Photos courtesy of Walker Brothers
In a city known for collaboration, creativity, and craft, Walker Brothers’ kombucha feels right at home. While traditional kombucha, a fermented tea beverage, has origins tracing all the way back to China in 220 B.C., Walker Brothers – known for its craft-brewed kombucha beverages – is deeply rooted in the Nashville community.
While the brand name refers to Luke and Sam Walker, two of the company’s co-founders, their third co-founder, Caroline Howard, is a Vanderbilt alum from the Class of 2014. She sat down with me to share insights from her career and how Walker Brothers found sustained success despite daunting challenges. Common threads from both Howard’s and her company’s success stories are strategic risk-taking and adaptability while remaining true to your core mission and values.
Before Walker Brothers: Howard’s Early Career Journey
As an undergraduate, Caroline Howard would not have envisioned her future self as co-founding a beverage company. A Communications Studies major, she intended to pursue journalism. Although, as a Managerial Studies minor (now known as the Business Studies minor), perhaps her journey to entrepreneurship is less surprising. Reflecting on her time at Vanderbilt, Howard strongly believes that students are at college to “learn how to think critically and… sate [their] curiosity.” As a result, her advice for current students is simple: take classes that are genuinely interesting.
Earning her Bachelors in 2014, Howard initially worked at Bloomberg as a technical recruiter before transitioning to an ad-tech startup. She attributes much of her early professional growth to this fast-paced workplace saying it was there that she discovered that she was drawn to “being in a more entrepreneurial environment, even though [she] wasn’t…the founder.” Building on that experience, she joined Index Exchange and moved to England with the company in 2016. While abroad, she further invested in her business education as she began working toward earning her MBA from the Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford in 2019.
Even as Howard was building her career internationally, a new opportunity was emerging back in Nashville. In late 2018, Sam and Luke approached her with an idea for a small project they hoped to kickstart: their kombucha company.
Betting on the Walker Brothers: Howard Co-Founds the Company
The Walker Brothers brand is family through and through. Luke and Sam Walker grew up in Jamaica Plain, Boston where homemade kombucha was a staple in their household. When Luke moved to Nashville, he brought along his aunt’s SCOBY– the “mother” ingredient for kombucha fermentation – and began experimenting with home brewing. In particular, Luke explored ways to increase the alcohol content of traditional kombucha to a “hard” alcoholic kombucha that could rival craft beers. Recognizing the potential of their product and relying on brother Sam’s prior experience in the craft beer industry, the brothers were ready to launch their brand.
When they approached their longtime family friend, Caroline Howard, to contribute to the venture, she didn’t hesitate. Initially an early angel investor, meaning she injected capital into the start-up, Howard soon joined full time as a co-founder. Explaining her decision to take the risk on a new brand: “I could just see that [the business] needed a lot of my skill set…I didn’t just want to write a check, I had something to offer here.”
Building a Brand Backed by the Nashville Community
Walker Brothers launched in 2019, just months before the COVID-19 epidemic and national quarantine. As a result, the team needed to adapt quickly. Howard explained that during this time “we just needed to survive.” The company began selling their non-alcoholic kombucha (<0.5% alcohol by volume) brews via home delivery in the Nashville area and acquired special permits that allowed customers to pick up their alcoholic (5% alcohol by volume) kombucha at the brewery.
Howard believes the local support at this time was pivotal. “The word kind of spread… and I think that really was endearing to people because it was a bright spot in an otherwise kind of hard time,” she said. Once permitted, Walker Brothers strengthened those community ties by returning to local farmers’ markets, hosting tastings and other grassroots efforts.
Friend or Foe: Building a Company With Loved Ones
Walker Brothers is a rare image of success among companies founded by close friends. Howard shared, “we’re actually pretty rare in that one that we’re a group of three co-founders that are still happily working together, and then two, that we are friends and we remain friends.” She attributes their success to two major factors: they “all share the same belief system and faith” and have deep trust in each other’s abilities to successfully fulfill their specific roles within the company. Howard spearheads Strategy and Operations, Luke and Sam Walker lead Production and Sales, respectively. “Sam and Luke trust what I’m doing to lead the strategy of the business… just like I fully trust Luke in the direction of the product…[and] Sam when he comes back with feedback from the market.”
Distinguishing the Walker Brothers’ Brand: Quality Ingredients
That feedback is particularly important to ensure Walker Brothers continues to stand out in a rapidly growing – and increasingly competitive – marketplace. In the United States alone, kombucha sales revenue increased by 800 percent from 2014 to 2024 and as of 2025, the market was valued at $1.83 billion.. Globally, the kombucha market is projected to quadruple over the next ten years which is creating a shift in the competitive landscape as major beverage corporations have moved into the space.
To ensure its continued success, Howard highlights the ways that Walker Brothers distinguishes itself from larger brands beginning with exceptional ingredient quality. Walker Brothers “uses an extremely high quality tea and uses a unique blend of black, green and Jasmine teas.” She claims that this blend is also quite unique because not many kombucha companies are using Jasmine tea and that even with “no flavoring additions, [the kombucha] still tastes amazing because at the root of it, kombucha is fermented tea.”
Howard adds that unlike many competitors, Walker Brothers “limits [itself] to one to three things being added in the flavoring process.” Instead of adding complex, non-natural flavoring that Howard finds tastes like “glorified fruit punch,” Walker Brothers highlights simplicity and natural flavor profiles, letting the tea lead the way.
This commitment has earned Walker Brothers national recognition, including the NEXTY Award presented by New Hope Network at the Natural Products Expo West, “the industry’s biggest trade show.” This award honors “the most innovative, inspirational, impactful products shaping the future of the industry.”
Distinguishing the Walker Brothers’ Brand (Part 2): Sustainability
Walker Brothers also acknowledges the environment in producing their product. Their tea is sourced from a purveyor, Rishi Tea & Botanicals, that imports tea from China through direct trade. Howard, who is deeply committed to ethical sourcing, says that Rishi has “really close relationships with the farms that grow the tea in China and ensure that their supply chain is really secure…so not only does [Walker Brothers] have amazing quality tea, we also knows that there’s no human slavery in the supply chain which is something that I’m really passionate about.” Rishi touts its commitment to the farmers who work to bring tea to the consumer’s table. Walker Brothers also uses Regenerative Organic Alliance Certified (Gold) Brazilian cane sugar from their supplier Native. The certification is awarded based on soil health, animal welfare, and farmworker fairness.
In addition to sustainability within their ingredients, Walker Brothers has invested in their packaging. Although kombucha often comes in a glass bottle, Walker Brothers leadership chose aluminum cans because Nashville “doesn’t have widespread glass recycling.” Howard explained that for that reason, “early on we knew we wanted to be in aluminum.”
Finally, Walker Brothers has been composting all of their organic waste from their used tea leaves since 2021. Additionally, according to their waste management provider, The Compost Company, Walker Brothers has diverted 46,210 pounds of waste from landfills over their lifetime. More recently, Howard noted that Walker Brothers has begun “up-cycling kombucha liquid that otherwise would be thrown away and making this botanical soda” that they call Forest Water.
Howard describes how Walker Brothers’ sustainability efforts is a personal point of pride, reflecting both her own values and those shared by the entire company’s leadership. For Howard, sustainability is not separate from the product, instead these aspects “really influence the quality of the product.”
Building a Brand on Shared Values: One Commodore and her Company Find Enduring Success
Walker Brothers is a one-of-a-kind Nashville-based company with deep ties to Vanderbilt. Born and bred in Nashville, the company has grown from a small, home-brewed operation to a nationally distributed beverage brand. Walker Brothers navigated the economic uncertainty of the pandemic with the support of local consumers, reflecting their resilience during a challenging period. Their resilience is matched by their intentionality: Walker Brothers continues to focus on innovative tea blends, regenerative ingredients, and a brewing philosophy that prioritizes both the consumer and the planet.
At the center of that growth is Caroline Howard, whose journey from Vanderbilt to Walker Brothers can edify Vanderbilt students and aspiring entrepreneurs alike. Her path demonstrates that success does not require a rigid plan, but rather curiosity, adaptability, and the confidence to step into opportunities when they arise.
With its Vanderbilt ties, unique leadership model, and sustainability initiatives, Walker Brothers is more than just another beverage on the shelf, it’s a Nashville success story.
