Johnna Rossbach never set out to become an entrepreneur. She spent 15 years in a career that didn’t leave much space for creativity, then motherhood gave her a reason to reconsider what she wanted to do.
“I wanted to show my daughters what it looks like to be empowered, and that if you’re not happy with something, change it,” she said.
Rossbach enjoyed cocktails, but the mixers she found in stores felt repetitive, often included ingredients she preferred to avoid and took too much effort to prepare. She decided to make something different and launched Mixly.
She brought her experience in marketing and communications to the business and partnered with Megan Sather, whose background was in design. Together, they developed fruit-forward mixers made with real ingredients.
Their first night working on Mixly was a long one. They started at 4 p.m., and it was nearly 3 a.m. before they finished. The juicer broke, so they squeezed limes by hand. Then the labeler quit, and they had to put every label on themselves.
At around midnight, Rossbach looked at Sather and understood they still had hours to go. They could stop and try again the next week, or keep at it. They turned up the music and carried on.
“That was the moment we realized we made the best business partners,” Rossbach said. “We had the same determination and the same willingness to roll up our sleeves and figure things out, even when nothing was going according to plan.”
That experience helped shape the business. The founders have continued to handle their own manufacturing, even as they worked to grow.
They developed recipes with input from a friend who was a mixologist. Then the pandemic disrupted their plans, and they had to work out production as they went. In an earlier interview, Rossbach said they were still making the mixers in a rented kitchen while looking for ways to scale.
Starting a business, she said, comes without a map. The uncertainty was the hardest part: making decisions, dealing with self-doubt and knowing that sometimes they might get things wrong.
Mixly has been self-funded from the start. The founders wanted to build something they owned and keep control of it, though that also means every dollar counts and the risks feel personal.
“We’ve put our own money, time and countless hours of work into Mixly,” Rossbach said.
Cocktails were where the company began, but the founders also wanted their mixers to appeal to people who weren’t drinking. Rossbach was pregnant as the business was taking shape, around the time interest in drinking less was becoming more visible. They saw a chance to make something everyone at a gathering could enjoy.
“Let’s make this versatile. Let’s make this for everyone,” she recalled thinking.
Mixly’s mixers have always been alcohol-free; that wasn’t a shift made to chase a new trend. What has changed is the market. More people are looking for flavorful drinks without alcohol, and retailers are starting to see how the products can fit different occasions.
“I think the interest in drinking less extends well beyond January or October,” Rossbach said. “People want a good option for an ordinary Tuesday, dinner with friends or a celebration.”
The mixers can be paired with spirits or poured over sparkling water. To make them work either way, the company builds flavor with fruit, acidity, herbs and bitter botanicals. Its Bitter Orange Cherry mixer, for instance, includes gentian root to offset sweetness with a more layered bitterness.
“A good alcohol-free drink does not need to apologize for what is missing,” Rossbach said. “It doesn’t have to imitate a cocktail to deliver that.”
Customers have also found uses the founders hadn’t planned on. One person told them she added a mixer to her children’s water to give it more flavor. Others said they used the products in cooking or marinades.
Rossbach’s daughters, meanwhile, became fans of a local dirty soda shop. After she spent about $20 on two drinks, she began wondering whether Mixly flavors could work in dirty sodas, too. Her daughters now make the drinks at home and have even opened a neighborhood stand.
That gave the brand another way to reach customers. The same Mixly flavor can be used in a dirty soda, mocktail or cocktail. The drink changes; the mixer doesn’t.
In June 2026, the company changed its name from Mixly Cocktail Co. to Mixly Beverage Co. The new name reflects its move beyond cocktail mixers, including into dirty soda and coffee.
The expansion has brought the company into large retailers. Five flavored syrups launched in 685 Walmart stores. Mixly expects its dirty soda products to be in nearly 4,000 stores by the end of November, while two holiday kits launched in 1,300 Target stores and online. The company says its products are now sold in about 4,600 retail locations across the country.
For Rossbach, the growth comes back to the founders’ original idea: make something flavorful that people can share, whether or not they drink alcohol. The market is beginning to catch up with that versatility. Getting here, though, involved hand-squeezed fruit, a rented kitchen and a lot of decisions made without a clear guide.
When Mixly first launched, Rossbach had a premium product line and a fairly specific picture of what the business would become. She soon learned that customers don’t always want what a founder expects them to want. The team listened, adjusted and gradually got more comfortable changing direction as they figured out what worked.
That flexibility has helped refresh the brand, take it beyond cocktail mixers and open up opportunities the founders probably wouldn’t have imagined during that first late night squeezing limes.
