Bringing a Soju Startup to Life

Fischer, a Full-Time MBA student and Kilts Fellow, began her career as a consultant at the global supply-chain firm GEP before pivoting to project management at Diageo, the London-headquartered beverage company behind Johnnie Walker Scotch whisky, Tanqueray gin, and Guinness beer. “You don’t see soju in a lot of portfolios of these big companies,” says Fischer, who’s half Korean. “There was a lot of potential for me to create a product myself.”

Since coming to Booth, she’s been doing just that. In spring 2025, she tinkered in her kitchen with a variety of flavors—which she’s keeping under wraps until her official product release—and friends sampled her concoctions from small mason jars. When the accelerator kicked off this past June, her concept was a canned carbonated drink with a nightlife-inspired label design featuring dark motifs and neon colors.

“But that didn’t feel right,” Fischer says. “I realized I was trying to force something that wasn’t authentic to me.” The branding had drifted away from the feeling soju evoked when she visited family in Korea—that it brings people together. “It’s something that you share. It’s this idea of connection,” she adds. “I wanted to create a brand that promoted being true to yourself and bringing your true self when connecting with others.”

So, she began retooling her business plan as well as its name, design, and recipes with help from Cavalieri, her undergraduate interns, and Kate Turvy, MBA ’25, her coach and the director of Polsky’s entrepreneurship programs. With their input, Fischer landed on a new concept that feels more authentic to her and to soju.

Her rebranding still includes bold, bright colors, including hot pink, one of her favorites—as evidenced by her annual Barbie-themed parties. The design also includes a new name, Soolie, which combines the Korean word for alcohol with a diminutive that makes it sound more familiar. “I want to create a sense of camaraderie, and of welcoming you to be authentically, unabashedly yourself,” Fischer says.

Cavalieri was impressed with Fischer’s dedication to testing her assumptions about her market through customer discovery, including blind taste tests. “I’m really excited to see where the coming year takes her,” he says. “I’m already planning on bragging to whoever will listen that I actually tasted the first formulation of what I’m confident will become a huge brand.”

Throughout the accelerator’s 10 weeks, Fischer and her fellow founders also shared critical guidance with each other, such as how to get incorporated and how to navigate differences of opinions among team members. And they gave each other much-needed emotional support, sharing tips for avoiding burnout.

“One of the biggest takeaways was the importance of a support system,” Fischer says. “Having that support group with other founders has been incredibly valuable.”

Networking proved to be a crucial part of the accelerator experience as well. For example, for possible future collaboration, Cavalieri connected Fischer with fellow UChicago alumna Lindsey Jay, AB ’18, founder of Lindsey’s Ice Cream in Chicago, which uses locally sourced ingredients to make Asian-inspired ice cream. Flavors include peachy lychee sugar cookie, matcha strawberry, and Hong Kong milk tea. 

“We’re both in similar early stages of our companies right now,” says Fischer. “It’s nice to be connected with someone who’s also looking to bring Asian culture and heritage to consumer-packaged goods in America.”

Fischer got an extra networking boost as a Kilts Fellow. The fellowship includes unique opportunities to connect one-on-one with alumni and faculty, including at the annual invite-only Ann Mukherjee Marketing Summit, where industry leaders share their expertise on timely topics such as AI. Fischer particularly appreciated the opportunity to connect with Ann Mukherjee, AB ’87, MBA ’94, herself, an accomplished marketing executive with over 30 years of experience launching award-winning brand campaigns.

Between the Polsky accelerator and her Kilts fellowship, Fischer is on solid footing for her next steps, which include building out Soolie’s website and social media accounts, especially on TikTok. She’s interviewing a brand agency and formula maker, and hopes to have one soju flavor perfected and ready for distributors by year-end. “It’s a very ambitious goal, but we want to get something out on shelves as quickly as possible,” she says.

This school year, Fischer also hopes to get a spot in Booth’s Edward L. Kaplan, ’71, New Venture Challenge—one of the top accelerator programs in the nation. This goal feels more attainable now because of lessons she learned at Polsky. “I would not have made the progress I have without the Build Accelerator,” she says. “It’s such an inspiring environment that really helped propel me forward.”