Shufelt raised under 10% of target three months into seed fundraising
Bill Shufelt · Athletic Brewing Company: Bill Shufelt · Nov 18, 2024 · at 39:09
Bill Shufelt describes the early struggle to raise seed funding for Athletic Brewing Company before having a finished non-alcoholic beer product.
0:00 / 0:06exact quote · 6.2s
720p mp4 · rendered on demand · StarZero watermark
“And I found myself three months into those meetings and had less than 10% of what I was looking to do raised.”
quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →
More from Bill Shufelt
Shufelt: Non-alcoholic beer will account for over 50% of beer consumption
“In my head, I think it's going to be over 50% of beer.”
Shufelt bought his own beer off store shelves to trigger reorders
“There were definitely times where on Sunday, I would roll through a bunch of stores and clear out the shelf to make sure there were reorders the coming week.”
Shufelt: Non-alcoholic beer was radioactive for major brewing companies' flagships
“From a branding perspective, it was a totally radioactive category for any major beer company to put their flagship in.”
Shufelt: Early surveys showed 55% would drink great non-alcoholic beer
“And I found typically with, like, 55% frequency, people would drink a great non-alcoholic beer if it existed.”
Shufelt: Athletic Brewing Avoided Direct Marketing to Recovery Communities
“So I have a huge amount of respect for the recovery world, but I also never wanted to market to those communities because I don't want to tempt anyone into bars who may be vulnerable or susceptible to taste. And we just wanted to lift it up as like a place of …”
Shufelt: Non-Alcoholic Beer Unlocks New Occasions Instead of Cannibalizing Sales
“Non-alcoholic beer, I was telling them is something that, that people are still going to drink their beer or their cocktail, like one night a week when they go out to dinner or do something fun. But this is a beer. People are going to drink seven nights a week…”