Elixir Kombucha is an award-winning kombucha brand based in Louisville, Kentucky. Fueled by a mission to inspire healthy change, we craft delicious, approachable kombucha flavors, including Lavender Lemonade, Blueberry Pomegranate, Grapefruit, Pineapple Ginger, and rotating seasonals.

My wife Danielle and I founded Elixir in 2016. We were inspired by my aunt, who had started home-brewing kombucha a few years prior. We were fascinated with the process of this hands-on, home-brewed, fermented tea that had naturally occurring probiotics and organic acids in it. She sent us home with a culture (kombucha is made with a batch of sweet tea in a living culture called a SCOBY) and some instructions to make our own home-brewed kombucha.

Fast forward a couple years, our homebrew craft had developed significantly, and we were making kombucha that tasted better than the store-bought brands. Bottles of our homebrew exchanged hands. One homebrew bottle made it into the hands of a local juice bar owner. She offered us a spot on her shelves if we made it in a commercial facility.

We knew, starting off as a David and Goliath story, that we had to create the best, most authentic, and trustworthy products, because we couldn't compete on price. We went out of our way to become USDA certified organic, which was not easy to do. We also have a story that connects to real events and a real place, and we can talk about the terroir of our farmland that grows our product in a way that other brands cannot. Everything we do comes from wanting to hit that top mark and be the premium option.

We didn't have an entrepreneurial background or education in business, but we decided to give it a shot. In 2016, we signed a lease on a Louisville-based kitchen incubator called Chef Space. Then we started figuring out how to make the product on a commercial level and everything else that comes with running a business.

In 2022, we saw a surge in demand. Wholesalers and retailers were asking us if they could carry Elixir. We were the number-one selling local-based kombucha across Whole Foods Midwest, which is a huge region. When Whole Foods shared their data, we were floored—we had no idea. But if Whole Foods were to greenlight us for expansion, we couldn’t have handled even one additional store, let alone a whole region.

Capacity issues had caused us to turn away a lot of business in the last two years. Finally, we decided to level up the business and finance an expansion.

With that, we became the only kombucha brand in the state to talk to banks about funding our expansion. But banks didn't care about our growing waitlist, strong unit economics, or the fact that we’re an award-winning brand. All they wanted to know was that if we went belly up, they could get their money back.

On the other hand, we’re also not a high-growth, high-tech business suitable for private venture capital. We're a CPG—we're never going to have 85% margins. And despite our strong unit economics, we'll never scale like a software business.

That road to funding our expansion came to a dead end. We thought, “Surely there's someone out there who would like to fund an exciting brand and a growing category.” That’s when we met Render and Wefunder, through the recommendation of our lead investor, Gill Holland.

The reasons for using Wefunder were many. We've got a product that's already on shelves and a strong local following, starting to break into a small regional following. We thought maybe some of these folks who were subscribing to monthly kombucha boxes on our website or cleaning out the shelves at Whole Foods or Rainbow Blossom (a local natural food market here in Louisville) might be interested in investing in Elixir as well.

We launched on Wefunder on January 1st, 2023. Once we raised $20,000 from our community, Render matched $20,000. So we instantly doubled our total raise, which was really exciting. It helped us come out of the gate with momentum and bring more attention to the campaign.

Then, we hit Render’s $420,000 threshold ($400,000 raised, minus their initial match of $20,000) to access the next $80,000 in matching funds. The due diligence on that portion was more in-depth. We had many conversations with Render, providing them updates and quarterly reporting, such that they knew Elixir really well by the end.

In total, we unlocked $100,000 through the Render–Wefunder match. The Elixir team was thrilled to have accessed these matching funds. Not only does it mean additional runway for growth, but it's also a partnership with a trusted institution.

The capital that we raised through Wefunder allows this grassroots, homegrown, bootstrapped brand to improve the lives of more folks through gut health. It gives us resources to expand to our new space, ramp up production, bring on new distribution points, and take Elixir to the next level.

We’ll be able to take on distribution opportunities, including a Whole Foods expansion and a local Kroger launch. We’ll be able to expand our Monthly Booch Box program, which is our direct-to-consumer monthly kombucha subscription. We’ll be able to build a team that can support Elixir's production and growth.

Ultimately, our goal comes back to being in West Louisville. We want to be a force for good in this area, create job opportunities, and eventually provide a cool space where people can enjoy nonalcoholic, gut-friendly products and hang out. There aren't many places down here, or even in the region, that give the community that opportunity.

We have a big vision, not only for growing our brand beyond Louisville, but also to heavily focus on our neighborhood, which has been underserved for so long. At the same time that we're expanding, we want to remain hyper-focused locally, too.