Today we’d like to introduce you to Sean Barber.
Hi Sean, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I’m a first-generation American, born and raised in Orange County, California but consider myself a full Texan now. Back in 2003 when I was an undergrad at the University of California-Irvine (where I met my wife and now have three wonderful children) I started a manufacturing company. The company would go on to make products for the Water, Agriculture, Liquid Storage, Oil & Gas, Trash, and Recycling industries. Notable companies that use my products include General Motors, Volkswagen Group, Waste Management, Waste Connections, Churchill Downs, Baker Hughes, Halliburton, Chesapeake Energy, and Augusta National Golf Club.
As a child of immigrant parents, I grew up seeing them work relentlessly to give my sisters and I a stable and happy childhood. They modeled to me the benefits of working hard, personal accountability and being honest with people. I’ve never lost sight of the sacrifices they made and what it took to be successful. They embraced the present with a focus that was utterly disciplined. These gifts have stayed with me and serve as my personal and professional compass.
In 2016, I decided to pursue an MBA at Cornell University, graduating in 2018. I did it partially for personal enrichment and as an example to my kids. I hope they look back one day as young adults and understand that no matter your station in life, education and personal improvement should be a lifelong pursuit in whatever form that takes. It was such a personal honor to give my parents my diploma so they could display it in their home.
A final requirement of the MBA program was to find a capstone consulting project with a company not located in North America. My team and I were happy and grateful to work with a Scotch company in Scotland. During this intense project, I learned the Spirits business pretty well. From technical understanding of Whisky making to distribution to branding and just how competitive it is. As is obvious with the project topic and location, I’ve had a natural inclination and curiosity towards the spirits business. I find it so exciting and typically surrounded by really happy, passionate people. I knew back in 2017 that I wanted to be a part of that industry and I started laying the seeds for my entry.
In 2019, the opportunity presented itself to sell and merge the manufacturing business I had founded decades earlier to my largest competitor. I had spent the last 15 years walking about 20K steps a day, building my business, setting up factories and making products the hard but right way. This commitment came at a high cost. Besides all the family time lost and vacations not taken, I had two surgeries in each foot and double knee surgeries, all before my 35th birthday from wearing my body out. I still live with minor residual physical pain but I don’t have any regrets. It’s the path I chose, and I did it vigorously and built a life for my family that I’m proud of.
In February of 2020, after years of background work, my wife and I started our Tequila brand: Verdadero. The name translates to “the truth” or “the real one”. We call it that because of the labored and traditional methods used to craft it in Mexico. The response we have received from the market has been very gratifying. We finally imported and launched the first batch of Tequila brands in August of 2021 in Austin metro. We focused on relationships with independent locally owned stores and went from zero to over 45 stores in about three months. My wife is the majority owner and a real star.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Nothing has been smooth.
Being an entrepreneur comes with very big asks. The amount of personal and professional commitment, risk tolerance and embracing of the unknown is too much for most to take on and understandably so. From 2006 to 2019, I didn’t take a vacation longer than three days. All industries are difficult, but manufacturing–the art of making something–has its own unique challenges and pains. It’s almost easier to list the struggles that I didn’t have than the ones I did.
Being very young and trying to maintain adequate cash flow just to cover the fixed costs of having a factory was difficult enough, let alone actually running the business and dealing with competitors. Challenges were plenty in the form of stable labor, equipment failure, larger competitors with scale, raw material price increases (in particular when Hurricane Katrina hit and shut down refineries affecting the plastics business), competitors trying to reverse engineer my products, ever-expanding variable and fixed costs, and the list goes on. The painful business experiences I went through made my MBA feel stress-free. The Tequila business, while very competitive, has benefitted from our experience and discipline that we have curated for two decades of gritting through and understanding what it takes to succeed.
I cannot overstate enough how crucial my wife was and is to my success. Times were tough for a very, very long time and all she asked of me was that her and the kids have clothes, food and a roof. No extra frills needed and nothing fancy. She let me go all-in on what I needed to do. Our values are aligned and in tune, she was and has been incredible. I tell people that I grew up on rice and beans and I’m still that simple guy. My wife is still the small-town girl where family is everything.
As you know, we’re big fans of Verdadero Tequila. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
It’s a locally owned Tequila that is family run. Recently, both our Blanco and Reposado Tequilas won Silver at the 2021 Las Vegas Global Spirit competition. I’m also close to all our retail partners, as the power of relationships is what sustains businesses–in any industry.
Our brand’s name says it all, we stay true to the art of 100% blue weber agave premium estate tequila. Our tequila is made in a very methodical manner, such as slowly steam roasting of the agave in traditional stone-walled brick ovens, fermentation that is 5x longer than many of the mass producers, and finally small batch pot distillation. Even our bottle labels are put on by hand. We feel that our brand is an extension of us, so we couldn’t introduce a Tequila brand to the market that cuts corners either in process or ingredients. We love seeing the reaction of our retail partners and end users interacting with our Blanco and Reposado Tequila. We plan on introducing an Anejo in 2022. It’s an ultra-premium tequila that doesn’t carry a premium price tag.
Competitors can be smarter, better financed or have larger teams but what I do know is that I won’t be outworked.
Alright so before we go can you talk to us a bit about how people can work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
Tequila lovers can try our tequila and see why it’s worth their attention. People in the restaurant/bar/retail store business can reach out and help grow our business by carrying our tequila in their establishment. They can visit our website for more information on where to buy or contact us.
Pricing:
- 750ml Reposado Retail: $35-$41
- 750ml Blanco Retail: $33-38
Contact Info:
- Email: info@verdaderotequila.com
- Website: www.verdaderotequila.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/verdaderotequila/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/verdaderotequila
