Episode 53

053 | Nailing Your City (Distribution) Strategy: How to Transform Brand Momentum into Velocity in the right venues | Part 2/2 with Justin Medcraft, Founder of Mate Maker (Los Angeles, CA, USA)

In Episode 053, I continued the conversation with Justin Medcraft from Episode 052, so feel free to listen to that as well. He is the Founder of Mate Maker Hard Kombucha.

He brings a wealth of previous experience in Spirits and Beer. We discussed building demand for a start-up drinks brand, standing out amongst a sea of products, and focusing on building momentum.

I hope you will enjoy our chat.


One last thing: If you enjoy this podcast, you will also like the MAFFEO DRINKS Guides. You can subscribe free or paid on maffeodrinks.com


Time Stamps

0:00 Intro

0:24 When To Open New Markets

10:31 Community Driven Marketing

15:45 Growing From Your Community

18:33 Getting The SKU In, Increasing Rotation

26:33 Advantages Of Small Brands

36:19 Discipline

39:15 Contacts

39:54 Outro


About The Host: Chris Maffeo

About The Guest: Justin Medcraft

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About the Podcast

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The MAFFEO DRINKS Podcast
Brands Are Built Bottom-up.

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About your host

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Chris Maffeo

With 20 years of experience working for some of the biggest drinks brands across 30+ markets, I've developed a unique understanding of how brands grow in today's market.
Now, I help drinks brands build sustainable growth through bottom-up demand creation.
My methodology focuses on how brand demand spreads - from initial venue adoption to international expansion.
I teach brands how to create, convert, and sustain demand across the three critical stages of growth: from one bottle to one case to one pallet.
My expertise lies in understanding how brands grow through genuine advocacy, from bar to bar, city to city, and building foundations that enable natural scaling.
Through consulting, training, and speaking engagements, I help brands:
• Build sustainable demand from the ground up
• Systematize their approach to building brands city by city
• Navigate the path from local success to international growth
• Develop strategies based on occasions rather than demographics