Years after a wave of hype over on-demand alcohol through an app subsided, Boston-based Drizly has quietly spread to 101 cities in the country, weathering persistent rumors of competition from the biggest brands in the world along the way.
“It’s one of those things — the novelty of starting out wears off, and you put your head down and do your thing,” said Nick Rellas, chief executive of Drizly. “We’ve really settled into our model as a business.”
Drizly, founded in 2012, makes an app hopeful drinkers can use to order alcohol to their homes, and has developed software to connect the customer with a local liquor store that matches the customers’ needs, including price and delivery speed.
With the addition of Prescott, Ariz., last month, Drisly says it now serves 101 cities.
But as the novelty and excitement of launching a new company and product wear off, growing pains start to creep in, Rellas said. Entering an industry as entrenched as alcohol sales, Drizly was told over and over it would not be able to successfully create an internet alcohol delivery industry from scratch, Rellas said.
“Dealing with the doubt from outside is one of the hardest parts of being an entrepreneur. Living with what seems like cognitive dissonance or hypocrisy,” Rellas said. “You’ve got to have this unwavering belief in the people around you and who are you, while constantly asking, ‘Am I doing the right thing?’ ”
Since it first began offering alcohol delivery through an app, Drizly has been beset with constant — and usually imperfect — comparisons to companies like Uber and Amazon. But a few years ago, the Amazon comparison became a little more real when the e-commerce giant started offering its own alcohol delivery. The service is now available in about a dozen cities.
“When you’re building a business and the largest e-commerce company in North America decides they want to get in your space, it certainly makes you sit up straighter,” Rellas said.
Drizly has raised more than $32 million in venture funding, most recently in 2016. In a tech media landscape that often favors companies with big rounds of funding or new launches, companies such as Drizly that have built a solid business where raising more money is not necessary can fall by the wayside.
“We’ve entered this phase of Drizly’s life where we know what we have to do. Now it’s just about accelerating that,” Rellas said. “That is where a startup business starts to mature with real revenue, scaling revenue.”
Source: Crunchbase
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