Has anyone seen and/or backed this Saltbox kickstarter? https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/saltboxkitchen/saltbox-kitchen-brewery?ref=category I can't help but feel this is really more of a gimmick than a good idea. They strongly imply they'll use their own farm-grown ingredients almost exclusively, but it doesn't seem like that could possibly be the case. There are breweries in the area that use local hops, but it seems fairly unsustainable to do that at any meaningful scale or with great variety (based on the complexities discussed here - http://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/growing-hops-in-the-northeast.413915/) I think that a new brewery should focus on making good, local beer, in that order. Prioritizing local first undercuts a new brewery's ability to produce a consistent product, and seems like too big of a risk early on.
I am so tired of people trying to use Kickstarter and similar websites to start breweries when potential "investors" have no idea about the quality of the product. There are too many mediocre breweries popping up as it is. How about this--focus on making high quality beer and then use your product to attract investors. This just seems like a way for idealistic businesspeople to latch on to a craze or fad (in this case a whole bunch--craft beer, "farm to table," localvore, etc.) and hope the idea, rather than the product, carries the day. I'm not saying it won't work and I'm certainly not hoping for them to fail, but I really hate the Kickstarter/GoFundMe model.
This one's particularly offensive as they begin by discussing their business success over the past eight years, but are apparently unable or unwilling to get a loan for $30,000. There's a Japanese place near me that started an Indiegogo looking for around $7,500 to replace their sign out front. Used to go there probably monthly but that bothered me enough that I mostly stopped after that. The 12.5% funding a full week into a five-week project indicates the overwhelming "no" votes are probably common among their existing customer base as well.
$35 for a pint glass...I voted no. Buy used equipment with a loan. Have they even been test brewing 5 gallon batches?
To be fair, if this is Ebi Sushi you're talking about...the campaign was not started by the restaurant. I know the chef had to agree to it, but it was just people in the Union Square community who started it.
As you likely assumed by the limited number of Japanese restaurant sign-replacing crowdfunding campaigns, yes it was Ebi.
$100 for a trucker hat, a pint glass, and a bottle opener? No thanks guys. Go to the bank and get a loan.
I watched this video 3 times, trying to understand their motivation. Too many goals at once: saving a farm by 1. Teaching 2. Catering 3. Brewing 4. Restaurant 5. Wine education. When asked "Why make beer?" the response is the equivalent of "Why not? Everyone else is!" That reason isn't Kickstarter-worthy, IMO. There are plenty of private silent partner investors that believe anyone starting a brewery from scratch means a guaranteed return - and they can handle the risk. They would be wise to seek those people out - not the general public who is worn out front crowd funding yet another brewery. They need to look beyond their vision and run some serious numbers to present to legit investors.
I agree with your assessment. It kind of sounds like, "Ugh, we're not going to do well enough on just the farm and restaurant, what can we do?" "Hmm, breweries are popular, we can try that. We can even pitch it as if we'll grow the ingredients here."
i hate, hate! when people use kickstarter for a personal business. Get off your ass, get an investor or small business loan. with kickstarter they can take that money and do with whatever they want and have zero obligation to the people who contributed to their kickstarter. its a free loan, F them.
I generally dislike Kickstarter programs, but agree with others that this one is pretty bad. I think the $ for ingredients and recipes for test batches is what got me. And $18k for a half barrel seems steep, no?
Interesting. I know some people are anti-crowd funding (I'm one of them) by are there better campaigns or programs that people will support? Basically, if you're on the fence about crowd funding, what kind of incentive would get you to support a new brewery?
You guys are so short sighted. Last time I was driving through Concord, all I could think was "man, these folks could really use my money"...
The solution here is pretty easy, pre-sell beer. Sell a 6 or so 64 oz growler punch card for $100 which also helps gauge demand before you sink $30k into it and people will probably buy. The better Kickstarters are selling something worth buying but advancing payment that loans are unnecessary and the creator doesn't sink a ton of money in before demand is clear.
Not sure why anyone would "invest" in a stranger's business through kickstarter. This is a fad that will die.
