Never take an entrepreneur or professional lacrosse goalie for granted! Pete Jokisch picked up his passion for tea playing college lacrosse. But his stint as a backup goalie on a professional lacrosse team gave him a lot of time to think and make tea. His teammates were his early customers to test out his blends. Teakoe is a Colorado brewed tasty, organic, and sustainably made tea beverage.
Pete has also mastered the science of selling a consumer product through the complex maze of food distribution. He maps out his strategy like an athlete or coach breaking down a gameplan.
"For us, in the beverage space, you have a number of opportunities, but with that comes challenges. When you are looking to grow your business is important to identify what are the channels you want to grow with it. As a small company, it's really hard to kind of dive into all three [channels]. We had to carve out the initial market for us where we can have success, build it out, and translate that success through all those channels."
Running Teakoe for over 10 years has made Pete a wily veteran. I asked him what advice he would give his younger self when starting out.
"Forget everything you thought you knew. The biggest thing for me is you kind of have these aspirations. You try and take on a lot of opportunities. You get distracted by opportunities that you feel could be good growth opportunities but may not be the best bet for the business. So staying laser-focused and really focusing on key strategies to grow the business."
This is sound advice from a former goalie that has learned to quarterback his company for the long term.
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