What Goes Into That Pint Glass - Mini-Episode 9 - Momentum

Duration: 10:31 1199 transcript words EN summary

Video summary

The video centers on the founder of a brewery and restaurant navigating the significant financial challenges that arose during their construction project. Initially advised by his father to allow one day of anger before moving forward, the founder faced a major setback when hard costs for building out the facility remained unchanged despite months of negotiation and advice from contractors. This lack of price reduction, combined with rising expenses for insulation, weatherproofing, HVAC systems, and plumbing, made securing a bank loan much more difficult than anticipated. The situation highlighted the volatile nature of the current economic climate, where trying to build a restaurant and brewery feels increasingly insane due to soaring costs that do not move even after extensive discussions. Compounding these financial hurdles were logistical and community-related obstacles, including a delay in getting a permit reduced because local authorities felt uncomfortable approving a smaller scope without a full redesign review by the Architectural Review Board. Additionally, the founder dealt with safety concerns from neighbors regarding a proposed beer garden located near their homes, requiring careful communication to reassure residents about security while maintaining support for the project's community benefits. Despite these external pressures and the surprise of receiving an unchanged price quote right before a beer tasting event, the team managed to secure better pricing by switching to a more qualified builder, demonstrating resilience in finding new solutions when original plans hit a wall. Beyond the construction struggles, the narrative also touches on strategic pivots and marketing successes that helped sustain momentum. The founder realized early on that their marketing efforts needed improvement, leading to a partnership with an agency called Izzy that dramatically enhanced their social media presence almost overnight. This shift in strategy coincided with a commitment to expanding beer gardens by 20% compared to the previous year, supported by training staff so that leadership could focus on broader business goals rather than every single event. Although investors were initially hesitant about further dilution due to increased costs, they ultimately understood the reality of the situation and remained supportive of the company's progress and growth trajectory. Ultimately, the story concludes with a message of perseverance despite the overwhelming difficulties faced in building a business under such challenging conditions. The founder acknowledges that while the project is still too expensive and the world feels insane, it is not time to stop, emphasizing the importance of keeping going and hoping that customers will buy beer. The experience serves as a testament to the reality that even small breweries can create great products and build strong communities if they navigate financial shocks with patience, adaptability, and unwavering determination. Through setbacks like unchanging construction quotes and neighborhood safety concerns, the team learned to trust new partners and refine their approach, proving that success often requires pushing through unexpected obstacles rather than giving up at the first sign of trouble.

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[music] >> My dad gave me some advice when I started this company. And it's advice that he got from an investor when he started his company. And the advice was when something bad happens, give yourself a day to be really pissed off about it. And that's it. The next day, you got to move on. We had an expectation that, okay, we can't actually reach a million dollars of cost cut, but we think we can do with three quarters of a million dollars and maybe a little bit more. We had spent [music] the month of December talking with folks in the planning department. We already had a permit for the full design, but we were changing enough of it that they didn't feel comfortable approving the reduction in scope. And so they said we had to go back in front of the ARB and amend our permit, which wasn't great news. >> [music] >> I'm a homeowner at Two Writers Street. And like over a dozen of my neighbors, my child's pillow is about 100 ft from the proposed beer garden. >> Do I just talk? >> Yes, please. >> Okay. >> [laughter] >> Um, so I am not in a butter, but I am a neighbor. I walk through the neighborhood every single night with my dog. It doesn't feel that safe and I would love the life and a little bit more bustle of the um beer garden. >> You wouldn't appreciate this if it was coming into your neighborhood and there was these safety issues lingering. >> I would just like to offer my support for the project. I think it's I think it's something that the town needs. >> This project has been very carefully vetted and approved by this board and others in the past. All that's being asked now is to change the scope so that they can afford to financially get in the business of providing for the community. >> Yes. >> Rachel? >> Yes. >> I'm a yes, too. >> [music] >> So, we have an approval of this. Thank you very much. >> As soon as we got the permit, we said, "Okay, please go get hard pricing and give us a proposal to build this thing." Kind of all the way through, we're getting the feedback. Yep, things are cool. We're on track. No problems. >> Um I kind of can't believe that we got halfway through a beer tasting in Boston before we got a New England IPA. >> [laughter] >> I kind of feel like we copped out by submitting our New England IPA, but it's really good. I hope you guys really enjoy it. >> We got a call on April 1st in the morning and it was the project manager. He said, "Hey, so we just fin- finished last night. We got all the pricing together and I just wanted to call and let you know we're going to send over the documentation later today." And I said, "Okay, well, how much is it?" And the number he told me was the exact same number we had back in November. >> [music] >> It had not moved at all after two or three months of work, paying them to give us advice. I could I could I couldn't believe it. It was like, "What the What? What?" Yeah. I think I said, "We're Do you know that, right?" I think I was more upset with just the lack of communication the whole time. Just having it be a surprise. Like, the price is the price, right? Things are expensive. The world is crazy. Trying to build a restaurant and brewery right now is kind of insane. The price is the price. I don't think they're trying to screw us. But the fact that it was a surprise at the last minute is the thing that really got me. Margaret believes in me maybe more than she should, and I appreciate that. Honestly, her reaction was, "Well, that stinks. You'll figure it out." So, the next day, we just sat around the table and said, "Okay, well, like, what are we going to do? What is the reality? What do we know? What do we don't know?" >> I don't know how the story ends. Yet. But we got way better pricing with a much better qualified builder. And so far I feel like I can trust him, so that's good. That's progress. >> It cost me tonight. That's right. Go ahead. >> Is writing Chuck and Steve about the gluten-free juicy and this beer about what does the What does the recipe sheet need to look like for them? >> Oh, I'll show you. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> Exclusive with the audience on this. >> Right. [music] Right. >> Uh we're so honored to win and it just proves you don't have to be a big brewery to make great beer. >> We can tell them like if you just put this on your same like Guinness set up, it's going to be incredible. >> Yeah. >> All right. >> Cuz they did a really great job with some of our posters last week. I already kind of followed up with them during that class period to discuss a bit more about how we want to work with them. >> Izzy's awesome. It took me way too long to realize that we needed to do a better job with our marketing. If you want to know exactly when we brought Izzy on to do the marketing, you should take a look at her Instagram and you can see the quality of Instagram presence really took [music] a massive leap forward kind of overnight. >> [music] >> We're doing 20% more beer gardens this year than we did last year. Jason Russell House this summer really investing in the music, trained up our staff so that Peter, myself, Brendan we don't have to be at every event. >> Hello. >> Hey, there's your ticket. >> Thanks for your ticket. >> [music] >> The big ticket items are insulation and weather proofing. We have to wrap the entire building with insulation and redo the roof, even though it's a perfectly good roof. HVAC, it's all heat pump based. Very expensive. Electricity, because of the demand for the HVAC system, very expensive. Plumbing, also very expensive. We had always expected to get a bank loan to finance the tenant improvement piece of the project. And with the additional cost, that got a that was a tougher sell to go to the bank. We'd had some initial conversations with existing investors about doing another round and the feedback was good. Uh obviously nobody likes to be diluted, but people understand the reality of the situation and our investors are happy with the progress and the growth that we have achieved so far. >> [music] >> Yeah, it's still too expensive, but like what are you going to do? The The world is insane. >> [music] >> It's not time to stop yet, so I'll just keep going. Hopefully people buy beer. >> [music] [music]