How brand-building gave Feisty leverage with retailers, partners and investors

I never set out to be a front-facing founder. When I started Feisty, I had no funding, no one knew what protein soda was and no one knew the brand. Telling my story was the only marketing I could afford.

That ended up shaping almost everything since. Retailers, partners and, eventually, investors found us through that story rather than through a pitch. The biggest lesson for me so far is that for an early-stage consumer brand, cultural relevance and community can become real leverage.

A category that wasn't talking to me

I came from fashion. I was a designer at Louis Vuitton, then went back to finish my studies at Central Saint Martins. I don't have a business background at all. I never did an MBA or anything like that.

I had the idea for protein soda back in 2022, and it was basically solving my own problem. After I had two knee surgeries, I got into strength training in a big way as someone who had never exercised before. But I hated chalky protein shakes. Whey made me bloated and my skin broke out.

I remember going into Holland & Barrett and looking at the protein aisle, and everyone was doing the same thing. Anabolic, BCAAs, muscle mass, all these quite intimidating terms. It felt really male-dominated. I just wanted a refreshing drink after my workout.

Protein water did exist on Amazon, but there were only a couple of players and they were still going after the gym crowd. I didn't have any data, so I downloaded Jungle Scout, which lets you sift through Amazon search data. More people were looking for protein water than CBD drinks and natural energy drinks combined. That was my first bit of data. I didn't have an office, so I worked on it from my gym in the evenings, asking everyone there what they thought.

Telling our story

Before there was a product

I took some photos of it in my kitchen with friends. I didn't actually have a product yet. Then the buyer at Selfridges emailed asking if I'd consider launching with them. It sat in my inbox for about three days. I had about 20 followers, so I still don't know how she found us.

I went to my mum, who's a PhD scientist, and asked her to help me make some protein sodas. For a long time she'd been asking when I was going back to fashion, because I was still applying for jobs. We took samples to Selfridges in little glass bottles and they said, yeah, we love it, let's launch it. I had no idea how to manufacture a drink.

Where the story landed

I started posting on LinkedIn and put up a picture of my mum in our MILF T-shirt (Man, I Love Feisty). It kind of went viral, and the Whole Foods buyer reached out because she loved that it was a mother-and-daughter team making a product for women. Then I started telling the story on TikTok, and that's where it made the most impact. Harrods and Soho House both approached us after those videos, and Nike got in touch about a collaboration.

Usually it's someone on their team who finds the TikTok, loves it, and it gets passed up. I've been lucky that I've never had to beg to be on a shelf.

Why digital-first

We're first to market here, and most people in the UK still don't really know what protein in a soda is. I take a lot of inspiration from Poppi. I'll buy it in my meal deal, and honestly it's not because it's the best-tasting drink. I've just followed the founder's journey for so long that it makes me feel something. That's what I want for Feisty: people knowing and caring about it before they see it in a shop.

Now that we've raised, the obvious thing would be to go and get on Tesco shelves. I was at dinner with some other drinks founders and they told me I was absolutely nuts, that this isn't how you scale a beverage brand. And I know. But this is what's worked for us.

I met a former Tesco buyer who said I needed to create a Little Moons effect first. Otherwise you're begging for shelf space, your margins are really thin, you're not on the shelves you want and no one knows about your brand. I think that's where a lot of challenger brands go wrong.

Bold Bean Co is a good example. They built a media engine early and got the beans into the hands of the right chefs. I ended up with a bean subscription and told my mum and my grandma about it. I was buying £4.50 beans, which I definitely wasn't in the tax bracket for back then. That kind of loyalty is a moat.

So we're going digital-first. It's a slower burn, but most people find new things online or through their friends now.

Raising on proof, not just a vision

It was the same with fundraising. I never really wanted venture capital money at this stage, and I've only ever reached out to a couple of investors myself.

Last year I went to a Taste Radio event at TRIP's HQ with 12 cans in my backpack and some MILF and DILF stickers. I was the only person in my company at the time, and there were loads of other drinks brands there. The cans went within seconds, and girls were coming up to me saying they'd seen my TikTok. They knew the whole story, they knew about my mum. A scout for a VC was there, and that's how I met my investor.

So when I started our round last December, I wasn't just pitching a vision. I could point to retailers that had come to us, brands like Nike getting in touch, a TikTok community that really engages, and fans who'd found us on their own, including James Corden and Grace Beverley. We even had people from our community asking if they could invest.

What fundraising actually taught me

It still wasn't easy. I spent most of last year trying to raise in the US, because I thought that's where we'd launch. A few things I learned along the way:

• It always takes longer than you expect.
• You can't rely on one investor until the money is actually in the bank.
• The highest valuation isn't necessarily the best deal. Choosing investors who really get the vision and can add something strategically matters much more.

I didn't have a business background, so pretty much everything I know I've learned from other people being generous with it.

Community as leverage

I really believe functionality gets you considered, but brand is what gets you chosen. Working at Louis Vuitton, I know how little it costs to make a bag. Everything is marketing: a sense of belonging, a signal. With buying a house or a car feeling out of reach, we want small wins: that sweet treat, that little status symbol we hold in our hand and put on our socials. People don't drink Red Bull because of the taste.

That's why I've brought the fashion world into Feisty rather than doing what everyone else in food and drink does. When I designed it in 2022, Glossier was huge, everything was millennial pink and streetwear was in. Fashion and music swing like a pendulum, so this year's refresh is more rebellious and maximalist, more Madonna and Charli XCX. It won't be the final design forever. But it fits the current iteration.

Our audience is what I call the wellness anarchists: people who love the gym but also love going out and love food. Our campaign is "not for gym bros", which I got from the old Yorkie ads. I went to an all-girls school and we were obsessed with Yorkie because we weren't supposed to have it. One of our next films features Charles, who's 70, pole dances and is fit as a fiddle. He's the feisty underdog, the kind of person nobody champions, and that's why the brand is called Feisty.

I'm still figuring a lot of this out myself. But what I've seen so far is that the brand people care about is what brings customers in, and it's also what's brought retailers, partners and investors to us.