After just six months on the market, female-focused energy drink Gorgie is already finding its stride. The New York-based brand founded by Michelle Cordeiro Grant, who also founded and sold lingerie brand Lively in 2019, announced the close of a $6.5 million pre-seed funding round. And though Gorgie’s investor deck features a few familiar names as her first venture, no venture capital partners or formal institutions made the cut.
“GGV capital was my only VC [with Lively] and that really showed me that dynamic of when you have LPS behind a VC – there’s way more layers and way more expectation,” said Cordeiro Grant. “I just wanted things to be super simple [this time], so they came in under a vehicle as humans, not as VCs.”
Gorgie’s investors include Yossi Nasser, CEO at Gelmart International; Harvey Sanders, former board member of Under Armor and managing partner of GGV Capital; Andrew Abraham, founder and CEO of Orgain; Nancy Twine, founder and CEO of Briogeo Hair Care; Pete Lescoe, founder of Food Should Taste Good; Jason Cohen, former Halen Brands CEO; and Samuel Kestenbaum, the CEO behind Thinsters Cookies and ParmCrisps (now owned by Hain Celestial).
Cordeiro said that while that roster brings some “very helpful” financial support, every individual also serves a strategic purpose to growing the business. Additionally, their ties to the brand as humans, rather than as part of a larger investment vehicle, contributes to Gorgie’s community-built brand position. Cordeiro Grant said she even took that human-first approach when pitching this cohort, forgoing a formal deck and instead presenting herself.
“I am the deck,” she exclaimed. “If you’re investing in this concept – and it’s pre-seed – what’s the deck going to tell you that I’m not?”
With cash in reserve and experienced CPG execs backing the brand, Gorgie will continue driving brand marketing efforts, retail expansion, product innovation and adding key executives to its full-time staff.
The product is positioned as a better-for-you, vitamin and mineral-infused sparkling energy drink with ingredients like l-theanine, biotin and 150 mg of green tea-derived caffeine. Earlier this month, the brand doubled its debut lineup with the release of three new flavors: Mango Tango, Citrus Burst and Paradise Punch.
According to Cordeiro Grant, the business is already on track to clear seven-figures in sales this year and will be sold in 1,000 doors by the end of the summer. The brand’s launch coincided with the opening of the new Whole Foods at One Wall Street and has since expanded distribution to Albertsons, Sprouts and a range of regional retailers.
She believes the new funds will take Gorgie beyond the eight figure mark. It will also give them room to explore how to build the brand’s presence in natural, which by Cordeiro Grant’s standards means getting on shelf, staying on shelf, and remaining there for the long run.
Beyond the natural channel, she said that Gorgie will focus efforts on supporting its presence in “premium” venues, like health and wellness store Pura Vida or the offices of Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan. However, it is untapped, “exploratory channels” that gets Cordeiro Grant most excited.
“I have this strategy in my brain I call the ‘hurry up and wait [places],’ – all the places that we run to, to be on time, and then we sit and wait,” explained Cordeiro Grant. “Whether it’s a haircut or the dermatologist, manicure, sporting event, there’s so many ‘hurry up and wait’ places that you could sit down and have a cold Gorgie at.”
Cordeiro Grant’s idea of exploratory spaces also includes the beauty channel with the aim of eventually seeing the beverage available near checkout at Sephora or Ulta Beauty. “Right now we’re a fashion-inspired brand on a beverage shelf, but one day, I think we could be a beverage on a fashion shelf.”
The end goal however is to create something with brand power as strong as the likes of Nike or Ralph Lauren. She believes once strong brand recognition has been secured, Gorgie will have “permission” to make an impact beyond the $20 billion energy drink category.
“I get chills and tear up at the thought that one day Gorgie will be this word where anyone who sees it anywhere in the world is going to feel three things… good energy [and] happiness meets wellness,” she said. “We always want to be an energy drink first, but it’ll open doors to… impact humans with good energy. Of course, I also see it becoming the next billion dollar brand to upheave the beverage industry, and not just in the United States, but globally – world domination comes [next].”