When we pour ourselves an adult beverage, we want to make sure it’s well-made, delicious, and the values of the company that makes it align with ours. Effie Panagopoulos’s KLEOS ticks all the boxes, and we sure are glad she created it. Sit back, pour yourself a KLEOS on the rocks, and be inspired by this first Greek woman in history to establish a liquor brand.

GREECE IS THE WORD: Why mastiha liqueur?

EFFIE PANAGOPOULOS: Because mastiha has 3,000 years of history and has never been mass-marketed outside of Greece. I’ve been saying for years that mastiha will be the next açai. It just needs education and awareness to get there. We know mastiha was the world's first chewing gum, and has all these health benefits for the gut, oral hygiene, and skin care, but it has also been used in alcohol form since antiquity and can be found in old cocktail books from the 1920’s in their spirit lexicons. So, it has a precedence as an alcohol, and the flavor is totally unique and opens up a whole new world of cocktail opportunities.

How did you come up with your idea for KLEOS and what made you sure this was the way to go?

I was the first and only brand ambassador for METAXA in the U.S. That job brought me back to Greece and I was in Mykonos summer 2008 at Nammos, and everyone around me was doing shots of mastiha—and the kicker is: it was all American tourists. I tasted it and immediately knew the flavor to be like the ypovrihio we had as kids. A brand called St. Germain had launched in 2007 in NY, and it lit up like wildfire. It was an elderflower liqueur, and bartenders could throw it in anything, earning it the moniker, “bartender’s ketchup.” I immediately thought, “Mastiha and such-and-such flavor would be phenomenal in cocktails,” and “Mastiha could be the ‘next St Germain,’” which is coincidentally what a lot of bartenders say about KLEOS. The press has been calling it “bartender’s olive oil." I consulted for an existing mastiha brand, and it didn’t work out financially for us to work together, and also, I wanted to create the next global Greek spirit brand—and a true luxury offering, given mastiha’s rarity and price. The category in Greece has many weaknesses—primarily that most brands don't even use PDO Chios mastiha, creating a culture that has cheapened the value of the product. The brands that do use PDO Chios mastiha are cloyingly sweet and employing inferior production techniques and packaging. I did many focus groups on KLEOS—on the formula, on the bottle. I did over seventeen formulas before I landed on the liquid in the bottle. I think the biggest mistake entrepreneurs can make is creating a brand because they and their friends like it. You need to have a true understanding of your target demographics and beta test or do focus groups in those targets. The response was overwhelmingly positive from both high-level bartenders and upwardly mobile women—my two targets. So, it was a tremendous amount of market research and twenty years’ experience in the liquor industry—along with having my finger on the pulse of what’s trending and what the future would call for—that made me sure that KLEOS was the way to go. Just like there’s a bottle of Aperol on every bar, there should be a bottle of mastiha on every bar and that bottle will be KLEOS.

Any tips for women breaking into male-dominated industries, lessons learned you're willing to share?

Man or woman, entrepreneurship is not for the faint of heart. And it’s going to be harder for women, specifically regarding raising capital, because we’re up against the statistic that 2% of VC funding goes to female-owned brands. So women have to be prepared for this. It may take you longer to raise capital. We are also held to a higher standard. You have to be prepared to brush off the sexism, or selectively choose to address it. There have been times I think it’s not even worth it and there have been times I felt, “I don't care if I get a check from this person, I’m going to politely give them a piece of my mind.” There is something in me that feels that I’m doing this for all women, so the next generation doesn’t have to endure the same difficulties when it comes to raising money. My advice to women honestly is the same for men: Ask yourself WHY are you doing this. Your WHY has to be something that keeps you going regardless of the 1,000 NOs you will hear. It has to be more than a financial reward. Do your homework and become an expert in the vertical you are launching a business in. I’ve been in the liquor industry for twenty years. When you can back up passion with knowing your sh*t inside out, you are unbeatable. Investors invest in you at the end of the day, and the fewer gaps in your proposition the more confidence you will exude and then engender trust in others that you’re going to deliver on what you say. Also, find a trusted circle to vent to. Entrepreneurs are the new rockstars, so it’s hard to be vulnerable because you feel like your every move is being judged. I’ve struggled with this. I have an advisory board, but I’ve relied more on friends, family, and therapy to get through a lot of rough times. And your skin gets thicker, and you get more resilient as you go.

Biggest surprise along the KLEOS journey from concept to reality?

The worst one was the massive fail on the caps in my first production run. I have too much trauma from “cap gate” to rewrite the story, but suffice to say a luxury brand with a non-working cap was the last thing I expected in my first production run. Or me screaming in the middle of Plomari, Lesvos to the cap producer at how I’d been sleeping on my mother’s couch to afford this run, and how little regard they had for me or my business.

Who are the people and organizations who supported your idea and vision unwaveringly from its inception, and what difference did their unconditional faith and support make in your experience?

The first true supporters were my pre-seed investors. My first investor was a friend, Heidi Linnebach, who literally asked me if she could invest—not the reverse. When your friends write a check, it’s different than an angel investor or acquaintance. It’s heartwarming to know someone close to you really believes in you—I feel forever indebted. My whole pre-seed round was friends and friends of friends—many Greek Americans from Boston where I grew up. There was, in fact, one individual, who I won’t name so as not to embarrass him, who actually rounded up 10 people into an SPV and I had no idea until after I launched that he actually did this—I just thought he wrote a check himself. The fact that someone believes so much in your business to actually round up more of their friends… again… it’s a snowball effect—he created a whole crew of KLEOS brand ambassadors. I was overwhelmed with the support from the hometown in Boston, which is why I chose it as my first launch market. Sleeping on Mom’s couch for a year and a half also helped me not burn cash on rent and instead use it towards the business. I should openly state that my mother wasn’t a believer in the beginning, and even she has come around.

Which Greeks—if any, living or deceased—have impacted your development as a professional and as a human?

One of those people is named Huity Konstandindou—she was the global brand manager on METAXA, based in Greece, and was very much a big sister and mentor, specifically with navigating the patriarchal hierarchies of our parent company Remy Cointreau. I was a firecracker when I was younger—I think she was key in helping me refine my work persona and learning to employ diplomacy, in terms of corporate politics. And she is still a fan and supporter of me now with KLEOS. Another was my high school headmaster at Boston Latin School, Michael Contompasis. I had already received an academic scholarship, was accepted early to Boston College, and booked to go on our senior trip to Cancún, Mexico—which I had worked and saved to pay for myself. He said, “You kids really need to learn the practice of delaying gratification.” He may as well have branded this as a tattoo on me. You eat and breathe this as an entrepreneur.

Who are you named after, if anyone?

My grandmother Efthimia, on my dad’s side. I was the oldest, so my parent’s kept that tradition.

Where did you grow up, and what was that like?

I grew in up in Roslindale and West Roxbury, residential neighborhoods in the city of Boston. I went to all Boston public schools and started kindergarten through third grade elementary in a Greek bilingual program for kids learning English as a second language. The Mattahunt school in Mattapan was home to the Greek bilingual and Spanish bilingual programs, so all the students were Greek American, Latinx, and African American. When I was pulled out of the Greek bilingual program because it was too easy for me, I was the one white kid in a class that was otherwise entirely comprised of Black students. You could catch me trying to breakdance and beatbox to the Fat Boys in the schoolyard. Then my middle school was super diverse—my best friend was Ecuadorian, and there were Haitians, Greeks, Czechs, Muslims of varyious ethnic backgrounds, and of course your Irish and Italian kids. Boston has a reputation for a major lack of diversity, but my experience growing up was the exact opposite because I attended inner-city public schools. Fast forward to seventh grade, when I was accepted to the exam school—Boston Latin School, the very first high school to be established in the United States—it was established in 1635—and, once again, we had a very diverse student body. I consider myself very fortunate that my parents came over as immigrants, and having come from a lower-middle-class family, I had the opportunity for an excellent education and was not shielded in some predominantly white suburban community, which afforded me many academic scholarships to top-25 schools when it came to college. And now being an entrepreneur—it’s The American Dream.

What do you think of when you think about your Greek background? What comes to mind?

I would be lying if I didn’t say I had teen angst growing up Greek. I went to Sunday school, learned Greek dance, recited my “poimata" on March 25th, participated in GOYA, played GOYA basketball… and there comes a point when you just wanted to be “normal.” Like, my mother gave us orange marmalada and butter sandwiches, and I just wanted peanut butter and jelly. We were only allowed to drink “gingerella” and not allowed to have Coke or Pepsi in the house. Then I’m studying ancient history in seventh grade in Latin school, and meanwhile I had been to the tomb of Agamemnon in Mycenae and Olympia the summer prior. So, I think my youth was this weird conundrum of being simultaneously proud and embarrassed of my “Greek-ness.” My mother was extremely tough on me growing up, so by the time I got to college, I largely dissociated from the Greek community. Getting the job with METAXA was a spiritual “homecoming” for me, and now I feel like a walking stereotype of a loud and proud Greek American.

Who are three of your heroes and/or heroines, and why?

Melina Mercouri. The way she spoke about Greece and the quest to get the Elgin marbles back. Just wow. Being Greek is something that is felt deep in your soul, and this woman literally embodies so many notions in Greek—kefi, meraki, philotimo, philanthropy, and kleos—she is eternal. It’s hard for me to pinpoint others I’d give hero status to, but I’d generally say I bow down to anyone doing truly selfless philanthropic work and those who have sacrificed their lives for a cause. Maybe Koloktroni because he was where I’m from—Arcadia—and Bouboulina, the archetypal Greek female warrior.

How do you deal with failure? What have you learned from it?

Failure is my best friend! I have become a better entrepreneur and human due to failure. I used to freak out when things went wrong—now it’s "breathe, and you’ll figure this out. You always do, and the universe is pushing you in a different direction.” You have to embrace it.

What are you most proud of, and why?

I am very proud to be the first Greek woman in history to start a liquor brand and beyond proud of my baby KLEOS. It was “in the works” for almost nine years of R and D, and I know many people never thought I would make it happen. I have never felt more strongly in my life about anything. It is my calling; I feel it’s my fate to make mastiha known to the world. My first press for the brand was in VOGUE—the piece was titled “Mastiha Is the Latest Must-Try Cocktail Ingredient.” I have been doing this as a one-woman band, and—if I may humblebrag—have achieved things with this brand that entire teams of start-ups I have consulted for couldn’t manage to do. And I’ve barely scraped the surface. Watch this space.