Year: senior
Major: Computer Information Systems
Hometown: Pittsburgh, PA
1. What is Zeppy? Where does the name come from?
Zeppy is a brand of great tasting low calorie, low carbohydrate alcoholic beverages. The name actually comes from my nickname. Most of my friends call me Zeppy. Zeppy was also my grandpa’s nickname who passed away last summer. He was one of my heroes, so it really means a lot to me to have a company named after him.
2. What motivated you to want to start your own company?
I was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes when I was 6 years old. Since that time, to stay healthy I have cut sugar out of my diet as much as possible. When I turned 21, I quickly noticed that the fruity alcoholic beverages sold in stores were all full of sugar and almost impossible for a diabetic to drink. On top of that, many of those beverages are not labeled with carbohydrate information, which is important for a diabetic to calculate the insulin one needs to take.
As I had just done a mock business plan as an assignment in school, I knew I had the knowledge to make one again. I decided to stop waiting for other companies to come up with a beverage to drink while I could do it myself.
3. What has been the most difficult part of it all so far?
I would say the most difficult part has been coming up with the funding to keep Zeppy going. There are a lot of expenses involved in starting a business that one might not have even thought about before trying to start their own. I have spent a good amount of my after-college savings so far and have started selling cute hairties to try to raise some money to fund Zeppy as well as sober drive on weekends. I have some investor meetings coming up (fingers crossed), but, even so, need a good amount of money to get everything prepared for it.
4. What are your next steps for Zeppy?
Next steps are finalizing the 6-pack design, securing funding to keep going and talking with alcohol distributors to get the product into stores.
5. Do you plan on starting other businesses if Zeppy is successful?
Right now, Zeppy is the goal and the plan — I want to see where this can go. I haven’t thought about other businesses after Zeppy, but living on my own vineyard and running a winery someday would be amazing.
Check out the Zeppy website here!