Brew Talks Recap: Accelerator Programs Lower Barriers to Entry for Underrepresented Entrepreneurs in Beer

Leaders from Boston Beer Company and Target discussed their companies’ efforts to welcome more upstart brands into the beverage-alcohol industry during Brewbound’s first Brew Talks meetup of 2022 last week in Minneapolis during the week of the Craft Brewers Conference.

Jennifer Glanville, Boston Beer director of partnerships and manager of the company’s Brewing the American Dream program (BTAD), explained how BTAD opens doors for food and beverage entrepreneurs and has since its 2008 founding.

“One thing that we’ve seen over the years as we’ve evolved, and especially over the last two years, was how do we identify different barriers,” she said. “We know that, for example, female food and bev entrepreneurs and brewers or want-to-be brewery owners have a different barrier than somebody else, so we’ve been able to identify some of those barriers and really customize a lot of that programming so we can really help them.”

Beneficiaries of BTAD – which offers access to small business loans through its partner, the Accion Opportunity Fund, and mentorship through Boston Beer employees and program graduates – are 63% female and 76% Black, Indigenous and people of color, Glanville said.

Tim and Dali Parker, co-founders of Chula Vista Brewing, won a business grant and year of elevated coaching through BTAD in 2018 and now coach fellow entrepreneurs in the San Diego area. Connections they made through Accion and BTAD helped them secure the funding necessary to scale the brewery, which has since expanded to a second location and is ramping up for wider distribution.

“It’s not until you talk to the right people who point you in the right direction when you find out that you do have access,” Tim Parker said. “You just got to figure out how to get to it.”

Mike Percic, senior director and divisional merchandising manager of adult beverages for Target, discussed the company’s twin programs to help brands enter its stores: Takeoff, which supports more mature food and beverages companies, and Forward Founders, which helps early stage companies find their way. He also shared best practices for pitching beer and beyond brands.

“In bev-alc for Target’s business, our strategy is we really want to be curated and differentiated and on trend,” Percic said. “Elevating female- and Black-owned businesses is a very strong commitment from the company – whether it’s through accelerator programs that meet some of those other criteria, or just working out and reaching out directly with the team and working with us to do some of that coaching, some of that training, some of that guiding of is the product ready, is it ready for retail yet, is it ready for retail and on what scale, and really working with teams to set up for success.”

Watch the conversation below and look for more Brew Talks recaps this week.