Alyse Borkan – Co-Founder of Rocco on Building the Ultimate Smart Fridge

The Casey Adams Show

Listener.com Podcast Network

Business, Entrepreneurship

4.8 • 637 Ratings

🗓️ 25 February 2025

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On this episode of The Casey Adams Show, Alyse Borkan, co-founder of Rocco—the viral drinks fridge that won Domino's Groundbreaking Product of 2024—shares how she’s redefining the beverage industry. With a background in scaling high-growth consumer brands like Our Place, Coterie, and Billie (acquired by Edgewell), Alyse brings deep expertise in brand-building, creative marketing, and product launches. She discusses the challenges of launching a hardware product, the power of strategic brand partnerships, and how Rocco is designed to seamlessly blend into any space while enhancing social experiences.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Rocko and Elise Borkan

03:05 The Design Philosophy Behind Rocko

06:01 The Beverage Landscape and Consumer Trends

09:06 Innovative Partnerships with Beverage Brands

11:56 Challenges in Hardware Development

14:58 The Iterative Design Process

18:08 Elise's Journey into Business and Marketing

23:40 From Journalism to Startups

25:03 Building Brands at Casper and Billie

28:05 Creating a Unique Brand Perspective

31:01 Marketing Tactics for Early Stage Brands

32:30 The Power of Limited Inventory

35:22 White Glove Delivery Experience

37:34 Evolving Brand Mission and Perspective

39:30 Innovative Features of the Rocco Fridge

41:40 Future Vision for Rocco

43:00 Advice to My Younger Self

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome back to the Casey Adams Show. Today I am joined by Elise Borkin, the co-founder of Rocco.
0:07.9	Elise, thank you so much for coming to the show today.
0:09.7	Thank you for having me. I'm so excited to be here.
0:12.1	Of course. So I know I was telling you beforehand. And for the listeners, you know, I received a Rocco fridge just the other day.
0:19.0	And I've just been truly, and I'm not just saying this because
0:21.2	you were like so blown away by the product and how it looks and just really the innovation you
0:25.7	guys have brought to this smart refrigerator market. So before we really dive in, I'd love to
0:32.0	give you the opportunity just to speak at a high level. What is Rocco for those who may not know?
0:41.3	Yeah. So Rocco um a drinks fridge that has smart features it's the first drinks fridge that's actually designed as furniture to sit
0:46.4	in your living room and replace a bar cart and then there's a site system built into it so you can
0:50.9	actually see inside your fridge from your phone and keep track of all
0:54.5	the drinks that you have.
0:56.6	It's, I mean, as you just said, it's all this, this unique element of in which I loved
1:01.8	and what you caught my attention personally is, you know, when you talk about just the furniture
1:06.1	aspect where, you know, up until I reached out to you and the team,
1:11.0	and I never thought about wanting to have a, you know, a secondary fridge in my home.
1:15.6	I live here in L.A.
1:16.8	And it's one of those things where when I saw it,
1:20.0	and I'm sure people that are listening and watching,
1:21.6	I'll link it down below so that people can see it.
1:24.2	Like, it really catches your attention.
1:25.7	It has such a beautiful aspect to it and I want to
	...

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