The Twenty Minute VC

Liquid Death CEO Mike Cessario: How I Turned Canned Water to a $700M Company | E968

Mike Cessario is the Founder and CEO @ Liquid Death, the man hacking the healthy beverage market with the first hilarious water brand. It is working, Liquid Death’s latest valuation was over a staggering $700M and Mike has raised over $200M since founding the company from the likes of Science Inc. Away’s Jen Rubio, Dollar Shave Club’s Michael Dubin, Swedish House Mafia, and Tony Hawk to name a few. Prior to founding Liquid Death, Mike was in the advertising industry at a number of direct firms including VaynerMedia. --------------------------------------------- Timestamps: 0:00 Intro 1:07 Liquid Death’s Origin Story 8:40 Mike’s Origin Story 14:33 What is “high-performance”? 15:10 What makes a strong brand? 17:00 Liquid Death’s Brand 21:12 Did you ever worry about brand alienation? 23:07 Biggest Mistake at Liquid Death 24:11 Most Common Mistake Founders Make with Brand 28:00 Brand vs. Storytelling 30:57 Why People Love Liquid Death’s Marketing 33:03 Why Today’s Advertisements Suck 35:21 How to Handle the Haters 38:27 How to Pick which Social Channels to Focus On 41:38 How Liquid Death Writes Great Advertisements 46:49 Why Liquid Death is Underrated 49:11 Craziest Thing Mike has Ever Seen 50:09 The Menu on HBO 51:34 Marketing Strategies: HBO vs. Netflix 54:10 How to Make Celebrity Investors Work 56:32 The Most Underrated Brand of All Time: Trader Joe’s 58:42 What would you have done differently? 1:00:37 Liquid Death in 5 Years --------------------------------------------- In Today’s Episode with Mike Cessario We Discuss: 1.) From Canned Water to $700M Business: How did rockstars’ hydration problems lead to the founding of Liquid Death? How did growing up with guns and heroine needles around him at school, impact how Mike sees the world today? What is he running from? What is he running towards? Everyone said, “canned water, that is a stupid idea”. What does Mike tell to all entrepreneurs who are told their idea is stupid? How does Mike advise on picking your idea? 2.) How to Build a Truly Great Brand: What does the term “brand” mean to Mike? What does he mean when he says, “truly great brand transcends functional value”? What are the single biggest mistakes Mike sees founders make today on branding? Why does Mike believe people will always hate your brand if it is good? What are the biggest brand mistakes Mike has made with Liquid Death? What brand does Mike most respect and admire? Why that brand? 3.) Marketing: The Secret to Reaching Millions of People with Little Budget: How does the Liquid Death team come up with the ideas they have for content? Why does Mike believe the label “storytelling” is kinda BS? Why does Mike believe people will always hate your marketing? What was Mike’s biggest lesson from their Superbowl commercial with kids drinking Liquid Death, looking like beer? How does Mike decide which channel to prioritize? How has the rise of TikTok and short-form video changed their approach to content? How does Mike approach resource allocation for new pieces of content? Do they spend big on a few bits of content or spend little on many and see what works? --------------------------------------------- Subscribe to the Podcast: https://www.thetwentyminutevc.com/mike-cessario/ Follow Harry Stebbings on Twitter: https://twitter.com/HarryStebbings Follow Mike Cessario on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Cessario Follow 20VC on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/20vc_reels Follow 20VC on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@20vc_tok --------------------------------------------- #MikeCessario #LiquidDeath #HarryStebbings #20vc #cannedwater #marketing #brandmarketing

Mike CessarioguestHarry Stebbingshost

Jan 19, 20231h 1mWatch on YouTube ↗

WHAT IT’S REALLY ABOUT

How Liquid Death Turned Punk Humor Into a $700M Beverage Powerhouse

Mike Cessario, CEO and founder of Liquid Death, explains how he built a $700M canned water brand by applying irreverent, punk-inspired entertainment marketing to a fundamentally healthy product. He contrasts traditional, functional CPG branding with Liquid Death’s approach of making content people actually want to watch and share, using brand as the true moat rather than ingredients or packaging. Cessario details his unconventional background, the importance of data and early digital traction in defying skeptical investors, and the gritty operational realities of scaling in a distributor‑dominated beverage market. He also discusses evolving social content strategy, celebrity partnerships, and how Liquid Death aims to become a hybrid of beverage company and comedy-driven entertainment brand.

IDEAS WORTH REMEMBERING

5 ideas

Use brand, not product features, as your primary moat.

Ingredients, packaging formats, and functional benefits can be copied by bigger, cheaper competitors, but a distinct tone of voice, creative style, and cultural point of view are hard to replicate and become the enduring differentiator.

Healthy products can win by marketing like unhealthy, ‘fun’ categories.

Cessario saw that alcohol, soda, and junk food owned youth culture with bold, humorous marketing, while healthy brands were quiet and earnest; Liquid Death succeeded by bringing that same explosive, irreverent energy to water.

Polarization is a feature, not a bug, of strong brands.

If some people truly love your brand, others will inevitably hate it; aiming to offend no one produces work that nobody cares about, while provocative, entertainment‑grade ideas generate attention, sharing, and loyalty.

Validate “crazy” ideas with real data, not just conviction.

While many investors dismissed canned water as silly, Liquid Death tracked early signals—social followers, engagement, and inbound demand—proving traction and de‑risking the concept beyond surface-level skepticism.

Stop over-indexing on storytelling jargon; focus on clear emotional takeaways.

Instead of trying to ‘tell stories,’ Liquid Death designs each piece of content so the primary takeaway is an emotional reaction—like “that’s the funniest thing I saw today”—which builds affinity far more than functional claims.

WORDS WORTH SAVING

5 quotes

If there are people who truly love something, there has to be people who truly hate it.

— Mike Cessario

Strong brands mean more to people than the product itself.

— Mike Cessario

We’re not trying to make marketing; we’re trying to make actual entertainment that is in service of a brand.

— Mike Cessario

We all hate marketing… so what we’re really doing as a brand is we’re sort of making fun of marketing.

— Mike Cessario

You can’t own aluminum cans. The thing you can truly own is your unique brand.

— Mike Cessario

Origin story of Liquid Death and inspiration from alternative culture marketingDefinition of a strong brand and why brand is the real moatBalancing polarizing, comedic marketing with mass appeal and earned mediaCommon brand mistakes founders make and how to truly differentiateContent and social media strategy (Netflix vs. HBO approach)Operational challenges and execution in the beverage and retail ecosystemUse of celebrities, culture, and entertainment to grow a CPG company

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