Meet Raj Alva

We were lucky to catch up with Raj Alva recently and have shared our conversation below.

Raj, thank you so much for joining us and offering your lessons and wisdom for our readers. One of the things we most admire about you is your generosity and so we’d love if you could talk to us about where you think your generosity comes from.

My father moved to this country with $1,000 in his pocket from India to search for a job as an Engineer. Once he was offered a job, my mother and I moved over (I had just turned 5). We lived in Saginaw, Michigan, the sister city to Flint. It was a GM town that probably hit its peak in the 60s and 70s. My mother went back to school and also went to work. We returned to India every year until my teens. We were lower middle to middle class in the US, but we were wealthy by the standards in India. When we went back to India, I would see all of the poverty and feel a combination of guilty and grateful. Keep in mind my family was not wealthy at all in the US. But seeing the disparity gave me a perspective most people here don’t have. With some strong guidance from my parents, I told myself from a young age that I was not going to sit still with all of the opportunity I had and I was determined to be successful in anything I attempted. I fortunately was successful in life and all throughout I believe that I have been blessed and I have wanted to pay it forward. I’ve been working with charities since my teens. I specifically like working with charities for underprivileged youth and trying to give them the same opportunities and drive that I had. I feel in a country like ours, every kid should be able to dream and have the opportunity to succeed.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

I used to work in the finance industry but always had a passion for building businesses from a young age. I was the 12 year old kid in the mall with a booth during baseball card conventions. I had a loft rental company in college. I had a lot of other small businesses that I just loved starting and running but since I didn’t have the money to start a business out of college (in addition to large student loans), I went into finance to make some money that I could later invest.

I took the money that I made in those jobs and invested it in several businesses. One is Greyson Clothiers which is now one of the premier golf and leisure clothing companies in the country. The other is Whiskey Jypsi, an American Whiskey brand that I started with my friend and partner Eric Church. We saw an opportunity to start a whiskey company that respected tradition, but pushed the boundaries. Our first product release was our Legacy Product 001. We took single grains that were aged separately (as opposed to being aged in one barrel together) and blended them into a bourbon mash bill. We knew that corn matures differently than rye which matures differently than malt. It won the Double Gold award at the San Francisco World Spirits competition, the highest profile spirits competition in the industry. Our second year we were awarded Whiskey Maker of the year by Whiskey Network and this week our first release from our third product line Tribute, a double barreled bourbon, won Double Gold at San Francisco World Spirits. We have purchased many liquids and woods from around the world and we have some very unique products coming out.

My career has taken a complete 180 with these entrepreneurial ventures. It is much more stressful than a typical corporate job but it’s also much more rewarding than anything I’ve done in my life.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

Drive/hard work, always willing to bet on myself and common sense. You have to want to do the best you can in everything you do. If you cut corners, it will show. Also if you aren’t willing to bet on yourself, nobody else will. Common sense is pretty self explanatory. People overthink business situations and the reality is if you just use common sense, a lot of time you’ll see through the noise.

Before we go, maybe you can tell us a bit about your parents and what you feel was the most impactful thing they did for you?

My parents always pushed me to be the very best at everything I did, whether it be grades or sports, while also never compromising my value system and to be kind and respectful to others. In my many years on Wall Street and now as an entrepreneur/investor, I’ve run across many driven people who will do anything to get ahead. They have no problem sacrificing values to justify success. I’ve walked away from many situations in my career where I could have made a lot of money if I was willing to do things that I was uncomfortable with or not take care of people who were loyal to me. My value system combined with hating to lose has served me well. I’ve been able to recruit amazing talent to work with me and am shown many unique deals as a partner of choice. And best of all, I sleep well at night knowing that I have always kept my word and treated people the way I would want to be treated.

Contact Info:

Image Credits

I will need to ask the Jypsi team for some photos. Will get back to you on that.

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