How one Asian American entrepreneur is making waves in the craft beer industry with unique flavors that celebrate Asian heritage
Speaking to us from New York, Kevin Wong, co-founder of Lunar, shares with us his career journey so far and why he wanted to launch the first Asian American craft hard seltzer with his co-founder, Sean Ro.
May marks the month of Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month in the US, an annual celebration that recognizes the achievements and contributions made by Americans of Asian and Pacific Islander descent.
Of the many Asian Americans breaking barriers and taking bold steps to improve diversity in their respective fields and industries, one Asian American entrepreneur has his eyes set on the craft beer industry, a traditionally white, male-dominated field.
Speaking to us from New York, Kevin Wong, co-founder of Lunar, shares with us his career journey so far and why he wanted to launch the first Asian American craft hard seltzer with his co-founder, Sean Ro.
Kevin Wong has his eyes set on the craft beer industry, a traditionally white, male-dominated field. / Photograph : Kevin Wong
“We found that in the US, there’s a huge lack of diversity in the beverage and alcohol products that are created. In fact the US beer industry is 93+% white, and 76+% male. So the products that exist in the US are all the same — IPAs, light beers, lemon, lime, cherry flavored drinks. There weren’t any products made for overlooked minorities and communities like us, and Asian Americans are 6% of the US population and are the fastest growing minority group,” explains Kevin about the opportunity he saw in the market.
Hard seltzer is a light alcoholic beverage — a blend of carbonated water, fruit flavoring and alcohol — that has gained global popularity over the last few years. “It’s a pretty crazy phenomenon because from 2018, in just a few years, this category went from nearly nothing to capturing a 10% share of the beer space and forecasts expect the market to grow to US$14 billion by 2027.”
As a second-generation Taiwanese American who has always been actively involved in the Asian American non-profit community, Kevin says thinking about his own identity and heritage has always been on his mind which led him to the idea of Lunar. But with no prior experience in the alcohol industry (both Sean and himself formerly worked in software startups), Kevin says they spent 18 months just learning how to make their product — hundreds of recipes later, they’ve finally landed on the delicious recipe that is now Lunar.
The first Asian American craft hard seltzer made with real fruits from Asia / Photograph : Lunar
An investment banker who didn’t want to look at a business simply through spreadsheets
For someone who started his career in investment banking at J.P. Morgan, even Kevin himself didn’t expect he would leave the company so soon. “I left after a year because I knew I wanted to work at an early stage company,” says Kevin. He talks about how this tipping point came about when he was on a phone call with a CFO from a big company and while he was giving him the numbers and advising him about a transaction, he remembered sitting there thinking to himself: ‘What do I actually know about running a company?’
“From my point of view as a young graduate back then, I really wanted to see for myself how a business is built and I didn’t want to just see it from excel spreadsheets because you may not be able to appreciate all the intricacies of running a business, so that’s when I knew I needed to go.”
Kevin went on to work at Yext, a marketing software company, and helped the company build its corporate strategy team and achieve a successful IPO. “I joined the company at a good time when it was still small, so I got to work on everything across the company and know how every team works. I find myself very fortunate in my career because that's everything I wanted to learn when I left J.P. Morgan.”
Kevin brewing hard seltzer / Photograph : Lunar
Starting a syndicate to invest in enterprise software startups
The experience he gained at Yext gave him the confidence and idea of starting an investment syndicate with his friends and former colleagues who are founders, operators and financial professionals that have experience building enterprise software companies from pre-revenue to post-IPO. “That’s how it led us to creating Lorimer Ventures because we have the experience of literally doing everything at a typical software company — from building it up and expanding into international markets. So we wanted to bring that unique angle to the VC side.”
Kevin says Lorimer Ventures focuses on software startups from pre-seed to series A. “A few of our portfolio companies recently raised a Series A/B include David Energy, a software-enabled retail electricity provider, and Firstbase, a software service that helps companies track and manage their hardware assets that remote workers use.”
By learning and developing all the key skills he needed on how to build up a business from the ground up, Kevin was ready to take on his next challenge — breaking into the craft beer industry with his own hard seltzer brand.
Made with Taiwanese passion fruit puree / Photograph : Lunar
Celebrating his Asian American identity with the launch of Lunar
What makes Lunar special is that it is the first and only hard seltzer that’s made with real Asian fruits. “We feature flavors like yuzu, lychee, korean plum, and passion fruit — we’re hoping to pioneer a new chapter of alcoholic beverages via culture and storytelling. For example, we buy our yuzu juice directly from Japan’s Shimane prefecture. Our first batch of passion fruit used a passion fruit puree that was imported by our supplier from Taiwan.”
Currently only available in the US at many notable retailers such as Trader Joe’s Total Wine, Fairway, and Food Bazaar, Kevin says their goal with Lunar is to become a globally recognized brand known for their authentic products. “We’re aiming to become a community and we hope we’d get to sell our products across the world — including in Taiwan and in Asia. We'd like to open up taproom experiences in different regions to serve as a gathering place for our community.”
By bringing a product to the market that specifically addresses an overlooked community and by achieving commercial success, Kevin wants to prove and demonstrate that communities like ours is not a minority niche but a sizable market that the world should pay attention to serving. “For the Western world our flavors might be considered ‘exotic’ but to us are nostalgic and familiar, so by launching Lunar, it’s an opportunity for everyone to experience and appreciate our culture and heritage!”
〔Original :Meet Global〕
https://meet-global.bnext.com.tw/articles/view/47696