Today we’d like to introduce you to KC Hensley.
Hi KC, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Hello, my name is KC and I am an entrepreneur for better for worse. My first entrepreneurial endeavor was renting my dad’s VHS Porn Collection to my friends back when I was about 12 years old. I would say my whole life I have acted on my desires so that I could make money, and I would even say I simply cannothelp myself. I also invented the Pocket Pillow at a young age where I would sew mini pillows for kids to take naps in class and not wake up with a red forehead.
After high school, I joined the Navy following 9/11 and embarked on my military journey. Post military I owned a bar at 26 years old, sold that and moved to Austin in 2012. My next big endeavor was building a Facebook group called In The Weeds, which was a dedicated group for the hospitality industry of Austin. That group blew up and was eventually acquired by a tech startup….This is a good point to start talking about my latest endeavor.
Me and my now fiance created a bottled michelada mix called Momo’s Michelada Mix which got started the moment I had a michelada in Nicaragua and sent a text to Momo saying Babe! I just had the best michelada of my life and I wanna figure out how to make it.
The reason I was in Nicaragua is a story in itself. A Scottish buddy of mine was making his way from California to South America on his motorcycle and his bike was having issues in Nicaragua. He needed parts not available locally where he was so he decided to ship them to me and fly me down there with the parts in my suitcase. Apparently, this was cheaper and easier than importing them and going thru the port and shipping system. After fixing his bike we made a vacation out of it. My idea of a vacation is food and beverage and culture. The first bar we went to I ordered the michelada that would inspire Momo’s. The beautiful thing about Nicaragua is this michelada style is standardized. Every bar made them very similarly and it was quite nice knowing they had a high-level standard which is now our mission with Momo’s. To create a high-quality and inclusive standard for micheladas.
What makes it inclusive? It’s vegan, it’s gluten-free, we encourage people that imbibe and those that are embracing sobriety. Basically, we want to offer as many people a spot at our table as possible. When I got back to Austin, shortly after I entered a michelada competition and began trying to recreate the michelada I had in Nicaragua by memory because I couldn’t get a recipe from anyone. I knew that it was citrus-forward, had veggie flavor with no tomato, slight vinegar taste and the right spice at the end to let you know the spice is there, but only for flavor and not to burn your face off.
We won that michelada competition and I knew we had something special.
Fast forward a couple of years, I lose my job working as a community manager for Seasoned which was a company that acquired my hospitality Facebook group called In The Weeds. Losing that job was truly deflating and I was left feeling like I didn’t have a purpose or direction since I had made advocating for the hospitality industry my north star. I was left in a weird place. After a few months, I decided that it was a good time to scratch this itch I always had and build a consumer product with this Michelada recipe I had in my back pocket. I then voluntold Momo that we were going to start this business and that she was going to be my 50/50 partner and I wanted to name it Momo’s.
She and I then set out to learn to do something neither of us had done and become Food manufacturers that aim to be sold online, in bars/restaurants and in retail. We did a bunch of fresh R&D and perfected our recipe and started sourcing all our packaging and things we would need to build a successful brand that reflects the quality of the product and us as partners in love and business.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I was dealt an interesting hand as a kid. My mother was/is an addict and I was friends with all the delinquents. People close to me are shocked when they hear stories from my past and look at where I am today. I just always kept moving forward and marching to the beat of my own drum. I was never a good listener, but I was intelligent enough to get by just fine. Dealing with obstacles and being scrappy has been my life story making the hard knocks seem insignificant. Thinking hard about our biggest obstacles I would have to say that we have had trouble sourcing ingredients as demand has grown. We started selling our mix without having a solid supply chain and didn’t scope the sheer volume we would need to make and how fast the demand would grow for our mix. We still struggle with supply and it looks to be a theme for some time to come, but we have a few irons in the fire and we are hedging our bets with a growing number of suppliers.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Personally speaking I would say what makes me unique especially in business is my oblivious nature. Don’t get me wrong, I am not always in the clouds. I stay humble and grounded and I accept others contributions of ideas. I will also never look at a problem and believe it can’t be solved or a process that can’t be improved.
Furthermore, I am all about self improvement and trying to stay positive.
Speaking as a business let me start by saying I hate talking about how great anything is including our mix because talk is cheap. Just try it out if you get an opportunity and decide for yourselves.
We are known for being a one-trick pony! We have created a very unique Michelada mix that is in a league of its own. Literally, we have yet to find another citrus-based, tomato-free, vegan and gluten-free michelada mix in the market. That might seem like a lot of qualifiers, but we are pretty much alone in each of those qualifiers in and of themselves. Our mix is more concentrated that most other mixes also which make nearly double the servings per bottle vs. other mixes. Our mix has a very light/bright taste that still has the flavor and spice we crave in a michelada.
From a branding standpoint, I think our name and our logo are quite awesome. Momo is Marisa’s partner in life/love/business nickname, and there is also a volcano in Nicaragua named Momotombo. That being said it is a tip of the hat to where the inspiration came from, it rolls off the tongue, and it is a dedication to Marisa aka Momo.
Our logo depicts a volcano with a pineapple in it and the crown of the pineapple resembles an eruption. There are also two icons in the volcano which are a lemon and a heart. The volcano represents Nicaragua and Momotombo volcano. Every bottle is made with a lot of lemon and love. Let’s get back to the pineapple, no, there is no pineapple in the mix. The pineapple is actually the international symbol of hospitality and to us, it represents the type of business we want to run. We want our business to be inclusive, inviting, sharing, treat people as our guests and fun. Momo and I met while we both worked in the hospitality industry, so it was very fitting. As for the colors, they’re Wu Tang Clan’s colors and Wu Tang is forever and so are we.
I love that when people see our brand they assume we are much bigger than we are. They think we are a big business with big pockets, but we are literally a small team that makes everything by hand. We would like to let people know that we as owners are an interracial couple HER Black-Female myself White-male Veteran of the US Navy. As a business, we stand for equality, celebrate diversity, practice inclusivity, encourage acceptance, and fight for basic human rights for all. Anything less is unacceptable. Along with these values, we subscribe to conscious capitalism and treat those that work with us with honor and dignity. We try to be as sustainable as we can and upcycle our bottles. We also bring a positive mental attitude and hospitality wherever we go. If you knew us, you would understand why people like having us around.
Risk taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
When you have nothing to lose, risk taking becomes a walk in the park. I am a “who says” kind of guy and when I set my mind to something I will dive in head first. When I am in too deep I can always work myself out of a hole and end up walking away with valuable lessons learned. The biggest risk we have taken is not getting sidetracked by people that suggest we should do different flavors or spice levels. The risk being that we only have one product we sell in one flavor. We are sticking with our one mix until we accomplish our mission of being the high-quality standard for michelada’s. We want to be more like Tito’s and less like Deep Eddy. No offense Deep Eddy, you’re great at what you do, but we have a different plan for our mix. If you want a mango-flavored mix, put our mix in a mango White Claw or something. If you want it spicier, put some more spice in it. If you want it less spicy, use less mix. If you want tomatoes in your mix, feel free to put some tomato paste in it. We are sticking to our guns on this one because there is no consistency or standard for micheladas. Every bar/restaurant/bartender makes them differently and there are terrible odds of the michelada ordered being any good.
Pricing:
- $20 per bottle in which you get 17 or more micheladas
Contact Info:
- Website: www.momosmicheladamix.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/momosmichelada
- Facebook:www.facebook.com/momosmichelada
- Other: https://www.amazon.com/Momos-Michelada-Mix-delicious-Micheladas/dp/B09XC3MZPR/ref=sr_1_2?crid=11XQJ3L0R4HDN&keywords=momos+michelada+mix&qid=1655943810&sprefix=momo%27s+michel%2Caps%2C165&sr=8-2
Image Credits
Marisa Williams Kc Hensley
