Creating a Mission Driven Business Fueled by Pain with Lily Geiger

Lily Geiger

Lily Geiger is a 26-year-old entrepreneur and founder of the non-alcoholic aperitivo brand, Figlia. Through her business, Lily hopes to continue to engage in open conversations surrounding alcohol consumption and create an accessible community that welcomes those who are sober, sober-curious, or those just looking to try something new.

This mission is deeply personal to Lily, who for most of her young life, watched her father battle with alcoholism and at the age of 20, tragically lost him to the disease. Lily's first-hand experience with alcoholism makes the introduction of Fiore Frizzante all more meaningful to her. To continue supporting this community, Figlia donates a percentage of all sales to Partnership to End Addiction, a non-profit that focuses on offering assistance for individuals and families impacted by addiction.

For a long time, the only options that non-alcoholics or those who don’t want to drink were only limited to juice, soft drinks, sparkling water, or the like. Even if there were any drinks that were non-alcoholic, they didn’t have the same buzz or bite that most alcoholic drinks have which people look for when drinking.

Luckily, we finally found an alternative. In today’s episode, Lily Geiger, founder and CEO of Figlia, shares her journey starting her own business at age 24 and being the CEO of Figlia.

How she got to be the founder and CEO of Figlia.

Lily Geiger is an entrepreneur who is the founder and CEO of her own business – Figlia. Her business has been making its name in the market as a non-alcoholic aperitivo.

Her journey in making her way to where she is now is inspiring. After she started her career in the field of beauty, she got into post-grad where she learned how to grow small brands and nurture them.

During the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, she noticed that most people were changing and developing new habits. Some turned to drinking as a way to comfort themselves. It was like a ritual to cap off the night.

That realization became a big part of her career. She wanted to do something she was passionate about. That’s relatable insofar as the road to success requires you to care about what you do and believe in yourself and your vision.

Lily’s dad was an alcoholic for most of her life. She acknowledges the fact that there weren’t a lot of options available to those who didn’t drink back then. For non-alcoholics, the typical option used to just be soft drinks, juice or sparkling water. They weren’t sophisticated which is why some people feel left out from the community.

How the brand is giving back.

One of the core parts of the ethos of the brand is giving back. Figlia gives a percentage of its proceeds from every purchase of Figlia to Partnership To End Addiction. They already formed a relationship with the organization as the latter has been kind and enthusiastic to work with.

Every Alcohol Awareness Month, friends and family members of Figlia raise money for Partnership To End Addiction. As for the death anniversary of Lily’s father, she always tries to raise money for the same organization.

Additionally, Figlia is a member of 1% For The Planet. They also found an organization called Harlem Grown which is owned by someone who once struggled with addiction himself. So everything that Figlia does all works out together as part of a bigger meaning.

What it’s like being a young woman launching a brand.

Before Figlia, Lily has never tried doing business so everything is quite new to her. Even more challenging is the fact that she was 24 years old when she started the business.

It’s not entirely common for fresh graduates to go down the business path right after getting out of college. And so, this business venture was a big leap for Lily but she didn’t let her worries deter her; she was determined. Besides her determination, she was also committed to building a community for people to turn to.

It’s a labor of love.

There are many other brands that have millions of supporters and have reached a large number of people with marketing. Figlia is keeping up with them despite not having a huge reach at present.

Figlia’s intention of having a healthy community to be able to engage with those who are interested to try something new or those who are sober is evident and inspiring. Indeed, Figlia is more than just a brand; it is a labor of love.

Non-alcoholic spirits vs. alcoholic spirits.

Coming from a standpoint of someone who was close to an alcoholic battling with addiction, Lily wanted to make a drink that had the same buzz as that of an alcoholic drink but didn’t want to mimic the taste of alcohol.

They took into consideration the situation of those who are recovering or maintaining their sobriety and are actively trying hard not to have a sip of alcohol. Fortunately, we now have Figlia, a sophisticated yet non-alcoholic drink, which is meant to be savored.

Lily tried working with extracts – from ginseng, elderflower, rosemary, and other botanical extracts – that would bring out a perfect middle ground of taste with a buzz.

Figlia is all-inclusive. She made people try the drinks that were made and she also made sure that it isn’t just for people with the most sophisticated taste palate. They wanted the drink to be vibrant red and to be package-wise to be able to stand next to any spirit on a bar cart.

What’s in store for the future?

Figlia started with no wholesale accounts and people were already reaching out. From having 100 stores last year to having almost 400 now, it’s been a challenging path for them.

The beauty of selling non-alcoholic drinks is that it can be served anywhere which is why their drink is being served almost everywhere, from restaurants, bars, coffee shops, and other stores. Being exposed to many venues paved the way for Figlia to be featured in various publication sites like New York Times, Vanity Fair, Forbes, and Wall Street Journal.

It’s been an absolute dream for Lily and everyone at Figlia to witness their visions to come to life and see everything fall into place. What also helped contribute to the success of the brand is that Figlia has a healthy working environment.

Lily compared having her own business to mothering a child with her sister and other people who work with her because she believes that she cannot do everything all on her own without them.

There are more things in store for Figlia. They plan on scaling with a lot of their competitors. They’re also considering starting a fundraising soon. Definitely, they plan on making and releasing more products so that people will have more options to choose from.

If you want to check out their brand and try their products, you can head over to their website (https://drinkfiglia.com/pages/stockists) where you can see all the stores that sell Figlia but they also deliver.

What Rewriting the Mother Code Means for Lily

Lily expressed her thoughts on how society has conceptualized mothering as a single thing but in reality, it’s more than that. It comes in different forms. It may be mothering a career, relationships or more.

You don’t necessarily have to have a human child to mother. For her, starting her own company which she has been taking care of for years with due diligence and love like that of a mother to her child.