How Bill Shufelt Built a Non-Alcoholic Movement with Athletic Brewing pt. 2
Welcome back to part 2 of our conversation with Bill Shufeld, the co founder and CEO of Athletic Brewing Company. Last time we unpacked Bill's personal journey and how it inspired the creation of Athletic Brewing. Today, we're taking a closer look at the big picture. What it's like to scale a company in a competitive market, the trends driving the explosive growth of non alcoholic beverages, and athletics plans for the future. Let's welcome back Bill Shufeld.
Speaker 2:It's such the entrepreneurial gauntlet that you ran. So you've got going back, you've got hundreds of no's from fundraising. And I've done fundraising, and it's not fun. It's like running an entire business on the side of running your business. So you're a full time job.
Speaker 2:You're getting all these no's from getting your product together and breweries and I might budget some of this. And then you're getting all these no's and maybe even a little snickers are laughed at at customers. So that's a lot to handle as somebody a lot of no's. What was going through your mind as you're getting all these no's? Like, what kept you moving forward?
Speaker 3:I well, I think part of it was that, like, I I thought my experience was so typical, and I had such confidence that this was gonna bring a lot of people joy. They would enjoy it. I knew it was great beer once I got in people's hands. Like, I I did see that conversion over and over again at an extremely high percentage. If I could just get beers in people's hands, they would convert and be like they would go from making fun of me to my face to being like, where can I buy this?
Speaker 3:And, so that was a big part of it, is confidence that we could legitimately bring people joy. And I I liked the challenge of it too. You know, I I had burned the boats, and I wasn't gonna give up without a fight. And, so and in in those conversations and meetings, like, I I've done so much in person in this business that, you know, so many of those, like, face to face community interactions and, like, real relationships have carried through years. And, I I think that's really impactful.
Speaker 3:Like, I got to know our customers really well and, like, learn about their pain points and how athletic relates to them. And, for example, like, my e like, all the customer emails came directly to me, for a long time. And so I was the 1 the frontline of consumer interaction. And so, that was really helpful also and gave me a lot of confidence that, like, people who tried our beer were falling in love with it. And, so after after a while, like, I had enough, like, customer proof points.
Speaker 2:Were there any insights in those interactions? Because I think community is a huge thing for what you're doing. And,
Speaker 3:this movement that you're in the middle of. Were there any were there any insights learned from that that maybe surprised you? Yeah. I I think the biggest thing was, like, people had been, yeah, I I think there'd been a lot of discouraged people like me that, like, there were no options. And people were so excited that upon discovery, we're compelled to reach out to the company and just say, thank you, or this is amazing or thank you for solving this.
Speaker 3:I've been, like, barking up the street for a long time. And a lot of people said, like, I've never reached out to a company before. And so I in those interactions, I knew we were really on to something. But I think it's also a reflection of, like, the way the world was. And I know Sunnyside's at the intersection of this too where, you know, before before like, the prior messaging around being sober was typically, like, this like and I I will say upfront too.
Speaker 3:Like, I'm a big fan of the work Alcoholics Anonymous stunts, and I've had a lot of friends and family and people, like, positively influenced by that organization. And I I think it's great at getting people help, like, especially acute help. But I also realized, like, there's probably a great opportunity to help people before they get to that point. And so if you previously so call it ten, fifteen years ago, we're thinking about, like, being sober, being more moderate, or anything. Like, that was a socially alienating choice.
Speaker 3:Like, that had been messaged for the better part of that, like, being sober is for people who can't handle alcohol. Alcohol is for normal people when they socialize. And then if you choose to be sober, that is something you keep secret, like, unless you're helping other people become sober. And it was something to be, like, ashamed about, secret, and, it yeah. It's basically because you have a problem.
Speaker 3:You're making that choice. And and, like, why would there be options for people like that? You just, like, you are cut out, basically. And which I, you know, I I think the world was, like, way overdue to evolve and, like, build community around that and, make it socially acceptable, make it exciting, help people make those decisions, give them better information, give them alternatives. And so we are seeing the younger generation.
Speaker 3:So this is this is the first generation turning 21, legal drinking age, with a menu that you can open up and be excited about alcoholic or nonalcoholic options and also, like, not have your friends make fun of you for choosing either side. And I think by default with availability and marketing comes acceptance and that choice. So we are seeing those choices made at increasingly frequent, with increasing frequency. And I think more people than ever are included in bars and restaurants and social occasions. And it is great to, like like, services like Sunnyside, that, like, really build community around the choice and, like, make that easy, give people advice at their fingertips and stuff.
Speaker 3:So Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah. I mean, that rings I mean, for me, especially, like, talking about, I don't know, ten years ago or or plus where it was basically I mean, I remember when I was trying to make some adjustments, it was always, like, I would I would lean on, like, the thirty days in Jan. 0 because that was a little bit more than normal. Or it's just, you know but but it was either you drank or you had a problem. It was like, you either had a problem and there was everybody else, but there are all these that's why it's such a difficult time, if you didn't fall under either 1 of those categories.
Speaker 2:And there's so large category that people fall into in that in between stage.
Speaker 3:Yeah. And I yeah. I looked back at my emails at 1, and from, like, 02/6, 02/00 07/00, I felt like to my friends, I had to preannounce I was doing a dry Jan. 0 to, like, destigmatize that choice, where yeah. It's, and and, like, like, we're not trying to bring back prohibition.
Speaker 3:Like, I I don't care if people drink or not. Like, I but I I do like people that have the choice of, like, being able to come to their own conclusions and and have choices. And I do think we should include a lot more people in these great social settings and communities and not make them feel like outcasts for making any different choices about what they're consuming if we just make things available and give them information.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Well, I so 1 of the things I love about your product that you just said earlier is that I can pretty much have it anytime. Sometimes I'll look in the fridge and I'll be like, you know what? I'm gonna have a beer right now. And you don't have to think, well, what do I have going on right after this?
Speaker 2:Nope. You just have your beer. You enjoy it. You'll be gone with your day. So I I love that part of it.
Speaker 2:What I'd really be interested to know is who is really I mean, it's such a large market. Right? And if you were just we're just talking about people that wanted to be cut back on alcohol. But I think the larger market is people that wanna be more mindful or maybe just have another option when they're not able to have a drink or something like what I just said. Who is the who are you finding is being a lot of the customers?
Speaker 3:Yeah. Well, to your comment you just said before too about, like, unexpected occasions, I've always challenged people to put a 6 pack in their fridge next to their 6 pack of athletic, next to their favorite 6 pack of alcoholic beer Oh. And report back which goes faster. And people, like, are astonished. Like, they're shocked.
Speaker 3:And they're like, yeah. Actually, I was thinking about, like, the amount of times it really makes sense to drink alcohol is, like, very specific. It's like when you've got nothing it's like when you've got nothing important to do, you don't have to drive a car and, like, you're totally free for the next six to twelve hours versus non alcoholic beer. It's like, oh, this would go well with this. This goes well with my lunch.
Speaker 3:This goes like, I'm not sure if I'm driving or not, so I'm gonna have a beer while I watch this game, but it'll be nonalcoholic. And so the it always goes faster in the fridge. And then I also challenge people to make a third of any cooler for, like, a gathering or a barbecue or beach, like, day or something nonalcoholic beer. And, similarly, people always come back and they're like, I'm shocked that, like, we were at a nonalcoholic beer before anything else. And so but, yeah, getting back to what you were saying about, like, who the customers are, yeah, generally, you know, in business, you wanna be, like, really specific about who your customer is.
Speaker 3:And, like, people like, marketers always say, like, if you don't have that in mind or you're not specific, like, you're like, if you try to make a product for everyone, you don't you're making a product for no one. But at the same time, like, I really don't want to exclude anyone. And I think the I think the population of excluded customers was so large from the adult nonalcoholic beverage world. Like, in any survey I ran, it was between, like, forty five and seventy percent of adults said they would drink great adult nonalcoholic beverages with some frequency. And so that is a very big percentage of the adult population.
Speaker 3:So I knew we had to throw a wide net in athletic marketing. But I will say we've had extremely positive feedback, probably disproportionately so, from the female community, which typically the beer world has had trouble reaching. I and I don't know if that's, like, nutritional. It's because nonalcoholic beer is just naturally light because ethanol carries so many calories. You know, non alcoholic beer tends to have 20 to 33% of the calories of a full strength alcohol equivalent style.
Speaker 2:It's shockingly low when I step in. If you're not familiar, you look at it and you're like, woah. This blows away the ultra whatever for, you know, not a hundred calories. This would be we can lower. You know?
Speaker 3:Yeah. So, like, the nutritional appeal has been big to a wide net of customers. And so I I will say not all clogged beer used to be traditionally, like, an older male category for any number of reasons, and that is very quickly shifted lower in age and become more fifty fifty male and female. And we are seeing a lot of, like, busy urban 20 choosing nonalcoholic beer. You know?
Speaker 3:They wanna, like, have their social occasion, but then get right back to their life. And so that's definitely something, but we are, at at this point, like, in launching athletic, we did, we did try like, we only had some so much marketing budget. You know? We're not a mega brand. We're not sponsoring, like, names on stadiums and stuff.
Speaker 3:And so, you know, we had to pick with our core customer and, like, we tended to think our, like, the most influential customers would be, like, UltraRunners, endurance athletes, people like fitness influencers, people that people go to for, like, hacks and, like, like, self improvement, biohacks, things like that. And so we kinda started there, but I've, like, scaled out since.
Speaker 2:Yeah. I think that that marketing is, like, kind of a rule of thumb on targeting your customers, but there are certain products that kinda break the mold, and I'd say you're 1 of those. And so, I actually have another question for you from a business stand point. And and this will roll into us talking about, dry Jan. 0 and driest Jan.
Speaker 2:0. But in in the growing trend of that, growing interest, being more mindful with your drinking, whether it's cutting back or taking a break or some other variation, you know, that's unique to somebody. But I'd be curious to know because, you know, at business, it's a lot of it's product, some of it's luck, a lot of it's great marketing, but also timing. Do you think that what do you think would've happened maybe if you launched this ten years before sort of this, movement that's going on where people are actually starting to rethink how their relationship with alcohol?
Speaker 3:Yeah. I think, ten years earlier definitely would have been too early. I I saw the evolution of my own life and in the financial industry I was in where, you know, like, in the beginning of my career, people are going to have, like, multiple boozy steak dinners a week, and, all client entertaining happened around alcohol. And ten years later, it was, like, really starting to be a bad look to come into work hungover, and I I was having really good luck getting people to meet me for, like, various boot camp and SoulCycle and things like that. So there was a shit going on in the world, and I I've always thought that, like, my experience was, like, a very typical modern adult experience.
Speaker 3:And, like, that's why I I took that, like, gut instinct in what I was going through, and I, like, pretty confidently extrapolated that to, like, a large percentage of the adult population. And so, I I do think ten years early would have been too early. Ten years later, probably too late, honestly. And, I and I think there is risk too. Like, would the category grown the same with or without athletic broom?
Speaker 3:Because, like, they're really in the first a hundred brands that launched in this category after 2017, they're There really isn't a whole lot of, like, process innovation or new or it it's almost like a lot of repackaging of the old as new and exciting. And, and so I or I worry that, like, the category may have been, like, really loudly marketed as a as they a driver product or, you know, like, the existing penalty box occasions rather than this exciting lifestyle positive aspirational product. And so, I I'm glad we got to, like, lead that revolution from the front a bit and, like, be the face to, like, retail and distribution. And these are the new talking points of the category, kind of. But I, like timing.
Speaker 3:There's so many elements of luck in our business. It's, like, beyond belief. I I talk with our cofounder, John, all the time who, obviously, John walking my life was a life changing event. And if it had not been him to cofound the business with, like, I really don't know where athletic would be. It probably wouldn't have played out anywhere near the same.
Speaker 3:But, like, there's so many amazing people in our walls that, like, I can't fathom, like, what this journey would be like had they not come in, and they're so talented and great people and fun to be along on the journey with. So, there's, like, so many elements of luck. And for sure, we're working really hard to be prepared to meet those moments of opportunity when they show up. But, you know, I'm not just sitting on the couch hoping, like, exciting things happen to the business. I I think I visited, like, 37 states this year.
Speaker 3:So, we're we're out there trying to find our own luck, but, it it it's equally as much luck in what we've done, I would say.
Speaker 2:It's like that per it's the perfect storm, and you caught the wave. So, you know, so in Jan. 0, of course, it's growing in trend. Like, if you look at the trends on Google, how many people are starting to search and look for dry January or dry January? It's it's just a hockey stick up.
Speaker 2:So it become more of this massive cultural trend.
Speaker 3:How do you feel like athletic brewing has sub kind of supported, gotten involved, and grown alongside what we're seeing now in this movement? Yeah. I think, so there's there's, like, a number of different times where, like, people are really receptive to, like, totally trying new things and making big changes. And, you know, a lot of people wanna, like, kick off the new year right and make big goals and, like, very often, like, health and wellness and exercise are all different things. And, and very often, people have just had, like, a really festive run at the holiday season, and some people may wanna unsubscribe from alcohol for a while for those reasons as well.
Speaker 3:But and, like, milestone birthdays are another big moment of reflection. People often, like, mention to us, like, so not only, like, any given year, but, like, big moments in their life or weddings or moving around, stuff like that, new jobs. But there are these moments of receptivity where, consumers are really receptive, and we ought to be there to, like, help them start that journey. And so, like like I said, we're not trying to bring back progression. We're not trying to, like like, poo poo the alcohol industry.
Speaker 3:But we are out to, like, give people options, make sure they know what's out there, and, like, hey. This can be great too. And so, yeah, this year, we call it, Athletic January. And, like, we're trying to, like, rather than, like, calling it dry and, like, having it be this, like, discouraging thing, like, we're trying to make it really fun and accessible for people. But, yeah, it's, like, as I'm sure, Sunnyside realizes it's, like, a really receptive moment, but, also, like, it is where we meet our, like, highest, like, do our best community building and our best, like like, our best, like, retention customers as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah. What do you see the future of dry and dry as Jan. 0 going? Do you think that this is a trend that it's gonna keep growing as it has been?
Speaker 3:It's funny. I, I so I every year, I would, like, tend to think, oh, maybe it's, like, played out a little bit. But but at the same time, the the stats are crazy. It's something like forty percent of adults do do a a dry month in Jan. 0, or at least, like, where they're not drinking alcohol.
Speaker 3:They might be, like, trying all sorts of new things. So it is an exciting and receptive time for sure. So I I do think eventually, like, word-of-mouth travels enough that, like, it like, big choices are as well known throughout the year that it it will be harder to have such, like, so many new customers to reach every year, I would think. But, yeah, it every year, it surprises me.
Speaker 2:Well, speaking of surprising, I think there's 1 story that we sort of can go back to because I think it's readable to hear. And that is, can you share the story about how you guys started doing direct to consumer online and how those sales went and, you know, like, a little bit of showing the demand on something that's growing?
Speaker 3:But, yeah, I was, like, sitting here, you know, for your average alcoholic craft brewery, like, if they're making something someone wants across the country, like, it's almost, like, too bad that beer's laundry in Massachusetts. And maybe they've opened a couple states around it. But, you know, I I've been in the customer's shoes where I was trying to order nonalcoholic beer from all over the world, and it wasn't available. And there's, like, there've gotta be people out there googling for nonalcoholic beer. And there are certain states which even though there are no nonalcoholic breweries, have been googling looking for nonalcoholic beer for a long time.
Speaker 3:And so, when we launched, I told our investors, I was like, we are gonna, like like, simultaneously launch on the Internet, and I'm gonna pack and ship. We'll see how it goes. And people people were like, that's a total waste of time. Like, you shouldn't do that. It'll never be profitable.
Speaker 3:But at the same time, we were launching it was a lager category that was so boring. There'd never been any flavor in the category. And here we were from day 1 launching really exciting beers, IPAs, Golden Ales, stouts came soon after. I think that first summer, we did a sour beer. So we probably did 10 beers in 2038.
Speaker 3:And pretty much every year since then, we've done between thirty and fifty new limited releases, and all of our brewers at Athletic are insanely talented, bursting with creativity. It so it is worth saying. It is like a very, very much an imported and contract manufactured brand. So, out of a 50 brands in the category, I'd venture to say a 25 are either imported or contract manufactured, which doesn't give people flexibility to do a lot of limited releases. Athletic owns and operates its own breweries with, like, we our brewing team are, like, full time focused on athletic and the quality of our beer.
Speaker 3:So that's, like, a big differentiator in quality. But also we have, like, small pilot systems, and we just let our brewers flex their creativity, and our team submits a lot of ideas. So, there's a lot of fun things coming out of there. And, so those first launches, like, people, like, all of a sudden, anyone googling not alcoholic beer was finding something new and exciting. And then I started social media, which was a very basic behind the scenes effort of athletic brewing.
Speaker 3:But, like, all of a sudden, we had a lot of people following us on social media, subscribing to our email newsletters, and, like, emailing, asking when, like, the next limited release drop's gonna happen. And John and the brewing team got pretty excited about this where, like, every time we'd launch a new beer, it would start to sell out faster and faster, and we'd get, like, a thousand really excited emails back, which, like, begged more innovation and more innovation. Can you make this? Have you thought of a pumpkin beer? Would you ever make an Oktoberfest?
Speaker 3:Like and so we had, like, literally hundreds of firsts in nonalcoholic beer coming out of our pilot system. And before I knew it, these beers were selling out in, like, thirty seconds, and we had so massively outgrown our brewery. And we were spending a fortune not only on ingredients, like, making small batch limited beers on a pilot system is extremely cost and efficient, and then we are shipping them all over the country. So, it it was really fun, and we're we're still doing that to this day. So we're brewing, pilot releases on both coasts, and we're in 2024, we'll probably have, like, 40 limited release beers on our website.
Speaker 2:Wow. 40. That's that's pretty wild. Well, I you know, I'm in we were talking before we hit record. I'm in Spain right now traveling with my family.
Speaker 2:I actually was here about ten years ago, and I remember something that was a little unique here is that they did have quite a few nonalcoholic beers. But I gotta say, I bought some of them, and it was just, like, really worse than O'Doul's even. You know? Like, just the worst of the worst kind of stuff. Are you guys in the European market?
Speaker 2:Do you see that as is it a totally different thing going on? Like, not just as far as, like, what the products are available, but, like, the attitude around it?
Speaker 3:I'm just curious to know. Yeah. So interesting you mentioned Spain. Spain had an effort in, like, the I may be off on the date, but, where they made it, just by, like, regulatory friction really destigmatize not alcoholic beer choices. You know, in in The United States, it's very difficult to talk about nonalcoholic beer, do nonalcoholic beer advertising and everything.
Speaker 3:We pick up basically all the alcohol regulations, and then we can't use a whole host of words. You know, I can't even use the word beer, ale, lager, stout, you know, and a whole list of other words. So to help consumers identify what's in the package or retailers to talk about it or advertise the category. Like, there's all sorts of structural inefficiencies in The US, which we're working on that to, like, destigmatize the category. Spain's about forty years ahead in The US on that, and Nalapalapalapalapalapalapalapalapalapalapalapalapalapalapalapalapalapalapalapalapalapalapalapalapalapalapalapalapalapalapalapalapalap it's, like, 15% of the beer market.
Speaker 3:And, it's totally destigmatized and promoted and everything, even though it's mostly just lagers. But, yeah, so Europe is ahead of The US for sure. When we launched non alcoholic or athletic, nonalcoholic beer in The US was 0.3% of the total beer market. In Spain and Germany, it's, like, 15%. In The UK, it's, like, 4 or 5%.
Speaker 3:So, generally, Europe is pretty far ahead. The US is now heading towards, like, 2% of beer, but, like, some of those earliest retailers I named, the non alcoholic beer category is a percent of all their beer is now upwards of 15% in The US. So The US retailers who adapted quicker than others have experienced massive beer growth in a world where beer beer dollars and volume have been declining over the past, like, five, ten years. So
Speaker 2:Wow. That's really interesting. Thanks for the the history lesson. I actually didn't know that about Spain, but I did find it unusual at how readily it was available and in every beer aisle. Yeah.
Speaker 2:They have gotten a little bit better. I think it depends on what your taste is. Very malty beers, generally. But but it does make sense in this my guess is that maybe just a larger meal is in the middle of the day here and drinking goes along with most meals, but it doesn't really fit more on the go modern life, I'd say. But it kinda makes sense.
Speaker 3:Yeah. And we're we're in Spain on, like, a really limited basis. We're in, France and Spain in mainly, like, a very small set of, like, high end restaurants and stuff, and we do hope to build more there. Routes to market in Europe are are very complex in general. So our, yeah, our first focus was Canada, and then The UK's been really well well received as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah. I love that. I mean, I wouldn't think that shipping liquids internationally or however you get them to their final destination could be a simple process. But I'd I'm curious to dig in a little bit about are there any new products or partnerships or initiatives that you guys have coming up that you're able to share with that has you excited?
Speaker 3:For sure. Always. So just recently, in the past few weeks, we've launched, we launched some, like, nonalcoholic cocktail, just as a fun thing, like, a creative thing our team was working on, but a Paloma to Moscow mule. So we're excited to see feedback on those. Every New Year's Eve, we release a Brut IPA, which is like a super light celebratory sparkling IPA.
Speaker 3:We just did a collaboration with Food fifty two, the great, Food Network, but that's like a really nice light, almost like golden wheat beer, called Host and Toast. And then in Jan. 0, we have a number of fun releases coming, all around Athletic January, but, like, a mix of some, like, really great dark beers, light beers, everything. So, it's gonna be a fun time of year.
Speaker 2:Yeah. You guys got a lot of a lot of flavors. I love that.
Speaker 3:Yep. For sure. And, yeah, it's, it gives people a nice wide range, and it's probably 1 of the most, like, receptive places in beer to enter into. Like, a lot of the beer shelf can be totally overwhelming.
Speaker 2:What's your number 1 seller?
Speaker 3:Our Run Wild IPA. So Run Wild is, probably the most highly awarded non alcoholic beer ever. I know it's received over 50, like, prestigious global taste awards. So it's, Run Wild. It's definitely 1 of my favorites, and it's like our original IPA.
Speaker 3:It's kinda like a traditional West Coast IPA, and then we have, like, our New England hazy IPA called Free Wave. So those are a couple of our best sellers. Our athletic light though is, yeah, it's a 25 calorie, really delicious golden ale or, lager, but sugar free, like, totally a guilt free crusher.
Speaker 2:Nice. What's your go to? It it
Speaker 3:honestly I know this is a cop out, but, like, depends what I'm in the mood for. And so I, in general, I always have, like, 6 cases of our beer of all different things in my garage, and I'm, like, pulling 6 packs out of each 1. And, so I I always have at least 10 varieties of our beer in my fridge. And I really like food parrot, occasion parrot. Like, is it, like, a hot summer day?
Speaker 3:Is it a cold fall afternoon? And so, yeah. Right now, I'm drinking our cerveza letica, which is our Mexican lager with a with a wedge lime in it, here in the middle of the workday. So yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah. It sounds great. That's the podcast dream, I guess. Yeah. So what's for what's up next for, athletic in the next five to ten years?
Speaker 2:Do you have a vision for where you wanna go?
Speaker 3:Yeah. For sure. I mean, it's, in many ways, it's boring, and in many ways, it's, like, as exciting as it could be. You know, I think I think we're all gonna look back on this moment of the last five years and be like, wow. There was, like, such a sea change in in the way people drink in that time period, but it's just getting going.
Speaker 3:Like, it's we're we're not all not alcoholic beer is 2% of beer. I say publicly, it's going to 20%. In my head, I think it's going to 50% plus, like, just by, like, the size of the occasion base. And, you know, 60% of adults have point 1 drinks or less per week these days. So that leaves, like, a massive occasion pool for not great nonalcoholic beverages.
Speaker 3:So I I think we're just at this front curve of, like, a twenty year plus trend. And, so here you see a lot of the same things we've been doing as a company. It's like great innovation, building distribution, becoming more available, but, like, yeah, we want our beers to be the most, like, delightful, like, enjoyable part of our customers' days. We wanna build real community and then be a business that gives back that people are proud to work at for a long time. So, over a hundred of our athletic teammates have passed their four year anniversary already.
Speaker 3:And, we have massive charitable programs, both community and environmental, but our 2 the trails team does $2,000,000 every year. So, you know, when we look back in twenty years, tube of the trails is gonna have a massive impact on outdoor access in The United States and beyond. So, yeah, kinda doing a lot more of what we're doing, but I'm really excited about what we're doing.
Speaker 2:Well, 1 of the thing I think that's we that I didn't mention or is overlooked is how fast you guys grow with short amount of time. And how was it? Like, basically, 2017 was when you were really out there starting to sell product. And and where are you guys now?
Speaker 3:Yeah. Not until, like, June 2018 was when we really launched. And,
Speaker 2:yeah,
Speaker 3:we were, yeah, that first brewery was, like, 5000 barrels. The brewery I'm standing in today is about a hundred times that capacity. And then we're building 1 on the West Coast that's, like, 2 that's, like, more than almost double that capacity. So, it it's been fun. It it's been slightly methodical, You know, definitely hair brained and crazy at times, but, definitely a lot of fun.
Speaker 3:And, yeah, I I think the biggest secret in my head is that I think it's about to really accelerate, though. Yeah. I think 0 to 2% of the bear market's the heaviest lifting we're ever gonna have to do.
Speaker 2:Well, on that note, I wanna end with a nice entrepreneurial question, which is, anybody that's listening that's inspired by your story, what advice would you give them if they're thinking about doing a mission driven business? Because that's what I love about this story. Not only is your product great and it's a success story, but you're absolutely doing things that help people, and you're mission driven behind it all.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much. I I the number 1 thing I always say to people is, like like, whether it's a great idea or not, like, did they have a fire burning that couldn't possibly go out for that idea? Because it it is so hard to build a company. And, yeah, getting, like, the things right, like culture, who your investors are, and making sure you're all aligned, and, that sort of stuff is super important. But, also, yeah, it's it's a long road.
Speaker 3:Just just stay at it.
Speaker 2:Well, I think you took as many nos as anybody could on the way to getting to where you are, which is, definitely a lead listen to as well.
Speaker 3:Oh, thank you so much.
Speaker 2:Well, Bill, thanks so much for coming on today. I had a great time hanging out with you. And if there's anything else you wanna throw in, I'll give you the mic.
Speaker 3:Oh, likewise. Thank you so much for having me. But yeah. And, really excited about the road to heaven. Thank you so much for having me on.
Speaker 1:And that's a wrap on part 2 of our chat with Bill Shufeld. We covered the challenges, the trends, and what's on the horizon for athletic brewing. If you're as inspired as I am, don't forget to subscribe and share this episode. This podcast is brought to you by SunnySide, the number 1 alcohol moderation platform. And if you could benefit from drinking a bit less, head on over to sunnyside.co to get a free fifteen day trial.
Speaker 1:Thanks for listening, and until next time, cheers to your mindful drinking journey.
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