Photo by Matt Sayles
CEO Lobos 1707 Tequila & Mezcal and Cofounder, Pronghorn, New York, NY
Power of the Pocketbook
When people say they support beverage businesses with their wallets or pocketbooks, they usually mean they bought a can of beer or a bottle of spirits, but Dia Simms has done this in the form of angel investments, to the tune of $2.4 billion through Pronghorn—a partnership fund with Diageo with the sole purpose of funding Black-owned spirits businesses in a scalable way. Having built the Cîroc brand as president of Combs Enterprises and currently serving as CEO of Lobos 1707 Tequila, this is something Simms knows well how to do.
