How Asian-American Entrepreneur Holly Paul is Disrupting the Booming Spiked Seltzer Industry, Inspired by the "Fruits We Grew Up Eating"

“MIZO Hard Seltzer is all about going against the grain, while staying true to your roots.” Today’s woman dreamer, Holly Paul, a Bay-area based entrepreneur, is the co-founder of Mizo, a start-up disrupting the booming hard seltzer industry, which has become the drink of choice for many of us over the past few years. A first-generation Taiwanese American, Holly launched Mizo with the intention of introducing unique flavors, particularly those popular in the Asian community. From lychee to Asian pear and calamansi, Holly was inspired by her roots. Holly shares key trends in the spiked seltzer industry to watch out for, her exciting journey as a founder, and how she built her brand’s personality. A fun Friday read, enjoy her story!

1) You are the founder of Mizo Hard Seltzers, and a Target Forward Founder, based in the bay area. Tell us your career journey, and what inspired you to start this company at such a young age?

After graduating from USC in 2018, I joined a 250,000 person firm. For two years after that, it was almost an annual routine to leave my current company and join a downsized team - from a 250,000 person firm, to a 150 person Series A retail-tech start-up, to a 15 person seed stage fintech start-up. Little did I know that it was in my cards to downsize yet again - creating a two person team with my partner to launch MIZO Hard Seltzer.

MIZO Hard Seltzer was less about wanting to start my own business and more of what I had always been passionate about since I was very young.

My dad often took my brother and I to the Jelly Belly factory tour in Fairfield, CA. As someone in supply chain, my dad liked to remind us about the process things had to go through in order to be made. I remember one of our Jelly Belly visits when I was seven years old. They were holding a fun contest for children to submit new flavor ideas. Of course, I picked lychee. Lychee flavored candies were always my absolute favorite, but were never an available option with the larger CPG brands.

Although I didn’t win the contest, looking back at this memory now - it really has always been a dream of mine to see these flavors celebrated on store shelves. It’s been a passion of mine to introduce these flavors to others - flavors that felt so close to home, but weren’t often available to or known by others.

Now that we’ve launched, we’ve been hearing from some of our customers that their very first experience with flavors like lychee or calamansi lime has been with MIZO Hard Seltzer. And that’s exactly what we’re all about!

2) The hard seltzer industry has been booming, and has become a staple drink for many of us. What are some trends happening in this space that your company has addressed?

New, unique flavors are definitely a leading trend happening in the hard seltzer space. There are too many repeated flavors, like black cherry, so brands need to get creative in order to stand out. Flavors like MIZO Hard Seltzer’s lychee, asian pear, and calamansi lime are not flavors you can find in mass retail. In fact, MIZO Hard Seltzer brings the industry’s first and only calamansi lime hard seltzer to the market. Although many of our customers are trying the calamansi flavor for their very first time, it’s actually grown to become a customer favorite with many customers actually asking for a single flavor pack of just calamansi hard seltzer. No spoilers here :-)

3) Your brand is unique as it is "inspired by the fruits you grew up eating" The beverage space has many big players. How do you define Mizo's brand identity?

MIZO Hard Seltzer is all about going against the grain, while staying true to your roots.

Consumers have seen plenty of cherry hard seltzers. MIZO Hard Seltzer shocks the hard seltzer category with new and inspiring flavors that aren’t your typical black cherry or grapefruit. Our flavors are unique to the marketplace, yet each one is without a doubt very close to home for us. In fact, our parents have actually been growing Asian pear and calamansi lime in our backyards for as long as we could remember, which was actually the inspiration behind those two flavors.

You’ll find that our brand personality is very candid and very fun. From candid film photos to bright and colorful stickers that collage our digital presence, our brand personality is an ode to confidently stepping into who you are, while remembering to have fun with it all.

Another unconventional part of our brand identity is our packaging! We created our packaging to intentionally stand out. Our variety pack is an eye catching red in a sea of an abundance of white or light packaging. Our cans are sleek, minimalistic, and memorable with our iconic MIZO gradient circle stamped on the front.

4) What does your day in your life look like as a young female entrepreneur?
Each day in my life does not look like the other, and I believe most other entrepreneurs can agree with that :-)As a first-time founder starting a business in the midst of a global pandemic, let’s just say - there’s been a lot to learn.

Most days start out with a visit to the whiteboard. Every morning we outline items we ‘must’ accomplish in the day. Separately, we also outline items that we’d ‘like’ to accomplish in the day. Once the whiteboard visit is over, it’s likely a free-for-all in terms of tackling curveballs as they get thrown at us and accomplishing the whiteboard items together as a team.

5) What is your favorite flavor of Mizo? :)
Lychee has always been a childhood favorite flavor of mine and is definitely my favorite MIZO flavor! When deciding which flavors were going to be part of the MIZO Hard Seltzer launch, we knew we had to have lychee as it is one of the most iconic fruits in the AAPI community. In fact, our consumers love our lychee flavor so much - there’s been an outpouring number of requests to sell a single flavor pack of just the lychee flavor. More to come on that soon :)

6) As the platform for women dreamers, what is your next big dream?
I have so many women mentors to thank for encouraging and supporting me to be the best version of myself. As I continue to embark on this crazy journey called entrepreneurship, I’d love to give back to the next generation of women dreamers by supporting them and encouraging them to be the best version of themselves.

Bio: Holly Paul is the co-founder of MIZO Hard Seltzer, a Bay Area-based hard seltzer brand inspired by the Asian fruits her parents shared with her ever since she was young. As a first-generation Taiwanese American, Holly is enthusiastic about sharing Asian flavors with others. After graduating from USC in 2018, Holly joined multiple strategy and operations teams at various fast-growing start-ups before launching MIZO Hard Seltzer in 2021 with her partner Chris Tran.
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