ROCKET VODKA: An AIESEC US Alumni Story
ROCKET VODKA: An AIESEC US Alumni Story
By Kris Stafie (Seattle, AIESEC US) Article Originally published 05/17/2016
Dariusz Paczuski is up to some great things and I had the opportunity to catch up with him on the company he founded called Rocket Works. It’s the holding company for his advisory work and for Rocket Vodka. Dariusz was an LCP at Cal State Long Beach, VPHR of AIESEC US in 1991-92, and was elected the first non-US NCP of AIESEC US in 1992-93. He has chaired and spoken at numerous AIESEC conferences and events. He currently serves as a member of the JoAnn Boland International Scholarship Fund selection committee, which he encourages all alumni to give to as it is a very worthy cause! The goal is to raise $100,000 in order to make it a self-funding fund.
New for 2023 - To help with this initiative, your donations can earn you an opportunity to win a Rocket Vodka Launch Kit! For every $25 donation you make to the JAB Fund from now until April 15, 2023, your name will go into a raffle. Each time a total of $5000 in donations has been reached, Rocket Vodka will raffle off one Rocket Vodka Launch Kit (one bottle of Rocket Vodka, 2 mugs, and a shaker)! So if someone donates $100, they will get 4 entries into the raffle. If you donate $200, you will have 8 entries! You can donate here.
After AIESEC, Dariusz worked at GE and graduated from GE’s Financial Management Program, before moving on to global roles at NBC/MSNBC, Netscape, Aol, Tellme, Microsoft, Telenav, Yahoo!, Verizon, Malwarebytes, and Innovation Norway. When he left Telenav in 2014, it gave him the opportunity to really start thinking about an idea for a business that started a decade earlier. In his time off between a job search (before he joined Yahoo!) and doing the Santa Cruz ½ Ironman Triathlon, where he won his age group, he spent a lot of time percolating on his idea which was inspired by a ski trip with his friends in Tahoe. He thought skiing and vodka went hand in hand and wouldn’t it be great if he could have trips like this and a business that allowed him to spend time on the mountain and in the outdoors with family and friends, while doing something he enjoys which is in his Polish heritage.
After this idea came to him, it took about 5 years before he wrote on his to-do list 'write a vodka business plan’. That task still sat for a while until he had a career break and set out his marketing plan. Dariusz has broad marketing experience and believed that he could figure out what people wanted in a vodka. He focused on customer insights, competitive intelligence, and product innovation to find ways to differentiate in an intensely crowded category. After chatting with his neighbor, who is a VC/Entrepreneur and reviewing a helpful book called 'Just Start' Take Action, Embrace Uncertainty, Create the Future, he started to really believe and make progress on creating a vodka business. Dariusz has always been driven by a big vision. For those of us who know him, it will not surprise you, that life’s journey is organic and not a straight line: it’s all about the journey and not the destination. Sounds a little bit like AIESEC? Yep! He always had in the back of his mind the big picture of his vodka vision.
Dariusz started following thousands of vodka brands and spirit distillers on Twitter and Instagram to get smart on something he knew little about except some powerful childhood memories. He did vodka focus groups with his friends and blind tasted many vodkas. When they first started out they were not very good, but they eventually developed a palate for vodka and the nuanced differences between brands. He went on a vodka quest to Warsaw (where he was born) and over 10 days his goal was to find a ‘crusty old Polish guy making an amazing vodka’ that he could then redistribute here in the US and rebrand. Unfortunately, no old polish guy appeared, but he did notice an opportunity for apple-based vodka and that people were looking for a more organic, authentic experience in their alcohol – and not the industrial-grade manufactured spirits from cheap wheat, potatoes, or corn used by most major vodka brands. In fact, there is no major brand today using apples as a base. So he thought why not try it? It was not feasible to export out of Poland despite the major surplus of apples due to Russia halting imports of apples from Poland, so he set his sights on what he could do locally in California. In the US there has been an explosion of micro distilleries, from less than 20 in 2000 to over 1000 in 20 years. Dariusz sent out his proposal to 20 local distilleries and 5 said they would like to work with him on his proprietary formula. A distillery in El Dorado Hills, CA near Apple Hills and Lake Tahoe won the bid. They won Best Vodka at the 2015 American Distillers Institute Conference with their grape-based vodka. Dariusz now uses his own proprietary formula, which uses his father’s apple spirit. He recalls picking up the ground apples in Norway, which his mother would juice and his father would ferment and distill into a signature apple spirit. The smell of those apples fermenting and then the secret cellar distillation have indirectly inspired him in his recipe for this unique vodka from 100% apples.
More of the interview with Dariusz:
Rocket Vodka – how did you come up with the name?
My friend Andrew Gerstel gave me the nickname the Polish Rocket on a ski trip in Lake Tahoe. I like to ski fast. It stuck. I thought Polish Rocket Vodka sounded like a cool name. I like to keep things simple so I went with Rocket Vodka, which also represents what we’re all about: celebrating aspiration and achievement.
When did your business officially launch?
I launched the company in September of 2014, after leaving my previous company. I figured finding the next opportunity wouldn’t take up all my time so I decided to see how far I could take this crazy vodka concept. I got farther than I expected and we launched about 18 months later.
Why do you think it will be successful?
It’s an extremely unique vodka that people love and seems to be well-timed with where the spirits market is going, but honestly, I don’t (yet!). I think you rarely do when you start a new company or anything new for that matter. That said, I’ve done my best to understand and develop deep consumer insights and competitive intelligence – and use that to create a differentiated product, process, packaging, and positioning against the 1000s of other vodka and spirits brands.
What is the key to developing your own business?
Just start. My friend, neighbor, running buddy, entrepreneur, and investor Rob Meinhardt gave me the book ‘Just Start’. It’s a great handbook on entrepreneurship and starting companies. Then, work with a growth mindset. I’ve also blended my natural cultural values to stay sane, having low expectations (Polish/Norwegian) and high hopes (American). :-) I’d also add lots of experimentation and leveraging the resources you have. I used www.99designs.com to find Boris in Serbia to design our logo. I found an online ecommerce platform that enables people to buy at www.rocketvodka.com with local delivery. I constantly seek advice from my friends on everything, including social (we just passed 10,000 followers on Instagram and over 100,000 in total) and legal (my neighbor Romin is my lawyer).
What are your plans for expansion and growth?
During stage 1 we figured out all the steps to create and keep customers with our MVP (minimum viable process) approach, which was based on part-time people who worked on Rocket Vodka as a side hustle. For stage 2 we intend to raise funds to hire 2-3 full-time sales and service people to consistently do what we learned during the proof-of-concept stage. We’ve built product-market fitness and have a product and brand that’s ready to travel and scale around California, the United States, and around the world.
And most importantly, where can we buy it?
Rocket Vodka is available now for shipping around the United States at www.rocketvodka.com and specifically in California via K&L Wine (they deliver all around CA).
After interacting with Dariusz, I of course had to go buy the product and received the bottle in a few short days. He recommends shooting it straight from the freezer, sipping it in a large tumbler with a giant ice cube, or savoring it in a fresh juice cocktail. I had it straight from the freezer and also mixed it in a Lime Greyhound and it was delicious! Na zdrowie!
More about Rocket Vodka and Dariusz can be found here: