Business / Neetu Godara, Co-Founder Of SoCIAL LITE Vodka Talks About How Persistence Got Her A Winning Drink

Neetu Godara, Co-Founder Of SoCIAL LITE Vodka Talks About How Persistence Got Her A Winning Drink

Business Dec 21, 2020

by Devika Goberdhan | Features Editor - Fashion

Neetu Godara the co-founder of SoCIAL LITE Vodka shared with us how she broke into the the vodka scene, the value of immediate consumer feedback and why cold-calling works.

With the Holiday season upon us, many of us are meeting (virtually, of course) for office, family, and social get-togethers, which often involve a few adult beverages.

If you’re anything like me, I prefer to eat my calories than drink them away, which is why SoCIAL LITE Vodka has been one of my go-to beverages this season (okay fine, most seasons). Need another reason to hit your local liquor store to stock up on their drinks? Well, you can feel even better about indulging in SoCIAL LITE Vodka because they’re a homegrown business that started right here in Ontario, Canada (#supportlocalbusinesses)! And supporting small businesses founded by South Asians is why we included them in our holiday gift guide!

Who Is Neetu Godara!

Godara is one of the co-founding members and Chief Growth Officer of SoCIAL LITE Vodka. While Godara is of Indian descent, she was born and raised in Mississauga, where she currently resides (though, at heart, she is still a self-proclaimed City Girl)!

Neetu Godara, Co-Founder Of SoCIAL LITE Vodka Talks About Branding & Breaking Barriers In The Liquor Business — Neetu Godara, Co-Founder Of SoCIAL LITE Vodka Talks About How Persistence Got Her A Winning Drink: Godara has always had a passion for marketing, and so it isn’t surprising that she’s been able to really connect with SoCIAL Lite Vodka’s consumers! Photo Credit: www.strategyonline.ca

Before the launch of SoCIAL LITE Vodka, Godara completed her Bachelor of Business Administration at Wilfred Laurier University with a minor in Psychology. She explained that she’d always been interested in “understanding how people think and what makes people tick, which is what drove [her] into the Marketing field.”

She had previously held other marketing roles, where she gained fundamental experience with branding and strategy development in the food and beverage industry at renowned companies like Danone and PepsiCo.

But something was missing…

Enter SoCIAL LITE Vodka!

Get The Lowdown On SoCIAL LITE Vodka:

Godara notes that she grew up camping, but “when I thought about sitting around the campfire, I never drank when I went camping because there was never a drink for me since vodka soda was my go-to mixed drink, but you couldn’t get anything in a can that wasn’t full of sugar or artificial ingredients.”

Dan Beach and Kevin Folk, the other co-founding members of SoCIAL LITE Vodka that Godara had met through her brother, shared Godara’s sentiments.

Godara explains that “the idea [for SoCIAL LITE Vodka] came about because it was what we drank. It was just our go-to amongst all of our friends, no sugar, no carbs, less of a hangover, and you’re hydrating yourself.”

The name of the brand really encompasses what the drink is about — it allows people to be social and enjoy a drink and “to be social, [but] we still wanted to live a ‘lite’ lifestyle [with their choice of beverage], as active and healthy people” Godara explains.

That initial spark of an idea led to Beach, Folk, and Godara turning their drink of choice into a business.

They soon began mixing drinks in Beach’s kitchen in Whitby that they shared with their family and friends who encouraged them to eventually quit their day jobs and go full steam with SoCIAL LITE Vodka. As Godara, Beach, and Folk began developing flavours, she reminisces that there were some “misses,” particularly when she was “obsessed with having something with black pepper in it,” as it is commonplace to put salt and pepper in your lemonade in South Asian households. However, she quickly realized that the flavour profile might not fly for most.

However, as they moved to scale the business in 2014 and bring their idea to reality, they took things one step at a time. They would often “write down all the things that they needed to learn and checked them off one-by-one.” Eventually, Godara realized they “would not get very far if we did not have a product to sell, so we put our life savings together and we made 6,000 cases of our first flavour (Lime Ginger).”

At that point, they had to figure out where to sell their product!

And so, Godara and her co-founders zeroed in on Alberta as it is the only private liquor market in Canada. She recalls that “there are 1,200 liquor stores in Alberta and we just started calling them one-by-one” to try to get their product on their shelves, highlighting that theirs would be the only drink on their shelf with no carbs, no sugar, and only 80 calories, which would be crucial for the health-conscious consumer. During their first week of cold-calling liquor stores, Godara notes that they sold 25 cases! Following that, they got their big break with a chain called Liquor Depot, which has over 130 stores. The buyer at Liquor Depot understand SoCIAL LITE’s concept of ‘living lite’ and believed there was a market for vodka sodas for the health-conscious consumer. In fact, the buyer was so confident in the product, Godara gushed, that “he rolled us out into all 130 of the stores!” Persistence was key, and in 2016, their Lime Ginger flavour got into the LCBO, at which point they quit their full-time jobs and focused their attention on growing SoCIAL LITE Vodka.

Today, SoCIAL LITE Vodka’s products are sold in nearly 3,000 stores across 9 provinces in Canada.

Branding Is Key!

Godara explains that she learned so much in the first couple of years of SoCIAL LITE’s launch, in terms of what it means to connect with people because they (herself and her co-founders) had to do the work themselves. She remembers in their early days, “they would show up at a Spin studio in Toronto on a Friday night and do a sampling for everyone after class, and then I’d be at an LCBO on a Saturday morning. I’d be at a beer festival on Saturday night. We were working all of those events ourselves, but what’s so awesome about that is your learning and hearing feedback from your fans directly. Learning all of that firsthand made us so much more in touch with what mattered to people helped us to succeed in the long run.”

As well, Godara shares that SoCIAL LITE Vodka, which is still owned and operated by Godara and her co-founders, is “so proud to be 100% Canadian. But, just the fact that we are a local startup that started in our kitchens and is now a national brand — it’s been such an amazing experience because of the people who supported us,” like their fans.

With this mentality, it’s no surprise that SoCIAL LITE continues to use their voice to support local businesses, especially given the strain the pandemic has put on them. In fact, this spring they took $10K and launched a campaign called “Dinner and Drinks On Us,” where they had people enter to win dinner and drinks from a local restaurant (takeout, of course). In addition to that, throughout this summer, SoCIAL Lite launched a campaign where they highlighted local businesses.

Godara Shares Some Sage Advice For Her Fellow Entrepreneurs

As a seasoned entrepreneur who has had skin the game for about six years now, Godara now understands what it takes to make it.

Despite the labels, such as being called bossy, she has faced, particularly as a woman (ladies, you know what I’m talking about), she wants women to know that it’s important to trust yourself and have confidence. In those situations, she recalls moving past the uncalled-for labels “by being confident in being myself, to show up in a room and know that the hard work and effort that I have put in gives me and allows me to have that voice at that table, and I’ve earned that voice at the table, and I’m going to use it.”

Here are Godara’s key insights:

You have to be aggressive and put yourself out there — you don’t get what you don’t ask for!
Put your consumers first as they should drive what your brand is about.
Life is too short to not pursue the things that excites you. Go for it, despite what people think is best for you, like a solid career as a doctor or lawyer, which is the norm in the South Asian community.
Find a support network that can cheer you on because entrepreneurship can be a rollercoaster and you need people who will have your back!
Understand the competition, but stay focused on the work you’re doing and your plan.
There are no shortcuts to success. There is no magic secret. There will be ups and downs. You don’t need to take a leap into entrepreneurship, just take a step. Hard work and persistence will be key through it all.
You have to be flexible (i.e. pivoting to navigate a pandemic).

Next Steps For SoCIAL Lite Vodka?

SoCIAL LITE will be focusing on building out their team, and Godara reassured me that fans (such as myself) of SoCIAL LITE’s drinks can “expect new and exciting products in the new year.”

Be sure to follow SoCIAL LITE on social media to keep up with them and their countdown to 2020 being over (I’m so here for that)! @sociallitevodka

Main Image Photo Credit: www.baystbull.com

Devika Goberdhan | Features Editor - Fashion

Author

Devika (@goberdhan.devika) is an MA graduate who specialized in Political Science at York University. Her passion and research throughout her graduate studies pushed her to learn about and unpack hot button issues. Thus, since starting at ANOKHI in 2016, she has written extensively about many challe...

COMMENTS

Work Life: Chatting With One Of IKEA's Hottest Designers Akanksha Deo Sharma

The COVID-19 "Shecession" Can Be Devastating For Women’s Livelihood

SRC Partners Tells Us How They Are Bridging Cultural Gaps In The Entertainment Industry

Masala Bhangra Rings In 20 Years & Keeps The World Moving During The Pandemic

Neetu Godara, Co-Founder Of SoCIAL LITE Vodka Talks About How Persistence Got Her A Winning Drink

by Devika Goberdhan | Features Editor - Fashion

Devika Goberdhan | Features Editor - Fashion

COMMENTS

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE