JoJo Fletcher: Co-Founder of Saint Spritz
Episode
On this episode of The Kara Goldin Show, we’re joined by JoJo Fletcher, Co-Founder of Saint Spritz—the premium, better-for-you canned spritz brand redefining the ready-to-drink beverage space with bold flavor and effortless style. Known to many from The Bachelorette, JoJo has successfully transitioned into a powerhouse entrepreneur, building brands across fashion, real estate, and now food and beverage.
In our conversation, JoJo shares the inspiration behind launching Saint Spritz, the lessons she’s carrying forward from her earlier ventures, and what it takes to break through in one of the most competitive spaces in CPG. We dive into the art of building an authentic brand beyond a personal platform, the scrappy early days of getting Saint Spritz off the ground, and how she’s navigating leadership, growth, and staying true to her mission. She also reflects on what being a founder really looks like behind the scenes—and why creating a community around Saint Spritz is just as important as creating a great product.
Whether you're an entrepreneur, a fan of innovative brands, or someone who loves hearing the real stories behind building something meaningful, this episode is packed with insights you won’t want to miss. Now on The Kara Goldin Show.
Resources from
this episode:
Enjoying this episode of #TheKaraGoldinShow? Let Kara know by clicking on the links below and sending her a quick shout-out on social!
Follow Kara on LinkedIn – Instagram – X – Facebook – TikTok – YouTube – Threads
Have a question for Kara about one of our episodes? Reach out to Kara directly at [email protected]
To learn more about JoJo Fletcher and Saint Spritz:
https://www.saintspritz.com/
https://www.instagram.com/joelle_fletcher
https://www.instagram.com/saintspritz
Transcript
Kara Goldin 0:00
I am unwilling to give up that I will start over from scratch as many times as it takes to get where I want to be. I want to be you. Just want to make sure you will get knocked down. But just make sure you don’t get knocked out, knocked out. So your only choice should be go focus on what you can control. Control. Hi everyone, and welcome to the Kara Goldin show. Join me each week for inspiring conversations with some of the world’s greatest leaders. We’ll talk with founders, entrepreneurs, CEOs and really, some of the most interesting people of our time. Can’t wait to get started. Let’s go. Let’s go. Hi everyone, and welcome back to the Kara Goldin show. Super excited to have my next guest here, Jo Jo Fletcher, who you may recognize. Her name. She is the co founder of Saint Spritz, which is the premium better for you can spritz brand that is taking the ready to drink alcohol space by storm. So excited to have her here. She is a serial entrepreneur. She’s also known from her days of being on The Bachelor and The Bachelorette. But what many people might not realize about her is that she has done quite a bit of growing lots of different companies and brands and real estate fashion and now food and beverage. So very excited to jump into st Britz and talk a lot about what she’s learned, what is challenging, what is her world like these days? And more than anything, super excited to finally meet you. Jojo, super excited.
JoJo Fletcher 1:54
Well, so excited to be here. Thanks for having me. Welcome.
Kara Goldin 1:57
So let’s talk about Saint Spritz, what was the moment that you said This drink has to be out here? It’s
JoJo Fletcher 2:05
so funny, because I always tell people this was never on my radar. Way I have no experience in alcohol. I had never thought that this was something I wanted to do, let alone thought I had time for because I, you know, I’m doing so many different things. But really, the idea was born, you know, a couple years ago, my oldest brother got married in Italy. Our whole family spent some time there, and the spritz culture just took took over for us. Are all, all of our family members are always drinking these spritzes. And we it just became like a ritual for us. And we all got back home after the wedding, and we would do family dinners on Sunday nights, and we would all be whipping up these, you know, Aperol spritzes, or different types of spritzes we had tried, and, you know, we just started to realize, like, every time I made one, it tasted different than when Mallory made one. And then if I just wanted to have one solo spritz, I’d waste a whole bottle of Prosecco. And I was like, Man, I just, I need something quicker. I need something easier. And so let’s go to the grocery store and see if we can find it. That’s where it started. We went to the grocery store, and me and my sister in law, Sister in law, Mallory, who’s also another co founder, and we just couldn’t find something that captured that, you know, that the essence of those iconic Italian spritzes that we were wanting and are ready to drink format. So we’re like that that can’t be right, like, surely this exists. We found, like, maybe one or two that I had attempted it, but it just it missed the mark for us on a number of different levels, right? Like it didn’t, the taste wasn’t there, the look and the branding wasn’t, you know, what we wanted to host with, the ingredients weren’t there. And then we started to do a deep dive on those, like traditional Italian spritzes that we had been consuming all summer. And we come to came to find out, like there’s loads of added sugar, there’s red dye 40, there’s yellow six. There’s all these things that like as pretty health conscious people we were very unaware of, which I don’t know how I didn’t think of it. A lot of you see these bright orange spritzes everywhere. You wonder how they get it? And I will tell you, we will probably get into that was one of our biggest challenges when formulating, was trying to create, create this bright orange color that was reminiscent of those iconic spurs, but not using artificial dyes. So anyways, it started with just the desire of wanting something for ourself, realizing it didn’t exist, and feeling that there was a little bit of this, this white space for a canned beverage that was a spritz that captured the Italian, you know, essence that we wanted, and that was that was cleaner in the ingredients that we were wanting. So,
Kara Goldin 4:33
Saint Spritz, can you talk about the alcohol content a little bit and sort of, how does it vary for those who haven’t had a chance to try it.
JoJo Fletcher 4:41
So a traditional spritz, there’s three parts that go into a traditional like, if you’re thinking of an Aperol Spritz, it’s Apryl, which is a liqueur, it’s the Prosecco, and then there’s club soda. So there’s three different ingredients there. With Saint Spritz, we have really just taken the inspiration of those flavors, but we are solely wine based. So we’re an orange wine base. We’re only 5% alcohol alcohol. So we really went for that kind of low ABV category. I think, as consumers between Mallory and I at least, and my brother as well, like we realized when we were drinking traditional spritzes we could maybe have like one two tops, and then we were feeling a little fuzzy, we wanted to create a spritz that we can enjoy in a social setting, but still not feel terrible if we drink more than one, not feel like I’ve lost my head. So we’re in the low alcohol category, 5% and it’s an orange wine base.
Kara Goldin 5:34
So 5% does that still keep you in the three tier system? I know many people who are in business, and especially in the alcohol industry, know that, you know alcohol is a little bit different, because you’ve got to go through that three tier system. But I feel like there’s a certain level that if you stay underneath it, you don’t have to or anything
JoJo Fletcher 5:56
that we were going to create was always going to have to go through the three tier system if it had any sort of to create a cocktail, these account cocktail that we were going to do. So, yeah, we’re in the kind of low ABV space, but there’s plenty of other RTDs that are kind of in that realm, whether it’s 5% to 8% but then you have ones that go up to 15% you know, and a traditional spritz is kind of in the range of 11 to 12% alcohol. So we really wanted to create something that was a little bit, you know, a little bit more palatable, less heavy, more refreshing, and something that you can really just enjoy in a social setting and not have to be worried about. Am I getting too crazy right now?
Kara Goldin 6:38
Yeah, exactly. And also the sugar content. Can you talk about the calorie content on it?
JoJo Fletcher 6:43
Yeah. So I think when we were doing the formulation of this, we went through all different types of like ways that we could approach this. You know, like I said, traditional spritzes have ads of a loaded sugar. Obviously that leads to worse hangovers. So the more sugar, the more hangovers. I think with us, we also realize that, like as a drinker myself, I’m more of a mindful drinker, so that when I do have a cocktail, I really know that I’m I want to enjoy it and I don’t really want to go for the artificial sweetener. So that was not a path that we wanted to go down whatsoever. But we are no added sugar. So in our spritzes, all the sugar that comes in our drinks are from the natural juices, which is something that really separates us from typical RTDs out there. On average, you know, they’re probably only filled with like, five to 8% of real juice. Saint Spritz is, you know, around 30% real juice. So that’s what gives it that full body, which we also felt was missing in the market. So we have natural juices. We use monk fruit as a sweetener. So we don’t do any added sugars. We definitely don’t do any artificial sweeteners in our drinks.
Kara Goldin 7:50
So you’ve built businesses before. Many people are familiar with you from your days of being on The Bachelor and The Bachelorette. But what felt different about launching Saint Spritz versus some of your earlier ventures, so you’ve done real estate and fashion, I mean, it’s just you amazing food to do. You want to talk a little bit about those and sort of how that carried you into this Saint Spritz, nothing
JoJo Fletcher 8:21
prepared me for the alcohol industry. I will tell you that, um, it’s kind of funny, because my whole story, like, I went to college thinking I was going to be a doctor. I was a biology major. I was preparing for the MCAT. I got to my senior year, and then just totally got burnt out, and I realized, like, is this really like a passion of mine, or am I just chasing this idea that was instilled in me really early on, you know? And so I didn’t do anything really with my biology major, but I realized after college I need to get a job, so I got into just medical sales. And, you know, I always had, like, this little kind of passion for real estate development. My mom did it. My mom’s also a doctor. Both my parents were doctors, but my mom has this, like, entrepreneurial, like, hustle side of her that I just saw my whole life. So even though she’s a doctor, she’s still building businesses. She’s doing all this stuff. And I would go with her to her little apartment complexes, and I would help her kind of fix up the rooms and paint them up. And so after I graduated, I started doing medical sales, and I was like, I want to save enough money and kind of do this on my own. So I ended up buying my first, you know, remodel project, and I lost money on it. Had no clue what I was doing, but I learned a lot, and I really found I had a passion for it. So that’s when that kind of part of my career took off. I started buying and remodeling and flipping and so I love that side of what I do. And then I got asked to be on The Bachelor. So it was kind of in the peak of starting this sort of remodel business that I got asked to go on the show. Went on. This show became the Bachelorette. So went on to the Bachelorette. Ended up getting. Engaged to my now husband, which is also kind of crazy, but with that became, you know, there was a lot of opportunities that came my way to work with other brands. I had this platform, which I’m forever fortunate and thankful, thankful for, but it really taught me a lot, because whether it was a one brand wanting to work with me to help them market or to create something, I got to work alongside people that have already done that are experts in their space, right? So just by working with them, I learned a lot, kind of in the creative process and also in the marketing process, which I think in turn, definitely helped me with st Brits. But nothing I’ve ever done is like saints, like the alcohol industry, I went into so blind. I had to learn, I had to immerse myself in it. But I think overall, like the one thing that always comes through is like, there is not a day that you’re not really working towards it, and you have to grind, and you have to have that grit, and you have to really, I think, be passionate about what you’re doing, or else you will get burnt out. And there’s you still will get burnt out. But as long as you are pushing forward and you believe in what you’re doing, it makes it easier to keep working towards it and to keep reaching for the success in it.
Kara Goldin 11:19
Yeah, definitely. Well, I feel like you’ve, I mean, you’ve done things that I’m sure you had no idea whether or not the bachelor, the Bachelorette, your real estate projects, were going to be successful or not, but you went and tried, right? And you went out there and you just did it. And so I think that there’s, you know, a lot of people today look at you as a huge success, but there were definitely points where you’re like, I don’t know if this is going to work out or,
JoJo Fletcher 11:51
oh my gosh, yeah. And I failed a bunch of times that people don’t know about. You know what I mean? Like just talking about, like, jumping into, like, buying your first property in your early 20s. First off, that’s a big thing to do when you’re, you know, not rolling and rolling in a bunch of money. You know, that was a really kind of big investment for me to do. I failed, I made mistakes, I lost money. But, you know, there’s so many things, and I think there was a period of time in my life after, you know, a certain failure that I kind of, like, got down on myself, and I was like, Man, I don’t really want to take another loss. So am I really? Am I going to try something else again? And I got stuck in that mindset for a bit, and I hated that. I hated it because I was never like that before, but sometimes big losses kind of take a hit at you, and you really have to, like, do that self positive self talk, and what’s the worst that can happen? You know, you kind of just have to, like, you gotta try, because if you don’t try, you’re still in the same position that you are now. You know what I mean. So I definitely can
Kara Goldin 12:55
relate. I’m such a big believer in that. So you co founded Saint Spritz with your sister in law. So finding a co founder is something that it’s stressful, right? There’s a lot of people who might have an idea that you go and find a co founder that isn’t as excited about it. Maybe they’re not going to be as useful as you think that they might be, but you guys have decided to do this, and so far so good. So what would you say to other founders who are thinking about finding a co founder? How do you find one? What do you look for in that, in that mix? Well,
JoJo Fletcher 13:34
thankfully, like this, idea really was born as a family, and so it was us sitting around the kitchen table and all being like, Should we do this? And so there was automatically a we all had a passion for the spritz and like what we were doing. So I unders. I knew that the passion was there for all of us. And so it organically, obviously came to be with my sister in law, Mallory, who’s married to my oldest brother, and then my all my other brother, Ben, who’s also another co founder. We all it was just really easy to do this together again, not something any of us thought we were going to do. My sister in law was a full time mom. My other brother ran he’s a serial entrepreneur, doing his own thing, but we all were really committed to this. And I think that’s really important when you think about who your team’s going to be and who’s going to ride the ride with you, because I will tell you that. And you know this, and I’m sure any entrepreneur knows this, it’s a it can be a very long, hard road with a lot of challenges. You know, there’s a lot of emotional moments. There’s a lot of physical moments, like, I can’t tell you the amount of like, a red eye flights back and forth to all over to our your co pack, or to our manufacturing facility like it. It really does take a toll on you. So having somebody that has that same passion and drive as you but also knows you like there are so many moments where, like, if I’m having a bad day or I had a rough go at something, my sister in law knows me, and she knows like, Hey, I know. What I need to do in order to help her here, and vice versa, right? Like, we really know each other, and so in a lot of situations, like we can lift each other up with just kind of that, like that thing you know that we have because we know each other so well. And also, I will say having a co founder or someone on your team that you really trust is major, because I’ve been earned in other situations with previous partners. And you just gotta, you just gotta know that person is really trustworthy and is gonna, you know, do ride the ride with you through thick and thin? Yeah, definitely.
Kara Goldin 15:35
So I co founded a hint with my husband, and a lot of people I remember early on were like, This is crazy. You know, you guys are doing this together, but it actually, you know, really worked. I mean, we’ve been married for 30 years and had four kids and a business, and so it’s like, but that trust thing, and also the trade off of, there’s no way I could make it to a meeting and he would know exactly what I was gonna think about something or say about something with, you know, for the most part. So it’s so so key. So let’s rewind to those first early days, kind of behind the scenes. So how did you think about skew mix, and when you were first getting the flavors. How many did you need before you launched all of those things?
JoJo Fletcher 16:26
So we launched with just our flagship flavor, which was the Amalfi that was inspired by our love of the Aperol Spritz, that bright orange, iconic, you know, Italian spritz that it had gone viral too. We got very lucky. I think in timing of doing this. I think one thing that felt very like serendipitous is that, you know, we were just, we were just coming off of COVID, right? Tourism had been shut down. No one was traveling. Had just gotten opened back up. I think Italy, at the time, was the number one tourist destination after they had opened back up, you know, so people were frequenting there so much, and people were seeing, you know, these spritzes, these bright orange spritzes, on social media, on TV shows like white lotus, like it really became, it hadn’t made its way into the US the way it is in Europe, right? But it’s starting to become mainstream and the US. And it was in that time that we were also traveling in Italy, and the idea kind of came about. So we we knew we had to work fast, because we felt like this was an idea, that it was somebody’s going to do it, and it’s not us. It’s going to be one of the big guys that can knock it out super fast. So we really kind of hustled to to create this first flavor, which was our malthy, and it’s that bittersweet orange. We always knew we needed to innovate alongside of it, but we really focused on that first skew, we launched, etc. We focused on just, just that one. And we wanted to see how it did, right there was there. People liked it. People were buying it. And at the time, it was only available online, which was very expensive to purchase. I mean, it was very expensive for somebody to take a gamble, try a product they’ve never tried before, and pay what we had to charge for shipping alcohol. Obviously, you know how expensive it can be. But then, after we saw people really liking it, we started innovating again in the background, and as a brand, we knew that Saint sprints, we wanted it to be like, at least, how we launch those spritzes that were very reminiscent of the iconic Italian culture. So if you think back on those types of spritzes, it’s the Aperol Spritz, which was inspired, inspired our Malfi. And then you have the Hugo spritz, which I think was just named like the number one spritz of the year this past year, which, again, is a very new flavor that hadn’t made its way to the US, and now it’s becoming a lot more mainstream. So thankfully, we were already ahead of it, and we had innovated that on the in the back end, so we had that. And then we also wanted to come out with the third flavor, because we knew down the line we wanted to get to a variety pack. So we knew we needed to have three SKUs at least.
Kara Goldin 19:00
That’s awesome. So you’re now in Target Whole Foods, Walmart, massive, massive players. What did it take to get those yeses? Were you, I mean, it’s, that’s, that’s a big deal. And was there one big kind of learning moment in the process as well.
JoJo Fletcher 19:25
Yeah. I mean, that’s a really good question, because I think, you know, one of the biggest things I think we learned as a team is that nobody can sell your product or your brand the way that you can. Nobody knows it the way that you can. Even if they are experts in the industry. They don’t know your product the way that you do. And I think early on, as a team that had no prior experience in the alcohol industry, we felt like we needed to bring in an industry expert to just help us. Like, how do we get into retail? What do we need to do? How do we pitch to these retailers and that partnership with the person that. We ended up hiring, ended up not being a good partnership, because they almost made us feel like we were overstepping. If we wanted to go directly and say, Hey, let us pitch this like we have the passion for it. It’s better if it comes from the founders. And it almost it like it didn’t sit well with us as a team. We always felt like we were like, I just was a really weird feeling and like that’s not what we want to feel like. We’re the founders. We’re passionate about it. We shouldn’t feel weird if we somehow get connected to the Total Wine buyer or the target buyer. We should be we should feel confident to have those conversations and, of course, keep our team looped in. So we did learn early on that even if you are a quote, unquote expert in the industry, no one’s going to have the passion and be able to speak about your brand the way the founders are. And so we’ve always, since then, have made it a point to try to get in front of the retailers ourselves as the founders, and to talk about our product, to go see them in person, to create those conversations and connections early on. And so we did a lot of that, and I will tell you something that really helped us get connected, just to retailers in general. LinkedIn, this is it’s so funny, because I always make this joke. I may be like an influencer on Instagram or social media. My sister in law, Mallory, she’s a LinkedIn influencer. That girl somehow can get connected and we’ll do like all night deep dives to find the people to connect with. And we’re just relentless, relentless at trying to find connections and just to get in touch and to email this person, or who can we call here? It’s just a it’s a grind, but that’s how we did it. I
Kara Goldin 21:34
couldn’t agree more. I mean, it’s it, you know, definitely, I think if you can go on there and just DM people, I’ve had, I mean, I have many people have DM me and been able to catch me. And I think that, you know, look, what’s the worst that can happen? They don’t write back to you. I mean, I think it’s, it’s totally, totally worth it. And the other thing I will say too is, look, it’s always easier to have somebody build your business for you, but the reality is, is that just doesn’t happen. I mean, no great brand was built by somebody else. And I think that there’s more disasters that that founders that I’ve talked to will look back and they’ll say, I hired this person, I partnered with this person, I thought they could do it. And shame on me. Yeah? So I think that that’s a lot of what you’re saying. And it’s not to say that you can’t, that you can’t have help in building the process, but it just doesn’t stop. There’s no point where you’re going to be able to just say, this is somebody else’s until you sell the business. Yeah,
JoJo Fletcher 22:42
hand it off right now, at this point the business, and I think that early on, we thought that maybe we could, like, do that and hire out experts in whatever little you know field that we were looking for. And it’s just we it was a mistake, but it was a learning lesson, and we knew ever since then, like, our hands have to be a part of every single component of the business, and we have to lead the team, definitely.
Kara Goldin 23:02
So the story, I think, too, which is what you touched on earlier, I think is such a massive component. And I think retailers, as well as consumers, they want to hear the story, right? Because then, even if they don’t get to go to Italy, they might, or they remember the time that they did go to Italy, or some of their friends were telling them that they went to Italy. I mean, this makes them feel like they’re part of a process, especially when you’re telling the story where they can, you know, have the visual of it. And I think that that is, that’s so key. So how big beyond LinkedIn? How much is social driving a lot of your awareness and sales?
JoJo Fletcher 23:42
Yeah. I mean, I think marketing in general is one of the most crucial pieces of any business, right? I think it can get very expensive, right? And I think that the fear going into building this brand was like, Hey, we’re not one of the big guys. We’re a small family team, self funded. How are you going to compete against the big guys that have, you know, all this money that you can spend on marketing, but I what I will tell you, one thing that we did with the brands that I think created a really strong sense of community with the consumer, was really taking them behind the scenes in the building of the brand, and that storytelling that that comes off authentic, because I think, you know, consumers are very smart. They can see between the you know, what’s real, what’s not real, what’s not authentic, what’s authentic. Lot of days, celebrities just throw their name on a product, yet they claim that they don’t drink, and so it doesn’t resonate with the consumer. So I think for us, and at least with me, like I had my own social falling people knew about me. If they were my fans, they knew the only type of drinks Georgia like, were spritzes, right? She would get a glass of wine, she’d pop in some carb, you know, some carbonated water, and create her own spritz and I showcase a lot of my life, whether it was the travels to Italy and enjoying those things, so that when the time came to create this brand. Brand. It made sense. It resonated with the people that already followed me. It didn’t feel like she just slapping her name on something, but so I think that that was a really big part. And ever since then, marketing and on social media has really helped us launch our brand, because that’s how we how we first started. We launched the brand. We had no distribution, we got enough product to put it online, and we just needed to cross our fingers and see if people liked it. And thankfully, just through my social media, my husband also, he’s, he’s like, my biggest cheerleader. He’s always, like, shouting from the rooftops for me, like just us, organically sharing with our friends too. Kind of in the social media space really helped, I think, get that attention we needed. So the social media marketing is huge. We’ve continued to make, you know, pushes and strides to it, but at the same time staying very lean and scrappy as a team right now. Because I think it is very easy to start overspending too early on,
Kara Goldin 25:54
definitely five years from now. What do you hope for the brand? I mean, what do you when you think about success, you’ve had great success. This is a brand that is, you know, fairly new for you, in a totally new category. So what will success look like?
JoJo Fletcher 26:13
I think, for us as a team, like, we want st Brits to be able to be in the hands and available everywhere, right? Like, we just got national distribution, but we’re in, you know, select retailers. We want to be able to grow this brand to what we know it can be. We want it to be available across the world, if it can’t be. But I think in order for us to do that, you know, everyone says, like, Oh, you just got national distribution. Like, the job’s done. The job is just beginning for us. This is where, like, the real hard work starts because it’s one thing getting on the shelves, as you’re aware, but it’s another thing of making sure you stay on the shelves and you grow and so I think for us, it’s continuing to prove that we’re worthy of being on the shelves next to the big guys, and then in time, innovate in the background, create a variety pack, but also hopefully garner enough attention to to take to have somebody who’s who is a strategic in the industry, or who is an expert in the space, that wants to partner with us, that can help us grow it to what we want it to be. Because, again, we don’t have that expertise, but we know that we can grow this brand, and we just need a little bit of that help. I think when we get to that time,
Kara Goldin 27:21
I love it well. Jojo, thank you so much for joining us today. Such a pleasure to meet you, and best of luck with everything. Super, super cool. Stritz is awesome. I had a few of my 20 year olds here as well at my house, and they were like, What is this? This is so great. So, so you had a vast sampling over at our house when you sent some over, but I had seen it on the shelf, and I think you guys are killing it. So I love what you’re doing. So super fun. And I love the entrepreneurial journey of that you are embarking on and just jumping into lots of different categories and your Creator, right? I mean, that’s, that’s what you’re doing.
JoJo Fletcher 28:09
I just love the grind. You know, it’s so hard. I just love the grind. So we’re just gonna keep on grinding over here. I love
Kara Goldin 28:15
it, all right? Well, thank you again. Thanks for joining us. Thanks everyone for listening. Thanks again for listening to the Kara Goldin show. If you would please give us a review and feel free to share this podcast with others who would benefit and of course, feel free to subscribe so you don’t miss a single episode of our podcast. Just a reminder that I can be found on all platforms at Kara Goldin, I would love to hear from you, too, so feel free to DM me, and if you want to hear more about my journey, I hope you will have a listen or pick up a copy of my Wall Street Journal, best selling book, undaunted, where I share more about my journey, including founding and Building. Hint, we are here every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Thanks for listening, and goodbye for now. Bye.
