Meet Victor Guardiola, founder of Bawi Agua Fresca, a fruit-forward take on the Mexican drink he grew up with, minus the 40 grams of sugar.
Walk into Whole Foods and you’ll find every kind of better-for-you soda. What you won’t find is one built around bold Hispanic flavors. Victor came up with the idea for Bawi during a UT Austin entrepreneurship practicum and raised capital the old-fashioned way: cold emails. Today the brand has sold over 1.5M cans and is stocked in 600+ stores across 40+ states.
But the real story isn’t the beverage. It's the fundraising playbook he built to get there. Coming off a 12-month strategic repositioning, Victor breaks down how he raised his first checks through cold outreach, navigated a production run that had investors texting him photos of exploded cans, and why he never starts with a deck.
$150K: Raised through cold emails to fund Bawi’s first production run
1.5M cans: Sold since launch
600+ stores: Current retail footprint across 40+ states
Never lead with the deck. Victor raised his first $150K entirely through cold emails, and never asked for money in the first message. No pitch, no attachment. Just a short note and a request for 15 minutes of advice. “When you go that route, as opposed to ‘we’re currently raising our series seed and have $300K committed,’ is that it’s going to be received very differently.”
Don’t Write Your Subject Line Like This ⚠️. Victor treats every email like a copywriting exercise, with subject lines being the most important. His goal: sound human, not automated. “The know I’m Gen Z, so sometimes I’ll even go full lowercase,” he says. “Whatever makes it clear this isn’t another AI cold email.”
Warm up the cold email. Before reaching out, Victor looks for one point of overlap. “I’m Hispanic, first-gen immigrant, based in Austin, went to UT. I can find all the successful UT grads in the past decade, all the successful Latinos within the CPG industry.” Those small details turn a cold email into a warmer introduction.
Land one operator first. Victor focused on operators who already built in the same category or channel. Once one operator is on board, their involvement makes all others much easier. “All of what we’re doing in business is figuring out what carrot we have to offer these people.” Equity, access, a story worth being part of.
Dilution is tuition. Most founders treat dilution like a loss. Victor treats it as the cost of learning. “Your dilution is the tax you pay for learning how to run your business.” Great mentors lower the price. Learning everything yourself raises it.
Market insight → Investors are still pouring money into better-for-you beverages. The opportunity now isn’t just formulation. It’s cultural translation that opens entirely new markets.
Street stand flavor. Grocery shelf form.
Who to email? Operators or VCs
One funds the idea. The other funds the scale.
