Brewbound Pitch Slam 14 Final Round

Ray Latif [00:00] Oh All right, great to see everyone. Well, that was a great fucking panel. This is gonna be. I'd be like, this is gonna be a great fucking competition. All right, once again, my name is Ray Latif. I'm the editor and producer of Babnet's Taste Radio podcast, as well as the host of Brewbound's Pitch Slam 14, which is presented by Ali. This is the final round of the Pitch Slam, which is a one-of a-kind business pitch competition. It gives entrepreneurs behind the beer industry's next breakout brands an opportunity to sample their innovative products and showcase their business plans to our panel of expert judges. Six brands for our semi-final round held yesterday have moved on to the final round. Here are the rules. Today's contestants will have a whopping 4 minutes to deliver their pitches. If they attempt to go over the 4 minutes, they'll hear the dreaded gong. Now we're not going to play the gong just yet, but they will hear that if they attempt to go over the 4 minutes. Our judges have already sampled the products, and they'll have up to 5 minutes to ask questions and provide feedback. At the end of the competition, the entrepreneur with the best overall pitch and product will receive a $10,000 industry awareness package from Brewbound. The winning entrepreneur will also receive free entry into the 2023 Brewband Live conference and 12 months of Untapped for Business or OE standard. We met our judges yesterday, but for folks who may have missed the semifinal round, let's meet them once again. We have Ryan Lake, who's a principal at Arlington Capital Advisors, Jessica Muskie, who is the VP of craft and innovation for Reyes Beer Division. Jamie Weidman, who is the VP of Innovation North America from Olson Coors, and Rich Bloomfield, the co-founder of Chicago's own Funky Town Brewery. All right. Here you go. It is time to meet our first finalist for this round of the Brewbound pitch slam. That is Chris Rochester, the founder of Primary Colors Brewing. Good to see you. Yep, and please just keep an eye on your timer.

Chris [02:39] How's it going, Brewbound? My name's Chris and I'm the founder of Primary Colors Brewing, a new beer experience that encourages you to play with your beer. With our mixed six-pack of 3 different beers that are brewed intentionally to be blended together, we're giving you a new outlet to create your own custom beer styles. So what do I mean by blending beer? Well, I literally mean mixing together different styles on the spot to create new flavors and explore new tastes. It's a totally different way to play around with beer. But why blending? Every beer drinker has different tastes, and we think we should be celebrating that diversity of palates, so we set out to create an approachable, playful beer experience that allows you to take control of your beer adventure and express yourself through your own beer creativity. It all started 2 years ago. And it was just an Instagram account and an idea. I had 10 years of homebrewing experience under my belt, and I wanted to share this new experience. So I started making a bunch of beers. I started packaging mixed six packs of beers that I thought blended well together, and I went and hand delivered samples to over 100 people that found me on Instagram in the Chicago area. My one ask when I did this all was for feedback along the way, and I use that to create new tools to help with the blending experience. I created blending instructional cards that I gave out to all of the people that tried the beard. I created glassware that had marcations on the glass to make it easy to visualize the blending. And I also provided people with suggested blends that I came up with myself and that were shared to me with some of our fans. The feedback was incredible, and I knew I had a hit on my hands, so I partnered with a brewery in Chicago to bring this to life and bring our first commercial product to market. A mixed 6 pack of 3 different beer styles, a Belgian pale ale, a hazy IPA, and a goza all killer beers on their own but brewed intentionally to be blended together. We've been able to succeed with over 50 partners in the retail market in Chicago by offering something totally unique in a crowded craft beer market. Our consistent and clean packaging lets people know exactly what they're getting on a shelf so that they come home happy. And every can is digitally backed with a QR code that links to suggested blends and instructional cards, so you're never left without knowing how to do the blending. We also offer something totally unique to our on-premise partners. We're able to offer up custom blended kegs, uh, so that people can have the perfect beer that fits their needs. We offer the tools for blending experience so people can host primary colors on site and do blending in their own environment. And we've had some really incredible beer dinners where people are able to explore and create their own perfect pairings with different dishes. But next for us is the taproom, and we're starting to experiment with that right now with our brewery partner in Chicago. Shout out to Orknoy. What we see with the taproom is being able to offer a hyper personalized experience. Imagine being able to walk up to a beer tender and have them craft you the perfect beer that you're craving in the moment. We'll, we'll also offer up opportunities for guided tastings so you can play around with beer and really learn how to enjoy and find new flavors. All of this will really be about creating a new way for people to explore beer in a way that they haven't done before, a way for people to get creative and just have fun with beer. At the end of the day, we're really just here to provide people with a creative outlet so they can express themselves through beer, and we hope you'll join us, join us on our blending adventure. Thank you.

Ray Latif [06:33] In case the judges have any questions for you, you can slide up with me. All right, uh, Ryan, let's start with you. Um, you know, Chris had about 4 minutes this time around. Well, he did have 4 minutes this time around. Uh, did you hear anything different about the presentation? Did you hear anything different about the brand that makes you, I guess, a little bit more inquiring about what they're doing in their strategy? Yeah,

Speaker 3 [06:51] I think it was good to hear more about your sort of comprehensive off-premise, on-premise strategy, taproom strategy. Um, I think that was really interesting. I think. I guess the question I have is more of a financial point of view. We all know that mixed packs are key, but the margin profile generally suffers. Um, I know you're early stage, but I think thinking through how do you, your product is only mixed packs, which kind of has to be given your, your proposition, but how do you do that profitably or profitably enough, I think is going to be a question for you going forward.

Chris [07:21] Yeah, uh, so with that, we do, we do sell it as a premium product offering. I mean, our six-pack typically retails on shelves between 1699 and 1799 for a six pack. So, uh, from a margin perspective, We're selling it as a premium experience and we're pricing it that way. Uh, I think also down the line there's a lot of opportunity for extensions, so taking fan favorite blends and packaging that as one off. So we've got our primary colors, but we'll also package a green or a purple, uh, and use it really crowdsource people's ideas to come up with what beers we release next.

Ray Latif [07:56] Jess, Chris talked about really bringing fun into the beer industry and, you know, reintroducing or introducing beer to a lot more consumers. Do you see primary colors as the way to do that?

Speaker 4 [08:06] Uh, I, I definitely think it's a, a fun option, as I mentioned yesterday. I get some innovation products and I sit around with my friends and we drink it and we have a good time. Like I think it's a really unique way to get people, you know, a group of people to be talking about beer and trying different blends. I think it's a fun proposition.

Ray Latif [08:23] Yeah, Jamie, in terms of the, uh, the on-premise opportunity for primary colors, Chris kind of laid it out and talked about uh sort of a personalized experience. Um, you know, what do you think about that strategy? Yeah, I think it's interesting. Um, I think the question that I would pose to you is to just think about how heavy of a lift that is for on-premise, right? And as you think about scaling, um, how does that land with operators who need really efficient, um. Offerings, right, on tap, etc. So that would just be kind of the watch out. Like I think it's kind of a cherry on top versus necessarily like the way that you really go to market from a scale perspective. So how, how would you navigate those two pieces, right? Offer that as a um as a cherry, but then also have an offering that allows you to scale.

Chris [09:13] Yeah, that's helpful. Yeah, and, and one of the things I really see with the taproom is a big part of this concept is the educational piece and getting people over that hurdle. So seeing the taproom as a way to bring people in, get them comfortable with blending, and then. Here are the tools you can bring home to do it by yourself and share it with friends.

Ray Latif [09:32] Yeah, and Rich, we definitely heard a lot more about the story behind Primary Colors with Chris having a little bit more time to speak today. I mean, in terms of what you heard, what are some highlights do you think that they need to do to or what are some of the highlights they should optimize and enhance and amplify to get more consumers interested in the brand? Yeah, I appreciate hearing that you have that QR code on the back that's linked to instructions. I, I guess I would want you to find a way to not even have the, have the QR code but have the instructions linked to the back of the can. You like, you know, we put a description on the back of our cans as well, but I'm sure a lot of people just drink, crush, and move on. So you really want people to fully understand primary colors. I would like for you to tease like what's in the future with like additional blends or already pre-blended mixes so people like understand like the vision of the brand, but um I mean I think the packaging is cool, it's like a it's kind of a disruptor for the industry to change people's beer habits and. Kind of get people more into beer since they're actually mixing it themselves, so. Yeah, it's just getting that whole vision out there, that roadmap, so people understand where you're going and you can get more support early on, for sure. Yeah, how has the QR code worked out for you?

Chris [10:42] Uh, so the QR code has been mixed. I mean, I've had people, I do a lot of tastings at retail shops, and I've had people come up to me at Tasting and say, oh I picked up your six pack a couple weeks ago and I didn't realize you were supposed to blend it. I've got a QR code. I've got a descriptor that says blend the beers, but people don't always read the cans, so I think for people that know you're supposed to blend it and are looking for a little bit more feedback, a little bit more handholding, that's where the QR code. Works well and I'm able to kind of track how often people are using it. Um, so it's been, it's been helpful, but I think a big thing is just making it more visually apparent that you're supposed to blend the beers when people are just picking it up off the shelf and they don't know what primary colors is all about.

Ray Latif [11:27] All right, great feedback, great presentation. Well done. All right, up next we have Gretchen Espenson, who is the founder of Shoal Draft Cider. Come on up. So you have your one or that one, either one and your time. Good morning. First, I want to thank uh the panel that spoke about cider yesterday. You guys made my job up here a lot easier today. I don't have to try to explain cider. So Here we go. Getting the message out about the brand is the most important and most difficult job of being the cider company that I am. Of course, now you know the key traits about the cider and hopefully you've also had a chance to taste it. One of the things I do, and this is because I have a very minimal budget, I get creative with my marketing. In-kind sponsorships of events that align well with my brand, product placements. I've even been, um, collaborating with some million-dollar yachts to like put product on them, so they take pictures during their. Uh, magazines and stuff. And that I find is really nice to connect that brand to the lifestyle. And again, if you haven't tried them all yet, you should absolutely give them a try. They are in fact up the bar. All right, so this is the big meat and potatoes. How am I a blue-haired woman, Without stacks of cash. Making all of this work. The fact is, is that I knew that I had to be laser-focused and have an aggressive business strategy that allowed me to not get distracted by things like tap taprooms, um, which are very fun and very wonderful and do have a good source of income, but you need the capital to make it happen. So I don't have that taproom distraction and I don't have plans to do so in the near future. Instead, I focus on consistency of quality of product, uh, consistency of delivery, and brand support specifically towards the distribution, the distribution companies. That means that I'm SKU Mageddon aware. There are too many SKUs. We all know about this. I want to intend on maintaining a small footprint of overall flavors, so making sure that there's only 3 to 5 flavors, so I'm not trying to push 15 different things at every distributor at once. I want to work with you guys. So how is this working? Well, so far, so good. I've already sold over 90 barrels. And I have 40 very active accounts that are repeat customers to this day. These are active and current accounts. I'm excited to say that I have a distribution deal that will start this spring. In some of the most populous and wealthy counties around uh DC and in Maryland. And that means also that my production projections for this coming year are a whopping at minimum 400 barrels, which is a huge scary increase, but I'm very excited to do it. And again, my company, because it is so lean, is reliably paying itself off, which is very nice. So how do I plan to make that 5 year coastal thing happen? Invest in marketing, fine tune and be perfect at my logistics, and warehousing. Stay true to my lean strategy and commit to brand excellence support for my distributors. And again, keep making hard cider for fun people. Thank you. You can hang on to that microphone. The Judges might have some questions for you. You can slide over here for the cameras. Fantastic. Jess, let's start with you. I believe it was $13 for a six pack. It was affordable cider or approachable cider at affordable price. Is that, is that what it was? Um, you know, what do you think about that, uh, sort of as a, as a pricing strategy, Jos?

Speaker 4 [15:58] Well, I'm based in the DC area, so obviously, you know, that's where your, your market is. That's something that you see on a, on a regular basis there, especially for something like handcrafted like this. I think the consumers are ready for it, um. But when you talk about, you know, you've got your distributor in mind, you said a bunch of things that a lot of people don't say when talking to distributors, so really appreciate putting quality as number one. That's key. really appreciate focusing on a couple of core products and not just, you know, knowing that you're aware of that is huge, you know, and you know feed on the street. So I think that's key. And then the other thing that we really care about is keeping us in stock. Um, and I know sometimes with the rotations it's a little bit difficult, but you know, just, just stay to those four things and you're going to do really well.

Ray Latif [16:41] Thank you so much, Jamie. We have the long term strategy laid out. It's still an early stage for Gretchen, but you know what do you think of this as sort of the long term vision for the company, the longer term vision for the company? I like how focused you are. You know, you've got your footprint. You've got, you know, your Assortment really tight and I think it's really smart that you're not coming out with a slew of different flavors and I like the rotation to keep things fresh so I think that's really smart. Um, the one question that I would have for you is how you're thinking about quality control just given the um the small team that you have from the start so how are you thinking about that and. Um, question number 1, and then the second question is just, I know you have contract manufacturing, but how do you intend to service all of the accounts that you have with yourself and one part-time salesperson? So, to answer the first question, I actually work, um, with my contract producer, and they understand that I send out a sample of each product to third-party testing. Um, after delivery, and I share that information with them and to make sure that we're still in parameter, so that's something I am very aware of, um, and want to keep on task as far as how do I service all of these accounts with just me and maybe one other person that's where the distributors come in again. Company is very focused on being distributor facing, so I know I cannot do it all alone. I only have 40 accounts and that's about as much as I can personally maintain. So, um, then that focus is gonna shift to. Um, hiring people that will facilitate and help the distributors do the sales and help them and their region as a brand representative, as brand ambassadors. So I am very well aware of that little. Growth that needs to happen. Right, thanks, Rich. We heard, uh, Gretchen talk about being lean and a lean business strategy is really the approach she has, uh, uh, when she launched the brand and going forward, um, as an early entrepreneur yourself, I mean, what do you think about that strategy? What, what are some of the things that you saw in the presentation that, uh, make you think that that is a strategy that will work? Yeah, I mean, I, I do believe it's a good strategy because like you said, like you're bootstrapping this a lot yourself. Like you can't, um. Let your like overhead costs like um you know be higher than the demand for the product so like you kind of have to bootstrap it and maybe say no to an account early but let them know that you'll be ready later so it makes a lot of sense um expanding up the East Coast, it makes sense it's all within the uh brand message but I guess I wanted to know like are you looking to expand like outside of like East Coastal like coastal cities. And like if so, like how would you do that with like your current branding, you know, for right now I'm, I don't know how I would do that just because of the logistics of shipping heavy product these days is not really financially, doesn't look financially smart. So is there a day where I'm on both coasts and on the lakes and, you know, in Kansas? Maybe, hopefully that'd be great, but right now I'm focusing on. Being firmly entrenched in my area, in the area that I understand and makes logistical sense. And Ryan, we heard Gretchen talk about Shoal being the fun brand or a hard cider for fun people. You can see it up there. How much of a differentiator do you think that is for the cider category?

Speaker 3 [20:18] I, I think branding is huge. I think the liquid's got to be good first, which you're already focused on, but then the brand needs to follow after that, and I would echo what my judges said. I mean the focus you have is really impressive. You're saying a lot of things that Honestly, a lot of beverage entrepreneurs don't say until 3 or 5 years into their journey. So you've got a lot of things already figured out and focus, being concise,

Ray Latif [20:37] being focused on what works for distributors and

Speaker 3 [20:38] retailers and

Ray Latif [20:39] your

Speaker 3 [20:39] partners there, and staying really, uh, focused on repeat buyers, on velocity, on the right markets is huge.

Ray Latif [20:46] So congratulations. Thank you. Well done. Great stuff. Thank you. OK, up next we have Austin and Ann Corrigan who are the co-founders of High Seas Mead. Come on up. Good to see you. You sure you have a microphone.

Speaker 3 [21:11] Pardon me.

Speaker 5 [21:12] Michael Gray. That's a great way to start.

Ray Latif [21:14] Just keep an eye on.

Speaker 5 [21:18] All right. Hello and good afternoon. My name is Austin Corrigan and I'm Ann Corrigan, and we're the founders, mead makers, delivery people of High Seas Mead in Santa Barbara, California. So, High Seas Mead, you might ask yourself, what, what the heck even is mead. Mead, simply put, is the process of fermenting honey. So in 2019, we created High Seas Mead as uh in the wake of a pretty severe car wreck that I was involved in. With time to kill while recovering and keep myself mentally sane, I started fermenting in my garage, the normal thing to do, obviously. So I really wanted to drink something that felt clean, pure, and ultimately didn't hurt my healing body. Beer made my body ache. Kombucha started tasting the same, and I just, I had the idea of fermenting honey. Fast forwarding 2 years, this Garage Passion project is now a small, fully operational company, and we craft a line of session style sparkling meads that are fermented dry, leaving our meads refreshingly light, crisp, at 6.9%. The outcome is a clean, crushable, and gluten-free alternative alcohol for everyone to enjoy. It is imperative at High Seas Mead, um, to craft the highest quality, best tasting, natural product that is gluten-free and a fun alternative option for our, for our community. And we also hope to be the market leader in our category in the near future. uncompromised commitment to quality and taste is at the heart of what we do here at High Seas. We keep it simple, clean, and delicious, made with just water, honey, yeast, and real fruit. Currently our session style meads are packaged in 16 ounce cans and sold as 4 packs and individuals. 4 packs retail for $21. Dollars and our suggested retail price for individual cans is $499 to 799 cents depending on your market. Our wholesale price is $85 in the near future we'll be transitioning to 12 ounce six packs for scalability and to utilize the real estate on our boxes for further brand storytelling to educate our consumer about meat. Our core four flavors are, as you see on the screen, cheap thrills, which is raspberry, coconut. Mystic Vibration, which is our watermelon Meyer lemon, uh, Son of a beach, which is our take on a Hawaiian pog, passion fruit, pineapple, orange, guava, Cosmic bandido, pineapple coconut, oh sorry, Cosmic bandido, blackberry pineapple, and mita colada pineapple coconut. Um, you'll see from our can designs that we really wanted to make bright bold flavor colors. When you go into a grocery store nowadays, it's overwhelming with options, so I really wanted our cans to stand out on the shelves. We did that by using bright colors, bold logos, and illustrations of fruit and bees weaved through. Um, we also have Bandido Boy who's kind of like an Easter egg in our mascot, and he makes an appearance on every can. Um, to date, in the last two years we have self-distributed to over 110 locations from Los Angeles to Pasa Robles, um, selling over $110,000 in our first year of business. Nearby we can be found in all Whole Foods Markets and we are, um, currently on boarding with Whole Foods, sorry, all, all Air One Markets and we can currently be on boarding with, um, Whole Foods Markets and Albertson's Vaughn's Pavilions at a hyperlocal level, um. As for opportunity in the market, we see a lot of 4th category growth, um, continue to show eagerness and openness from the consumer of new innovations, uh, with consumers demanding and always on the lookout for cleaner, better for you booze, um, we see High Seas fitting right in there. So there's an incredible, oh sorry. So next steps in our business, we are, we're pretty excited to announce the opening of our taproom. We're dealing with the city of Santa Barbara and we should expect that to open in about 3 to 4 months. Uh, we're also gonna start our first round of fundraising through friends and family, which will help us kind of put together a, uh, team of individuals to help us expand. Uh, we also are very excited to, uh, hopefully start working with the distributor to expand our footprint throughout California and share the need for ME. Thank you.

Ray Latif [25:28] Alright, well done. Uh, Jamie, let's start with you. Um, I think yesterday was the first time you tried mead. Is that what you said? I remember you saying, yeah, um, you know, getting people to try this product is probably the most important thing based on what you saw today. Are you confident that High Seas has an opportunity to reach more people and introduce mead to the community? I think so, and I love the way that you are approaching the education. Um, I think just the storytelling of what's included, the simple ingredients, it's an easy get, which is gonna be a huge part of getting people into this space. So I think you guys really nailed that as part of your storytelling today. Thank you. A rich, you know, the retail is really important too, and from what we heard in the presentation, it seems like the retail strategy is starting off pretty well. A lot of focused on natural, Ewan and Whole Foods. Is that the right place? I mean, do you think that's the right strategy right now, or is a mainstream retail opportunity possible? I mean, if you're able to support it. With like consistent outreach as well, like I think it is sustainable with me, if people are able to meet the owners as well and like, you know, you give them like the vibe and the culture that'll help sell through at those locations so you're able to remain there and just that experience of meeting the founders of the company will help you be sustainable in this early, early phase. So yeah, take those accounts on. Ryan, um, again, you know, a big part of the question, a big part of the equation is, can this scale, and we've been hearing a lot over the last two days about sort of Beyond Beer type of beverages, AAB, 4th, uh, category beverages, you know, can mead be a big part of that equation? Do you see, you know, that potential in High Seas? I think it can.

Speaker 3 [27:11] We were talking about it's education is the key. I mean, people understand what a tequila RTD is. They understand tequila, and then something else is added to it. Mead requires a little more explanation. History, telling what's in it, what's not. Um, I think it can be, but it's going to take a little more effort.

Ray Latif [27:25] Yeah, Jess, I mean, from a distribution standpoint, is this something that easily fits into a distributor's portfolio, or is it, you know, it's got to be pulled from the consumer?

Speaker 4 [27:35] Oh, I think it fits in. It's just it's merchandise just like beer would be merchandis and sold like beer. So I think that's, that's an easy fit. I think what you guys have to realize is you've got great opportunities in Erawan, and it sounds like Whole Foods is going to give you an opportunity. You just really to think of what are we going to do to maximize this, you know, you're only two people, uh, but you're a very energetic two people. Um, but how many samplings and tastings can you do, um, and how can you get that messaging? So, like, lean into social media, how, you know, I'm sure you're, you, you, you, you know, you were very polished in the presentation. I think I'm sure your social media is the same way, but, you know, how can you utilize that because again, you're only 2 people and you got to scale up.

Ray Latif [28:12] Sticking with you, Jess for a sec, we heard about switching from a pack size from 16 ounces to 12 ounces. What do you think about moving to that kind of pack size?

Speaker 4 [28:21] I think that's a smart move. You've got to try to make it a little bit more affordable. Was it $21 a 4 pack? That's a little bit steep. So trying to go to the 12 ounces is something you've got to look at. But now. You're also you're going to be taking on distributors, so you're going to have to figure out what's best for you from a production standpoint, where do you maximize it, your cost of goods. I mean it's great to have so many products, but it's it's an expensive product to make, so you need to make sure that your margin is there and everybody else, you know, the retailer and the distributor has enough, enough space in there as well.

Ray Latif [28:52] Yes, absolutely, uh, Jamie, we have a little bit of time left. Were there any questions, uh, that you had something in the presentation that you didn't hear that you want to know more about when it comes to High Seas? Yeah, I think one of the interesting things about this space, especially dealing with honey, is the conversation around bees and sustainability. Is that part of your messaging? Like, is the source, um, you know, the scarcity, like, are any of those things part of the story that you guys are, are telling with this brand?

Speaker 5 [29:20] So, uh, yeah, absolutely, you know, we, we are seeing, um, an, an issue with bees in, in the environment worldwide. Um, we source our honey from a family-run farm in northern Brazil. I understand that is far away, um, but it is. It's a tropical honey, it really works with us and the in the United States, a lot of the honey that is sold, unless you're getting it directly from the farmer, that's, you know, $6 a pound whatever which is totally not doable for us, um, you know. I guess, oh sorry, I went off tangent there, but we, we do want to work with bees, we want to give back to the bees, uh, we want to give back to the environment. Um, we are not doing that at this time, but we really do intend to, um, you know, doing one of those 1% back type things or a percentage back or percentage of the proceeds going to APS around the world is something that is very important and I would love to do eventually. Yeah, and I think we want to be intentional and thoughtful about who that partner is and who the nonprofit we work with is, but um we definitely were really intentional in um our honey sourcing. We work with a family run farm that's multigenerational in Brazil, um, and they're exporters. It's two families that have been friends forever. The, uh, beekeepers are in Brazil and then the exporters are in Arizona, so we've actually had dinner with them and, um, they're friends of ours so we really wanted to keep that community, um. And be really intentional about like where we're sourcing that honey from.

Ray Latif [30:45] Excellent. All right, well done. Thank

Speaker 5 [30:46] you so much. Thank you very much. Appreciate it.

Ray Latif [30:56] All right. 3 down, 3 to go. Up next we have Rick Mazzetti, who is the chairman of Rincon Reservation Road Brewery. Come on up, Rick. Good to see you again. Good

Speaker 3 [31:11] to see you, sir. Thank you so much. Good morning everyone. Yes, sir. Good morning everyone. Miuke, that means hello or welcome in my native, native tongue. So I'd like to just go back as we went yesterday to, uh, the original Californians. We've been here for 14,000 years and it's, you know, it's become our time to start. Handling misnomers and stereotypical things about Native Americans and alcohol. As, as you all know, it's, it's been a stigma for us for ever since they've been making talking movies. So it's one of our things and it's a great passion for us to be able to bring a really good product to market and to show you that, you know, we're just like you. We want to be with you, sit down with you and have the conversation. Our, our tagline is savor the journey. Our journey's been going on a very, very long time. And for us to sit down and explain that to you and have that talk, that's huge for us. We have two tasting rooms, one that is on the reservation that is 100% Indian owned and operated, the only one of its kind at this time. And for us it's one of those things that it's a prideful thing for us to be able to push that through and use diversification to get our product out to market as you see here, this is, this is Ocean Beach, which is a funny story is we had this old surfer guy rolling, probably in his 60s and he goes, You guys aren't going to do well here because this is a locals only. And my manager at the time, Jose Rios, goes, Well, you know, we've been here 14,000 years. The guy goes, Huh, I guess you're right. He's become a regular. So we see him, we see him all the time. Chet's his name. This is actually where we're at. This is the Rincon Indian Reservation, uh, Southern California. That's actually the most beautiful place in the world for me. Um, this is one of the waterways that we have. This is actually our deal is to build community, to have an outreach, and to actually establish a way of giving back. We are a huge philanthropist for uh Southern California and surrounding areas. We, um, actually had a funny deal happen with, uh, we have our annual gathering in uh August, and, uh, we're actually trying to make a Mars lemon beer. Ultimately, we weren't able to Get the product. So I talked to one of our local growers, and we use watermelon beer, which we had no idea how that was going to come out, but it came out beautifully. And it was funny because at that gathering people come from all the way around. We had uh one of the affiliates for the Susan G. Komen uh breast awareness, breast cancer awareness, and our beer was pink because we actually utilized the watermelon and it worked out very well, so now we're in uh We're in relationships with them to get that out for them. This is actually our brew house here. We utilize our own water. We actually use the spent grains and we actually distribute that out to some of the cattle people in the surrounding area. So as I was telling you, we want to be 100% green. We're all about it. Um, some of the ingredients, as you know, as you guys are all beer makers, so you do understand, we can make beer pretty much out of anything. It's just making the right product and for us to get to market, it was huge to reach out. We have 13 core beers on tap and 7 of those that we keg, can, and sixtel. Our other big thing is diversification, you know, we're utilizing that to get to market. And establish ourselves as, you know, I don't want to say we're gonna be the biggest, but we are gonna be here for a while. And it's worked very well with us getting through all that. Um, I just wanna say thank you guys so much for this event. I, I met so many people and learned so many new things, and it was fun sharing the culture with you guys. My boys out here from Funky Town, they took us right in. I love that. Thank you so much, brother. God bless.

Ray Latif [35:24] Yeah, you can grab one of the microphones. Slide on over here with me. Thank you. And let's start with one of the gentlemen from Funky Town. Rich, um, based on the story that you heard today, um, and the presentation you heard today, that deeper story, you're getting a better sense of what Rincon is doing and how they're trying to communicate that sense of community to their audience? Yeah, I think it's a great story. Uh, I would definitely love for you to get that out. Maybe even in the forefront because like there's a ton of quality beer out here, but what separates people is the story behind it and the green story behind it and the ingredients coming from the reservation. I think that's something people will want to support. So I guess my question is just like is that at the forefront in your marketing strategy, like letting people know what the Rincon is all about.

Speaker 3 [36:09] Yes sir. So on all our cans there's actually a story behind whatever that can is, and a lot of the names that are for our our beers themselves actually mean something to us. Our Heffenvisen, which is res Dog, is actually what we are. We're resilient and if you, you don't understand this, but because of the fact you've never lived on the reservation, but a res dog is something that You can't kill. They will live. They will continue. They will perpetuate because they survive. And when someone says, What's up, Red Dog, that is actually someone giving you props to say, Hey, you're a winner. Don't give up. Stay with it. And that's one of the things, one of just our core beer's names is Red Dog.

Ray Latif [36:52] Ryan, what do you think of the, uh, strategy in terms of being sort of a production brewery and also an operator of taprooms? I think it's smart.

Speaker 3 [36:59] I think the taprooms are a great way to share the story, get the experience to the consumer directly. Um, I mean, I do have a question for you in terms of, you've got a lot of core beers, and I understand 13 in the taproom is fine. You can manage that. Hearing you do 7 and keg and and package, I guess my question for you is which of those 7, or is it all of them that you're actually trying to go out into wholesale and, and third party off-premise and on-premise with? So of the 7 that we have there, that's actually what is going like into the marketplace and, and such for that, um, as far as being packaged out as we're doing the 7 now as they change or if we come up, we just actually added a really, really good Mexican lager. Um, that one's also going to, we're going to start canning that one and then we also did a tropical oasis, which is a blonde ale that's you know kind of fruity and it's been doing very well. So that again as we add one, it just depends on how the market will bear. So if those 7 beers are doing well, then we'll just add another one. I think over time you're going to have to pare those down. I think a lot we talked about with Gretchen with Shoal was focus, and I think You'll talk more, but this tributor landscape is gonna be tough to let you have 678 core SKUs out there. It's probably going to be narrowed down over time. Thank you.

Ray Latif [38:07] Yeah, let's follow up on that. Jess, your thoughts? Yeah,

Speaker 4 [38:09] 100%. So, um. As a distributor when you just keep people saying well we're going to bring this one on. I'm just trying to figure out in the warehouse where it's going to go, even though it might only be a couple of cases, it still takes up that spot as much as you know 100 pallets do when it comes to our inventory. So that's something that we ought to pay attention with plus you got to look at a. Door and see these doors aren't getting any bigger. We just talked to, you know, Mary just talked about that. The space is actually kind of maybe in some cases getting smaller. So when you look at the cooler door and you've got 4 skews, will that, will that supply retailer give you 5, or are you maxed out at 4? And if you're maxed out at 4, You know, you really need to be focused with your distributors saying, hey, if we get one SKU, I want this. If we get two SKUs, I want this one and then this one, and then really be prescriptive with your supplier or distributor partner on, on what your priorities are.

Speaker 3 [38:59] So a question to you. So, and, and I mean, you know, like the bigger companies and stuff like that, usually I guess they're probably only running 4 or 5 with seasonal changes. So. Your advice to me, I'm asking you is, so do you think 4 is a good number? What would, what would be that number that you would say?

Speaker 4 [39:19] Not knowing the market, I'd probably say 4 is a good place. And if you've got a rotator, I would say probably 3 in a rotator just to make sure you get that coverage. You know, some distributors can go really deep on a portfolio, but I'd say an average salesperson can go like 3 or 4 really deep. But much past that, it's going to be difficult for them to bring it up with a retailer.

Speaker 3 [39:43] So 3 in a rotator. I like that.

Ray Latif [39:45] Jamie, one way to differentiate is via ingredients and as we see on the screen right now, indigenous ingredients growing wild on reservation. What do you think about that as a way to uh get new customers, get, uh, interest in the brand? I love it. I think that we've had a lot of conversation this week about the promiscuity of consumers and like their need for discovery. So I think bringing things that are indigenous, bringing new flavors, I think as long as you balance those with flavors that have high appeal and how do you have like an awareness, um, a general awareness, I think is smart, um, so I like that balance, and I do think that's a point of difference that you can bring. Excellent. Do you, do you want to respond? I have

Speaker 3 [40:22] no, yes ma'am. No, ma'am. No,

Ray Latif [40:24] you go ahead.

Speaker 3 [40:26] Um, no, I was just gonna say we actually grow uh guava. That's gonna actually be our next what we're gonna bring to, uh, to, uh, keg up here probably. We've got about another month before we get it comes to. So that's, that's another thing that we're actually gonna try.

Ray Latif [40:40] That's awesome. Excellent. Thank you so much, Rick. Well done. Thank you, sir. All right, up next, we have Yair Tagil from Sunvoy. He is the founder of Sunvoy. Come on up. Yeah. What an absolute honor to be chosen as a finalist among this incredible group of beverage entrepreneurs. I'm Yair, the founder of Sunboy, the world's first ready to drink spiked coconut water. It's simply hydrating coconut water, real fruit juices, all-natural, vegan, gluten-free, no added sugar, 5% alcohol. Um, We think consumers buy from people, not brands. Over the past 8 years, my co-founder Luke and I kind of accidentally established ourselves as New York's fun loving coconut experts. We got our start serving fresh coconuts from bikes at illegal dance parties on the on the Brooklyn Bridge. Then we went on to create a machine that adds custom branding to the outside husk of coconuts. This was turning them into handheld billboards, drinkable handheld billboards. We worked with clients like Bacardi or Ciroc to serve these custom branded coconuts at music festivals and parties nationwide. What we'd see is that just about everyone has the same positive emotional connection to coconuts that we do. They remind people of vacations or their tropical home countries. They're social, people connect over them, and they're amazing conversation starters, all the reasons Luke and I started serving them in the first place. Sunboy is those same coconut cocktails canned and ready to drink. We launched with three varieties, all made with the fruits named on the label passion fruit, pineapple, and tangerine. Passion fruit, our top seller, the most sessionable, pineapple, our answer to the pina colada, but lighter, and tangerine, thought of as the coconut mimosa, it's our brunch option. We've all heard the enormous growth in the better for you beverages, and that's exactly what Saboy is. Coconut water gives us a unique edge. We're not allowed to make any explicit health claims, but we don't need to. Consumers understand that coconut water is hydrating, that it's healthy. It's what they reach for when they're feeling hungover. I hear our customers so often when I'm in the market doing sampling, Oh, so I'm getting hydrated while I'm drinking. We don't have to say it. People already think it. We launched Sunboy in New York a year ago and we're now in more than 100 chains and independents throughout the city. We're really proud that Whole Foods was one of our very first accounts, which we won because we were out there pounding the pavement, telling our coconut stories, and sharing samples with buyers at the store level. We hand sold in outside the set and quickly became one of the top 40 best selling alcoholic beverages in key stores. Because of our success in Whole Foods, we now have the attention of Kroger, Publix, and Target. They're the kind of big retailers we're targeting as we expand out of New York and into more chain friendly states like Florida, Georgia, and Ohio. Choosing retail targets is easy for us. One of our off-premise cheats is to target accounts that already sell a lot of coconut water. We know our customers are there, and it's easy for us to sell a 4 pack of Sunboy for 1099s when consumers are used to paying $6 for a single bottle of coconut water in the same store, and the distributors love. See that we're growing the pie. We're not shuffling beer drinkers around. We're attracting actually non-traditional beer drinkers into the into the fold, and it's a merchandizing opportunity. If a buyer can't make space for us in the beer fridge, we turn to the produce section and we create these really powerful displays alongside the coconuts, the pineapples, and the tangerines. The sales push is backed up with a marketing pull. We created the Anti-Hustle Coconut Club, which you're now all members of. We give people titles like Director of Hot Tub strategy or wet leisure attendant, and we want to bring people in, connect, and share the fun. It's about building a community through the emotional connection people have with coconuts and the coconut lifestyle. We're already getting glowing press that hits on all of our USPs, hydrating boozy natural. The press has generated excellent opportunities for outreach and funding as we thoughtfully and strategically expand in key states. At Sunboy from our inception, we value our team members above all. The current round of the current round of funding will allow us to hire boots on the ground in each of our new territories. And the big news for us this year is that Vitacoco and Captain Morgan are jumping on the bandwagon with their own spirit-based spiked coconut water and 23. We say bring it on. They're set to spend millions of dollars driving new consumers to a category we created spiked coconut water. As always, our team will be waiting to pour samples for these new fans in supermarket aisles with a higher quality, better tasting drink. Thank you. Well done. Um, if you can slide over the camera, thank you very much, Ryan, in terms of Sunboy as being a better for you brand, you can't explicitly say that, but as you mentioned, it's sort of an implicit kind of conversation. Are consumers, do you think there's a big opportunity for a better for you beverage alcohol brand?

Speaker 3 [45:32] I think there is. I mean we've already seen with with hard seltzer and Spirits RTDs that if they're not looking for healthier, they're looking for things that lack bad things. So I think it's smart you've got something that you can't and don't say anything, but you let them believe what they already believe. I think it's interesting. I also think the term coconut lifestyle

Ray Latif [45:49] is a fun, fun phrase. Thanks. Yeah, I definitely want to hear more about those illegal dance parties on the Brooklyn Bridge. That sounds pretty cool actually. Um, Jess, you know, you talked about Sunboys sort of opening up an opportunity to get more people interested in beverage and alcohol. What do you see that? What do you think about that strategy?

Speaker 4 [46:07] I mean, yeah, we don't want to just keep taking from our current consumers. So any time you can bring new people into the space is key. I mean, that's what you built your entire, you know. A big part of your company is bringing new consumers into this space, so we definitely appreciate it. Quick question for you, so production, where do you guys produce and how is it produced? Yes,

Ray Latif [46:26] so we have a comman in upstate New York. We're local to New York. It's been a great process with them and we actually have explored a second comman just to keep up with production. It's been good. We do not produce ourselves, but we do source all the ingredients ourselves. Uh, Jamie, you know, in terms of trial strategy, you talked about, you know, being in those supermarket aisles, being in those Whole Foods aisles. Trial is really important for a product like this for a lot of different products, but you know, what did you hear about in terms of trial strategy that you appreciated or think needs to be evaluated? I love how grassroots it is. I mean, you guys seem to be in the right places where your consumer is and getting the product out there. I think that's the right approach. The more that you can get liquid to lips and people to try it, I think is going to be the best thing for you. Um, I think the one question I have or provocation for you is, um, coconut water is very polarizing. So how do you intend to talk to people who maybe have a visceral response to coconut water that's not positive? What's your, what's your pitch or your answer to that? It's a fantastic question. Yeah, I mean, Vitacoco did a lot of service for us, spreading the word of coconut water. They also did a lot of disservice in the sense that it's not delicious. Coconut water in my world we source really thoughtfully. It's neutral. It's sweet, but it's not too sweet, and I think it's all about getting people who have that connotation re-educated. And so we, as you can tell, we're obsessive samplers. Like we do an insane amount of outreach to customers, and I think it's about trial when people come to us and say, I don't like coconut water, we say, Have you tried ours? I think you'll like it. But yeah, it's, you're right, there's, it introduced a lot of people to coconut water and it also turned a lot of people off. And it's like the same conversation people were having yesterday about cider, where what they were having 10 years ago is not what they're having today, so. It's an opportunity. Yeah, and Rich, last word, um, you know, in terms of a vibe, it feels like Sunboy definitely has a vibe. Um, how do you spread that vibe or what did you hear about in the presentation about, you know, sort of getting that vibe out to the consumer, getting them really interested in being part of that community, that Sunboy community? Yeah, I, I think they're already doing that with a ton of outreach because there's going to be some education needed with like a new RTD. Um, it's fun, the branding, it's all like integrated together. It all makes sense with the name. I guess I do have one question though. Uh, you live in a city that has 4 seasons like I do, so with the branding Sun Boy and like the bright vibrant colors like. Like, um, and you're a young company, so you might not just have this data, but like how do you guys perform in the winter, like January and seasonality is a real thing. It moves. People love it. Our core fans buy it, so we do not have trouble like moving quite a bit in our current accounts. A lot of new accounts say come back to me in the spring. So I have our sales team is out. And they're getting commitments for April, May, and New York's summer is short. I mean, it's intense, but it's short, which is why it's so important to us to go to warmer climes. It's why Florida is such a big part of our expansion strategy and also states like Georgia where we have already a network of people going back and forth from New York, so. Yeah, definitely getting that Miami Vice vibe in Manhattan kind of thing. So yeah, nicely done.

Speaker 4 [49:44] You mentioned Florida. So Florida is a chain state. So what are you guys doing to, you know, lock in some of these chains before you go down there, or is it a total independent play you want

Ray Latif [49:51] to go? It's a total chain play actually. We've done a lot of trade shows in the past few months, and we've gotten a ton of interest from uh Publix and Target and uh we're working on Whole Foods also down there. And so yeah, that is, that is 100% our play. We don't really want to go in and focus on independence until we have the anchor chains. Smart. All right, good stuff. Well done. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Our last finalist for this round of the pitch slam is Jamie Fay, who is the founder and CEO of Rationale Brewing. Come on up. He's there.

Speaker 6 [50:34] Hey, my name is Jamie Faye. I'm the founder of Rationale Brewing, also known as the brews without the booze. It was only 18 months ago I was sitting around with my two sons, Tyler and Carter, and we were having a conversation around alcohol consumption. My youngest or my oldest son, Tyler was heading off to the University of Alabama, and I was sharing with him not only our family experiences with alcoholism, but also my own youth of discretions, not necessarily so much, and shared with him how important it was as he went to school that he really was thoughtful around alcohol moderation. And I was using the word rational 2 or 3 times. You need to make rational decisions on who you're drinking with. You need to make rational decisions on your consumption. And my younger son Carter jumped in and said, Dad, being a bit of a smart ass, you should consider launching a company called Rationale Brewing. And I laughed and thought, Oh, that's funny. But then we actually took a step back and talked about that and realized it was a huge opportunity. The next morning my two sons got online. They registered to trademark for rationale, and within a week I'd started to dig into the opportunity. I came from the consumer goods industry, 20 years of big CPG, and had done 3 years of startups and realized very quickly there was a huge opportunity. dug into the category and saw how fast it was growing. realized that we needed to have a speed to market approach, and we had a window of time of what I thought was probably 16 weeks. We found our contract brewer in Sonoma County, um, did a contract, did an R&D batch, and by September of 2021, we launched our first product, which you see up here, which originally is called the Totally Rational Citrus Hazy IPA, a big mouthful since we've rebranded. And launched in 16 ounce cans. Fast forward 18 months or 12 months later, we are now, this is our core four. We have our 6 packs with 12 ounce cans. San Diego is where we launched, and Encinitas, we wanted to launch in where the heart of the non-elk beer category is growing. We're brewed up in Sonoma. We've positioned ourselves within the category to be premium in our pricing. We're really trying to play that trade up role for the retailers. We're $1 to $2 more on ours versus the average category, and it's our technology that really is allowing us to produce a very different, higher quality, premium tasting beer and body. And the core four is citrus hazy, Mexican lager, our West Coast IPA, and our New England hazy. The dealalization process is really what separates us from everyone else. In my opinion, a lot of you got to try the beer yesterday. We're really proud of it, the R&D work that we're doing. It's still evolving, but this is vacuum distillation, so it's very different than the majority of the beers that are on the market today that are de-alkalized. So we see this as really rationales about making sometimes the rational choice is actually the radical choice. There's a big disruption right now within society around alcohol consumption. We want to be part of that program of crushing society's drinking rules. We see this as their needs. To be the barriers are removed. One of the biggest barriers has been the quality and the taste of the beer. We also want to put a package in consumers' hands that they feel they really, they feel really proud about holding, ordering at a bar or keeping in their fridge, but also represents who they are. And we're going after the mainstream beer consumer. At the end of the day we want to build a brand that's going to allow us to really have some swagger, edge, disruption, and have something that's put into the consumer's hand or pulled off a retail shelf that is very different. We're not the wellness beer. We're not the athletes' beer. We're just the mainstream beer consumers' beer, and we want to have something that they're proud to have. The category is growing right now Kraft on the non-elk side at over 200%. So we see we have a role to play within in growing this category on the premium side. We have launched on the West Coast. It's where we're focused right now. A year ago we were in 2 accounts. Today we're in over 200. We've been fortunate and blessed to have some opportunities with Whole Foods and Air One and a handful of other major retailers up and down the West Coast. We're focusing on now building out our distribution footprint and making sure that we have the ability to scale. Most importantly is the brand activation, sampling, going in the markets. We now have 5 full-time sales leads, and all we want to do is make sure that this Almost there.

Ray Latif [54:44] Really good job. Well done.

Speaker 6 [54:50] I got gonged last year, so I've got to be consistent.

Ray Latif [54:53] Yeah, exactly, exactly. Two gongs means victory, doesn't it? So if you could just slide on over here for the cameras because I'm going to get yelled at otherwise. Jess, if we could start with you, Jamie explained that this is not the wellness beer, it's not the athletes' beer, it's the mainstream non-alcoholic beer. What do you think of that approach?

Speaker 4 [55:11] I think it's smart. I mean, craft beer consumers getting older. I, I fit into that category and you know you have 2 or 3 or 4 beers and you want to have them, but like it's a little groggy the next day. So maybe you mix in one of these or 2 of these. I think that's a smart thing and after a while that it is a big nice chunk of piece of the pie that you guys can get from a volume perspective.

Speaker 6 [55:31] Thank you. And I just commented that we actually, we encourage alcohol consumption. We are about moderation. I am a big 7% hazy IPA drinker, but I can't do the numbers that I used to, so now I'll drink my rationales, uh, before or after I start to mix it up, yeah.

Ray Latif [55:47] Uh, Jamie, um, Ack talked about the de-alcoholization process, the sort of proprietary process. Um, what are your thoughts on that, Jamie? I love it. I think that you guys have found a um a, a good R&D approach. I think if you can nail that consistency and really make sure that all the products that you're creating really deliver on taste, I think you've got something here. Thank you. And Rich, you know, um, again, we see a lot of people drinking non-alcoholic beer a lot more than they had in the past. Um, it's got to be fun though, right? It's gotta be interesting. It's got to be something that's incorporating, um, you know, a community into what your brand is doing. Um, based on what you saw in the presentation, do you think rationale is on the right? Sort of step right process, yeah, I think so. I, I like the message of like targeting people that already drink beer instead of just people who, you know, just focus on non-alcoholic beverages, um, I guess. What I want to see is just consistently getting that message out like the beer is for me like I don't really, you know, dibble and dabble in non-alcoholic beverages. I just, you know, do too much and but like rationale would be good if it was there and like if it tastes good like just um let people know like so like activating at like alcohol events and do like, hey, slide this in real quick. I see your eyes getting low. Try this, and just letting people know how it fits into their lifestyle is like a good opportunity for just like beer drinkers to mix that into their rotation.

Speaker 6 [57:13] Yeah, thank you. The sampling is huge and we have so much fun at the sampling events because we're their spouse or their friend will bring their friend over and they don't realize it's a non-alcoholic beer, and that's probably one of the fun ways actually. Integrate and we also are looking at partnerships with existing alcoholic beers. We just started doing it on social media this week, so there's a lot of work that we have to do, but you're on point for sure because this is an education. It takes time as well. This is not going to happen overnight. This is an evolution of changing habits of consumers that have been there for for a lifetime, but it's happening for some faster and for others a little bit longer.

Ray Latif [57:46] Yeah, Ryan, it was a few years ago we had Bill Schfeld from Athletic Brewing participate in the pitch slam. He didn't win. I think a lot of people were like, non-alcoholic beer, how's that going to work out? Of course we've seen how it's worked out. Do you see some of the parallels in terms of the way Athletic has grown and the potential for rationale?

Speaker 3 [58:04] Yeah, for sure. I mean, Athletic is proving there's a whole new subcategory of legitimate authentic non-al beer that actually tastes good. Um, it's not your father's and grandfather's non-al beer. So yeah, I think there's definitely a role there, and I think, I think you're smart to find a different lane. Don't go after the athlete. Don't go after this occasion. Find your customer, your occasion. Um, I think it's smart, and I don't know how much you emphasize the process to consumers. I personally wouldn't emphasize it that much. I'd lead with flavor, and if the geeks want to find out how you de-alkalize it, great, but lead with the flavor and why it just tastes good.

Speaker 6 [58:37] Yeah, thank you.

Ray Latif [58:38] Outstanding. All right. Outstanding presentation. Well, very, well done. Great job. Mm mm. Alright, uh, I think all 6 finalists did an amazing job. One more round of applause for all of them. Well done. OK, the judges are going to go deliberate, and by deliberate that means they're going to go pick a winner. The winner is going to be announced at 3:30 p.m. here on the main stage. You don't want to miss it. In the meantime, please enjoy lunch and be back here at 1:30 for the next round of presentations. Thank you.