Ari Murray

Chief Growth Officer @ Sharma Brands & Creator of Go-to-Millions @ Workweek

Shopify Plus is my middle name ;)

DTC x GTM x launching the brands you’re about to know and love (taking them from $0 to MILLIONS) $$$

VP of Growth

risk is better

than regret 

h/t unknown

Chief Digital Officer at SALT & STONE & Creator of Go-to-Millions at Workweek

Juliana Casale

Building a Beverage Brand

Hi! I’m the founder of Balloon, a Toronto-based sparkling water brand that I launched in October of 2023.

I’m having a blast figuring out how the CPG space works. Even if the brand flops, I am learning so much along the way.

One day I would love to work on the fizz biz full time, but I have a ways to go before I can give myself a paycheck so I’m a copywriter/content marketer by day 😁.

Okay, back to the career stuff:

Once upon a time in Arlington, Massachusetts, a little girl dreamed of becoming a marketing thought leader.

Hahaha. Can you imagine? No, I wanted to be a bridal shop owner.

Like many people, I stumbled into marketing early in my career. It’s a hard gig for many reasons, but I keep doing it because it’s about people - who they are, what they think, what they need and how to give it to them. 

Marketing is also about words, and as an English major I am really into those. 

If you’re looking for someone who can growth hack, eat spreadsheets for breakfast and gain your business thousands of followers in a month, you are reading the wrong profile. 

I have 13+ years of experience working across a variety of marketing platforms with a focus on boosting site traffic organically, leading visitors down the sales funnel in a thoughtful way, creating optimized (but human-friendly) content, and maximizing retention opportunities through product marketing. 

I'm laser focused on the customer experience, dedicated to building mutually beneficial relationships between sales, product, partnerships and customer success - and I know how to get shit done. 

Skills: 

- Marketing strategy
- Copywriting (case studies, newsletters, blog posts, interviews)
- Content promotion (social media, email)
- Sales enablement (acquisition and retention/upselling)
- Co-marketing + business development
- Building customer communities
- Event management
- Social media
- Video production
- Creative direction
- Website design 
- CRO

Public speaking:

- Guest speaker at Woodbury University's Coms 360 Media Professions class, September 2021 

- Member of Shine Speaker Bootcamp class of September 2019; see attached video

- “Customer-Centric Marketing Campaign Design” MBA guest speaker at Babson and social media/content marketing at Fisher College, both in October 2018

- Guest speaker on digital media at Emerson, April 2018 

- Guest speaker on adtech at Northeastern, October 2016

Freelance Writer

My business made 5 figures last year. I didn't make a profit, and I couldn't pay myself. If you look at my 12-month sales revenue, it's not super exciting. 

BUT what I'm starting to see, that IS getting me excited, is repeat wholesale orders. 

- Nutraviva in the West End is on their 4th order

- Vincenzo's in Waterloo just placed a 3rd order

- Shopify's Toronto office just ordered *75 cases* (my 1st pallet order!!), up from 50 last time

I was expecting the year to start off slow (January isn't typically peak sparkling water season), but the momentum is already building. 

2026 is going to be a big one for Balloon 🎈, I can feel it ❤️ .

So much can happen in 24 hours. 

This all went down on Friday: 

- My dream retailer saying no for the second time (rrrrrrghhhhhh)
- Another retailer dropping Balloon 🎈due to slow sales (they had the old branded cans and didn't ever try the new flavours so I don't feel AS bad as I could about this one, but the store is in an excellent location that I am super bummed to lose)
- Found out from the warehouse we're sold out of 2 SKUs (this should never, ever be a surprise and something I will be working hard to remedy ASAP)

BUT ALSO ON THE VERY SAME DAY:

- Balloon got into its first gas station. In the United States. Making my brand multi-national. 

I spent the morning/afternoon feeling frustrated, stressed (and frankly a bit incompetent), but seeing these photos that evening put THE biggest smile on my face. 

It's like the old saying about New England, "Don't like the weather? Just wait 5 minutes." The highs and lows of being a founder are truly wild. 

(Note: If you ever find yourself inside the Mini Mart at the Cloverleaf BP in Southfield, Michigan, please go in and send me a pic!).

On Wednesday I booked a last-minute booth at Canadian Health Food Association’s trade show in Vancouver, which is taking place 4 weeks from now. 

Cue the scramble to:

- Buy plane tickets & secure a place to stay
- Submit the food sampling form
- Get booth insurance 
- Order marketing materials
- Get cases of Balloon 🎈 to my distributor’s Markham warehouse so they can freight them to the show for me
- Start retailer outreach

I spent this morning at brunch with friends and this afternoon in my Toronto warehouse, making sure I have enough inventory. 

TBH, I love this kind of stuff. 

I did a whole talk at Fuckup Nights Toronto last year about how I was a startup addict; the adrenaline that comes from hustling under deadline is hard to beat, especially when it’s the success of YOUR business on the line. 

I can’t wait to hit the show floor in February ✌️.

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Since I launched Balloon 🎈 I've felt pressure from incubator/accelerators, retailers, investor groups and grant givers to position it as 
"innovative."

Here was the formula for being an innovative beverage brand in 2025:

1. Add a functional element like probiotics, energy, fiber, adoptogens, etc to fizzy water
2. Reinforce that it's "better for you" by using alternative sweeteners like stevia, monk fruit or erythritol instead of sugar

There's obviously a big consumer demand for this, and I know many amazing founders who are building and kicking ass in this space. 

But here's where things get interesting: 

- LaCroix/Bubly/Perrier/Polar own zero sugar/zero calorie
- Coke/Dr. Pepper/Sprite own high calorie/high sugar
- Who's owning the non-functional (or what I like to call "dysfunctional" 😁) middle ground?

Everyone and their grandmother comments on how saturated the beverage category is, but I think there's a ton of room for innovating in the blank space between no sugar and tons of it. 

It's a super simple idea that doesn't attract VCs and probably won't land me on Dragons' Den, but it's a hill I'm willing to die on as I build my brand.

I just got a no from my dream retailer - the same one I got a no from two Falls ago when Balloon 🎈 was just getting started. 

I was so optimistic with the rebrand and new flavors that they’d say yes this time 😕.

Wanna try Balloon 🎈 IRL?

I’ll be slinging sparkling water at the following places, starting tomorrow:

Saturday, Jan 17
Vincenzo’s (Waterloo)
11 am - 4 pm

Wednesday, Jan 21
CommerceTO
5:30 - 8:30 pm

Thursday, Feb 12
East Room (Claremont Location)
5 - 8 pm

Demos are one of my favorite founder activities, I love seeing peoples’ reaction after the first sip and getting real time feedback. 

Hope to see some of you out there! 

#toronto #demo #dohashtagsactuallyworkonlinkedin

Okay, LinkedIn. I’m facing a big decision and I need all of you to weigh in.

When I launched Balloon 🎈 in 2023, I rolled out three flavours:

- Fruit punch
- Green apple
- Mango

And last year, I added two more as a small batch test:

- Pink lemonade
- Lychee 

5 SKUs cost a LOT to produce and store, plus the odd number makes sample packs/boxes awkward. 

This year I want to return to three flagship flavours and leave a fourth spot open for a limited edition seasonal (summer/winter).

Green apple and Lychee are clear bestsellers, and Pink lemonade is on tap as the summer seasonal, which leaves one last spot open in the core lineup. 

So here’s the big question: 

👉Do I keep Mango or Fruit punch??👈

They both drive the same amount of sales, so it’s going to come down to a popular vote. 

Please comment and let me know which one you prefer!

I may or may not have snorted aloud when I read the cost of “earning” recognition in a Canadian business magazine. 

$7,000???

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The Battle

Ari Murray

Juliana Casale

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taplio

The Battle

Ari Murray

Juliana Casale

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Ari Murray's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreJuliana Casale's LinkedIn Performance

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Performance ScoreAri Murray's LinkedIn Performance