Who’s Behind It
The team behind Sora Mesa is the team behind August Brands. Sora Mesa is the first brand on that platform.
Devaraj Southworth
Cofounder, CEO & President
Co-founded Thirstie, the Shopify for alcohol, backed by RNDC and acquired by Cocktail Courier. Early investor in OpenAI and Anduril, with prior exits to Groupon and Hootsuite. Twenty-five years across American Express, Deloitte and Accenture.
Lindsay Held
Partner, COO & General Counsel
Co-founded ReserveBar in 2013 and built the platform behind a decade of landmark spirits launches, including Aviation Gin. That infrastructure powered brands later bought by Diageo, Bacardi and Proximo. Wharton MBA, Columbia JD.
Adrian Molina
Chief Marketing Officer
As Director of Branding at Aviation Gin, helped take an $8M regional label to its $610M Diageo acquisition. Later launched Betty Buzz and Pantalones at Ryan Reynolds’ Maximum Effort. Adweek Young Influential, 2020.
The Board
Rakesh Gupta
Cofounder & Chairman
Founder and CEO of Kiwi Ventures, an investor in more than 210 early-stage startups. Earlier co-founded Aptara, built to 5,000 people and acquired for $144M. Three-time Inc. 500 honoree.
Manish Salhotra
Board Director
Investor and committed champion of the company. Senior voice on partnerships, alliances and international, with a researcher partnership at MIT.
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.
Eight flavors, still, 4%. Coming 2026.