Summer House’s Kyle Cooke and Carl Radke Share Their Dos and Don’ts for Building a Business (Exclusive)

When they’re not making summer memories — and occasionally fighting each other — on reality TV, Summer House’s Kyle Cooke and Carl Radke are both experiencing the highs and lows of building their own businesses in the beverage industry.

Cooke, 44, launched his sparkling hard tea brand, Loverboy, in 2020 alongside then-fiancée Amanda Batula. (The couple separated in January 2026.) Throughout his 10 seasons on Bravo’s Summer House, Cooke has been open about his passion for entrepreneurship — as well as his financial struggles and the toll mixing business with pleasure has had on his relationship with Batula, 35, and friendship with Radke, 41.

“When reality television is done right, you’re open. You’re honest. I would also say vulnerable. And I was like, ‘You know what? I’m just gonna — I’m an open book as it is — talk about some of the challenges in a way that hopefully people can understand,’” Cooke told Us of his candor about Loverboy’s financial standing while promoting his partnership with Celsius — though he hopes not many viewers can directly relate. “Hopefully not everybody’s taking out a massive loan in their name.”

As for Radke, he opened Soft Bar + Café, a non-alcoholic social space in Brooklyn, last year after getting vulnerable about his own sobriety journey on Summer House.

Both Cooke and Radke teamed up with Celsius to promote the energy drink brand’s Spritz Vibe Summer Edition: Sparkling Limoncello Twist flavor, a natural fit for the summer-loving best friends.

“You kind of have to have a combination of drinks on hand to make the most of your summer,” Cooke told Us, adding, “I’m a big energy drink guy, big Celsius guy. Having something that immediately invokes summer in a can … for me, I might go from a Limoncello Twist to a Limoncello Spritz, Loverboy edition, so my summer vibe is staying hydrated, staying energized, so I can go all day, all night.”

Keep scrolling for more on Loverboy and Soft Bar, including Cooke and Radke’s business dos and don’ts, as seen in the latest issue of Us magazine:

How is business?

Carl: Things are good. We’re very close to hitting our one-year anniversary, which is significant and exciting. I’m really proud of everything we’ve built here, and I’ve got an amazing team. I don’t do this alone. … I think a lot of people were wondering how this would do. And ultimately, Soft Bar is the combination of coffee culture and non-alc culture.

It’s been really cool to see my vision come to life. But it hasn’t always been smooth sailing. We’ve made mistakes. We’ve learned. We’ve had to adjust. We’ve had to evolve. But any new business is going to do that. But we are really listening to our customers. We’re trying to understand what they like, take all the feedback and become a better operation as a result. So I’m really happy and proud, but there’s still some work to do for sure.

Kyle: The beverage industry is a very challenging industry. We have been able to try to do everything and anything possible to give people opportunities to support the brand. In some cases, the easiest thing for us to do is turn around and make some merch because with alcohol particularly, getting it through the wholesale retail distribution system is timely and resource-intensive. But we’re still fighting and we’re still surviving, thanks to our diehard fans.

What are you most proud of that your business has achieved?

Carl: I’m proud of the brand we built, the foundation of Soft Bar. I’m really excited because we were able to trademark the name Soft Bar, and one of my favorite things in branding is the brand Kleenex. A lot of us call other tissue paper brands Kleenex, but it’s actually the brand name, and I love how that brand just becomes synonymous with what the product is.

Something I was really excited about with building Soft Bar is I wanted to go brand first and community first, and being able to wrap our arms around the “soft” terminology in Soft Bar, soft drink, soft cocktail — these are all terms that were in our vocabulary, but no one really had wrapped their arms around it. My goal was to really elevate the non-alcoholic industry, and the way I believe in doing that was to build a brand that [has] a mission and a strong foundation.

Kyle: Going from nothing to something. At one point, we were one of the fastest-growing brands in what we call in alcohol the fourth category, which is basically everything in a can. There’s obviously a lot of brands with celebrities attached — I hate the c-word because I just think of myself as a normal guy who stumbled into television — but just building something that got to a point where there is international interest is pretty freaking awesome, despite all the challenges. So, to put something out there that’s tangible that people can enjoy, give me feedback and we continue to iterate and launch new flavors, [it’s] been very rewarding despite all the blood, sweat and tears.

What advice would you give to someone who’s looking to start a business?

Carl: First thing’s first: You’ve got to be willing to be told “No” a lot. You’ve got to be willing to have a thick skin and be really patient. I would start small, and what I mean by that is if you want to open up, in theory, a lemonade drink café, I would say, start a little lemonade stand in your front yard first. Get your product or service in people’s hands before you make that bigger commitment. Start organically small, locally, get it in front of your close friends and family, and get it in front of other people that don’t know you would be my advice. I think some people get big ideas and you can overwhelm yourself. Be balanced and try to find slow and steady.

Kyle: Don’t quit your day job. A lot of people think that you need to be all in, which is true, but don’t go all in when there’s bills to pay. Entrepreneurship is literally about not thinking or worrying about how many hours you’re working. It’s day and night. You’re burning the midnight oil. So my whole thing to up-and-coming entrepreneurs is the last thing you want to be doing is worrying about how you’re paying your own bills. Moonlight whatever entrepreneurial venture you’re toying around with, because at the end of the day, a lot of businesses don’t even launch. … If you’re not willing to burn the midnight oil, then maybe entrepreneurship isn’t for you.

Hire friends or don’t?

Carl: Don’t hire the friend because they’re just a friend. Hire them for their expertise and their professional experience. If they happen to be a friend and they have the qualifications, yeah, absolutely hire. But don’t just hire a friend to hire a friend. Don’t micromanage. Hire smart, but fire fast is the slogan I hear.

Kyle: Obviously, some of my challenges have been front and center on Summer House with Amanda and Carl, but it is fun building with people that you care about. You just have to set boundaries, which sometimes is nearly impossible. So good luck.

Read every online review or stay away?

Carl: I would read them all. My advice or philosophy is whenever I see a negative review and then see the business or owner comment, “You know what? You’re right. We were off. Our pancake sucked on Tuesday at 9 a.m. It was a total fail. We’re sorry. We’d love for you to come back in.” When I read that, that’s when I’m like, this place is awesome. They accept the feedback. They’re welcoming the responses and the review.

At Soft Bar, we have gotten one-star reviews, but that’s a chance for us to learn to reach out to the customer and apologize or extend a refund or try to make their experience right. It is a hospitality world, and I really believe even a negative review can turn into a positive.

Kyle: I think you have to be open to feedback, constructive or just critical. But you also need to learn when to just turn off the noise and do what you think is best. Because there’s always going to be opinions that conflict with your actual game plan and your business strategy. At some point, you’ve got to learn to trust your gut.

What is the worst business buzzword?

Carl: Scaling. I think we live in a really crazy private equity-backed world where everything is like “Let’s go to the moon,” and I think sometimes scale can get a little overused versus, like, let’s build quality, let’s build authenticity, let’s build methodically, strategically.

Kyle: Synergies. And I use it all the time.

What founder would you love to trade places with for a day?

Carl: Howard Schultz. I read a lot about his early days of Starbucks and how many people laughed in his face, made fun of him, and funny enough, the first Starbucks location that opened up in Pike Place in Seattle did not serve Starbucks coffee. It served Peet’s’s coffee, which was a more notable roaster in Seattle at that time. Starbucks didn’t initially serve their own brand of coffee. They served another amazing company. So again, with what I’m building with Soft Bar, we have a great brand and an experience and a community. But from that, I want to evolve into our own Soft Bar products, and that’s where scale will enter the conversation.

Kyle: His life seems a little out of the ordinary, but a day in the life of Elon Musk. Not sure we would have the same priorities [though].

Would you ever go into business together?

Kyle: We’re actually thinking about doing a non-alc spritz that leans into the functional ingredients. If I do something with Carl, it’ll probably be a Soft Bar co-branded thing, and we just talked about it last week. So TBD.