SEPTEMBER 12, 2016 NJBIZ www.njbiz.com

Reprinted with permission from NJBIZ. Copyright © 2016. All rights reserved.

A Keurig for cocktails? Clinton’s Walker feels BIBO Barmaid offers easy way to make mixed drinks at home

CrowdfundingDebra Walker recently launched a crowd-funding campaign on Indiegogo in order to expedite BIBO’s push to market.

The campaign ended last week over 70 percent short of its $25,000 goal.

“My biggest challenge as an entrepreneur coming from corporate America is that I don’t know how to do (crowdfunding) very well,” said Walker, co-owner and president of the company. “That is all new to me. I’m going to make mistakes.”

Her biggest, she said, was not devoting enough time or manpower to managing the crowdfunding campaign.

“It was more important for me to get my production done in China than to focus my time on the Indiegogo campaign,” Walker said. “It was a learning lesson for me as a Gen Xer.”

Oprah’s favorite thingsDebra Walker said that she is confident everyone will love BIBO cocktails.

Especially because she said her product is being considered for Oprah’s Favorite Things List.

“When (an editor for) Oprah magazine interviewed me, she said, ‘I am shocked at how good this is,’” Walker said. “That’s what we are looking for!”

Drink it up

The BIBO Barmaid, left,

is the first of its kind. A few

of the cocktail mixes, below.

–COURTESY BIBO

Debra Walker, founder and owner of BIBO Barmaid, showing how to use her product. –AARON HOUSTON

BY MEG FRY

Debra Walker said she understands the guilt

one might feel paying $10 for an appletini with

a half-filled bottle of vodka left over from a party

at home.

She said she knows drinking a Mai Tai in

the comfort of one’s home might be more ap-

pealing than braving a crowded bar after work

— but, hey, who really knows how to make a

Mai Tai?

And she sincerely sympathizes with those

so busy they cannot catch up at happy hour at all.

“I was once with a good friend of mine,

who looked over at her espresso machine and

said, ‘I wish I could make a cocktail with that

at home,’ ” Walker said. “There wasn’t a lot of

space in her Manhattan apartment for alcohol

or mixers, so I said, ‘Well, I could do that.’ ”

With that, the idea for the BIBO Barmaid,

a single-serve countertop cocktail machine in

the image of a Keurig coffee brewer, was born.

“I love coming up with solutions that make

people’s lives easier,” Walker said.

Here’s how BIBO, which is expected to

reach market by November, will work:

Add one BIBO cocktail mixer pouch, fill

the water reservoir and press mix. When it’s

done, users will just need to add the 1.7 ounces

of the recommended alcohol for each flavor.

When it launches, Walker plans to have

eight varieties: Tangerine Paloma, Rum Punch,

Margarita, Appletini, Cucumber Melon, Mai

Tai, Spiced Apple Cider and Chocolate Pepper-

mint Martini.

Each variety will create 8 ounce BIBO cock-

tails, costing about $3.50 and taking less than 20

seconds to make.

Walker, the

co-owner and president of the Annan-

dale-based company, hopes her concept will

revolutionize the cocktail industry at home,

making it simpler and less costly for busy pro-

fessionals to socialize and entertain.

A single mother of three grown children,

she plans to market BIBO especially to busy

women, so she felt that ease of use was of the

utmost importance.

“(BIBO) was very hard and complicated to

create, but when the consumer gets it, they will

think it is just so easy,” Walker said.

And while the idea for BIBO came in her

friend’s apartment in Manhattan, Walkeseem-

ingly had been preparing for that moment for

years.

Walker, 50, spent more than 25 years de-

veloping a career steeped in innovation, sales

leadership and new business development for

major brands such as Kraft, Merck and Cray-ola.

“I had just done all this research on sys-

tems such as SodaStream and Keurig,” Walker

said. “So, when my friend mentioned the idea

to me, I contacted my sister, who is a patent at-

torney.”

Research found that there was ample

room for innovation in the single-serve cocktail

arena. So, Walker packed up and left corporate

America to combine her background with the

opportunity.

“There should be something available in

the marketplace for

consumers to make

single-serve cocktails

in a very simple way,”

she said. “Everything I

have done in my life and

career has culminated in

this idea coming together.”

Walker started by pull-

ing together a team of over

20 independent contractors

with whom she had worked

with previously.

“Finding and driving

the right engineering team by

myself was really new to me,” she

said.

Deciding upon the right specifica-

tions for the provisional patents proved even

more difficult.

“What did we want the machine to do?

How big would the machine be? What would

go into the system — a cup or a pouch?” Walker

said. “It literally took 10 to 15 different thought

processes in each aspect of food science and

engineering to come up with a solution.”

There were multiple times, Walker said,

when she thought she might fail.

“I have tons of advisers and people who

are part-owners, but there is no one else doing

this 24/7,” she said. “You begin to doubt your-

self — women even more so than men, I think.”

For example, while working with T.H.E.M., the manufacturer and co-packer of the BIBO

cocktail mixer pouches in Marlton, the compa-

ny had to test different materials in order to find

optimal films for the pouches.

“It can be overwhelming when it is all on

your shoulders, but it is critical to understand

that setbacks will happen again and again,”

Walker said. “You just have to keep going.”

The result was a system that was not only

small, but could provide a lot of variety and fla-

vor.

“When we were developing the flavors, I

kept saying, no matter what, these drinks have

to be mind-blowingly good,” Walker said. “In

order for me to keep something like this on my

counter and use it regularly, these drinks have

to taste phenomenal.”

Walker partnered with Givaudan, a Swiss

global flavors and fragrances manufacturer

with U.S. headquarters in Cincinnati and offic-

es in East Hanover, to create the eight current

flavors for BIBO.

A half-dozen more are slated for 2017.

“Givaudan did all of this research and de-

velopment for us because they believe in the

product and they believe there is a need in the

marketplace,” Walker said. “They really pro-

pelled my business forward.”

Walker says her product already is in de-

mand.

U.S. hotel chains and casinos have re-

quested units with which to conduct room

tests, she said.

The general public, she said, will be next.

The BIBO system, including the coun-

tertop appliance and six BIBO cocktail mixer

pouches, will sell for $229 at select big-box re-

tailers and on Amazon beginning Nov. 15.

Just in time for the holiday season.

With alcohol controlling about 60 percent

of the roughly $350 billion U.S. beverage mar-

ket, Walker believes she can achieve $10 million

in sales next year alone.

“Coffee only controls about 5 percent of

the market and Keurig alone is a $5 billion busi-

ness,” Walker said. “I am hoping to be over $100

million within the next three years.”

And she plans to sell her product globally.

Walker is working with major liquor man-

ufacturers to release premeasured BIBO alco-

hol pouches next summer, for which the BIBO

Barmaid is already designed. And she feels that

may be best done internationally.

“Because of the challenges of the liquor

laws in the U.S., it may be much easier to launch

our liquor products in the European market,”

Walker said. “We see this company starting in

the U.S. and moving over into Europe within 18

to 24 months.”

Walker knows it will be a challenge, but

she’s eager to attack it.

“Corporate America is by no means easy,

but it is still safer than starting your own com-

pany,” Walker said. “I am so proud that I was

able to hop off and do something that is a game

changer in a brand new category.

“I’m proud of myself for taking the risk to

try to build a better future for myself and for my

children.”