ABC Melanie Masarin pitched her company, Ghia, on Shark Tank.
Entrepreneur Melanie Masarin brought her company, Ghia, to pitch to the Sharks on ABC’s “Shark Tank” for the Friday, October 14, 2022 episode.
According to the episode description, Masarin “hopes to give all the highs of life without the booze with her natural nonalcoholic beverage.”
She pitched her product and company to Sharks Mark Cuban, Kevin O’Leary, Daymond John, Lori Greiner, and Robert Herjavec.
Read on to learn more about Ghia and Masarin.
1. Masarin Wants to Use Ghia to ‘Take Back’ Drinking
According to the company’s website, Masarin wants to use Ghia beverage to “take back the word drinking from alcohol.”
On the website, she shares that she spent the summers in her childhood “near the Mediterranean,” where she was introduced to aperitivo.
Aperitivo is a drink or light meal that happens at the end of a work day but is not part of dinner, according to Walks of Italy. Masarin’s mother and grandmother would make “giant jugs of limoncello,” and she wanted to share that experience with others.
2. Ghia Is Available to Purchase Online at the Company’s Website
At the time of writing, Ghia is available to purchase online at the company’s website. There are different bundles that people can purchase, and individual products are also available.
There are spritzers, bitters, a hazelnut spread called ghianduja, and limited-edition puzzles available to purchase. The “First Sip Kit” is currently available for $60 and includes four different types of spritz and one apertif.
3. Masarin Is Not ‘Preaching’ For People to Stop Drinking
In an interview with The Cut, Masarin shared that she is not attempting to preach sobriety.
“I really try to not preach for other people to stop drinking because I don’t think that’s the way to actually enable change, but I think it’s really important that if people don’t want to drink, they don’t feel excluded,” she shared with the site. “It’s really about breaking down the social stigmas around not drinking.”
She added that she doesn’t like to drink because it makes her feel “foggy.”
“People talk a lot about being hungover if they have one too many drinks, but I was really foggy the next day if I even had two glasses of wine, and I really thought there was something wrong with me,” she shared. “Apparently,, it’s everyone. I was just like, I don’t want to live like this. I really feel like I was operating at 70 percent before.”
4. Ghia Launched in June 2020
According to Forbes, Ghia was launched in June 2020 and has received reviews in different publications. The idea for Ghia came about earlier, however.
“I think the idea for Ghia was right in front of my eyes for a few years,” Masarin told the outlet. “And it was a personal frustration of mine, not knowing what to drink when I was going out and often being questioned for not drinking.”
She decided to dive head-first into Ghia in June of 2020.
5. Masarin Plans to Build Ghia Even More
In a July 2022 Instagram post, Masarin pointed toward the future of her company.
“Our new Spritz today is just the tip of the iceberg of all the things we have cooking at Ghia over the next year,” she wrote. “200 early testers also told us it’s our best Spritz yet, and it reminded me that all these hours spent sweating the details are what will hopefully always be our secret sauce and make a difference with our 40,000+ customers to date.”
“Shark Tank” airs on Fridays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on ABC.