My guests this week are Wiseacre Brewery Founders Davin and Kellan Bartosch.
Davin and Kellan launched Wiseacre in 2013 and it has been a huge success. They quit their jobs, found a partner, took out personal loans and have built one of the most well known craft breweries in the Southeast. After one year of opening, their Tiny Bomb beer won the Bronze Medal at the Great American Beer Festival in 2014.
I wanted to have a conversation with Davin and Kellan to learn how they have generated such momentum in a crowded craft beer market. This conversation doesn’t disappoint. We cover:
- Going all in at the beginning
- Building Wiseacre their way
- Living with challenges and ambiguity
- Their plans for growth
- And more!
Please enjoy my conversation with Davin and Kellan Bartosch!
RECAP
45 secs Beer critics
2:00 You can’t please everyone
3:15 Taking things personally
4:09 Where it started
6:34 The PitBull Named Carlito
10:15 When Tiny Bomb Hit It Big
12:35 Why Memphis Water Matters
14:33 Something Always Goes Wrong
15:02 Founding Brewmaster loves lager and that drives it
15:38 Leveraging their relationship
18:31 Passion can lead to bad decisions
21:37 How to grow a craft brewery
22:18 Doing the job I did before except doing it for myself
22:22 Quantifiable goals and how to measure them
24:13 The power of design
24:50 We both took out two loans each
25:38 Good debt and forecasting money
28:55 Our experience and our instincts got us through
30:18 Telling stories
32:00 I’m better at working by myself than with other people
33:25 Now we’re just reacting
34:05 Cast the vision and what do we need to change to become that vision
35:03 Get going in direction and others execute
37:45 I’m more focused than I was at the beginning
41:00 We’re in a crunch right now
45:07 We have to be okay with grey area
58:00 Natural Progression
59:03 Our identity is Memphis
1:01:01 Approach things with a sense of humor
1:03:10 Be willing to put your time in
1:04:10 Lessons learned from upbringing
RESOURCES
- Matt Haaga State Farm: https://www.matthaaga.com/
- AB Jets: https://abjets.com/
- Wiseacre Brew: https://wiseacrebrew.com/
- http://rachelbriggs.com/
