Speaker 1: You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and
Speaker 1: Jason Kelly on Bloomberg Radio. So I gotta tell you.
Speaker 1: As I was reading in on this next guest, I
Speaker 1: saw Spirits Network and then I saw O T T
Speaker 1: platforms like water. We just talking about media. Are we
Speaker 1: talking about Booze? We're talking about both. That's like the
Speaker 1: dynamic duo. I love it. Nick Buzzle is the co
Speaker 1: founder and CEO of Spirits Network. He joins us on
Speaker 1: the phone from New York City. All right, Nick, so
Speaker 1: tell us what Spirits Network is all about. Well, thanks
Speaker 1: for having me. And Spirits Network is the first shoppable
Speaker 1: streaming platform for premium spirits where you can watch and
Speaker 1: purchase with two hour home delivery in over fifty cities
Speaker 1: in the US. We are imagine Netflix meets birch Box.
Speaker 1: We are experienced driven and you can watch all of
Speaker 1: our great programming from documentaries to expert to celebrity and
Speaker 1: you can actually try everything you see right in from
Speaker 1: the comfort of your home. So you're watching a program, so,
Speaker 1: so help me out. So I'm a consumer. So I'm
Speaker 1: watching a program and I see something, and so then
Speaker 1: I order and I get it or how does it? Try.
Speaker 1: Imagine you're watching either on your Apple TV, your Apple iOS,
Speaker 1: or your Android device, and you are watching a great documentary.
Speaker 1: For example, we have a series called Science of Spirits
Speaker 1: where we talk about how spirits are made, and we
Speaker 1: feature both craft and commercial distilleries, and you are watching
Speaker 1: and learning about it, and you can literally click with
Speaker 1: your with your finger on your phone and with your
Speaker 1: remote from your Apple TV and right on your screen
Speaker 1: purchase that spirit and it's delivered right to your home
Speaker 1: how quickly in most most cities within two hours. We
Speaker 1: also have a monthly bottle service, so if you're into
Speaker 1: exploring and discovering, and we're covering both whiskey, tequila, rum mescal,
Speaker 1: you can actually have a bottle of the month the
Speaker 1: livered to your home every month, handpicked by experts based
Speaker 1: on your flavor profile, so you tell us. Just like
Speaker 1: when you become a member of Spotify or Apple Music,
Speaker 1: we ask you some questions about your taste when you
Speaker 1: come in, and everything we're doing is personalized to what
Speaker 1: you like, and we're helping you explore and discover, but
Speaker 1: you're also entertained. We have over a hundred hours of
Speaker 1: programming and everything is shoppable. All right. So, Nick, you
Speaker 1: are well experienced in the media business, and you know,
Speaker 1: as I look back at your your bio and your CV,
Speaker 1: you have really been on the cutting edge, it feels
Speaker 1: like in many ways, especially in terms of both how
Speaker 1: we consume but also how content is created and distributed.
Speaker 1: This is such a fascinating moment. I mean, I think
Speaker 1: about it even for us sort of what we do
Speaker 1: every day in the different ways that we try and
Speaker 1: get people to consume what we do, whether it's on
Speaker 1: video via YouTube or you know, linear radio or traditional radio,
Speaker 1: directional radio, I should say, out of that radio, podcast, etcetera.
Speaker 1: Help us understand what you make of all of this disruption.
Speaker 1: How do you sort of separate, as it were, the
Speaker 1: signal from the noise In terms of what's working now? Well,
Speaker 1: I think we're in the Obviously, we've we've seen the
Speaker 1: golden age of content for the last uh, you know,
Speaker 1: five ten years, and now I think we're in the
Speaker 1: golden age of distribution. Uh. Consumers now more than ever,
Speaker 1: have more choice than ever. But I also think discovery
Speaker 1: and finding things that are right for you have become
Speaker 1: a bigger challenge. Everybody from Netflix to Hulu, to Amazon,
Speaker 1: to the new Peacocks service. You know, they're attempting to
Speaker 1: be everything to everyone, which is a tough task, and
Speaker 1: as I'm sure you know, there's a lot of content
Speaker 1: that they need to make and stand out with. But
Speaker 1: I think at the end, the consumer is going to
Speaker 1: make the decision based on value. But I also think
Speaker 1: based on their personal choices and taste. I think people
Speaker 1: are interested in hitch programming, and I think there's still
Speaker 1: a lot of areas of underserved um, which is why
Speaker 1: we decided to start with the world of premium spirits
Speaker 1: and accessible luxury, because I do believe that's an area
Speaker 1: where there's a lot of demand but very little supply.
Speaker 1: But I think you're going to continue to see more.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think there's been everything from hypothesis that
Speaker 1: will go from a thousand channels of kind of traditional
Speaker 1: cable all the way to potentially millions of apps of
Speaker 1: these O T T tiles or these O T T
Speaker 1: channels that has something for everyone. Yeah, I do feel
Speaker 1: like it's going to be this menu, write this vast menu.
Speaker 1: It's already rather large, but it is going to be segmented,
Speaker 1: so it's not so simple as sports, but it's you know,
Speaker 1: if I'm really into football for I'm really into basis, Like,
Speaker 1: you're just going to be able to really find your
Speaker 1: niche programming that you really really love and you're just
Speaker 1: gonna be all in on it. Having said that, Nick,
Speaker 1: I'm curious about your audience. Give me an idea of
Speaker 1: the number of subscribers that you've got. So you've got
Speaker 1: the video platform. That's one metric, but then that metric
Speaker 1: turns into actual purchases. What are you seeing there? What
Speaker 1: kind of numbers can you give us that show us
Speaker 1: either you know, how you're doing. Yeah, well, we've just started.
Speaker 1: We've been live for approximately three and a half months,
Speaker 1: and we've been rolling out different aspects of our platform
Speaker 1: over the last year, so we're essentially just at the
Speaker 1: beginning and we've seen thousands of people sign up across
Speaker 1: the US. One of the challenges with Spirits is obviously
Speaker 1: there is regulations. So we are able to service about
Speaker 1: seventeen states, uh, New York and California being one of them,
Speaker 1: are two of them. We also have the ability to
Speaker 1: deliver content to anybody across the US, but not everyone
Speaker 1: has the opportunity to purchase we've seen a lot of
Speaker 1: different purchase happening, mostly higher end spirits. Uh. You know,
Speaker 1: our average cart sizes around two and thirty dollars a user,
Speaker 1: which is pretty high. Um. We've also seen a lot
Speaker 1: of excitement around um the women's category, especially one of
Speaker 1: our shows, The Women's Whiskey Revolution, which features all of
Speaker 1: these trailblazing women in the category of bourbon and whiskey.
Speaker 1: And it's all about bringing community together but also helping
Speaker 1: to really include women in the conversation and help women
Speaker 1: that want to explore it feel welcome and open to
Speaker 1: do so. So we've got something for everyone, everything from
Speaker 1: long form documentaries that we've paired with Spirits too, topical
Speaker 1: elements where we've got you know, the number one Bourbon
Speaker 1: critic in the world, Fred Minick, and the number one
Speaker 1: Spirits critic in the world, Flavian Descipline, hand picking items
Speaker 1: for you. So imagine having an experience where it's really
Speaker 1: for us, by us. It's four Spirits enthusiasts by Spirits enthusiasts,
Speaker 1: and we're just getting started and we're very excited. All right.
Speaker 1: Nick Buzzle, great to catch up with you. Co founder
Speaker 1: CEO of Spirits Network, he joined us on the phone
Speaker 1: from New York City. Such a fascinating concept in many ways.
Speaker 1: I mean, I will say from my personal experience, I
Speaker 1: take your point Carol about like, oh, there's all these
Speaker 1: different things you can do, but how do you ultimately Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't know if this happens to you. Maybe I'm
Speaker 1: just not quite as decisive. But I feel like I
Speaker 1: can sit for half an hour just with Netflix and
Speaker 1: be like, Mmm, that's not exactly what I want. No,
Speaker 1: that's not exactly what I want. No, maybe, and then
Speaker 1: I end up like watching an old not anymore but
Speaker 1: like thirty Rock or like Parks and Wreck or something.
Speaker 1: He's like, then I gotta go to sleep. We do
Speaker 1: it all the time. It's like you revert back to
Speaker 1: those things that you really know and love. I mean,
Speaker 1: I can't tell you how many times there's a series
Speaker 1: that we've watched them, like, yeah, let's watch let's just
Speaker 1: watch one more. Let's just watch one and then I
Speaker 1: gotta get to bed, you know. Like, so I do
Speaker 1: wonder about the sort of the discover ability. I mean,
Speaker 1: even when you and I talked about podcasts, You're like,
Speaker 1: I don't know how to pick a podcast. I did
Speaker 1: I said, I'm like overwhelmed by it. I'm like, can you,
Speaker 1: you know, kind of curate for me, Like it's something
Speaker 1: I should go listen to. Not everyone has a personal
Speaker 1: curator like you. I'm a very lucky individual.