Jack Cusumano, Co-Founder Evan Dzierzynski, Co-Founder
Jack Cusumano, Co-Founder Evan Dzierzynski, Co-Founder
THE FOUNDERS
A BARTENDER AND A DRINK CONNOISSEUR
Best friends since day one at USC, Jack spent his sophomore year bartending while Evan spent his time rating whatever new drink creation Jack came home with after a night shift. More often than not, they found themselves asking the same questions: Why does the drop-off in quality have to be so massive between a cocktail at a bar and making a quick drink at home? Why has nobody ever talked about the mixer? And why does "craft" have to feel like it's made exclusively for old guys?
We spent over half a year obsessing over the market and figuring out how to make a culturally dead category feel relevant again. We drove to just about every liquor and grocery store in LA, trying to understand what was missing and how we could actually make a difference—pacing mixer aisles, studying products, ingredients, and brands, looking for answers the rest of the industry seemed to be ignoring.
We turned our apartment taste tests and early consumer feedback into a business plan strong enough to earn us a spot as one of six companies accepted into USC's premier startup accelerator. From there, we built Midweek from the ground up with an incredible team and learned just how many moving pieces it takes to bring an idea from a college apartment to store shelves.
So we took the leap to and got into manufacturing... actually, whoops, wrong picture
Once we got into manufacturing, we made it our mission to create a flavor profile that checked every box. Bold cocktail flavor. Low sugar. Low calories. All-natural ingredients. We wanted something juicy, refreshing, and genuinely delicious when mixed with alcohol without any of the compromises. The result was a flavor profile unlike anything we'd seen in the category.
Twelve months after our first test batches, we found ourselves featured in Times Square a month before graduating college. We've built an incredible team, moved faster than we ever imagined, and become even more convinced of the ethos that got us started in the first place: the moments that matter most are rarely the ones people make the biggest deal about.