Sensori's Co-Founders on Building a Beverage Brand From a Group Chat to a Million-Dollar Raise
About a year ago, I was deep in one of those seasons where everything is technically going well but your nervous system has absolutely not received the memo. Back-to-back work trips, a podcast rebrand in the works, speaking gigs lined up. Good things, but chaotic. At one of those events, I met Darean Rhodes, co-founder and COO of a non-alcoholic functional beverage brand called Sensori. She handed me a few cans and I smiled and said thank you while in my head I was distracted by my mounting to-do list.
I cracked one open when I got home and it was genuinely good — and more importantly, it actually helped me come down from the stress spiral I was stuck in. That was it. I was a fan.
Fast forward to this week's episode of She's So Lucky, where I sat down with all three Sensori co-founders — Darean, Shanna, and Ashlyn — for the latest installment of The Business of You series. And what they shared was too good not to share.
They Started With a Credit Card and a Group Chat
Shanna, the CEO, had been praying for a product idea for over a year after stepping away from a PR agency she and Darean had been running together. She knew she wanted something wellness-based, recurring in nature, and emotionally resonant. When the idea for Sensori came together — a non-alcoholic functional beverage with two proprietary ingredients, blue lotus and kanna, designed to actually give you a sensation — she didn't wait. She found a formulator, got a credit card with a $20K limit, and called Darean.
No investors. No blueprint. Just momentum.
Within their first three months, they sold out of 5,000 cans and made $25,000. From there, they raised $140K from friends and family, relaunched, activated at CultureCon, and haven't really stopped moving since.
What the Sober Curious Space Is Actually Missing
If you've spent any time exploring non-alcoholic options, you already know the problem — most of them taste like someone blended a multivitamin with sparkling water and called it a vibe. What makes Sensori different is that it's built around the actual experience of unwinding. The two hero ingredients — kanna, a South African plant that stimulates serotonin flow, and blue lotus — are designed to give you something to feel, not just something to sip. For anyone who's ever done dry January and missed the ritual of having a drink that helps you transition out of work mode, that's a real gap in the market.
The Business Lessons Are the Real Thing
Beyond the product, this conversation is a masterclass in building something real with limited resources. A few things that stuck with me:
Selling out is not a flex. It means you're leaving money on the table and frustrating the people who want to buy from you. Sensori is planning a 100K can order this year specifically to stop the cycle.
Alignment is earned, not manifested. Ashlyn met Sensori's future sales advisor — who helped scale Poppy from $20M to $400M — at a UPS store. The week before, Poppy's founder had told her on a webinar to find someone who understood distribution. None of that happens if she's not already in motion.
Think bigger than what feels safe to ask for. When they had the chance to pitch investors ready to write a real check, they asked for $300K. Their advisor's response was swift and direct. Their new number is a million.
This episode is for anyone building something — a business, a brand, a next chapter — and wondering whether they have enough to make it work. Spoiler: they did, and so do you.
