Waste World: Waste360 40 Under 40 Spotlight – Emily Darchuk

Yeah, you touched on a few things I want to come back to.

You keep using this, we do it, this is our why.

There's a little marketing thing that you go, this is our way.

There's W-A-T-Y, this is our way.

That's a fun one to send back to the team.

Okay, so challenges operating and getting things out beforehand.

When you're building a company like this and other people who might be in the same space, trying to do something similar, trying to make a difference, what are some of those challenges and obstacles you saw in those early days and how did you overcome those?

Yeah, I think just being steadfast in, like, your intention with it.

Like, when I first started, like, it was like, oh, you have to be a vodka.

And I was like, well, the world doesn't need another vodka.

Vodka, by definition, is stripping it to neutral.

And then it tastes like everything else.

And then you kind of lose some of that magic with it.

um i think the other thing too is just like whatever trends are it's like trying to fit that and it's really like where we saw we're like i think a lot of spirit and alcohol and essentially the food system was going, it's like, Hey, you're going to get to the point where you, we're going to have to preserve more water.

We have to have more valorization, you know, proteins becoming in more demand.

What are you doing with the rest? We saw where this trend was coming years ago when we started, but also we saw that like, hey like younger consumers aren't going to necessarily have that full bar they're not going to be able to invest in the same way they don't have the space they they want to be more mindful and what they drink and kind of trust it but also have their own creative touch so that whole like legacy thinking that i think when people start something it's like oh pattern match this By the time that's already a pattern, especially in this day and age, it's too late.

So figure out why, for me, going through even hard days or kind of the challenge of kind of staying true to our wayward ways is every bottle we sell, like, Fractured carb water footprint prevents gallons of food waste, connects people where their food comes, and, you know, supports domestic agriculture and valorizes that waste stream.

So, like, there's no reason why our model shouldn't be the status quo.

And things that don't think in that circularity should be the weird thing.

So just figuring out...

What gets you out of bed to keep going through the challenging times, but also like being bold enough to be like, this makes sense.

And if I'm successful, a lot of good cups.

So keep on keeping on.

Keep on keeping on.