Bill Shufelt | Athletic Brewing
Bill Shufelt
Founder of Athletic Brewing, a food and beverage company that specializes in brewing, healthy living, organic, e-commerce, and direct-to-consumer.
What Is Athletic Brewing? What Is The Product And Mission About?
Athletic Brewing makes beer for the modern adult. We believe you shouldn’t have to sacrifice being healthy, active, and at your best to enjoy great beer. We make great beer that just happens to be non-alcoholic, low in calories, and perfect for any day of the week. Before Athletic beers, beer was something to be enjoyed in the moment, and then suffered with unhealthy and hangover consequences with aftermath. We wanted beer that truly first in the modern world, 7 days a week, 12 hours a day. It’s re-imagined beer for the modern adult.
What Is Your Background? What Led You To Starting Your Own Company? And How Did You Choose This Space?
Athletic Brewing was born entirely out of an authentic need and pain point in our own lives coupled with the opportunity to have a huge positive impact on millions of people. In my late 20's, my lifestyle was evolving towards being healthier and being more mindful of the fuel inputs I was giving my body. My lifestyle had trended towards largely organic food, morning workouts everyday, some endurance events on weekends, as well as caring about performance at my job and being present with my family. It was a natural realization that alcohol was getting in the way of almost all my health, fitness, and career goals. I still loved craft beer and wine, but it just didn't fit well in many occasions. The other 5 nights of the week, or even 90% of the hours of my weekend days, alcohol was an unproductive element, affecting sleep, exercise, mobility, diet and health. So I just stopped drinking. But I still loved craft beer and still loved going to bars, restaurants, breweries, sporting events, and socializing. At any of those places I would be offered the same drink menu as a 5 year old. When I realized almost 50% of US adults barely drink for so many different reasons (most totally healthy and normal), it drove me crazy that there weren't any good non-alcoholic craft beers for so many people to be able to socialize normally. The penalty box for making healthy choices was frustrating. The potential to positively impact tens of millions of lives (over 15 million US adults have documented alcohol use disorder) was abundantly clear. And so I started reading brewing textbooks on nights and weekends, and have been working around the clock on Athletic since!
What Have Been Both Your Favorite And Least-Liked Parts Of Your Entrepreneurial Journey? What Have Been Your Most Challenging And Most Exciting Moments For You And The Company?
I never, ever would have thought I would be an entrepreneur or start a business. I had no interest in the concept and no ideas! But then true passion and the potential to positively impact the world struck me, and it’s been an obsession ever since. I can’t imagine doing this if it wasn’t fueled by impact, fulfillment, and community. All the early mornings and long nights, I don’t even bat an eye in regret because that fuel burns so strong.
Something goes wrong every day - every single day. And things I thought were serious a month ago, now seem like easy hurdles. But all the opportunity is on the other side of those obstacles, and in tackling them as a team, is where all our progress is made (and our moats) are made.
The biggest challenges I faced were getting going. The category had been dead for 3 decades and the resuscitating, reimagination, and re-introduction took SERIOUS horsepower. I did 120 investor meetings to build our first brewery - and even the “yes” responses were almost all “no’s” or “maybes” the first time around. And then I got rejected by over 200 head brewers to start the business with before finding John. Those were dark days for sure. But I would do it all again to team up with such an amazingly talented partner as John Walker.
What Was The Fundraising Process Like For You? Tell Us What You Can About The Money You’ve Raised.
It was long - I referenced above that I did 120 investor meetings. The category had zero activity in the US for 3+ decades, and building breweries is very capital intensive. It was a steep hill to climb, but in those 120 meetings, we found an amazing group of angel investors who have supported us unquestionably ever since. And I keep them as involved in our journey as possible (monthly transparent investor updates), and they continue to be one of our biggest assets.
The state of CT was also an enormous help and a great place to start a business. You never know until you ask what kind of economic development programs are out there!
Since then, we’ve raised 3 other rounds, all from the same great team of investors to fund our hyper growth and additional facility in San Diego.
Can You Tell Us About Some Of Your Numbers? How Has Growth Been Over The Past Couple Of Years? Anything Exciting That Will Be Launching Soon?
We outgrew our brewery in CT that we built for 5-10 years in about 10 months, doubled the capacity, and outgrew it in 3 more months. We grew about 1,000% in 2019 and are hoping to follow that up similarly in 2020. Our growth is totally led by our community’s pull.
Your product is featured both online and in retail stores. What are your strongest channels and what have been the challenges on both sides?
You really need to be omni-channel these days. Customers like to get their products in all forms, and sometimes the same customer will buy across 2-3 channels. In any channel, the biggest challenges are putting in and maintaining your time, resources, and focus. Nothing left unattended will continue to excel.
Who Are Your Cofounders Or People Who You Work Very Closely With? How Do Their Skills Supplement Yours?
Our co-founder John Walker’s skills and management strengths are entirely complementary to mine, and I think that’s why we make such a strong team. While I excel in operations, finance, sales and marketing - he excels in the production side, quality, and innovation. We’re both big picture thinkers, but I tend to be an unashamed optimist while he’s a great risk manager.
Your Product Is Featured Both Online And In Retail Stores. What Are Your Strongest Channels And What Have Been The Challenges On Both Sides?
You really need to be omni-channel these days. Customers like to get their products in all forms, and sometimes the same customer will buy across 2-3 channels. In any channel, the biggest challenges are putting in and maintaining your time, resources, and focus. Nothing left unattended will continue to excel.
Can You Walk Us Through A Work Day? What Does A Typical Day For You Look Like From When You Wake Up Till You Go To Sleep?
While every day is surely different and unpredictable, there are some key elements.
I’m a huge believer in self-care. I meditate every morning and evening for at least 5-10 minutes, practicing gratitude, goal setting, and loving kindness. I exercise or at least break a sweat every morning. Anything from distance trail running on mountains to 5 minutes of burpees in my living room. It levels out the “busy-ness” of my mind all day and keeps my decision-making level.
Before I dive into email or go to the brewery, I make sure to do 1-2 key projects. That way, at the end of the day, no matter what happens, I’ve done my two most important things to keep the company moving forward.
During the day I generally prioritize a) Listening to the team b) Not slowing the team down c) Not falling too far behind (email unfortunately).
I try not to let any calls or meetings land on my calendar that don’t have a purpose and that aren’t prepared for. Disseminating materials ahead of meetings is key to let people thing through it and not have to all spend time digesting the material.
Then during the last couple hours of the day I try to get whatever projects I can done.
Any time in the car, I try to line up my phone calls of the day, as that’s the least productive time of day. And if no calls, I’m a huge devourer of e-books!
Once I get home, I always unplug for at least 2 hours to have dinner and hang out with my family. There will always be more to do, and you can’t get everything done.
Athletic Brewing Just Recently Signed A Partnership With The USA Triathlon. Can You Tell Us A Little Bit About The Partnership As Well As What This Means For Athletic Brewing In The Sports And Fitness World?
We are really excited about the USA Triathlon deal. It’s actually just one of a number of amazingly exciting deals we’ve recently signed as we build out our sports program (some are still confidential as other brands tend to copy our playbook). USA Tri is the backbone of the United States triathlon community. While there are a number of incredible triathlon circuits and race directors (Shout out Event Power and DelMoSports!), USA Triathlon is the backbone of the community. The partnership will let us travel the country supporting the community and sharing our beers, as well as exposure into the upcoming 2021 games.
What Are The Top Three Most Important Skills A Modern Day Entrepreneur Needs In Order To Be Successful? What Advice Do You Have For Entrepreneurs Who Are Just Starting Out?
Definitely a hard question as every entrepreneurial journey is different and every company has a different ethos, spirit, and community.
I’m of the opinion, that the “alpha” qualities so highly valued by generations, are less valued, as is strict profitability. Qualities like listening to your team, building a culture and community, and sharing the “why” and impact of your company is more important than ruling with an iron fist and scaring your beliefs and thoughts into existence. Information flow is near immediate and international these days - and contributions and thoughts of all team members are super valuable.
Profitable businesses are great, but there are many levels of that. And in many ways, giving up some profitability for a higher team quality of life, higher company purpose, and uniting your community and team in fulfillment, ends up being a flywheel that can’t be stopped once it gets rolling. As long as there are good product margins, so that the company does become more and more profitable as velocity increases, it’s a winning formula. But sharpening the pencil and losing sight of your team, quality, and community is a byproduct of eras long since past. Customers want much more than just a value these days - quality and value are table stakes - consumers want to be connected to purpose.
Tell Us A Story Of Something That Happened To You, Something You Heard, Or Something You Saw, That Either Made You Laugh Or Taught You An Important Lesson.
For our first distributor pickup ever, I was loading the single pallet of 100 cases onto the truck. As I was approaching the truck, I hit a ridge at the loading dock, and launched the entire pallet of cans all over the truck (propelled by the cling wrap like a slingshot all over the truck). We lost the whole pallet and it was everywhere. All I could do was laugh. Our team kicked into gear, cleaned up the guys truck, I sorted out the damaged cases and replaced with new cases, and it was off. The lesson - bad or challenging things will happen every day. It’s ok to feel sorry for yourself for a second, a minute, and hour. But ultimately, its your perception of an obstacle that rules the day. Onward!
If You Can Have A One-Hour Meeting With Someone Famous Who Is Alive, Who Would It Be And Why?
The first time I met Blake Mycoskie was incredible. He wrote the book on social entrepreneurship and impact. When he reached out and informed me that he’d been drinking Athletic beers, I was over the moon. I met him in person, and he is exactly who he is publicly - a great listener, passionate, intense, and seeking to spread impact. Amazing experience.
What Is Your Favorite Quote?
“You don’t live once, you die once. So make the most of each one regardless of what’s happening around you.” - Joe DeSena, Founder, Spartan Race
Is There A Parable That You Often Think About? What Is It And What Lesson Does It Teach?
The book, The Alchemist, is one of my favorite stories. It tells an incredible story of following your heart to find your true purpose, and how the entire universe will conspire to help you if you are following your true purpose.
What Do You Do In Your Free Time?
Meditate, workout, trail run, family, my dogs, boat. I’ll go on literally any adventure I’m asked.
What Are Your Favorite Business Books?
The Obstacle is the Way by Ryan Holiday
Tools of Titans by Tim Ferriss
What Does Success Mean To You?
Success to me is identifying the way in which you are going to put your unique mark on the world, and take that opportunity to positively impact the lives of as many people as you can. It may be 1, it may be 100 million (or it may be animals!). Selfish pursuits will always ring hollow when won - it’s all about if it helps other people.
