Co-Founders

Rufus Nagel

As the founder and CEO of Molly’s Spirits, Rufus is responsible for establishing the overall vision and trajectory for the company, with an emphasis on growth, innovation and care for its customers, staff and vendors. He has forged lasting relationships with high-value partners across the country to enhance the company culture and push the boundaries for what is expected in an often-stagnant industry.

Since 2014, he has curated a land of adult beverage discovery at Molly’s in two brick-and-mortar locations — Lakeside, CO and Greenwood Village, CO — and expanded their offerings with curbside pickup and on-demand delivery options. In 2019, Molly’s was one of the largest retailers in the Drizly delivery network, ahead of industry giants, and has been the only group to adequately fulfill customer demand throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2020, Molly’s drove 1,000,000 miles in zero-emission electric vehicles, delivering over 100,000 purchases and saving 170,000 kg of Carbon emissions.

Prior to founding Molly’s Spirits, Rufus spent some time in Silicon Valley as the VP of Finance and a founding member at Allposters.com and Endur where he developed financial models, secured funding and aided in the creation of the business plan. He has a passion for real estate development throughout the Front Range and Colorado mountains, and he found success in this field by identifying the dynamics of the growing and dominant "singles" household demographic and purposefully building projects to meet that growth. The need for community has never been greater with the fundamental changes happening in our society.

Rufus is particularly proud of his commitment to innovation and a desire to put people above profits. When he's not working, he can likely be found traveling the world with his amazing and energetic teenage boys, admiring art in all its forms or chasing fresh powder in the mountains. 

Brannan Johnson

A Colorado native born in Boulder, Brannan grew up in the front range of the Rocky Mountains. While attending high school he started courses at the University of Colorado in Aeronautical Engineering, enjoying a spot on a team to build a component for the Citizen Explorer Satellite; which was later put into orbit.

From the age of 12 he worked full-time in summers and part-time during school to accumulate "real world" skill sets. These apprenticeships spanned industries off all types - retail, construction, operations, management, sales, marketing, design, etc..

He left school early to pursue professional athletics and ultimately won the World Cup Championship as a professional wakeboarder. After five years in this career he retired and returned to school, this time as a double major in Business and Economics where he was elected president of the National Economics Honor Society.

In 2000 he started his first venture capital project – being responsible for bringing indoor skydiving to Colorado, and eventually in helping to design and build 21 other premier vertical wind tunnel facilities around the world. Brannan took a three year sabbatical to try a new sport - golf, going from a new player to competing mini-tour (wanna be) pro in 11 months. After which, Brannan has succeeded businesses in financial and technology verticals and now fills many board positions.

In 2002 Brannan married his already five year sweetheart, Monica; and in 2006 they had their fire-cracker of a daughter, Keira - now at 15 she's a competitive golfer herself - one of the top 20 freshman in Florida. Brannan and his family live on a 14 square mile island in north-east Florida and enjoy golf and seaplane flying.  

ALCHEMY113.com