Brewing an Idea

The idea for Yumbev was actually quite easily concocted. The incredible growth of the craft beer industry, paired with my love for home brewing and all things craft beer, made the idea of opening a brewery business something on the back burner of my mind for many years. As I watched the industry grow and blossom and firsthand took part in partaking in and tasting as many craft beers as I could lay my hands on, the desire grew stronger. There was just one problem.
The primary thing holding me back from venturing into my own brewery business was the fact that my life over the last few years was anything but settled. From business school to working overseas to returning to the US and starting a company, there was never an opportune time.

Of course, with little more than home brewing experience, I also lacked any necessary prowess of brewing beer on a commercial scale. I had been brewing since 2012, although my interest goes back ten or so years when my brother first gifted me a home brewing book and DVD, which for many years say on my shelf gathering dust. That year, my wife, probably tired of my relentless complaining that I wanted to try home brewing but never had the time or motivation, bought me a Mr. Beer kit to get started. After that, it was on.

I brewed a few Mr. Beer extract beers, carefully analyzing and learning the skills of the trade, or at least as much as an extract beer kit could provide. Shortly after, I moved to all grain, doing one and three gallon batches, experimenting and carefully noting results along the way. Over the period of a few months, I had most of the equipment necessary to do a small batch every week. After that I was hooked.

That's when I wrote the first draft of the Yumbev business plan, which like my first home brewing book sat on the shelf for a few years.

In 2013, I divested the interest in the company I founded seven years earlier, Wild Creations. While I was still running the company, I was getting restless and fidgety. For the most part, my career has been broken into five to seven years gaps, perhaps my own personal "seven year itch", and this was no different. I started following craft beer news and even set up my Yumbev Facebook and Twitter accounts to curate news.

The next logical step was to get started.

When the announcement asking for business submissions be turned in for the first round of the Startup.SC small business incubator, I filled out an application with the proposal and crossed my fingers.

Which brings me to now, with the opportunity to leverage the amazing team at Startup.SC to make this dream a reality. It is going to be a long road, and the business plan is still being hatched, but the motivation is now stronger than ever.

I can only hope that it is contagious enough to attract the right set of people to join in.

Cheers!

Starting Up With Startup.SC

Today was an extraordinary day.  The business concept that has been swirling around in my head for well over two years has been accepted to the Startup.SC business incubator. The idea, Yumbev, is a unique craft brewery business model that I hope capitalizes on the tremendous growth in the industry and South Carolina's recently changed legislation (not my 30 second pitch). The idea, which I drafted into a business plan a couple of years ago and which has accompanied me in a purple file folder collecting notes on napkins and articles torn from magazines, is something of a BHAG but one I know could work. Luckily, the team at Startup.SC believes in it, so it now appears that dream is going to be put to the test. .


With the business plan "semi" completed, this opportunity has clearly accelerated implementation greatly. The goal over the next one to two months will be to complete the business plan, formalize the founding team, identify key action items and prepare for the investor road show. There is a ton of work to do, but I am extremely excited for the opportunity to take make this dream a reality with the incredible group of professionals at Startup.SC. A great many thanks goes to the their founder, Mike Schroll and their team and the partners that have made this business incubator a reality. I am grateful for their consideration and confidence, and it is my unfettered priority to live up to their high expectations.

In this space, it is my goal to document the progress of Yumbev, good and bad, to serve as 1) a history of the business from the absolute beginning and 2) a learning experience for other aspiring entrepreneurs.  For certain, there will be learning lessons along the way, and as I have had so many people in my life provide feedback along my path, I hope to do the same for others.

Stay tuned for many and frequent updates.

Happy Independence Eve: Newcastle Ad

@NewCastle new #IfWeWon ad campaign is brilliant.  I love good ad campaigns.  I love great ad campaigns better.  Newcastle certainly has one in their Independence Day Eve campaign, starring British greats Stephen Merchant and Elizabeth Hurley.  Entertaining, comical and in true-British tradition, self-deprecating.  What I find even more interesting is the angst and anger of some Americans toward the campaign (see the "Apology" video below).  Lighten up.  We won.  That's what matters.  If nothing else, this campaign gives you a reason (regardless of how valid) to grab a Newcastle and toast a day early.  I will.  Cheers!

Happy Independence Eve, America!

Stephen Merchant Presents: If We Won



Zachary Quinto Presents



Names of Things: If We Won



Elizabeth Hurley Gets Vulgar



Elizabeth Hurley Apologies ... for not apologizing.

Why Hobby Lobby Matters

[Video] Nice job @IamJohnOliver. Nailed the #HobbyLobby issue. Best quote, “If you really want to be treated like people, corporations, then guess what, paying for things you don’t like is what it feels like to be one.”  

I've said a couple of times, the Supreme Court decision that corporations can opt out of mandated health care obligations on religious grounds just tastes bad ... really, really bad.

I'll start by saying that I don't think businesses should be required to provide health care for employees in the first place.  It's an archaic practice that was started by accident during WWII, when wages were flat and businesses started offering insurance as an incentive.  After WWII, as the economy flourished and the middle class continued to grow, businesses no longer needed to offer insurance, but the fed provided tax incentives to businesses to continue the practice.  It eventually stuck, and as we know now became the apparatus by which the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was able to mandate medicine.

Corporations, however, should no more be in the business of supplying health insurance as they would car insurance, homeowner's insurance, etc.  

This legal precedent ultimately has nothing to do with the ACA, socialized medicine, or whatever.  It really strikes at a much more troubling issue: prejudice on the grounds of religion.  Forget for now the fact that the ruling has furthered the rights of corporations to act as people ... evidently, now religious, church-going people ... what it has done is potentially brought religion back into our laws.  Bad idea.

And if you argue that the US was founded on Christian values, yadda yadda, I would shoot back that it was founded on  "religious" values.  We are a country of many, many different religions, so if we are to create laws that cater to religious beliefs, upon which religious foundations will you base them?  

For this reason, we don't allow religion to influence our laws (for the most part).  Instead, we elect people to represent our views and make laws accordingly.  If you don't vote, then you can't complain.  Truly.  This is how you create change.  Of course, people unfortunately lose from time to time ... that sucks ... really ... but as the old saying goes, "you can't please all the people all the time."

We saw this recently with the law in Arizona that allowed businesses to discriminate against the LGBT community if their sexual preference was not in line with the business's religious beliefs.  Eventually, better-minded people prevailed, and the law was struck down.  

Discrimination on any grounds is just plain bad.

But this is the Supreme Court that has handed down this decision.  A decision that was voted for by an all white male majority, seemingly placing discrimination rights at the feet of corporations.  The precedent is dangerous, because as US citizens, we have the right to call out, "What about me?  What about my religion?".  And how will this reconcile itself with civic rights laws?  Where will the madness end?

I do believe that in today's hyper connected and social environment, we as a culture and as a people tend to error on the right thing to do.  We have the freedom to speak with our wallets, and for the most part, we can leave our place of vocation if we are unhappy.  We have choice and remarkable access to information to help us make informed decisions.  It takes time, in some cases an entire generation, but eventually, we get things right.  

This is the Supreme Court, however, so it will be interesting to see how it pans out.

[Infographic] Five Reasons Your Content Doesn't Go Viral

Creating great content for your business is hard enough, but getting it in front of others is a whole other challenge.  If you spend a good amount of time creating great content, you should understand how to distribute it properly to get the attention and draw people to your business.  While being in people's "grill" is good, having material go viral is even better, as it is typically shared by trusted friends and families.  Below is a great inforgraphic from MarketingProfessionals.com explaining how to get more "virality" from your online content.  NOTE: This blog post is not intended to be an example.  Cheers!



Veronic Jarski, MarketingProfessionals.com