Hella Cocktail Co. cofounder and CEO Jomaree Pinkard turned a passion project with his two best friends into a business partnering with Delta Airlines, Disney, and TGI Fridays. Quitting his job as an NFL consultant to make cocktail bitters and canned beverages, he now helms a multimillion-dollar operation and was even tapped by $64 billion alcohol giant Diageo for his expertise.
Some people spend their entire workdays excited to go home and pursue their true passion. One Gen X entrepreneur quit his 9-to-5 with a dream—and now, he runs a business partnering with Disney and Delta Airlines.
Jomaree Pinkard runs cocktail company Hella Cocktail Co. with his two best friends, Tobin Ludwig and Eddie Simeón. Launching the business in 2012 in New York City, the ragtag crew sought to ride the speakeasy and craft cocktail waves of the era with their own products: first with bitters, then with premium mixers and canned beverages. Now, Hella’s products are in over 20,000 restaurants, bars, airplanes, and retailers, bolstered by a $5 million deal with Uncle Nearest. The business budded from a pastime enjoyed by three friends who were just messing around and wanted to create a good artisanal product.
“We were just doing a Kickstarter and a hobby. We were the kind of guys to make homemade pizza and cocktails,” Jomaree tells Fortune. “And so when we started this hobby with 2,500 bucks on a credit card, we weren’t set out on the journey.”
As the business brains of the group, 46-year-old Pinkard has largely been in charge of Hella’s partnerships and financial strategies. In the 13 years since, Hella Cocktail Co. has joined forces with billion-dollar brands; Pinkard himself brokered the company’s national partnerships with Southern Glazers’ Wine & Spirits, TGI Fridays, Disney, Whole Foods, and Delta Airlines. But it may never have happened if Pinkard didn’t quit his 9-to-5 to live out a dream with his two best friends.
Turning a hobby into a career
It’s safe to say that Hella Cocktail Co. was a slow burn; although the company launched in 2012, the three founders were juggling the business with their full-time jobs. At the time, Pinkard was a player engagement consultant for the NFL, Ludwig was a bartender in New York City, and Simeón worked at Martha Stewart’s media and merchandising company.
It took between three and four years for the trio to actually quit their day jobs. Pinkard was in his early 30s by the time he turned to full-time entrepreneurship, after a Wharton education as well as stints at the NFL and Marsh & McLennan. It was a scary jump—but business was finally blooming at Hella Cocktail, and it felt more secure to fully commit. Two years later, the brand was partnering with Restoration Hardware and stocking the bar carts of Delta flights.
“Because this was a hobby, there were no investors, there were no [guidelines] to follow,” Pinkard says. “Then we made enough money to capitalize ourselves in the business. We slowly crawled before we came up, and then we ran.”
Working with Diageo and building up a million-dollar business
Hella Cocktail Co. was flying by the seat of its pants in the early years; but by 2016, everything was coming together. A turning point was doing the Fancy Food Trade show at the Javits Center in New York in 2013—Hella was making a name for itself.
“We really wanted to be in the culture, being the ‘new kids on the block,’” Pinkard says. “Once we started to pinpoint those partner relationships, that’s when those things started to really take shape.”
Pinkard enjoyed the ride as Hella Cocktail’s chief businessman until 2022, when he stepped away from the company for two years. He was tapped to steer Pronghorn, a $200 million fund deploying money to Black-owned steering companies in the consumer packaged goods space—backed by $64 billion alcohol giant Diageo. During that time he saw hundreds of entrepreneurs in Hella Cocktail Co.’s space, with every one doing things a little differently. He parsed through the commonalities and differences between his company and theirs, bringing that knowledge back to Hella in 2024 as CEO.
“There were a lot of learnings,” Pinkard says, one being that: “Leaders who are disciplined and accountable do really [well]. Those who were anchored in their vision, but understand they’re going to have to pivot a few degrees as they move forward.”
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
