April Wachtel

Post-pitch story

April Wachtel came on the show pitching Swig + Swallow, a cocktail mixer brand — and the investors' feedback sent her back to the drawing board. The name wasn't working. So she rebranded to Cheeky Cocktails and rebuilt the brand from there. It worked: the company grew from idea stage to over $500,000 in annual revenue through a mix of bar-and-restaurant wholesale and direct-to-consumer sales. Wachtel has been refreshingly open about the unglamorous side of building a beverage brand, writing about the grind behind the growth. These days she splits her time between running Cheeky and coaching other early-stage consumer founders through the same mistakes. The pitch didn't land a deal, but it did land a better brand name — and sometimes that's the more valuable prize.