Who’s Behind It

These are the partners and officers behind Sora Mesa.

Devaraj Southworth

PartnerCofounder, CEO & President

Co-founded Thirstie, the platform that lets the biggest alcohol brands sell direct, fully compliant. Acquired. MD of Gotham City Ventures. Investor in OpenAI, Anduril, Saronic, Vernius Systems, Allen Control Systems, Apptronik, Aalo Atomics and Copenhagen Atomics, spanning AI, defense and energy.

Lindsay Held

PartnerCOO & General Counsel

Co-founded ReserveBar in 2013 and served as its CEO, building the platform behind a decade of landmark spirits launches, including Aviation Gin. That infrastructure powered brands later bought by Diageo, Bacardi and Proximo. Today COO and General Counsel of Sora Mesa. Wharton MBA, Columbia JD.

PartnerCreator

Millions follow her, on her own terms. A partner from the start and a voice in everything we make, she works with our head of brand on how Sora Mesa looks, sounds and shows up, from the can to the first pour to the first night out and every night after, in every city. Her name drops at launch.

Adrian Molina

Chief Marketing Officer

As Director of Branding at Aviation Gin, helped take an $8M label to its $610M Diageo acquisition. Launched Betty Buzz and Pantalones at Ryan Reynolds’ Maximum Effort. Adweek Young Influential, 2020.

Venu Moola

Chief Technology Officer

Led technology at Thirstie, serving Bacardi. Runs Fleet Studio, a forward deployed AI company for the mid-market. Built platforms for Diageo and Gallo. Founded the 7,000-member Princeton Tech Meetup.

Built and sold before

  • Thirstie
  • ReserveBar
  • Aviation Gin
  • Diageo
  • Maximum Effort

The Board

Rakesh Gupta

PartnerCofounder & Chairman · Board Director

Sold Aptara for $144M, a company he founded and scaled into the world’s largest content-services firm at 5,000 people and a three-time Inc. 500 honoree. Founder and CEO of KiwiTech Companies, with 700-plus early-stage investments across its portfolio. Owns capital, the cap table, and deal structure.

Devaraj Southworth

PartnerBoard Director

Founder and CEO. Holds the founders’ seat on the board and decides where capital goes across the portfolio: which brands get more time, which get shut down, and the terms on which the company would sell. Built the rails, the model, and the exit thesis the platform runs on.

Manish Salhotra

PartnerBoard Director

Founder of Black Canyon, the No. 1 fastest-growing company in Washington, D.C., and a two-time Inc. 5000 honoree. Built $250M-plus in relationships with HHS, NIH, CMS and EPA, and a 200-plus team of engineers, bioinformaticians, PhDs and MDs. Established an MIT research partnership focused on academic spinouts.

Why us

Selling alcohol in America is a licensing problem before it is a marketing problem. Three tiers, fifty regimes, and a retailer of record required in most of them. That is the exact problem Thirstie was built to solve, and it is the reason this team can get a can to a doorstep when most brands cannot.

One of us has built the rails, one has built the brands, one has run the compliance. Nobody here is learning the category on your money.

Behind them sits a patient board of seasoned investors, people who back only the best teams and know that good things take time.

The liquid is the easy part.

Four flavors, still, 4%. Get on the list.