I bumped into Mike at NY's legendary Irish bar Swift in 2020, when a mutual friend who'd been showing Mike around Manhattan bars introduced us. I'd heard a story or two about this new-to-the-market MGP-sourced bourbon named Penelope from a couple of New Jersey guys, and I took his business card and wished him well; the whiskey had only been available for a year or so at that stage. Mike sent me a nice email afterwards saying he enjoyed reading some of the articles I was writing for Imbibe magazine at the time. 

Fast forward to May 2023, and MGP bought the brand for $105m in cash, and potentially a further $110.8m if they hit some targets. 

So it was high time for Mike and his co-founder and childhood friend Danny Polise to come on The Philip Duff Show and tell us how they did it!

This is a great episode, covering Mike's origins in the worlds of showbiz and tech, Danny's background as a bar owner and engineer, and how they built Penelope by ignoring a lot of received industry wisdom, working from first principles, and trusting in themselves. Danny also taught himself to be a true master blender, never having done it a day in his life before. 

Enjoy!

Many thanks to LaForce PR for hosting us (great cookies!) and Mike and Danny for bringing some tasty whiskey for us to try, plus their banging bottled cocktails. 

Mike on IG: https://www.instagram.com/michaelpaladini/

Danny on IG: https://www.instagram.com/dpolise/

Penelope Bourbon: https://www.instagram.com/penelopebourbon/

(Get in touch with Duff!

Podcast business enquiries:  [email protected] 

(PR friends: we’re only interested in having your client on if they can talk for a couple of hours about OTHER things besides their prepared speaking points or their new thing, whatever that is.
They need to be able to hang.
Oh, plus we don't edit, we won’t supply prepared or sample questions, nor listener or “reach” stats, either, and no, you can't sit in on the interview (or lurk on the Zoom.)  

And our AI automatically deletes pitch emails that are clearly written using AI. 

Retain Philip’s consulting firm, Liquid Solutions, specialised in on-trade engagement & education, liquor brand creation and repositioning: [email protected]

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