Ellie Webb Of Caleño: Five Things I Learned As A Twenty-Something Founder

As a part of our series called “My Life as a TwentySomething Founder”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Ellie Webb, CEO and founder of Caleño.

Ellie Webb is CEO and founder of the award-winning no-alcohol spirit brand Caleño. Ellie founded the brand in 2018 and since then has seen it boom. In the past year Caleño has achieved triple digit growth and expanded into five European countries as a result of its huge popularity in the UK market.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! What is your “backstory”?

I was born in Kent and have a Colombian passport. My mum is Colombian and when I was younger, she would take my sisters and I for long summer holidays to Colombia to visit family. I absolutely loved seeing my family when we were there; speaking Spanish and getting immersed in the culture. Dancing to Latin music and eating delicious food!

I worked in the drink industry before starting Caleño and I really loved it. It’s a very social and fun space, especially when you’re young. I was rapidly approaching 30, and the boozy nights out had started to loose their appeal. I wanted to take that next step in my career, and felt I wasn’t being challenged enough where I was. As a marketeer I was keen to show I could grow a brand in the drinks space, but no company would give me a chance as I didn’t have direct “experience” growing consumer brands. I guess I decided to go out and create my own brand, and prove them all wrong.

Can you share the funniest or most interesting story that happened to you since you started your company? What lessons or takeaways did you take out of that story?

Agreeing to stock 500 Sainsbury’s stores when I had zero bottles and no bottler.

When I was first getting ready to launch the brand into Dry January, Caleño’s company consisted of just me. I remember getting a phone call just before Christmas from Sainsbury’s saying they were interested in growing their non-alcoholic drinks range, and had heard about my product. At this point I was getting ready to batch-up my first 1,000 bottles, so I sent them in some samples and waited to hear back.

In the meantime, my first batch of 1,000 bottles turned out to be a complete disaster. The guys labelling them had done it in the freezing cold, and the bottle labels came back with loads of imperfections and air bubbles, which wasn’t great considering this was a premium bottle and price point.

Shortly after, I heard back from Sainsbury’s. They loved my brand and liquid, and wanted to put it into 500 of their stores from 1st March. I knew this was a once in a lifetime opportunity, so despite the fact I didn’t have enough stock yet, and I’d have just a few weeks to find a few bottler, I said yes, and have never looked back since. They immediately grew to be our biggest customer and we still trade with them today.

What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?

What sets Caleño apart from others is our mission, which we’ve clearly and distinctively defined. We as a brand, exist to show people they can have fun when they choose not to drink. In order to deliver on that mission, we are 100% set on delivering joyful experiences when it comes to non-alcoholic drinks and cocktails. There has traditionally been a massive stigma around being the one who’s “not drinking” and being labelled as a the boring one, and we are here to disprove that entire theory. That means we tend to dial up the volume on high-tempo activities like dance workouts that make the most of feeling fit and healthy without the booze. We also throw really awesome parties, which usually involve, lots of music, dancing and delicious cocktails. Then you have our bottles themselves, which are super colourful, vibrant and stand out from the crowd.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?

It’s not just one person, but I’m incredibly grateful to my immediate family which include my mum and dad and two sisters. When I first told them I wanted to start this business, they were incredibly supportive, so much so that they actually got stuck in and helped me get started. Leading up to the launch, it was a lot to manage by myself, so they came along to events and trade shows, helped me pack boxes and label products. Without their support, I could easily have given up and never launched, but knowing they were behind me every step of the way helped massively.

Are you working on any exciting projects now?

Yes, right now we are in the midst of planning and executing our biggest ever integrated Dry January campaign called ‘Shake It Up’ which went live in December, just in time for Dry January starts. The campaign aims to encourage people to shake up their attitudes to not drinking and involves a lot of “firsts” for the business which is always exciting, and we are showing up in a way we’ve not been able to do for the past 18 months. We are taking a Caleño branded bus on tour in the UK to three key cities and will be distributing over 15,000 free Caleño cocktails to shoppers. We will also be running our biggest ever advertising and social media campaign at the same time. Dry January is such an important month for our brand as its when most people have eyes on this category, after potentially overindulging at Christmas. We generally find that first time customers who discover us in January, then stick with their healthier habits throughout the rest of the year. Not necessarily complete sobriety, but certainly cutting back on mid-week (alcohol drinking).

How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?

I’d like to think Caleño plays quite a large role in helping people make positive steps towards balance their relationship with drinking. A lot of our customers are a little disillusioned with the negative impacts of drinking to excess, and so have made the decision to drink less alcohol, but don’t want that to compromise their social lives. I often speak to our customers, and so many of them tell me how much Caleño has helped them to reduce their alcohol consumption, or cut it out all-together, and how much better they feel for it. A lot of the benefits I’ve heard include, better sleep, increased proactivity during the day, less hangovers, and anxiety and better decisions. Overall, I know Caleño and the no & low drinks category a as a whole is having an overwhelming positive impact on people’s drinking habits, and will continue to do so for years to come

Do you have a favorite book that made a deep impact on your life? Can you share a story?

Joyful — The surprising power of ordinary things to create extraordinary happiness by Ingrid Fetell Lee

I read this book before launching Caleño. It’s all about finding joy in the world around us, and surrounding ourselves with it. Given the past year or so, and everything that’s happened, I think we could all do with uncovering those small joyful moments, and surroundings us with things that can bring us a little more joy day-to-day. When people join our company, I give them this book to read, and it helps you realise how small moments of joy in your everyday can ladder up to a better and brighter way of living.

Can you share 5 of the most difficult and most rewarding parts of being a “TwentySomething founder”. Please share an example or story for each.

Working with great people — this has got to be the most rewarding part of my job. I get to work with people everyday that I’ve chosen to work with, and are passionate about our mission. The average person will spend 90,000 hours at work over their life time, and I want to make those hours count, working with people I can learn and grow from, and hopefully give back to.

Being creative — my favourite parts of building the Caleño brand, have always been the creative parts. This is where I and a lot of people get the most energy. We take the approach that many heads are better than one, so when we are ideating, we work together as a team to build upon ideas. Often someone will have a great idea, but a few other people will come up with ways to make it even better, so make sure you give yourself the time and creative space to hone that process.

Acting fast — what I love about start-ups, is your ability to act fast. This is your secret weapon vs the big boys who often have to get through lots of red tape and approval processes. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say start-ups can make something happen in a matter of weeks, that would take most larger companies several months if not years. The best example is product innovation, we were able to launch our second bottle Dark & Spicy during lockdown, due to our ability to think fast and move quickly.

The long hours — there’s not getting away from it, running your own business is hard work, and takes a hell of a lot of commitment and drive. It will impact on your personal life and will more often than not feel more like an obsession, then a business. Often this can be the difference between success or failure, so you’ve got to be ready to commit the time and head space.

What are the main takeaways that you would advise a twenty-year-old who is looking to found a business?

Find your passion. Find something you are truly passionate about, if you’re not passionate about it, then the tough times may prove to hard.

Soak up everything. Be a sponge; soak up as much information as you can and speak to as many people as you can who have been there and done what you are looking to do. They can often offer great advice and help you avoid costly mistakes.

Hire brilliant people. Lastly, when it comes to it, make sure you hire brilliant people, who share in your vision. You won’t be able to do everything yourself and you shouldn’t try to, so hire people around you that can propel your vision.

Who is the one person you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? You never know, he or she might see this…

I think I’d go for the Queen…. She’s what 95 now?! She’s seen so much in her lifetime, she lived through wars, many recessions and hard times and has met and probably lunched with a huge array of fantastic leaders. I think she’d have some fascinating insights and some incredible stories to tell.

What is the best way our readers can follow you on social media?

Head to @calenodrinks on Instagram, Facebook for all of our updates. You can also find me on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/caleno-ellie/.

This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for the time you spent with this!