Founder story
How to Build a Killer Impact Brand Without a Playbook
How to Build a Killer Impact Brand Without a Playbook
Most startup playbooks teach you how to build and scale from day one. But what if the best lessons come from the people who started with no playbook at all? Bridget Lansell is the co-founder of Wonki, a brand turning imperfect, soon-to-be-wasted fruit into fun, seasonal beverages. She and her co-founders had zero food and beverage experience when they started out, but that didn’t matter. They’ve hustled their way through supply chains, brand-building, and navigating a product built on seasonality. I sat down with Bridget to learn how they’re building the anti-doomsday impact brand around wonki (but delicious) fruit. Here are 5 things I learned about launching without a set plan, and why that might be your unfair advantage.
1. Relationships > everything
A TON goes into a can of Wonki (or any drink for that matter). From sourcing produce and juicing to packaging and shipping.
Bridget and her team knew they didn't have the resources to do all of this on their own, so they found the right partners to piece their supply chain together.
The one criteria they used to select the right partners?
Alignment.
Yes, price matters.
Yes, speed matters.
But choosing partners based on those metrics alone would have made the product worse and wouldn't have aligned with what Wonki stood for.
They took their time to find the people who believed in their mission, even if it meant slower production or smaller batches.
The result?
Longer relationships, more flexibility with seasonal ingredients, and easier changes to production schedules.
I'd take that over transactional partners any day.
2. The power of the beginner's mindset
For a team of first time founders, building a food and beverage business may seem like a tall task.
What I love about Bridget's story is that they found a problem they want to solve (food waste in Australia) and just went for it.
Not having built a business before (or figuring out supply chain management, perishable products, etc.) led them to just take action.
It was unpolished at first, but the more the Wonki team took scrappy action the more they figured out.
I'm sure some lessons were learned the hard way, but that's where some of the most valuable lessons come from.
Wonki is a perfect example of not needing to be an "expert" to start.
Curiosity and persistence can get you way further than waiting around to be an expert.
(side note: I had a Wonki yesterday and it's safe to say they're experts now)
3. Constraints breed creativity
Wonki's whole model relies on using surplus produce, which means they're working with whatever's in season.
That means that every flavor is a limited drop, directly tied to what's fresh right now.
Some might see that as a downside for the brand, most of the time you think of a brand there is a particular product you know you're going to get.
Rather than fighting this constraint, Wonki turned it into a strength, rotating flavors that feel like small-batch events.
This twist turns a bug into a feature.
What's better than literally seeing a brand walk the sustainability walk in their product line?
This helps build consumer trust and helps the brand tell their sustainability story even more effectively.
4. Sustainability is a storyline, not the punchline
Wonki is a purpose-driven brand.
Their customer base likely has many conscious consumers in it.
But sustainability typically isn't why people buy products (especially food and beverage).
And if they do, they're likely buying for the novelty and don't turn into repeat customers.
Wonki's angle is to lead with quality, interesting flavors, and a fun brand.
I've spoken with a handful of food and beverage founders and they all say the same thing.
You sell a product with quality first, then you can build brand affinity with your sustainability story.
P.S. If you're interested in this topic, I spoke in more detail with Jake Berber of Prefer Coffee, an alternative coffee company that runs completely on surplus ingredients.
5. Talk to everyone (literally, everyone)
In the early days, Bridget and her team were relentless about customer conversations.
They interviewed 150+ university students during their accelerator program.
They hung around wine and liquor stores interviewing shoppers and getting feedback.
They field tested different names and literally shaped their branding, packaging, everything, based on user feedback.
I love this because they didn't wait for some big launch to tell their story.
They treated every conversation as research, every sample as a test, and used that feedback to refine and design an awesome brand.
In a world of "X simple hacks to $100k" and "follow my foolproof 0 > founder blueprint", I'm finding it more and more refreshing to learn from real people on the ground, doing real work.
They didn't execute flawlessly, and that makes me like (and root for) them even more.
Their lessons were hard learned, successes hard won, and they had to be creative at every step of the journey to remain aligned to their values.
Those are the founders I want to learn from, I hope you do too.
1. Relationships > everything
A TON goes into a can of Wonki (or any drink for that matter). From sourcing produce and juicing to packaging and shipping.
Bridget and her team knew they didn't have the resources to do all of this on their own, so they found the right partners to piece their supply chain together.
The one criteria they used to select the right partners?
Alignment.
Yes, price matters.
Yes, speed matters.
But choosing partners based on those metrics alone would have made the product worse and wouldn't have aligned with what Wonki stood for.
They took their time to find the people who believed in their mission, even if it meant slower production or smaller batches.
The result?
Longer relationships, more flexibility with seasonal ingredients, and easier changes to production schedules.
I'd take that over transactional partners any day.
2. The power of the beginner's mindset
For a team of first time founders, building a food and beverage business may seem like a tall task.
What I love about Bridget's story is that they found a problem they want to solve (food waste in Australia) and just went for it.
Not having built a business before (or figuring out supply chain management, perishable products, etc.) led them to just take action.
It was unpolished at first, but the more the Wonki team took scrappy action the more they figured out.
I'm sure some lessons were learned the hard way, but that's where some of the most valuable lessons come from.
Wonki is a perfect example of not needing to be an "expert" to start.
Curiosity and persistence can get you way further than waiting around to be an expert.
(side note: I had a Wonki yesterday and it's safe to say they're experts now)
3. Constraints breed creativity
Wonki's whole model relies on using surplus produce, which means they're working with whatever's in season.
That means that every flavor is a limited drop, directly tied to what's fresh right now.
Some might see that as a downside for the brand, most of the time you think of a brand there is a particular product you know you're going to get.
Rather than fighting this constraint, Wonki turned it into a strength, rotating flavors that feel like small-batch events.
This twist turns a bug into a feature.
What's better than literally seeing a brand walk the sustainability walk in their product line?
This helps build consumer trust and helps the brand tell their sustainability story even more effectively.
4. Sustainability is a storyline, not the punchline
Wonki is a purpose-driven brand.
Their customer base likely has many conscious consumers in it.
But sustainability typically isn't why people buy products (especially food and beverage).
And if they do, they're likely buying for the novelty and don't turn into repeat customers.
Wonki's angle is to lead with quality, interesting flavors, and a fun brand.
I've spoken with a handful of food and beverage founders and they all say the same thing.
You sell a product with quality first, then you can build brand affinity with your sustainability story.
P.S. If you're interested in this topic, I spoke in more detail with Jake Berber of Prefer Coffee, an alternative coffee company that runs completely on surplus ingredients.
5. Talk to everyone (literally, everyone)
In the early days, Bridget and her team were relentless about customer conversations.
They interviewed 150+ university students during their accelerator program.
They hung around wine and liquor stores interviewing shoppers and getting feedback.
They field tested different names and literally shaped their branding, packaging, everything, based on user feedback.
I love this because they didn't wait for some big launch to tell their story.
They treated every conversation as research, every sample as a test, and used that feedback to refine and design an awesome brand.
In a world of "X simple hacks to $100k" and "follow my foolproof 0 > founder blueprint", I'm finding it more and more refreshing to learn from real people on the ground, doing real work.
They didn't execute flawlessly, and that makes me like (and root for) them even more.
Their lessons were hard learned, successes hard won, and they had to be creative at every step of the journey to remain aligned to their values.
Those are the founders I want to learn from, I hope you do too.
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thinkers, builders, and investors
