeah, I'm super excited to have you on. You definitely bring a new angle into our industry. And so I think it's really interesting to talk about it for sure. Where are you calling from?

Josh Ochoa (02:14)
Yeah, I'm in Bakersfield, California, so Central Valley, a couple hours north of Los Angeles.

Jessie Ott (02:18)
Okay, okay, nice. Are you from California originally?

Josh Ochoa (02:21)
Yeah, born down in LA, moved around a bunch as a kid, then ended up settling here.

Jessie Ott (02:25)
Okay, nice. Great state except for when you get your paycheck and 10 % of your income is gone. Or whatever it is.

Josh Ochoa (02:31)
Well, you pay

to live someplace beautiful, that's the thing.

Jessie Ott (02:36)
Yeah, that's true. mean, how many places do you live where you can say, want to go to the mountains or do I want to go to the beach?

Josh Ochoa (02:43)
Exactly. And then you can pick which day you want to do it on alternate. Exactly.

Jessie Ott (02:47)
Yeah, exactly. I haven't spent a ton of time in California, but what I've seen is pretty, pretty beautiful.

Josh Ochoa (02:52)
yeah, no, it's fantastic. We love it.

Jessie Ott (02:54)
Yeah. No, it's it we in in Texas, it's funny because we had a lot of people from Texas moved to California than then in turn, like move back just because the cost of living is pretty prohibitive for a lot of people.

Josh Ochoa (03:07)
Yeah, some of the folks that I worked with in distribution, ended up going over to Texas specifically for that reason. They bought into their houses kind of pre-COVID, made a bunch of money and had the opportunity to sell off the house and then buy some tracks of land out in Texas. So yeah, know people that ended up having that opportunity.

Jessie Ott (03:23)
Right?

Yeah, no, that's true. Very, true. So how did you work your way into the industry?

Josh Ochoa (03:31)
Yeah, so man, going back probably 30 years or so, 25 years, yeah, I was started, my first job was at Olive Garden. I was bussing tables and worked my way up through the ranks into serving, management, bartending, all that kind of stuff. And worked a few different restaurants, even in Yosemite National Park. yeah, yeah, so got a view from a lot of different angles in terms of the industry.

Jessie Ott (03:36)
Yeah.

Nice.

Josh Ochoa (03:54)
And then after doing that for probably about seven to 10 years, I jumped in and started managing a wine and spirit shop, fine wine and spirit shop here at Bakersfield. And that was a great learning experience. It was kind of the closest that I'd ever got to understanding both sides of the perspective of sales and distribution. And then after working there for a few years, a distributor, as often happens for good talent, comes and makes me an offer I can't refuse.

and ended up working in distribution for about the last 12 years or so.

Jessie Ott (04:26)
So who did you work for?

Josh Ochoa (04:27)
I work for Republican National. Yeah, so used to be Young's Market Company here in California.

Jessie Ott (04:32)
Right, but did you start with Young's first? Yeah.

Josh Ochoa (04:34)
Yeah, correct. Yeah, so 2012, yeah,

I started with Young's Market Company and then they merged kind of in the late teens.

Jessie Ott (04:41)
is that okay. So I couldn't remember exactly when it was. So, I mean, when you think about it, anything happened before Covid, it's like a lifetime ago.

Josh Ochoa (04:50)
was

that it all blurs together. think RNDC kind of made the offer around 2016, 2017, and by 2018, 2019, the full merger had gone through, something like that. Yeah, it was big changes.

Jessie Ott (05:02)
Yeah.

I've said this on the podcast a million times. That was the biggest mistake they ever made. It just they took down a giant, you know.

Josh Ochoa (05:11)
Well,

so yeah, there's a lot of things that I think factored in one Young's Market company was great in the way that they, I think they did a lot of business, family owned. mean, I know we got a chance to basically call the owners of the company. If we had any issues that raised to that level, like there was that level of personability. But one thing that happens when you have a distributor that's that big and kind of that.

I don't want to say archaic, but that old school is that some of the technologies are behind and some of your efficiencies ⁓ to work in a current market are that much harder. So yeah, I think when they saw the opportunity for merging with RNDC's company that was a little bit more on the forefront of technology and that kind of stuff, I think that made a lot of sense for them.

Jessie Ott (05:40)
Old school.

Yeah.

Okay. Was Young's pretty top heavy or is R &DC worse?

Josh Ochoa (06:02)
I think RNDC was probably worse, just in terms of the way that they did things. There was a lot more, I would say red tape and a lot more, yeah, yeah, lot more. Well, it was definitely more, well, yeah, there was a lot more busy work. There was a lot more corporate deal when RNDC came through, which was kind of to be expected. Yeah.

Jessie Ott (06:10)
red tape. So it actually went backwards and be more archaic.

Yeah.

Yeah, that makes sense. It's kind of interesting to get the perspective of someone who actually worked for Young's and then worked for the changeover and saw how that changes so much. I remember being at St. Michelle and we were owned by US Tobacco. It was the smokeless tobacco.

Josh Ochoa (06:44)
That sounds right.

Jessie Ott (06:45)
And then they got bought out by Altria. So of course they bought us. I mean, the hundred page PowerPoint presentations that these people had to do for them was just, I mean, stupid. These people didn't care about our business. You know, I mean, I love the company, but that was a hard transition for a lot of people. Not me so much. I wasn't that affected by it, but my team was. And you know, reporting.

Josh Ochoa (07:09)
Yeah, no doubt. I think that's something that comes across

so many different industries, right? Is when a company either does big enough or needs to advance, that they look for some of those folks that, or those companies that are a little bit more corporate, a little bit more tied down because the efficiencies are there. And like you said, I think you lose some of that charm, some of that personability, which I think is super key for any industry in particular, but

Jessie Ott (07:13)
Yeah.

Josh Ochoa (07:35)
Definitely the wine and spirits industry. I think it's been built on people talking to people and Yeah, yeah when you start losing that you start losing kind of the center the core of what makes it great

Jessie Ott (07:48)
Yeah. No, it's funny. We, um, my business partner, Bob and I went to the duty free show here in Orlando about, you know, just over a week ago. And, know, we are reminded that this is very much a relationship business still, you know, you can have the best products and best pricing and best this, that, and the other, but if you don't have that, those relationships to get that execution, you're not going, you're not going anywhere.

You know, and

Josh Ochoa (08:17)
Truly, yeah.

And you think of a world that's really headed towards automation and everything going online and that kind of stuff. And I think that's part of why the transition has been so difficult maybe for our industry is it's trying to find its footing where something that used to work really well where a sales rep would go in and build the relationship with a buyer and things like that and understand what their business is and what it means and have that real connection.

And then how does that pair with everything going on for online sales? Does it make more sense to have somebody behind the scenes? Does it make more sense to have an online site that lists the products? And then how does the story get continued from the producers that actually put their heart and soul into these things? How does that translate through the internet and then back down to folks that want to sell it to consumers, right?

Jessie Ott (09:10)
Right. Yep.

Josh Ochoa (09:10)
that

becomes really muddied when you try and work solely on efficiencies and technology.

Jessie Ott (09:18)
Yeah, no, that's true. Storytelling, you know, especially with the younger generation coming in is certainly important. They definitely want to know the owners behind the brand, the struggles, all the things to make it feel like it's you know, it's a person back there. It's people, you know, struggling to make it work. mean, there's...

Josh Ochoa (09:33)
Yeah.

Jessie Ott (09:39)
thousands of us out there with startup companies that are doing the exact same thing. you know, I think kind of what we're doing and, you know, we've talked about with Gary is helping each other out.

Josh Ochoa (09:51)
Yeah, 100%. Yeah, to that point about kind of story is my eldest daughter said that the vibe for 2026 is ⁓ authenticity. And I think you're really seeing that across the board. You're seeing not only on the brand side where they want to convey their stories better, more clearly and have

broader range of where they can spread it. But then also on the consumer side, the folks that are buying, they want to know what's going into their product. They want to know the cool stories. Why did this winery start? What's really interesting about the distillation for this whiskey, right? What are the lower levels of these products? And then that way, and then that goes to the middleman too, whether it's the salespeople, whether it's the bartenders that are pouring the drinks, whether it's the Psalms at restaurants.

that are recommending bottles, right? It's all of that. It's that whole bridge that comes across. And that's where, yeah, I mean, I Pink Disto is really trying to kind of amplify stories for brands that don't get an opportunity to, and hopefully connect with wholesale buyers that really want to hear these stories.

Jessie Ott (10:56)
Yeah, no, absolutely. So let's transition then into drink distro, just drink distro.com. And, pardon me. And, when did the idea kind of get started?

Josh Ochoa (11:01)
Yeah.

Hmm. Well, I'm not sure there was an official starting point, but definitely over the evolution of what my career has been. So it's, it's always been maybe a layout. The main problem that it solves is that the main issue within our industry is that wholesale there, one, there are so many different brands that exist within our market. So many different distributors at every level that cover particular regions all the way down to individual buyers that are trying to find the brands that they want.

And it's always been an issue to have really transparent information of who represents what brands, what area. And it's been since I was at Olive Garden all the way back then, it was one of those things where it was like, yeah, you know what? Somebody is asking for this wine. I don't know who represents it. Like maybe it's one of the big companies, maybe it's a small company, but the ones that lose out are the consumer that wanted it, the restaurant wanted to sell it and the brand.

Jessie Ott (11:58)
Right.

Josh Ochoa (12:00)
that really wanted to be in somebody's class, right? And so basically what, so again, it was an evolution. And then through distribution, I built myself into covering the Central Valley territory and becoming somewhat of a veteran. So I was getting texts and calls from wholesale buyers multiple times a day where it was, hey, is this your brand? Do know who represents this brand? ⁓ Yeah, is this company still in business? All these questions, right? And it was one of those things where,

Jessie Ott (12:22)
Hehehehe

Josh Ochoa (12:29)
realized over the course of time that there needed to be a way where it wasn't about the biggest marketing dollar, it wasn't about the biggest ad budget, it wasn't about being with the biggest distributor, it was having that information accessible in an easy way and so Drink Distro came out of that.

Jessie Ott (12:47)
Okay. So do you want to talk about what it is and how, like, go through both sides of how it works?

Josh Ochoa (12:55)
Yeah, 100%.

So Drink Distro at its core level is an online wine and spirits directory that individual brands have the opportunity to list their current distributors across the nation. And then that's all in a searchable database that any bartender, sommelier, beverage manager, retail buyer can go on, type in the brand, type the state that they live in, and it automatically pops out the exact distributor that represents them in their area.

and along with contact information and that kind of stuff. So really trying to kind of like bridge that gap, right? Where now if you have a question at two in the morning, you're not gonna call your sales rep and your sales rep may not even know, right? You're not gonna reach out to a veteran like myself and say, hey, do you know who has this? But you're doing inventory and you can type in this brand and we've seen it with 10,000 users so far in the past year.

they can type in a brand, find out exactly who it is and know exactly where to buy the products that they want. And the one, Distro has expanded beyond that. We can kind of talk about that here in a second. But what's been really impressive is that it's, it hasn't just been, you would almost think within the industry that it's the smaller brands, the lesser known brands that folks have a harder time finding. But.

Tito's vodka changed distributors in the last year, all the Brown Foreman products, right? We look at the stuff that's going on with Pronova, that's going to be dramatic changes here pretty soon. it's, yeah, and then all the distributor shifts. And that's the thing is, so, mean, Tito's vodka is the number one searched brand on our site, which means that Tito's vodka is literally losing sales, right?

Jessie Ott (14:18)
Mm-hmm.

And then RNDC and.

Where are they all gonna go? They gotta go somewhere.

Josh Ochoa (14:40)
every day, every week, every month, because people may not know who represents them in their area. And so it's the big companies and as well as maybe it's like New Oak vodka out of Texas, right? Somebody's in love with that brand, but they don't know who represents it. And so it's one of those things where now there's an opportunity and it kind of democratizes the information, I would say. So it's not about Tito's, everybody knows Tito's, right?

but they don't know who represents them in their area. Maybe folks don't know New Oak Vodka just yet, but they could still find the exact same information that they would in a matter of seconds with a quick search.

Jessie Ott (15:17)
Yeah.

Have you ever reached out or talked with Deborah Brenner and her platform?

Josh Ochoa (15:22)
No, I'm not familiar.

Jessie Ott (15:23)
So she started Women of the Vine a few years ago, and it's kind Women of the Vine and Spirits now. And she has a DEI platform that she put together two years ago, I think it is now. And it's basically a diverse platform for whether you're a woman, minority, whatever, brand owner. So if you're a buyer,

Josh Ochoa (15:29)
Okay.

Jessie Ott (15:49)
You could go on search her system and find it. Now, I don't know if she has it done down to the state level or not. don't know. I've never been on it, but that might be a great way to capture a bunch of brands and help her brands get more visibility in all the states.

Josh Ochoa (16:06)
Yeah, no, hundred percent. And so as, as time goes on, we're, building tons of partnerships. This year has been kind of the year of partnerships for drink distro. And it'll be one of those things where, I mean, you come and think about so many different avenues, right? So that.

Jessie Ott (16:19)
Yeah, LibDib,

I mean, it goes on.

Josh Ochoa (16:21)
Yeah, that would be a prime example. One, like tequila matchmaker, right? Which is great because if you're a consumer, you can go on, you can find the information and maybe you can find a retail spot that represents it. But I would bet you there's thousands of wholesale buyers that go to that website looking at tequilas. And it would be very easy to have a link to Drinkistro that says, hey, you want to know where to buy this for your bar? Click on this link.

Jessie Ott (16:25)
Yep.

Josh Ochoa (16:44)
Right. And there's so many different avenues, so many different places where this would make a ton of sense. there's a new hospitality management training group that I'm working with and they, they had this brilliant idea because they develop cocktail menus across the board for different, whether it's hotel chains or airport lounges and that kind of thing. And they're like, the great thing is we, come up with these awesome programs, but when we send them out to the different hotels.

the brands represented by two different distributors, 10 different distributors, 50 different distributors, how do we keep track of that information? And so DrinkDistro will soon have a management system where any marketing agency that's building cocktail menus or wine lists for national chains will be able to enter that information in and disseminate the information out to those individuals or those individual accounts. then now not only do you...

you give them the brands that you want to sell, right? Or that work well with the program. But now they know exactly where to buy them. So every launch is seamless. It's not people hunting down trying to find bottles right before launch time or whatever it is. You have product in hand when you're training the staff and training the managers. And so yeah, there's so many different aspects. And that's something where DrinkGestro has really grown less

I mean, again, the core is the directory, but it's really grown into an ecosystem. We can kind of talk about some more of the features on that too.

Jessie Ott (18:13)
Yeah.

Yeah. Cause I'm thinking wine searcher. How many people go to use wine searcher and see what the price is?

Josh Ochoa (18:16)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, yeah, 100%. Yeah, Wine Spectator, right? Chilled Magazine. Think about that right now, they have ads running in their magazines right now that wine buyers and spirits buyers and bartenders are reading every single day, right? And now that helps with brand awareness for the brand. But what if there was a QR code on each of those pages that told them exactly where to buy it in their area?

Jessie Ott (18:40)
Mm-hmm.

Josh Ochoa (18:44)
Now you've opened up a whole new avenue stream that now you're not just selling to the average consumer that reads Wine Spectator, you're selling to all the songs that read it every single month too, and all the restaurants that they're in, right? And so yeah, the access to information is one, I think it's really relevant, primarily because it helps take care of the folks that want it most, right? The brands that...

like I said, put their heart and soul into these things, and then the consumers that really want them. And the bridge between is the bartenders, the songs, the salespeople, the distributors, and that kind of stuff. if you can, if hopefully we can bridge that gap, then that just makes, it raises the water level for everyone.

Jessie Ott (19:26)
Yeah. And what is the cost?

Josh Ochoa (19:28)
Yeah, so for individual brands, again, trying to democratize information and make it accessible to everybody, there's a one-time $50 update for a brand to list. And what that allows them is to list all their distributors across the nation and gives them access to a few of the other features. So one, we have a producer voices page where individual brands can come on a couple of times a month, post small stories about what makes their brand really kind of cool and unique.

And the great thing about our producer voices page is it opens it up to any employee that works for the brand. So maybe it's the winemaker, maybe it's the lab tech that's doing something really cool with fermentation. Maybe it's the Cooper that's helping build barrels, right? There's all these different aspects to these different brands and it's rarely just the one person that gets their name in the article that makes it into the magazines, right? So producer voices gives an opportunity for everybody that helps produce a brand.

Jessie Ott (20:17)
Yeah.

Josh Ochoa (20:22)
to tell their story. The second facet is for that one time $50 update, you get access to the industry clubs that we partner with across the nation. So this is kind of where the tire really meets the road. so imagine you have your own tequila brand. Once you list in our site, you list the 10 states that you're in and the distributors that represent you. And now you go and you say, hey, you know what, I want to do a feature for the, I want to do a whole marketing spend in California. It's really real.

or I wanna be effective. So you could go on to drink distro and say, hey, you know what, I wanna partner with US Bartenders Guild chapter of San Diego and of Orange County and maybe even like the Los Angeles Tequila Club. You can pick a few different groups and you can say, hey, you know what, this is my tequila brand. I wanna focus on Cinco de Mayo events. I'm to spend $500, $1,000 a go and this is what I'd be interested in. And then my system.

sends it out to the individual volunteer chapter leads where they say, hey, you know what? That would be perfect. And now you have a T. Labran that's getting out in front of people that want to sell it. And now the clubs are getting support and ultimately pouring it off to consumers. So the benefit of that $50 is a lot. There's a lot packed into that. Something else is that, and as time goes on, hopefully our system grows with the brands. So that's the one time $50 update for the initial listing.

And then maybe in three years or five years, you've expanded to three other States, right? You come back, you do the $50 update, update your distributors list and you're off and running again. And for you, you're like, you know what, $50 to let people know in three or five States, that's nothing, right? And yeah, so, so hopefully it makes it really accessible. whether you're new old vodka or Tito's vodka, there isn't a reason why you shouldn't be listed.

Jessie Ott (22:03)
It's nothing. Yeah.

Interesting. So the guild then takes that money and can do sampling or they hire like a local sampling company or how does...

Josh Ochoa (22:21)
So, yeah,

so they host more events and things like that that are kind of more regional stuff. whether it, so you as your tequila brand could opt in and say, you know what, I want to do an educational piece for the club members, right? I'll have some, I'll be out in California and let's sit with them and talk about what tequila is, how it's produced, what makes ours unique, right? And now you have 30 to 50 people in the room that you're selling to that work.

Jessie Ott (22:27)
Okay.

Josh Ochoa (22:49)
at 30 to 50 different restaurants around Los Angeles or around San Diego, right? And they go out and they're inspired by what you're doing. So the odds are greater for them to bring in your product. So hopefully sell more product. But then too, a lot of these clubs hold festivals or different kind of bar crawls. There's all kinds of different things that these folks are doing on an annual basis and on monthly basis to help not only their members, but help

kind of their communities. And that's something that I see, especially with US Bartenders Guild, but there are so many different industry clubs out there. ⁓

Jessie Ott (23:23)
Yeah,

I mean, think of the NRA, the National Restaurant Association and all the local chapters. Yeah.

Josh Ochoa (23:27)
I'm concerned. Yeah.

Yeah.

Jessie Ott (23:30)
It's endless.

Josh Ochoa (23:31)
Well, that's

the thing is that there's just a big gap in between where the brands are and how they're connecting with consumers right now and definitely how they're getting information to wholesale buyers. And so if I can bridge that gap or if DrinkDistro can bridge that gap between wholesale buyers and brands, then and really make it where it doesn't matter if you're there used to be this whole

ideology that to be successful as a brand, you'd have to get with the biggest distributor and then you get the most distribution and so you sell the most cases and that kind of thing. And in the past couple of years, we've definitely seen the degradation of that, right? So we've seen the collapse of R &DC. We've seen some of the fragmentation and mergers and all of this transition that's been happening within, that's probably been a long time coming within our industry. And what that means is that,

for on a couple different levels that now the brands one either don't see the benefit with going with Big House to they feel like they can have a better connection, better opportunity by breaking up their distribution networks. So you look at Brown Foreman was prime example last year where they used to be with some of the biggest distributors across the nation. And then last year they're in a few different distributors just in Oklahoma alone.

And when a big company like that chooses to go that direction, that's not a mistake. They're thinking about these things in a really proactive way. And so the benefit is that now a lot of these smaller distributors that maybe have a little bit more regional effectiveness and the ability to tell personal stories and make proper connections and that kind of stuff. Now they're going to have access to some of these brands that will really put feathers in the cap.

Right? And I think even though the transition is very difficult right now for a lot of folks, I think it's going to be a really, really positive thing for the future. I think a lot of, a lot of brands are going to get a lot more recognition as time goes on, once they make it through. And I think a lot of distributors are kind of refocusing in terms of how they go to market and how they connect with wholesale buyers.

And I think on the wholesale buyer side, folks are looking more for authenticity. So they're asking the right questions about what different brands are, where they started, what makes them unique, maybe looking for new regions out there, right? Whether it's import wines or whether it's spirits coming from different countries, they're open to these different things if they have real value.

Jessie Ott (26:01)
Yeah. And what about other companies such as Crossroads Solutions, you know, as a data company that would be, you know, obviously the tier A companies would not most likely want to use my system, but is there a way for me to advertise or get in front of your user base from the supplier side?

Josh Ochoa (26:23)
Yeah, 100%. So DrinkDistro definitely has two prominent folks that it goes towards, right? So obviously the brands that are signing up. And so in the evolution of what DrinkDistro is now becoming is that, yeah, we offer kind of a link to different services that seem to make sense. And so when a brand is onboarded, they go through kind of a little funnel that gives them the option to say, hey, you know what? Maybe I'm looking for data information.

I want to be able to parse this stuff out and really understand where my cases are going and how to be more effective and how to be more profitable and that kind of thing. Or maybe I'm looking for a new brand ambassador, right? Maybe I'm looking for boots on the street to actually do help selling. Maybe I'm launching a new product and I need new bottle design, right? So we've got maybe, so we've.

Jessie Ott (27:10)
Yeah.

Josh Ochoa (27:14)
Again, we've got so many partners that are jumping on every single month that have all these skill sets. Maybe you need bottle images that actually work effectively in those magazines that you're advertising in, right? Maybe there's so many different levels of different services that we're kind of connecting brands with. And so that's been really, really great. Maybe it's that hospitality company. Maybe your tequila needs to get on some hotel lists, right? And they need somebody that...

tell you your story effectively. So, yeah, when brands sign up on the site, they get an option to all of our partners. Yeah, and very much, like Crossroads is a prime example of something where a brand may not even realize that they need it, but now they have a little bit more information on what it is and can dig a little further into it and then have a connection that we can actually make, right?

Jessie Ott (28:02)
Right. Yeah. No, definitely. That's really cool. So you are creating an industry ecosystem and it's agnostic on the size, which not very many platforms offer that.

Josh Ochoa (28:16)
Yeah, I think it's really important. Especially nowadays when money is driving money and technology, you're driving so many different things that I think, think the fact that a system like ours that opens it up to everybody, like again, it doesn't matter what size the brand is, right? It doesn't matter how big the restaurant or bar is. Like that, that information should be easily accessible in terms of bridging that gap. And again, there's so many great services out there on both sides.

right? So whether it's for brands with some of the features that we kind of talked about or with bartenders. So each the clubs, the industry clubs that we were talking about a little earlier, they each have a dedicated page on Drink Distro. And so as bartenders are searching the site, they have access to other features, right? And so they can find clubs in their area, find events that are going on or just ways to help support their community. And there's new features that are coming along.

We had the chapter lead from the bartenders guild in Austin had a great idea. And so there will be some extra new fun things that come down the road too to help bartenders out, Psalms out and that kind of thing.

Jessie Ott (29:20)
Very cool. I like how you're getting feedback and can pivot so quickly with these ideas. That's pretty fantastic because I'm sure if one chapter needs it, you know more other chapters are going to need it too.

Josh Ochoa (29:35)
Well, that's the thing is that it's just, there's not enough hours in the day to kind of connect with everybody that's, that's interested in, in partnering and finding effectiveness within what we're building. And, but as time goes on, like, yeah, it's, it's one of those great things about building something that, helps build bridges, right? Is that you start seeing more bridges that, that end up having an opportunity to get created. And when that information starts, when those people, that's the thing is it's.

connecting people. When that happens, that's where the real effectiveness comes in.

Jessie Ott (30:06)
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, the, the flood of ideas continue just to, you know, rush to my brain of how we could work together just because it's so dynamic. And, ⁓ you know, and it just, it seems, I don't want to oversimplify it, but it seems like a pretty simple process for both parts, both sides to go in, list your brands.

Josh Ochoa (30:17)
yeah, definitely.

Jessie Ott (30:28)
list are you do you get into pricing at all or is it just

Josh Ochoa (30:32)
So yeah,

again, I'm trying to keep it. So, the, the story I tell is that I try and make the, ⁓ the searchability for the lowest common denominator, right? I want a bartender who's three for net shots in doing inventory at three in the morning to be able to go onto the website, type in the brand, type in the state and find exactly the information that they need. And on the brand side, it literally takes less than five minutes to jump on.

list your distributors, send a new post, and connect with any chapters, industry clubs that you want to across the nation. You can do that all in less than five minutes. so, yeah, trying to make it as easy as possible, because one, these folks have real jobs that they're doing. Their days are filled up with other stuff. And so the benefit on both sides is one, that for the brands, that five-minute investment

means that your information is accurate, it's out there, it's always available 24 hours a day, right? And then on the buyer side, whether it's a retail buyer that just got in at nine in the morning, whether it's a bartender that's up super late, right? Maybe they saw something in a magazine, a brand that they wanted to buy, but now they have an avenue that's accessible all the time that they can do a quick search and find that out.

So yeah, just trying to keep things as simple as possible. yeah. to, so in regard to pricing, so we don't jump into pricing. We don't do sales. There'll never be a checkout system. Like we're, we want that bartender or some to reach out to their sales rep. We don't want them to connect with their person at their distributor. Right. And so we don't even break it down to individual skews. So sizes of bottles and things like that, there's, there's so much.

Jessie Ott (31:58)
Could a bartender?

Josh Ochoa (32:23)
As you know, you know better than everybody. There's so much information in that. And so the general consensus that came to is that if somebody represents one size or flavor of a brand or a varietal of a winery, then they're going to represent, then a distributor is going to represent pretty much that whole portfolio. There, there's a few exceptions here and there, but generally speaking, it's been really, really good.

Jessie Ott (32:27)
huh.

Yeah, that's really cool. And is there any costs for the bartender or the bar side?

Josh Ochoa (32:58)
No,

those folks are strapped enough. they, yeah, they don't, there might be some services down the road, in terms of things like that, but really this, this surface is really to help out wholesale buyers. Right. And so there's different things that will come down the road in terms of maybe there's, there's staff training, how to be a better bartender. There's, there'll be all these different tools that will be accessible and.

Jessie Ott (33:01)
Yeah.

Josh Ochoa (33:23)
some of those things will be sponsored by individual whiner spirits brands, right? And so the brand gets their face out there, but the bartenders ultimately benefit. so, and then as time goes on, hopefully the end consumer gets the bulk benefit of everything, right? So now they have a bartender that has a little bit more education, knows a little bit more depth of stories. I mean, think about that producer voices page where say somebody falls in love with your tequila and you

been posting stories two times a month for the past year. Now that bartender can go on and in a matter of minutes, read some cool stories about what happened, about where you get your agave, what's really cool about the yeast that you use in fermentation. Like all these little bits that you posted in less than a minute or two, right? Now all that information is going straight into a bartender that wants to tell the story at the bar.

And how many people do bartenders touch? How many folks go into restaurants and Psalms recommend bottles, right? What if they had a story that normally would have never left the winery and now you have a thousand Psalms across the nation telling this very personal, very real story to help convey the authenticity of what you're producing. Like it's incredible stuff.

Jessie Ott (34:40)
So if I'm a bartender and I go on the system and I'm looking for

I don't know, doesn't matter, whatever type. Can they search by other things just besides the brand name? I'm asking because the second part of that would be, they request it to the supplier to get into the state?

Josh Ochoa (34:52)
So.

Yeah, 100 % great question. Yeah, so as of right now, we're still developing kind of like a filtering process because it can be very messy. so, yeah, so that's coming. That'll be one of the features that hopefully launches by year end where it's a little bit more, you're talking about a little bit more about discovery, right? So now you just, you found the brands that you want, but now you have a spot for something else on your list.

Jessie Ott (35:22)
Yeah.

Josh Ochoa (35:29)
and you don't know what you want to do. And maybe it's something where maybe you want to find, you really want to work with a woman owned or a minority owned brand or a veteran owned brand. Maybe those are categories that you really want to do. so that stuff, one, again, it's a lot of data to manage and two, to make it effective for searching. so that, yeah, again, we're building that. And so that'll definitely be a facet that comes down the road.

Jessie Ott (35:54)
Okay. And if, and in terms of the, is there a direct connect between the brand and the bar person? So can they connect to XVodka brand and say, Hey, ⁓ you're not in Texas. We need you here now. Can that happen? Because, you know, if a brand could get that kind of traction, a distributor is going to love it.

Josh Ochoa (36:11)
Yeah, 100%.

Yeah, no, there's all kinds of marketing kind of like data that we're building in the background. And yeah, that's that stuff that we have higher end portfolio plans for companies that represent more than say like three to five brands to help them manage. But then they also have some market data and market analysis that helps so they can see where their brand is being searched and where maybe they're having some opportunities. So if you're a brand

represented in Ohio someplace, but you're tons of searches for your brand. Maybe your distributor is not the right distributor, right? Maybe you need to hire an extra salesperson out there to make sure that everybody knows where to buy you, right? So it's one of those things where the information has been really interesting because it's so proactive compared to what the industry is using right now. A lot of folks are like, well, we found out last month that

Well, we found out this month that our sales were down last month. And the way Drink Distro works now is like, hey, people are searching for your rent right now. Here's how to be effective now. Right? And so it's not that you're trying to react and plan based on past information. You have stuff that's current. And so to your point, if there were quite a few people that were searching in Texas, right, but you were thinking of expanding into Louisiana.

Maybe you're like, you know what, nobody's searching for us in Louisiana, but Texas seems like a hotspot. Let's go. Right. And that helps you in a big way in terms of the direction of where you're planning and how you're going. And then we have to remember that there's, quite a few control States in our country. Right. And so it's one of those things where brands actually have to be approved. They have to be approved by the state themselves. Who's going to do the selling. And usually they're a state won't bring in a brand.

if they don't have enough evidence that that brand is relevant. And so a drink distro gives the opportunity to say, hey, you know what? Let me show you the data because people are literally searching for this brand. And if 10 retailers, 50 retailers, if a hundred retailers are looking for this brand, then it behooves the state to bring it in, right? And now you have information as opposed to like, well, maybe it'll be successful. we get that you want the brand to be in our state.

But now you have actual evidence that says people are looking for this. Let's make them sell something. Let's make use of money as an estate and let's benefit the brand.

Jessie Ott (38:31)
Right. Yeah.

So are you sharing that information with the suppliers then?

Josh Ochoa (38:40)
So not yet, ⁓ again, we're almost, let's see, fact, I think it might be tomorrow, might be a year in for our project. And so, yeah, think tomorrow's our anniversary. so, yeah, yeah, yeah, so, well, there you go, so celebrate for today. so, yeah, the whole time we've been gathering all this information, all this data, and so it will be accessible in a way, we're just trying to figure out the best way to get that information.

Jessie Ott (38:48)
Okay.

Congratulations, that's exciting. It's my wife's birthday.

April 10th.

Josh Ochoa (39:07)
available and make it digestible, make it usable. Yeah, and then have to go against too.

Jessie Ott (39:11)
Yeah, ⁓ I would-

I would love to have that data and work with you on that if you think it's, if it'll help you. Yeah, because we can create dashboards for all your suppliers.

Josh Ochoa (39:20)
Yeah, 100%. It's definitely a conversation we need to have.

Right? Yeah, yeah. And that would

be an easy thing where I just send you the data, you make it look pretty and organisable and yeah.

Jessie Ott (39:34)
Yep.

Yeah, that would be really fun. That would be so much fun. I'm such a nerd.

Josh Ochoa (39:41)
Yeah.

Yeah,

that's cool because it's good to be nerdy about the data because that's more nerdy about the personal connection and bridging those gaps and that kind of thing. yeah.

Jessie Ott (39:48)
Right.

Yeah. Because

we could also overlay the Circana data with it.

Josh Ochoa (40:00)
Truly. Again, like, I think it's one of those things where every conversation that I have, whether it's a brand rep that's wanting to list on the site, whether it's somebody, a supplier who represents lots of brands, whether it's even like a distributor representative that has questions about how it works and where they fit in the whole puzzle, is that when you start expanding beyond what

Jessie Ott (40:01)
And yeah.

Josh Ochoa (40:25)
And I think this is true for a lot of folks that are doing innovative stuff within our industry is that when you start looking beyond what is the tools that we had accessible to us in the past, the world grows and there's really no limits of how amazing this can be and how beneficial it can be for brands and for buyers and everybody that helps support them, right?

And like you said, the mind reels with different ideas that in terms of expansion and partnership and connections and benefits. So there's, I have a little, I wrote down a few different lines about a month ago of my, big dream aspirations. And so that that's a whole nother. Come back to me in five years and we'll revisit the idea, but it'll be maybe this is like a.

Jessie Ott (41:06)
Maybe they're the similar to mine.

Josh Ochoa (41:13)
global benefit kind of thing. And so, we just gotta work up to that kind of stuff. But I see really, really positive stuff across the board, specifically for our industry.

Jessie Ott (41:19)
Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, being that I'm, you know, a managing partner of specialty brands, getting access to these export markets and buyers is not that dissimilar. So I could totally see this growing and working with different duty free organizations, you know, around the world. You know, one of our main focuses is on border stores because there's literally a border store from the tip of South America all the way to the top.

and they do about a billion dollars a year. And that's not any, that's not a product that you need to even have registered with them. They just buy it straight up. And it's, it's, it's a great opportunity. And, and I think, you know, bridging all those gaps could be very interesting. you know, getting buyers is, you know, as well as, you know, I know that the you've gone the bartender route, but

Josh Ochoa (41:55)
Yeah, 100%.

Jessie Ott (42:10)
It'd be interesting to see if would the total wine buyers find that interesting. Could that be, there's a whole other buying entity out there, not just bartenders or restaurant owners.

Josh Ochoa (42:22)
Yeah, there's a whole world out

there, right? Yeah. then, so not only within different levels, whether it's consumers or wholesale buyers and that kind of stuff, but you got to start looking at other countries too, because there's a whole world that's coming online and the United States wants to send their brands over to...

right? And they want to make sure that those brands are available and easily accessible. We've already had some folks reach out about moving or expanding Drink Distro into Asian countries. They're like, you know what, we have amazing brands over here, but people don't know who represents them or where to find them. And then the EU is the same way. There's places in France that they're still working off of paper books that are going around of lists of brands and that kind of stuff. And so

Jessie Ott (42:39)
Mm-hmm.

Yep. Yep.

That's what Duty Free does. They have books. They have online, but they have they print books.

Josh Ochoa (43:05)
That does.

Yeah, a hundred percent. so it's just one of those things where, right? And so it's just one of those things where that information is so, it becomes dated, right? The benefit of this is that the information is owned by the brands. It's controlled by the brands themselves, right? So now you have your tequila brand or somebody else owns their winery. And as opposed to you going with the distributor and hoping,

Jessie Ott (43:11)
I have a whole stack of them somewhere in this house.

Yeah.

Josh Ochoa (43:38)
that the salespeople are telling who represents them or hoping that the information is out there somewhere on their website and not outdated or hoping that it's not on your old distributor's information site giving the wrong information. Now you as a brand can control it in seconds and now you know the information is out there, you know that it's accurate and you know that buyers can find you. So, yeah.

Jessie Ott (43:50)
Right.

Control it.

So

I definitely, you've obviously filled a gap in our industry, but I'm curious to understand how you did the marketing. Did you start with the guilds to get some feedback on if this is something that would be beneficial to them?

Josh Ochoa (44:19)
No. So one, knew just working in the industry for so long, I knew that there was a need. but then in terms of kind of getting the idea out there, so one, working with a distributor for 12 years, you get to know a lot of people in a lot of different regions. And so when I first started the project, I reached out to a ton of folks that I'd worked with that I had connections with and basically said, Hey, we all know this is an epidemic.

Jessie Ott (44:26)
Right.

Yep.

Josh Ochoa (44:44)
And here's the solution. Let me know what you think. And so there was a lot of, a lot of growth, we'll say, that happened in that time in terms of getting a little battered and a little bruised and learning the best way to go to market and make the site effective and collect the information that was necessary and that kind of stuff. So there was some growing pains, I'd say. But that was, but it was all industry folks that I knew. So they were.

willing to be honest and believed in what I was doing. And then in a small way, just started getting information out there to bartenders that I knew. Made sure they were happy with it. Started doing a little bit more on Instagram. One thing that is great about our industry, so it's double edged sword. When you're trying to get yourself into an industry is one.

that it's very tight knit, it's very recommendation based, it's very relationship based in terms of how our industry operates. And that's truer than ever with bartenders and soms and things like that. so the word of mouth has been the biggest thing. There's been, we have our Instagram page and we help highlight different ⁓ aspects of helping out bartenders and wholesale buyers and that kind of thing with that realm. But...

word of mouth has been the biggest piece. And so it makes a lot of sense for, then eventually that led to kind of the industry clubs facet. I was like, Hey, who's somebody that has connection to a lot of these folks and that they want brands to connect with them. They want to build these relationships, right? To host more events, to take care of their members more, to take care of their computer communities better. And

So yeah, and then on the brand side, brands have connections with lots of different folks in restaurants where they want to host wine dinners and that kind of thing. So it's really been, one, I think folks are really receptive to the problem that it's solving, the solution that exists. And so they're as excited as we are about kind of telling folks about it.

Jessie Ott (46:47)
Very cool. Well, 10,000 users in a first year is a clear indication that there's a need for it. I mean, which is just awesome. congratulations on that. That's pretty awesome.

Josh Ochoa (47:00)
Thanks. Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's been, yeah, one, the adoption was, was really, really quick. And so we're actually expanding into getting more brands listed and finding new avenues. So here in the coming year, we're to help kind of sponsor some different like barter events and some events and find some foundations and things like that to team up with to help get the word out there as well. Yeah.

Jessie Ott (47:23)
Yeah, for sure. Well, I can certainly help with Thursday, Thursday and I need to get my newsletters back up and rolling here. So that would certainly be a benefit to many people that have been on the podcast. Because you do all beverages, right? Sake, non-alcoholics, RTDs, all the things.

Josh Ochoa (47:43)
Yeah.

Yep. All the things. If you're in the Bevelk world, even if you're Mocktails and RTDs and non-Alks, mixers, yeah, that kind of stuff. you're in something that needs to be in a restaurant or a bar, then that's what we manage right now. We've had some folks already reach out to us about trying to figure out sodas and that kind of thing. And I'm like, I'm not sure if we're jumping into that realm just yet, but...

Jessie Ott (48:07)
Yeah.

Josh Ochoa (48:08)
But

yeah, as of right now, especially with the fact that alcohol and its adjacent things are so well regulated, that that information is that much harder to find.

Jessie Ott (48:16)
Yeah, agreed. Yeah, 100%. Yeah. Okay. Well, Josh, this has been so much fun. Did we cover everything you think?

Josh Ochoa (48:26)
I so. Yeah, I would just say for brands that get an opportunity to see this and go check out the site, check out the brand portal. It has a bunch of information about the benefits of what it is. I I think one thing that's you kind of pointed out is the simplicity of the idea means that it just makes sense for everybody. There's no reason that any brand that every brand shouldn't be on BrickDistro in terms of

I mean, if you want, unless you didn't want to sell your product, if you don't want to sell your product and you don't want people to know where to buy it, don't worry about Green Crystal. But if you're interested in getting your information out there, then go check out, spend the two minutes to check it out, spend the five minutes to get set up. yeah, and then for anybody on the buyer side. So if it's a bartender, some retail buyer, beverage director,

hotel management group, whatever you want to do, go check out the site because there's some really cool features on there and there's going to be more as time goes on. So all kinds of fun stuff, think, ahead.

Jessie Ott (49:25)
Yeah.

Yeah. No, this is, this is very exciting. I'm so glad I got to meet you at the, at the ground level and, and hopefully we can, we can cross, cross paths on this a little bit and ⁓ yeah, cross our roads together. Jump across to the other side. Yeah. Cause there's a big international impact on this too, because I, I do, I do think that

Josh Ochoa (49:37)
crossroads.

We'll see you.

Jessie Ott (49:49)
Well, brands internationally want to be in the US, right? And vice versa. And so I think there is, there are importers and there are websites, I think, that are out there, but nothing this simplistic or easy accessible without the cost. And I could be mistaken by that. I haven't done any research in that in a long, long time.

⁓ on what's available, but I definitely think that there's a big opportunity to go outside of US too.

Josh Ochoa (50:21)
Yeah, 100%. I appreciate that.

Jessie Ott (50:23)
Yeah. Well, Josh, it's been fun. As Howard says, you said it all. Although I didn't ask personal questions like he does, obviously. That's not what this podcast is about, but I just think that's fun to say. But ⁓ anyway.

Josh Ochoa (50:26)
Yeah.

Yeah, we'll do

personal questions on the next one.

Jessie Ott (50:40)
There you go. I have no Howard Stern. I do not mean to imply that. He's such a great interviewer. So anyway, well, thank you again. I love the product. I think it's filling a huge gap and congratulations to you and your team. It's pretty remarkable.

Josh Ochoa (50:56)
Well, thank you so much. Yeah. And we really appreciate what you're doing here. And thank you again for the opportunity to kind of help spread the word because that's one of the things is just doing our best to help the industry and help brands out there and buyers alike.

Jessie Ott (51:08)
Yep. Sounds great. I'll do whatever I can to help.

Josh Ochoa (51:11)
Alright, sounds great.

Jessie Ott (51:13)
Okay. Thanks Josh. Bye.

Josh Ochoa (51:14)
All right, have

a blessed one. Bye.