Earlier this year we wrote about nvokh, a crowdfunded and crowdmanaged eco clothing company. Now BeerBankroll is taking a similar approach to the creation of a new, community managed brewery.
The British company has only partially fleshed out its site, but BeerBankroll aims to start a brewery and pub in which many of the key decisions are made by members. It is currently recruiting a minimum of 50,000 members, each of whom will contribute USD 50 in exchange for voting rights on ideas such as the company name, logo, product design, product mix, marketing plan, advertising and sponsorship. Once BeerBankroll has raised USD 100,000 after administration and overhead costs, it plans to begin discussions with a consulting firm—chosen by members' votes—which will then play a guiding role for the community. Assuming the concept goes well, profits will be divided three ways: one part to members in the form of reward points redeemable for products from the Beer Bankroll store; one part back to the company; and one part to charity.
BeerBankroll says it has no set timetable for achieving its milestones, preferring instead to leave that up to members. The company's FAQs do state that "if for some reason we are unable to get a brewing company started [...], then we will take the remaining money after administration and operating costs and give it to charity."
Meanwhile, beer lovers can also join OurBrew, a very new start-up from New Zealand that has similar ambitions, but aims to work with existing breweries. Will it prove feasible for tens of thousands of people to jointly make key decisions for these two breweries-to-be? Only time will tell. However, we think there's also an opportunity here for an existing organization or financial institution that can vouch for new crowdfunded projects and safeguard pre-funding money until the minimum amount of funds have been collected, return it to members if the project doesn't come to fruition.
Website: www.beerbankroll.com — www.ourbrew.co.nz
Contact: info@beerbankroll.com
Spotted by: Daniel Phillips & Matt
P.S. As always, we featured the above because we believe it's an interesting new business, and one that fits in with a trend we've been tracking over the past few years. However, as with most investments, please exercise caution before contributing funds of your own.
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I just signed up to the New Zealand OurBrew one. I love how its free, makes it so much more accesible, why wouldn't people give it a go?
Guess these guys are combining two of trendwatching's trends from last year - crowd clout and free love.
How can a brewery be free and make money? What about legal ramifications? Well, the crowdfunded brewery is a great idea whose time has come. Let the thirsty masses slake their desire for malted beverages!
Stupidest idea ever. Investors get to invest, but receive very little control and no equity in the company. 1/3 of profits will be distributed to "investors" in the form of points, which are redeemable for t-shirts and other paraphernalia. "Investors" get to vote, but the founders will only take the votes under "strong consideration" and the founders decide what the vote is on ("Should the founders get a 10% raise or an 11% raise? You decide!").
Why on earth would anyone do this rather than just invest in a real brewery? Just for the satisfaction of saying you did something "Internet-y"?
"BeerBankroll is taking a similar approach to the creation of a new, community managed brewery. The British company has only partially fleshed out its site..."
but the website has a contact mailing address - 5250 Grand Avenue, #14-244, Gurnee, IL 60031 - which I presume is Illinois, USA.
This was done about 6 years ago in Australia, very successfully by Brewtopia. They listed on the stock exchange a few years back...
Lou -- If I'm not mistaken, Brewtopia was quite different. Customers got a small stake in the company for every carton of beer they ordered. Although they could order custom-printed labels, they didn't actually fund the company or have any real say in how it was managed. But it was definitely a first step in the crowd-funded direction! (Our post on Brewtopia can be found here: http://springwise.com/food_beverage/brewtopia_buy_me_one/)
Where'd you get "British" from? Their website says they're based in Chicago...
The Black Star Pub Co-op in Austin will work using the same concepts. This weekend we'll have a member meeting to pick the location of where the pub will open in September. Up to 600+ members right now.
http://blackstar.coop/
:)
Peter | May 29, 2008 1:24 AM