A simple frustration at the beverage shelf has turned into a fast-growing national brand for mother-and-daughter founders Sosy and Grace Hachigian. Their company, MODA Mocktails, launched in 2025 and has already generated $500,000 in revenue since launch. The founders now project between $3 million and $5 million in revenue for 2027.

The idea came from a gap the pair noticed as consumers. They could not find a mocktail that offered clean ingredients, bold flavor and an accessible price. Many products they tried contained too much added sugar, had muted flavors, or tasted closer to sparkling water than to a cocktail. Sosy, who says she never enjoyed drinking alcohol, wanted to create the option that was missing from the market.

Grace, 26, brought professional brand-building experience to the venture. When MODA began, she was working full time as an associate brand manager at Nestlé USA, where she spent four years on brands including Coffee mate, Nesquik and Starbucks. She now leads MODA's East Coast business from New York City, while Sosy, 57, manages the West Coast from Orange County, California. Together they run the company nationally.

Funding the launch took serious personal commitment. The founders say they have invested more than $500,000 of their own money into product development, packaging, marketing, sampling and distribution. Revenue took roughly six months to become consistent as they built their retail and distribution footprint, and because they are reinvesting in growth, no earnings have been taken out of the business.

Momentum has been strong. Within its first year, MODA secured shelf space at multiple national retail chains and is also appearing in airports and hotels. The next target is ambitious: placement in 4,000 stores by mid-2027. The company is also certified as a women-owned business by WBENC, which the founders say has provided webinars, networking and retail-focused programs that helped them navigate growth.

The journey was not without setbacks. Grace recalls that the first purchase order headed to a retailer's warehouse was caught in the biggest storm of the year, and the product froze in transit, forcing the entire shipment to be returned. That delayed the on-shelf date and meant scrambling to send a replacement. The team expedited a new shipment and worked closely with the retailer to get MODA on shelves, a lesson in staying calm and focusing on solutions. Sosy also admits that the first logo, created in a rush, did not fully capture the brand's fun and approachable personality and was not as legible as they wanted, so they launched anyway and refined it as the brand evolved.

Behind the scenes, building a beverage brand means managing far more than a recipe. Grace says founders juggle manufacturing, logistics, distributors, retailers, marketing, inventory and countless relationships at once, which makes real-time problem solving essential. Her best advice for aspiring founders is to start without waiting for perfection: get something into the world, listen closely and keep improving.

The MODA story shows how deep category experience, a clear consumer gap and a willingness to launch before everything is perfect can combine into early traction. It also highlights the real cost of building a consumer brand, since reaching $500,000 in revenue went hand in hand with more than $500,000 in personal investment.