Building Disco Fizz for the LGBTQ+ & Beyond with Ben Zumsteg

Send us Fan MailBen Zumsteg is the founder and CEO of Disco Fizz, a sparkling functional non-alcoholic beverage built for the dance floor. A first-time CPG founder with 15 years of brand strategy experience behind him - working with clients like L'Oreal, Ralph Lauren and Four Seasons - Ben stopped drinking on New Year's Day 2023 and spotted a gap nobody was filling: the LGBTQ+ community had nowhere to turn in its own spaces when it came to non-alc options worth actually ordering.In this episode, Ben walks through how he commissioned original quantitative research on LGBTQ+ drinking habits (the only study of its kind), how that data pointed him toward moderate-caffeine functional energy rather than a mocktail and why he named the brand Disco Fizz on purpose - "inherently queer, never exclusively". Nate and Ben also dig into brand distinctiveness, the "slap a rainbow on it and leave after Pride" problem, tiered caffeine formulation strategy, the premium packaging decision to go matte black with bare aluminum and why being for someone means you have to be okay with repelling someone else.Ben is pitching at BevNet Live and recently landed a spot in Paris Hilton's Pride Shopping Guide. Disco Fizz is currently rolling out on premise in New York City with DTC and retail to follow later in 2026.Find Disco Fizz: discofizz.com | Instagram: @drinkdiscofizzFollow Ready To Drink Podcast: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube | ReadyToDrinkPodcast.comSupport the showPresented by The FreeMind Group - FMGStrategy.com