Alumni Profile: Heeding a Call for Libations
Quentin Cantu and Brian Murphy, both MBA ’18, founded Ranch Riders Spirits.
By Gretchen Sanders
Relaxing over beers one night in Austin back in 2016, two McCombs MBA students hatched a novel business idea.
Brian Murphy and Quentin Cantu were lamenting the dearth of healthy lunch options on the UT campus, especially the hearty salads they could find easily in New York City and Washington D.C.
“We thought it would be fun to make our own healthier food concept, do it alongside our business school classes, and serve those meals to our classmates,” says Murphy, a native upstate New Yorker who met Cantu during his first week at McCombs. “We wanted to solve a problem close to us.”
They launched Ranch Hand, a meal delivery service and eventual food truck, in early 2017, using proceeds from pitch competitions, start-up incubators, and angel investors. McCombs students, staff, and alumni also backed the venture, which featured ingredients from Texas ranches and a nutritious menu. Hungry Longhorns went wild over protein bowls stuffed with chimichurri-topped Akaushi sirloin, grilled kale, sweet potatoes, avocado, and roasted pumpkin seeds.
Soon, Ranch Hand fans wanted libations to wash down the Texas beef.
In 2019 Murphy and Cantu began testing cocktail recipes on their customers. Reposado tequila mixed with sparkling water and fresh-squeezed lime juice produced liquid gold. When one patron suggested they can the concoctions and sell them in stores, lightning struck.
“We realized we could continue investing in the food business and open brick-and-mortar restaurants, or we could pivot and create a product that could sell to thousands of retailers,” Murphy says. Their audience was adults who wanted natural beverages that contained premium spirits over the malt liquor found in White Claw or Truly hard seltzers and that had a local brand story. Blistering real estate prices for restaurant space sealed the path forward.
Ranch Rider Spirits hit Austin shelves in January 2020. The bubbly brews crossed ready-to-drink cocktails with hard seltzers in three canned flavors. By December, Ranch Rider was the №1 selling, ready-made spirit brand in Texas, outpacing competitors with massive marketing budgets.
“Our investors were thrilled,” Murphy says. The company recently took another big step by hiring as CEO former Deep Eddy Vodka President John Scarborough, MBA ’04. It has expanded business to eight new states and plans to sell to 10,000 retail outlets by the end of this year.
That two successful businesses spawned from one night of brewskie-fueled brainstorming doesn’t surprise Murphy. “We went back to business school so we could build a great brand that could move quickly,” he says, noting that he and Cantu sold Ranch Hand in 2020. Now they have their hands full expanding Ranch Rider Spirits across the country.
This article appeared in the summer 2021 issue of McCombs magazine. Click on the link to see the full issue.
