This is the story of a banker and a foreign correspondent, neighbors in Brooklyn, who decide to quit their jobs and start their own brewery in 1986. Improbably, they succeed. Starting with no knowledge of commercial brewing, they learn that their four combined Ivy League degrees only take them so far. They nevertheless tackle one of the hardest challenges imaginable: building a sales-driven manufacturing company from scratch in the heart of New York City. In the next 15 years, they encounter an encyclopedia of obstacles and build a company that is not just economically successful, but one that serves the community as well. This is a how to do it book for current business managers/owners, and a you can do it, too book for those people that are dreaming of being an entrepreneur. It contains practical and crucial lessons and tells the story of the Brooklyn Brewery rising from the dreary recession of the late ’80s and expanding into the urban renewal and growth of the ’90s.
Book Details:
- Author: Steve Hindy
- ISBN: 9780470068670
- Year Published: 2005
- Pages: 304
- BISAC: BUS025000, BUSINESS & ECONOMICS/Entrepreneurship
About the Book and Topic:
This is the story of a banker and a foreign correspondent, neighbors in Brooklyn, who decide to quit their jobs and start their own brewery in 1986. Improbably, they succeed. Starting with no knowledge of commercial brewing, they learn that their four combined Ivy League degrees only take them so far. They nevertheless tackle one of the hardest challenges imaginable: building a sales-driven manufacturing company from scratch in the heart of New York City. In the next 15 years, they encounter an encyclopedia of obstacles and build a company that is not just economically successful, but one that serves the community as well. This is a how to do it book for current business managers/owners, and a you can do it, too book for those people that are dreaming of being an entrepreneur. It contains practical and crucial lessons and tells the story of the Brooklyn Brewery rising from the dreary recession of the late ’80s and expanding into the urban renewal and growth of the ’90s.
In 1984, Tom Potter, a former lending office at Chemical Bank, and Steve Hindy, former journalist, founded The Brooklyn Brewery. Their initial goal was to bring good beer back to New York City so they began distributing their product by van to neighborhood stores on their own. Slowly, it caught on. When the big distributors began to express interest, they recognized there was money in the distribution business and they opened their doors to other microbreweries. Soon they were representing more than a dozen micros and world-class beers. In May 1996, they opened their Williamsburg plant, sold their distribution companies, and their brewmaster, Garrett Oliver, developed their most famous beer, Brooklyn Lager. This is the story of their company, experiences, memories, and lessons.
Email Blast/Promotion via Product. The Brooklyn Brewery has 5,000 names to blast to. They ship 400,000 cases of beer annually to the Eastern U.S. (MA, CT, NY, NJ, OH, PA, DE, DC, MD, VA, NC, SC, GA) and would market/promote the book on all cases. They also ship to foreign countries such as Japan, Hong Kong, Denmark, and Great Britain and are working toward distribution in Spain, Italy, Holland, and Germany. The authors will comarket the book via online newsletters and magazines (such as All About Beer, etc.). Author Speaking Engagements. Hindy and Potter are committed to attending speaking engagements and festival tours. Hindy has spoken at NYU Stern, Columbia, and Cornell business schools. Warehouse Tours/Galas. The Brooklyn Brewery is open to the public and has routine community-based galas focusing on everything from politics to environment to charities. Authors Have Media Connections. Hindy was a journalist and the media loves an entrepreneurial success story. The Brewery has been featured in Fortune, Forbes, BusinessWeek, and Food & Wine.
About the Author
Steve Hindy (Brooklyn, NY) is President and cofounder of The Brooklyn Brewery. A former assistant foreign editor at Newsday, he first became interested in homebrewing while serving as a Beirut-based Middle East Correspondent for AP in the early 80’s. He is a director of New York City’s Workforce Investment Board, Brooklyn’s Prospect Park Alliance, and the Brewers Association of America. Tom Potter (Brooklyn, NY) cofounded the Brooklyn Brewery in 1987 and was CEO until 2004. Potter graduated from Yale, and has an MBA from Columbia. He was an assistant vice president at Chemical Bank, and was recently New York chapter President of the American Institute of Wine & Food.