Funding for Daiquiri Businesses: A $4,500 Marketing Debt Offer, Accepted on Camera

We're here in Austin, TX at a historic family business launched seventy years ago in the 1950s as Sam's Barbecue. Well, now the family members have a brand new idea. Enter Austin Daiquiri factory.

Daiquiris are a frozen adult beverage. The margins are just incredible. We make somewhere between 7 and $8 on just this guy. That's insane. Yeah.

This is like an alcoholic ATM. Yeah. They launched with a ton of revenue, but now sales are declining.

We're in year five now, and I feel like this has been our toughest year. 2025 in May, we did about 42. This year we fell short at 27.

Okay, what happened there? That's a big drop. Can My Capital help them turn sales around? Are you open to an equity deal or do you want to think about a debt deal?

Oh, definitely a debt deal. I believe in our

You don't want me to be a part of the family?

Hey, how are you?

Great. How are you?

I'm good. My name is Nathan.

Iesha.

Iesha, so good to meet you. Nice

to meet you as well.

This is your baby,

Yep. This is my baby.

Tell me about the business.

Daiquiris are a frozen adult beverage. They're usually fruity and made with rum. Most are, like, known for, like, being able to be taken to go. We're also inside of a 60 old business right next door. We're attached to it. So... Yeah.

Do you have a relationship with that business at all? Or

We're all family owned and operated. Yeah. Sam's barbecue has been around for between fifty and sixty years. So third generation ownership at this point.

So are you Sam's like great, great, great, great, great, Yeah. Great

Both me and my partner, Tamika, who is like an aunt to me, she... We just were sitting around during the holidays during COVID, like most families bored and Sam's was having trouble getting open and compliant with the COVID rules, the new COVID rule set. It's very old school business, and so I came here to help, and there was like a storage area. So, Tamika and I sat and talked at one of the family gatherings. We decided

that this would come to be.

Why Daiquiri's? You could have used this space for anything.

We actually always have a margarita machine at the family gatherings, and that's like everybody's favorite part, and then it just came together.

Do you know if it was a good or bad business or it was more like, hey, it's a family thing. We want to do it no matter what?

Yeah. It was a wide open market here in Austin. They're super popular in Dallas and Houston. Alcohol sales were just skyrocketing during COVID. I just felt like the two could could... You know, with this business, it could just kind of bring a facelift to it.

When did you launch this business?

We launched in 2021. So right in the midst of COVID, we actually opened January, I think seventeenth. It was MLK weekend.

And do you guys remember the total amount of sales you did in the first year?

I think we were at like 250,000.

You did a 250,000 in sales in your first year?

What? Maybe even a little bit more.

Okay. That seems to me like... Because that's shocking to me. That's surprising. Did it surprise you guys?

Yeah. It did. The most surprising part was that we opened in January. So if you know anything about Texas weather, it's hot all the time. But when you start getting into January, February, those are the coldest months. So we didn't expect a large turnout and we had a line wrapped around the corner.

How did you get foot traffic in the middle of a cold in Austin during COVID?

Sam's is a pillar in this community. It's been here for a really long time. So I think people were really excited that we were trying to to do something collaboratively.

Is it a profitable business? So like on $250,000 of yearly sales, can you make money on that?

Yes. Definitely. Sam's owns two lots here. So we we rent from them. And so I think Come on.

Your family charges you. They make you pay rent.

Yeah. I mean, they gotta pay taxes. The taxes in Austin, if you know anything about that, it's like crazy. So our startup costs were a lot lower than a lot of different businesses and our profit margin, with the daiquiris is a lot larger. Okay. So, the daiquiris are wine based, so the cost to make the daiquiris are a little bit lower than what Mhmm. A typical liquor would cost to make a drink. We made our money back within the first... Like, our initial investment back within the first, I would say, six months.

What did you guys invest early on? Your own money. How much?

So I wanna say that we spent somewhere between 30 to $50,000 in the in the initial startup cost. We started with just this area, and then we added on the patio, and then we added on the second part of the patio. So we just kind of... As things... As time went on, we just kinda use the business profits to keep going.

I could imagine people watching this going, well, I'm not... I don't have $3,050,000 dollars laying around. Is is Tamika is off camera, but is this like a rich aunt somewhere who just made a bunch of money on software?

We had savings. I...

Like, that's doing before this?

We've actually both kept our corporate jobs.

So what you're saying is this business now runs without you guys. You you keep... Do your corporate job full time? Full time. Wow. That's kinda cool.

Yeah. It's...

That's very on trend right now to have a side hustle that does a 250,000 a year in revenue....

That we need it in this economy, you know? We're in year five now, and I feel like this has been our toughest year. As we grow, we have growing pains and just figuring out things that never came up before. It's something new all the time.

What was your best year of sales?

I think that 2025 was on the trajectory to, like, be our best year, but we had to close for a little bit.

Okay. And your best month Mhmm. Life to date? Mhmm. Do you know total sales that month?

50,000 in a month.

Okay.

And that was a month with, like, you know, where we're doing events and our best outreach. We have a trailer. So we've done like festivals and corporate events and baby showers, birthday parties, that sort of thing.

What's your best seller? Like the dirty six, thirsty thud.

The Texan is definitely gonna be our number one seller.

Can I put in an order?

Yes. For sure. What would you like?

Can I do the Texan?

Yeah. You could do the Texan. Okay. We're gonna give you a fishbowl.

Okay.

It's $25, and then you come back, and it's, $10 to refill. And I think that it's 42 ounces.

Is it meant for one person or is it meant for, like, a group straw situation?

Depends on who you're asking.

Holy mackerel. Me doing a fishbowl by myself. I don't think

I'm You're gonna have a good day.

Yeah. I don't think I'm gonna make it past the door. YouTube, these daiquiris are clearly a family tradition. Is there any family tradition that you have that you think you could build a business around? Leave a comment below.

The Texan's gonna be a combination of strawberry, Rita, and watermelon. K. So I like to add strawberry first, and then I'll put our few... Fruit puree in here, which is watermelon. And then we'll add some marita, and then we'll add a little bit more strawberry.

How drunk am I gonna get drinking this by myself?

Well, the alcohol content of this is probably around 12%. So Oh my gosh.

You're gonna have I'm having a good time.

Yeah. A great time. You know?

And you mentioned one of the reasons that you guys do so well, your margins are incredible because you use wine based, not vodka based. Can you explain that?

We use a Texas distillery where they use wine derived from oranges, and it goes through this large filtration process. Vodka costs more to make. We buy it wholesale from them. The margins are just incredible. So this is going to be our 16 ounce cup. We serve most of our daiquiris and styrofoam cups because we're in Texas, and so it keeps them colder for a longer amount of time. But for this, we charge... I think with taxes,

it's $10. We make about somewhere between 7 and $8 on just this guy. That's insane.

Yeah. This is like an alcoholic ATM.

Yeah. So what do

you do with the $7? Is that all profit or do you pay staff or your lease or your rent? Or

We pay rent here. We also pay our staff.

So is the business all in profitable today, or is it breakeven or losing money?

Oh, no. It's profitable.

Okay. Are we talking, like, 10, 20, 30 profit margins? Or

It's harder to give you a exact number because we work... I... We had that six month closure Yeah. For the electricity. We upgraded upgraded the the electricity in the building. So... And our best year, we're between 3040% profit margins. Yeah.

So what do you what do you and Tomica do with all that extra money? You go buy real estate or you reinvest it or what?

We've invested back into this. So, like, not only... Like I said, we built the patio out there. That was a a large investment. We upgraded the electricity in the building. We've added a secondary patio. We bought the trailer.

To make are we missing any good parts of the story? Is she telling me everything? Okay. Just checking. Walk me through the six month closure. That's a lot of revenue you're giving up.

Yeah. It was definitely a difficult time. So we closed in August 2025. We couldn't get enough power. Essentially, what was happening, so we had to contact the city and work with the city to get an electrician to get the panel upgraded. And they told us we would be closed for, like, one month, and then that stretched to, like Oh my god. Six months. So

Do you sue the contractor?

We were advised to, but we didn't. You know, we just You're very nice. Yeah. We just try to stay focused on, like, things that are gonna, like, grow us and help us and, like, he'll get what's coming

Should I try this?

I think he should try.

It's hard not to like this. Right? What... What's the growth strategy? How do you guys build this business?

One of our larger investments that we are making currently and in the stages of making is with our marketing. We have trouble getting people in the door. Sometimes just letting people know that we're here. We're still a young business. Yeah. And Sam's is such an old business, and there's always new people coming into Austin. So we're trying to focus on, growing our brand a lot more and marketing.

What are you doing right now, though? Like, is it Instagram? Is it your website? What is

Instagram, TikTok, Facebook is like a large part of our marketing. We have a social media manager now. We've met with a marketing strategist, and one of the things we're doing is trying to, like, reach out to influencers and things like that. It's hard to track ROI on the marketing investments. I can compare, like, last year's numbers to this year's numbers this month or last month or this week's to last week's. And so I try to use

that to gauge what's working. Another thing is we do events here, and I can see the people that are here. And so I know, like, if I... If it's being promoted properly, are we putting this in front of the right people? Things like that.

Help me understand where the business is today. Right? So you reopened, I think earlier this year in 2026. What sales so far this year and what do you hope to do by the end of the year?

We are down in sales. I wanna say that currently because of the six month closure, I believe every year, year over year growth, like I told you, has been somewhere around 30%.

Okay.

So this year it's looked a little different. March of last year, we were around $45,000 in sales.

Okay.

That was the first month that we reopened. We opened the second week in March and we did around $33,000 in sales.

That feels pretty good for an opening. That was March 2026.

I felt okay about that, you know?

Are you making money if you do 33 k? Can you cover all your costs?

Typically, we could, but obviously, we had to pay for construction costs and things like that. We're looking at somewhere between 13 to $14,000 Okay. To cover all things for this place to be profitable.

So that was March. What's happened since then?

We're shooting here in June. Last year, April, we did 30... Around 33,000. This year in April, we did about 34.

Okay. So about flat, little up.

Twenty twenty five in May, we did about 42 of last year. Mhmm. And this year, we fell short at 27.

Okay. What happened there? That's a big drop.

Yeah. That is a big drop. I think that what happened is we were consistent with here, our main location, but events. Like, we were still trying to find our footing here. Every Sunday, we have a Sunday fun day.

Okay.

So we have a DJ. We've got crawfish. We do a crawfish boil all... Every Sunday, all through crawfish season. We also have vendors every Sunday that come and, like, we close down the parking lot and set up these big tents and people come and hang out and listen to the DJ from four to eight every Sunday.

So are Sunday is your best sales day?

Yes. By far.

If both of you guys were full time on the business, could you do more than 30,000 a month in sales because you guys could focus on more events, get more people here or no? Feel like that's...

Likely. We've talked about, like, not working our corporate jobs anymore and things like that, but I don't think that we're there yet.

Okay. Would it take for you to quit your corporate job and go all in here?

That's a lot. I mean, because you gotta think like we don't have benefits set up through it. Like, we both get benefits through our corporate companies. We get retirement and that's a whole another treasure box we'd have to learn.

Let's like shift to the future a little bit. Right? How do you guys grow this business? Can it get to 1,000,000 a year of revenue?

Yeah. Marketing's like a big one for us. I think that like we've been approached by several different marketing agencies, but... And there's a story to tell. There's a lot of history here. Mhmm. And I feel like that's where people buy into brands is being a part of, like, something that was history that... Really a lot of the history is here with Sam's. Mhmm. We came to better Sam's.

And so how do we tell that in a way that says... Gets people to say, I wanna come to this daiquiri shop, experience that story.

We're so busy with the logistic logistical portion of this and, like, the events and the out... Like, focusing on getting the trailer places that we don't have time to, like, paint that picture and make sure that it's getting delivered to the right audience.

Yeah. How much money would that take to run a, you know, a test?

I think that $9,000 would be a great testing point for us to see if we can make a difference with marketing and branding on our side and behind us fueling us forward as a business.

Tamika, did this feel like the right ask for you?

It wouldn't hurt to ask.

Okay. So let's try to work towards some sort of offer or deal here. Guess let me just ask a question. What's your best Sunday revenue then that you can remember?

5 k or...

Because then that makes the strategy make sense. Right? I'm trying to close the loop here.

Our top selling day period has been like 10 k period. Right.

In June. What was that day? What did you do on that day?

We... It was a June tea. It was a June tea. Events are definitely our top selling days.

Okay.

I would say that Sunday fun days make up about half of our revenue revenue for the week.

So obviously we know that revenue model already works. It's already your best day.

Right.

If I write a check for $9,000 today, how could you guys pay me back? Are you open to an equity deal or do you want to think about a debt deal?

Definitely debt deal. I believe it or not. You don't

want me to be a part of the family?

Our business is family owned and operated and I don't plan on it. I mean, we've we've talked about franchising at some point. We've been approached by like two different companies that do that, but I don't think we're... I wanna keep it as close as we can for as long as we can.

Okay. Then let's talk debt. Do you have any other debt on the books today?

Our trailer, we pay a monthly payment. That's a part of the 13,000 that I told you about.

K.

Every month. So we pay a thousand dollars on that every month.

How much do you still owe?

I want to say that we still owe like, it'll be paid off by the end of this year.

Okay. So you have like 5 k left on it.

Uh-huh. And then when we did the add on of this and the electrical, we took out a Square loan, Which takes out 20% of our daily sales. We took it out in August, right before we did the the electrical and it was $57,000 that we owed back. Mhmm. The remaining balance is 25,000.

Yeah. If I do a deal with you, I don't wanna sit behind square. Right. I wanna be in first position. What that means is is you don't... You want your money. Exactly. I don't want you guys thinking about other debt. It's just you and me together, you know, going going. If I did a $30,000 deal with you today so that we can pay this off and still have some left for marketing, what would that represent in terms of your total annual sales? $30.

$30.

Like 10%?

Yeah. $30 because we're... I think we're at like... I think...

You're averaging 30 a month of sales? I don't love 10% leverage. So I don't like putting $30 into a business doing 300 k per year. It just... It's too much leverage. So I'm trying to think creatively here. If I gave you guys cheaper money than Square, do you guys have... Could could you personally put in money on my same paper so we could take out the expensive money? Like, let's say we did a $50,000 deal Okay.

Where I put in 30 k, you guys each put in 10 k each. We take out the more expensive money. We buy that you now have... You own the trucks. There's no loan payment there anymore. It'll increase your margins. There'll be more cash flow every year if we did that. Would you be open to that?

I think I would need to talk to my business partner.

Okay. Talk real quick. We're not recording. Talk real quick. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So you chatted off camera a little bit with your business partner, Tamika. What are what are you guys thinking?

So we had questions about the rate in which we would need to pay you back.

Yes.

Yes. We would be debt free, but we would be in the same... Pretty much the same.

No. You're much better... You have a great... A beautiful looking new business partner. Yeah.

We would do the take rate lower than Square. We do a, a 15% take rate on daily sales.

Okay.

So it's cheaper money.

So we would have more cash flow. We're putting in $10 and our $10 is going...

Same exact as mine. So so like you guys are basically giving the business debt just like I am. You're basically sitting on my same paper. It basically unites us. Okay. It's like, so when you are getting paid back out of 15% of daily sales, just like I'm getting paid back, we're just, it creates alignment.

I see. Yeah. So it's like, we're just putting ourselves in our debt to ourselves so that exactly. So essentially we're saving 5%

Of daily sales.

Of daily sales.

Yeah. If we do a deal where I'm putting in 30 and you're each putting in 10, that's 50 k.

Right. So we have $20.

Exactly. You have 25 k, 23 k after we pay off Square to invest in the marketing and the Sunday Fundays. Yeah. She's a tough cookie. Very skeptical.

If we put in 20 k ourself, we might as well pay the the nonviolent. Can we? Yeah, it's exciting. Talk to our

This is your show. You can do whatever you want. These are tricky, right? Because this is not a huge business, right? But I like them. The product was good. They have a community. And in the age of AI, community is very important. So if we can build these Sunday Fundays, I can see a path to growth, but I hate the fact that they're not full time. That's the tricky part. We had another mastermind session in the hallway. Where are you guys heads at? What are thinking?

We really, like your deal and your offer. However, our ask is that maybe we do three months worth of marketing funded by yours truly.

K.

And you do three months, and then we'll also match that for another three months to make up the six months for the branding and marketing that we need.

Okay.

But you would still be buying the Square loan, but that is something that I think would be more helpful. We're not having trouble paying back our Square loan. We don't, we're not struggling in that department.

So I put in 4,500, you guys put in 4,500, we can test the marketing agency for nine months. That's the ask? Six months. Yeah. How would I even get my 4,500 back out of the business?

We can pay you back on daily sales. We could do monthly, whatever, you know, we could come to some sort of terms on that, which we're open.

What percent of daily sales?

Somewhere between 1015% would still be a good amount of daily...

I think I'm much better. You can't give me the same terms as Square?

Square gave us a lot more money.

I can give you more money.

If I do like a small amount of 4,500 and you pay back like 15% of daily sales, you would do that deal?

Yeah. We could do that.

Okay. We have a deal. Done. Sound good?

Sounds great.

Alright. Let's get to work. I want more Sunday fun days. I want to play hack and bump it.

You gotta finish your I cannot finish. Your fishbowl before you leave.

If I finish thing, I will be like this. I'll go in that. Yeah. If you guys like that deal, remember, new episodes drop every Wednesday. Click here to subscribe so you don't miss out. Also, wanna see more deals like this one? Click here to see the next deal immediately.