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“Write down how much money you think you'll need to get going — then triple it.”
Fresh out of a breakup, San Francisco creative director and graphic designer Carin Luna-Ostaseski was introduced to Scotch whisky by a friend — and it was love at first sip. She'd been setting aside money each week for couples counseling; now that the relationship was over, that money was burning a hole in her pocket, and a whisky shop happened to sit right next to her office. So every Friday she'd walk in and buy two or three beautiful, expensive bottles. It became a new kind of therapy.
Before long she'd amassed around 300 bottles and become a real connoisseur — but she discovered her love of Scotch wasn't universal. People her age told her it was their grandfather's drink, or that it tasted like gasoline. Determined to bring Scotch to a younger crowd, she started hosting tastings. Her first event, billed as a "Scotch Tasting," only drew people who already liked it — so she deemphasized the name and began hosting in unexpected places: jewelry shows, trunk sales, wherever her real audience actually was.
She became convinced people were ready for a new kind of whisky — affordable, accessible, and delicious — and she wanted out from behind a desk "making designs so people could stare at their phones all day." She had a recipe idea but no way to produce it, so she traveled to Scotland several times and wrote to 80 distilleries. The result? 80 rejections. Then one said yes: a father-and-two-daughters team who walked her through the process and eventually became her business partners for the launch of SIA Scotch Whisky.
She defined her audience clearly — younger men and women who don't love Scotch yet but enjoy Bourbon and Rye — and gave SIA the smooth vanilla and caramel notes that could serve as a transition point. For packaging, she talked to dozens of bartenders and store managers, then ordered glass samples from the top producers, filled them with apple juice the color of whisky, and set them beside her own bottles to see how they'd look on a shelf. She wanted something that would stand out without looking out of place.
When she ran out of money, a friend suggested Kickstarter. The rules let you raise money for an alcohol product but not give alcohol as a reward — so she got creative, offering private tastings with chef-prepared meals, a stay in a luxury San Francisco loft, a private plane tour of the city, and a top tier: $10,000 to have your name printed on 1,000 bottles. To her surprise, someone bought it. In all she raised nearly $50,000 — enough for 200 cases, and, as it happens, the first crowdfunded Scotch whisky in history, from the first American woman to create a blended Scotch company.
Just a few months after launching, Carin left her job to focus on SIA full-time — and says starting before quitting gave her the confidence to go all in. The brand has grown 20–30% a year, with one recent twelve-month stretch up more than 150%, and has landed in major retailers like Total Wine, BevMo, Target, and Safeway.
A few hard-won lessons: don't expand too fast — after spreading herself too thin nationally, she pulled back to go deep in California and Nevada. Packaging matters enormously. And above all: "Write down how much money you think you will need to get going, including your salary. Then triple it. Don't quit your day job until you have that in savings."
