Tina Karras, founder of artisanal vodka company Tina’s Vodka, didn’t always know she wanted to be an entrepreneur. “Looking back, all the jobs, people, and experience I’ve received throughout my life and career prepared me to found my vodka company,” she says. “It was a huge wax-on-wax-off session, but I had no idea at the time.”
Karras’s path in life also required her to face and overcome adversity in multiple forms, which she successfully did over and over again. Today, Karras is a role model for any woman or girl who dreams of becoming a successful entrepreneur herself.
Pandemic problems
Karras launched her vodka during the COVID-19 pandemic, which was challenging, to say the least. “There were so many difficulties,” she remembers.
A singer-songwriter, Karras planned to launch her vodka and new album during the festival season of 2020, which never happened due to pandemic-induced lockdowns. When concerts were canceled, she lost more than her gigs. She also lost the audiences from which her vodka’s early adopters had been expected to come.
But that wasn’t all. Karras was furloughed from her job. “All of their business was shut down, too,” she explains. “I knew I’d have debt starting a new company. I never expected to lose my job at the same time, however.” Deprived of her usual income, she soon experienced financial difficulties, requiring her to turn to credit cards.
Karras’s vodka company was also hit with unexpected delays. “The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) usually takes only two weeks to approve labels,” she says. “During the pandemic, it took five months.”
Since Karras couldn’t go into production without label approval, her vodka stalled. “Then, there was a glass bottle shortage due to the supply chain issues,” she adds. It took a year and a half to ready her vodka for market, a time period she describes as a “very frustrating waiting game.”
Despite these challenges, however, Karras got her high-quality, reasonably priced vodka made and shipped to market in June of 2021.
Facing discrimination
Over the course of her career, Karras has also faced challenges as a woman in male-dominated fields. “I’ve often been the only woman in a job or field,” she acknowledges. “I was the only female classical guitar major while in college, the only female bartender at a few places, the only female manager at a music management firm, and the only female in many distributor meetings. There were subtle things in the workplace as well as the more obvious ones. Sometimes, I was paid less than my male counterparts.”
In many roles, Karras needed to overperform in order to receive the same accolades as her male coworkers. While some bosses rewarded her superior performance, others couldn’t perceive any bias and refused to consider changing.
Through it all, Karras kept her balance by staying centered and concentrating on being true to herself.
Overcoming bias in the beverage industry
These experiences — as well as Karras’s experience as a buyer in the beverage industry — prepared her for the difficulties of becoming a female entrepreneur. “It’s a very male-dominated industry,” she explains. Indeed, according to a McKinsey report, just 10 percent of C-suite executives in the food and beverage distribution industry are women, in contrast to 21 percent across industries.
Karras’s previous encounters with prejudice taught her to draw healthy boundaries. “When someone treats me like a girl, rather than as a person, I just stop working with them,” she says. “That even includes my own attorneys! I’ve fired three attorneys since I started my company. The two I work with now are wonderful. I look for like-minded individuals to work with regardless of their gender.”
Sometimes, however, working with biased people is unavoidable. In those cases, Karras minimizes communication as much as possible. “Short emails only,” she says.
Karras doesn’t waste time trying to enlighten people who relate to her inappropriately. “It’s not my responsibility to change the way someone behaves,” she says. “It’s also not my job to correct whatever hangups they have about working with women.” This enables her to direct her time and energy toward her own goals.
The secret of Karras’s resilience
When asked what the secret of her resilience is, Karras describes the confidence that came with moving across the country and supporting herself.
“I was so far away from home that I couldn’t easily go back when things got hard,” she says. “I had to figure things out. Sometimes, that meant getting a second or even third job. So now when things get difficult, I know I can find a solution and make the best of things, since I’ve done it so many times before.” For Karras, overcoming challenges built the confidence she needs to keep moving forward into the unknown.
When it comes to other young women who aspire to become entrepreneurs themselves, Karras imposes the following advice: “Allow life to be your teacher,” she says. “Try new things, move to a new city, trust your instincts, and don’t let the fear stop you. Honor the way you feel and allow the fear to evolve into excitement for the new and unknown.”
Accomplishing her dream
While the process of launching Tina’s Vodka was anything but smooth, Karras’ determination, grit, and resilience have made her dreams come true. “Seeing your vision and work come to fruition is very rewarding,” she says. “When I walked into Total Wine & More in Thousand Oaks and saw my vodka on the shelves for the first time, it made all the hard times and frustration worth it.”