Liquid Death, the canned water startup, announced it raised $9 million in Series A funding to help push the hardcore brand into more brick-and-mortar retailers.
Co-founder and CEO Mike Cessario told Cheddar they were able to raise the money "fairly quickly" after deciding to expand beyond online sales.
"It wasn't until we really realized that we wanted to start going heavy into the more traditional brick-and-mortar retail space, that obviously gets a lot more capital intensive," Cessario said.
Cessario, who is a punk rock and heavy metal fan, says there weren't many healthy brands marketing to rock and roll subcultures and saw that as an opportunity to be creative in the brand marketing.
"There were really no healthy brands that were speaking anywhere near that kind of demographic. At the end of the day we wanted to take the healthiest thing you can drink and build a really fun, entertaining brand around it," Cessario said.
Hence the Liquid Death "murder your thirst" tagline that combines an aggressive and tongue-in-cheek approach to marketing. The company continues to roll with the same branding in its new advertising campaign "Keep the Underworld Beautiful" that is asking customers to save Hell from plastic bottle waste.
Although the branding is the most visual element of the company's ethos, Cessario says it's not the company's only priority. Liquid Death prides itself on its aluminum cans that contain over 70 percent recycled material and that it exclusively ships products by boat to reduce its carbon footprint.
"We ship by boat to the U.S., which most people don't realize sea freight is the most carbon-efficient mode of transportation that exists," Cessario said.
Joe Cecela, Dream Exchange CEO, explains how they are aiming to form the first minority-controlled company to operate an exchange in U.S. history. Watch!
A Michigan judge is putting sponges in the hands of shoplifters and ordering them to wash cars in a Walmart parking lot when spring weather arrives. Genesee County Judge Jeffrey Clothier hopes the unusual form of community service discourages people from stealing from Walmart. The judge also wants to reward shoppers with free car washes. Clothier says he began ordering “Walmart wash” sentences this week for shoplifting at the store in Grand Blanc Township. He believes 75 to 100 people eventually will be ordered to wash cars this spring. Clothier says he will be washing cars alongside them when the time comes.
The State Department had been in talks with Elon Musk’s Tesla company to buy armored electric vehicles, but the plans have been put on hold by the Trump administration after reports emerged about a potential $400 million purchase. A State Department spokesperson said the electric car company owned by Musk was the only one that expressed interest back in May 2024. The deal with Tesla was only in its planning phases but it was forecast to be the largest contract of the year. It shows how some of his wealth has come and was still expected to come from taxpayers.
At 100 years old, the Goodyear Blimp is an ageless star in the sky. The 246-foot-long airship will be in the background of the Daytona 500 — flying roughly 1,500 feet above Daytona International Speedway, actually — to celebrate its greatest anniversary tour. Even though remote camera technologies are improving regularly and changing the landscape of aerial footage, the blimp continues to carve out a niche. At Daytona, with the usual 40-car field racing around a 2½-mile superspeedway, views from the blimp aptly provide the scope of the event.
