Brewbound Podcast: Catching Up with Brewbound Pitch Slam Winners Lunar, Crowns and Hops

[00:00:00] Jessica Infante: Let's check in with some past Brewbound Pitch Slam winners next on the Brewbound Podcast. Hello, and welcome to the Brewbound Podcast. My name is Justin Kendall, and I am the editor of Brewbound, and I am joined by Jessica Infante, the managing editor of Brewbound. What's up, Jess?

[00:00:26] Pitch Slam: Not a whole lot, except with you.

[00:00:29] Jessica Infante: We are in Santa Monica.

[00:00:31] Pitch Slam: We're in Santa Monica.

[00:00:32] Jessica Infante: Ready for Brewbound Live. We've prepared for this moment all of our lives.

[00:00:37] Pitch Slam: Oh, the weather is gorgeous.

[00:00:39] Jessica Infante: Yeah, I'm so pleased. It's not, you know, negative three degrees in Grimes, Iowa right now.

[00:00:45] Pitch Slam: I know nobody cares about the weather, but I can't believe what a crappy winter you're having so far. And it's not even winter yet. I'm sorry.

[00:00:52] Jessica Infante: Yeah, I do not appreciate snow before Thanksgiving. We are actually recording this a little bit in advance because we got a whole lot of shit to do.

[00:01:04] Pitch Slam: Yeah, we do. So it is Friday, November 18th, and we are in our respective home states. We are not at Brewbound Live, but we will be. But by the time you hear this, who knows what the world will be like? Maybe Twitter's dead.

[00:01:18] Jessica Infante: Who knows? Maybe it'll be like that anticlimactic 1999 New Year's Eve that I went out to a crappy bar in Des Moines and waited for the world to end and it didn't end. Like nothing happened.

[00:01:32] Pitch Slam: And Zoe's not with us right now, which is probably for the best because she was probably not even in kindergarten when 1999 turned into 2000.

[00:01:41] Jessica Infante: Yeah, nobody wants to hear me sob on this podcast. What we are going to bring you this week is actually interviews with some of our former Pitch Slam winners. We've got Sean Ro, one of the co-founders of Lunar Hard Seltzer and Crowns've also got Beny Ashburn and Teo Hunter from Crowns and Hops. Crowns and Hops won in 2019 and Lunar won in 2020. Yep. So we're going to catch up with them on what they've been up to, you know, in the years since.

[00:02:12] Pitch Slam: Yeah, both really great conversations. And I love both of those brands so much. You know, one thing they both really have in common is that they are super authentic and they both come from a space of where founders didn't see themselves reflected in, you know, the beverage industry. And they all set about on their way to change that, you know, Sean and his co-founder, Kevin, didn't see drinks available that matched the flavors and aromas that they know exist within Asian cuisine. So boom, now they have lychee and yuzu hard seltzers, which is awesome. And Beny and Teo didn't really see, you know, the Black community reflected in the craft beer industry. And now they've got a whole line of merch that says Black people love beer. It's really cool to see how both of those brands have come to flourish and really come into their own.

[00:03:01] Jessica Infante: Yeah, and for those who aren't familiar with the Brewbound Pitch Slam, it's a competition that we do every year at Brewbound Live. It's kind of like Shark Tank-like, in a way, for the beverage industry. And a lot of cool brands present. Athletic Brewing is a former presenter. We've had really cool winners, as we can attest through these interviews with Crowns and Hops and Lunar. Braxton's a winner, Wynwood Brewing, Border X was a winner. The list goes on and on. A lot of name brand breweries in craft have competed in this competition. And you know, it's a lot of fun.

[00:03:39] Pitch Slam: A lot of fun. Yeah. Last year, Funkytown won, which was cool to watch. They brought so much energy to that presentation. It was awesome. Yeah. It's one of my favorite things about Brewbound Live.

[00:03:49] Jessica Infante: Yeah, so we'll get to those interviews now. And we'll talk to you all about Brewbound Live and the 2022 Pitch Slam winner next week.

[00:04:01] Pitch Slam: Lunar Hard Seltzer won Brewbound Pitch Slam in 2020 during the first and hopefully only virtual edition of Brewbound Live. Finding inspiration in the flavors and aromas of the Asian cuisine they grew up eating, founders Sean Ro and Kevin Wong launched Lunar in 2019 after dining at a Korean fried chicken restaurant in New York and being uninspired by the restaurant's drink menu. Sean is here with us today to talk about what Lunar Hard been up to since. Sean, how are you?

[00:04:28] Jessica Infante: I'm doing great. Thanks for having me.

[00:04:30] Pitch Slam: Oh, thanks for joining us. It's great to see you. So I remember back when you guys won the Pitch Slam in 2020, I was sitting here in my home office. We were doing it all virtually, but it was still just as exciting as any other Pitch Slam I've been fortunate enough to witness. And when you guys launched, you were just in your home market of New York, or at least back at that time. So how many markets have you guys expanded to since? I know you've been doing quite a bit of expansion.

[00:04:53] Jessica Infante: Yes, I think since then we've expanded first of all in New York a ton as well and been focusing most of our efforts there. But since then, we've expanded into the state of Virginia, where Kevin and I are from and had a lot of home field support and requests to come expand there. And also, we've been in the state of Georgia, sticking mostly to the East Coast.

[00:05:10] Pitch Slam: Awesome. So tell us about the portfolio. I know you guys are like Yuzu plays a big role. What other flavors is Lunar offering now?

[00:05:17] Jessica Infante: I think during the Pitch Slam, we had still only one flavor, one SKU, which is the Yuzu, which has been really good to us, including winning us the Pitch Slam here. But since then, we have launched three new mainline flavors, as we like to call it. We launched Lychee with using real lychee puree from Thailand. as well as plum, which is a green kind of Korean or East Asian plum, closer in as a close cousin to the apricot, if you will. And then we've also most recently, earlier this year, launched passion fruit as well, sourcing passion fruit from Taiwan. But beyond that, we also, as you guys, or at least maybe some of the listeners know, at least from keeping up the foreground that Each year we do some limited edition special flavor drops and collaborations with local and premier award-winning restaurants here in the city. And obviously we've had a couple earlier this year as well and having to do some planning for next year too. But those are some limited edition stuff that we also like to have some fun with. So what do you know now, I guess, that you didn't know when you were pitching at the Pitch Slam competition? I would say everything. I think when we were in the Pitch Slam, you know, we had launched during the pandemic, you know, only a few months prior to the Pitch Slam. So we were just, you know, very, very green in all sorts of different ways. So we know so much more when it comes to, you know, co-packing and the supply chain, just from the inbound requests that we had gotten from the exposure from the Pitch Slam and rebound to even suppliers, to even distributors, and even potential accounts, and just you know, being able to have those conversations on an accelerated schedule that would have been so much more difficult for us to have, and just meeting all the folks that I was able to last year in person as a guest judge in the Pitch Slam, and just networking and meeting some more folks there has been incredibly helpful. So I would, I really mean it when I say probably most of what we know since then has been net new.

[00:07:10] Shark Tank-like: You guys were also operating, I mean, you guys had to do the virtual Pitch Slam. So this is in the pandemic. What have you learned about just like the adaptation that you've had to make for sourcing ingredients? I mean, you have a lot of like fruit and food specific flavors going on. What has that looked like operating in that space in this kind of crazy time period?

[00:07:36] Jessica Infante: Yeah, I mean, I think we've had the, you know, maybe it was a little bit of a silver lining for us in that sense in launching the pandemic, because for us, that was the baseline. We had no idea what, how, what normal looks like in the supply chain prior to that. So we were just kind of like, okay, well, I guess this is how crazy it is. But even then, I think in hindsight, Yeah, little did we know that things are a lot crazier because I feel like we have a much better sense and stabilize that process now. But it's still a lot of, you know, procuring. I think the process still starts in our small, tiny shoebox in your apartments where we're trying out different flavored ideas that we get from whether a meal that we had or something that we see in the grocery store. And I think it always starts there. And now with travel opening back up too, we're able to make some trips back to Asia. For example, Kevin's got one lined up next month as well, my co-founder. So I think the process as a whole still remains. I think it just makes things a little bit easier and less crazy and more consistent availability of things. But the process of drawing inspiration from the things around us in the city, from our childhood, trying things in our own apartment, and then just doing a huge search for who can supply these things at scale, still, for the most part, at least at that scale, have been consistent. I think one of the things that impressed me the most about Lunar was you all have a personal story and you brought a personal story to Hard Seltzer and that really didn't exist before or if it did it was just a very few cases and you know you guys are so Like I said, it's so personal to you guys. Tell me a little bit about, you know, how you guys have been able to sort of differentiate yourself from the pack in that way. And also just curious to know, you know, It's been such a roller coaster ride hard seltzer for so many folks, you know, how how are you all doing with that? Yeah, I think we've been really fortunate. Maybe it's the case of right place, right time. Maybe it's just, you know, we're not giving ourselves enough credit for all the things that we're doing, probably a little bit of both. But I think the fact that we have a brand that is inherently just so personal, I think that true, I guess, genuineness and authenticity when people chat with us, whether it's distributors or suppliers or co-packers, I think they don't really question what it is that we're trying to do and why we're doing it. And I think they really appreciate and respect that a lot of ways. And I think same thing with even consumers too, when we're doing activations and events, you know, we have this little postcard or leave behind of a photo of myself and Kevin. And, you know, I think at first when they meet, you know, either myself or Kevin as we're manning the table, you know, they don't really think much, but then as they're looking around the table and they're like, wait a minute, is this is this you? And it's like, it's a little bit of an embarrassing moment, but it is effective. So we keep doing it. And it's like, oh, it is it is me. And where's my Kevin, you know, my co-founder Kevin. And I think the fact that they see us being there ourselves, I think helps a lot. And I think it's your point about, you know, I guess, withstanding the ups and downs of the seltzer, you know, I guess market or the industry right now as a whole. I think that has been really good to us in doing just that, because I think everyone's very clear. We don't ever get the question of like, oh, why is this another seltzer? Like, how are you guys any different? when you hear our story, when you try the product and you meet us, typically people get it. And that question gets pretty, you know, addressed very quickly. And I think it also gives us a unique positioning as well. There aren't any, if there aren't many, if any, Asian inspired flavored hard seltzers or just even RTDs in general. So even our distributor is very keen on continuing to work with us. And the fact that we have this really unfair advantage in some sense of being able to bring net new Asian accounts that are typically tougher Western distributors to be able to track.

[00:11:34] Shark Tank-like: The last time I tried, you guys have been visited in Brooklyn and we got the pleasure of going to Bonnie's, which is an amazing restaurant over there. But you're talking about when you do some of these collaboration flavors, you're looking for inspiration from these other people as well as stuff where you might not personally have that experience, but you want to bring their knowledge in too.

[00:11:56] Jessica Infante: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think that's definitely one of the things and one of the reasons why the collaboration with the Heritage Line, as we'd like to call it, has been good to us is you know, we're never going to try to claim that we know everything or that we can, you know, we are the best, most educated ambassadors than what it means to be, for example, an Asian American. Just even within the AAPI community, there's a lot of conversations, actually not too dissimilar to the Latino or the Hispanic community as well, where it's not a monolith, right? There are a lot of nuances and differences, even within that broader umbrella. And I think just giving and leaning into the experiences of these chefs, like Chef Calvin of Bonnie's and his Cantonese American upbringing is something that like I personally can't speak to, but he certainly can. And in a lot of ways, we're giving other folks the platform and the stage to be able to tell their stories.

[00:12:46] Pitch Slam: Awesome. So it sounds like you guys got a lot of restaurant collaborations in the works. What other activations can we hope to see from Lunar next year?

[00:12:52] Jessica Infante: Next year, a lot, I guess, you know, we're right now thinking about continuing to expand our footprint as well. So we got some big states that we are thinking about, you know, including, I guess, continuing to expand in the Northeast as well, but also strongly considering and thinking through what a bi-coastal on the West Coast distribution would look like. So that's, you know, we're neck deep in just a lot of thinking through that right now, but we're also thinking about continuing to push on the innovation front and seeing what new flavors or different types of RTDs that might make a lot of sense or the stories that we want to tell. So doing a lot of R&D right now internally. As you guys folks know, the R&D happens in our apartments here. So we're doing a lot of that as well. The activations, TBD, I guess, based on specifically what those markets look like, we'll probably start planning those soon. But I guess Lunar New Year is right around the corner. So any folks in the New York City area or the tri-state area, do keep an eye out for any events and activations that we're planning for Lunar New Year, which is at the end of January this time around.

[00:13:56] Pitch Slam: I mean, of course you guys would activate around Lunar New Year. That must be huge for you. That's awesome. I love that.

[00:14:02] Jessica Infante: It'd be a travesty if we don't.

[00:14:04] Pitch Slam: Well, Sean, it's always a pleasure. What advice would you give entrepreneurs who are now where you were in 2020?

[00:14:13] Jessica Infante: Yeah, it's still very humbling for me to be on this side trying to give advice because, you know, we should be really looking out for ourselves and we got a lot of homework to do on our end. But to the extent that there's anything that I can relay on, I think really it's just brace yourselves, right? This stuff is hard. It's tough. But, you know, brace yourselves, but also enjoy the journey, too, because it is still I don't know if it ever gets old of being able to go to an event or I don't know, even a friend's house and, you know, see, you know, Lunar or your product, you know, unprompted at said event or activation or just being able to overhear some while you're at a grocery store, someone talking about like, oh, you know, I tried this last week and this is really good. That never really gets old. So but yes, so it makes everything worthwhile. So just try to enjoy it as much as you can.

[00:15:02] Pitch Slam: Awesome. This has been a joy. Always happy to check in with you guys. Can't wait to see what's next. And thank you so much for taking the time to hang out with us today.

[00:15:10] Jessica Infante: Absolutely. Pleasure is mine. Thanks for having me once again.

[00:15:15] Pitch Slam: Beny Ashburn and Teo.Teo Hunter founded Crowns and Hops in 2016 and have since set out on a mission to change the face of craft beer as one of few Black-owned, woman-owned, veteran-owned breweries in the country. Crowns and Hops was, well, crowned the winner of the 2019 Pitch Slam, and we are psyched to have Benny and T.O. with us today. How's it going, guys?

[00:15:38] Lunar Hard: You are a great intro-er. That was a great introduction.

[00:15:41] Pitch Slam: This is why we give her the job.

[00:15:44] Lunar Hard: Makes me think that I need to work on my intro game. Yeah, dude, you need to do better to you.

[00:15:49] Pitch Slam: Well, I mean, I wrote it all out in advance this morning, like a big nerd.

[00:15:53] Lunar Hard: But it was a great read.

[00:15:55] Pitch Slam: What up, Jess?

[00:15:56] Lunar Hard: What up? Hi, guys. So he was cracking, y'all.

[00:15:59] Pitch Slam: Hello. It's good to see you both. Yeah. Well, thanks for joining us. I know you guys are super busy and we're going to make you be even super busier with us in Santa Monica in a couple weeks. So let's kind of jump right in. But you know, we've got some new news or you've got some new news. You recently launched your online store to ship beer within California. How's that going?

[00:16:20] Brewbound Live: So we did launch e-commerce. We don't ship inside of California simply because that's our biggest market, right? And we really want to make sure that retailers, our local retailers are supported here and in our home state. But we do ship around the nation and other cities for people who can't access Crowns and Hops as easily in the California area. Since our movement of Crowns and Hops has reached nationwide, discussion and conversation. So we just wanted to give everyone access to this delicious beer.

[00:16:55] Pitch Slam: Super glad you set me straight because I assumed and you know what happens when you assume.

[00:17:00] Lunar Hard: No, no, no, it's fine. That's how you and me. Can we curse?

[00:17:06] Pitch Slam: I curse all the fucking time on this podcast.

[00:17:08] Lunar Hard: Yeah, we fucking do. Remember what industry we're in? We're in the fucking craft beer industry. This is not going to Disney Channel. But to Benny's point, you know, we started out in 2016 as a lifestyle brand focused on telling a message that wasn't just regional, but it was something that was national. And as Benny and I would learn, international as well. The lack of diversity in craft beer consumers and in ownership. And just being able to have our products accessible now, you know, throughout the country, you know, so that people can get this product on their doorstep has been a pretty awesome opportunity for us to not only spread our message, but for those that love and that are aligned with our vision to have a glass of BPLB with it.

[00:18:00] Jessica Infante: What's it been like to sort of navigate the regulatory landscape there? Because direct to consumer shipping can be super tricky and, you know, some states allow it, some states don't allow it. So how have you all navigated that?

[00:18:16] Brewbound Live: So being the smaller Crafter brand that we are, we were able to partner with our New York distributor, Taproom, who really handles all the back end for our distribution and e-commerce platform. It's called Powered by Taproom, and they basically handle all the back end for us. So realistically, I think on the large scale of e-commerce, this is a small business approach to testing it out to see how we do, what regions outside of California and some of the other places we ship on the ground really want to get Crowns and Hops. How can they get it? How do we do, right? Like, how does it work? And then hopefully we'll be able to take the metrics from this. And as we get a lot bigger, we open our brick and mortar. We can control shipping ourselves and figure out a better system to get the beer out nationally directly from us.

[00:19:12] Shark Tank-like: Let's talk about that brick and mortar because you guys have been planning this. I mean, since before the pandemic, which I'm sure has caused plenty of delays, as it has for everybody. So what is that looking like right now?

[00:19:23] Lunar Hard: You know, I remind people all the time that the pandemic was literally the equivalent of Thanos snapping his finger. It just made two years of our life just disappear. And, you know, I think when Benny and I sought out with the original plan of building our brewery, you know, that whole plan went out the window and we had to pivot to something completely different, which was a contract brewing model, which we still utilize today. But, um, We're still, to be frank, dealing with a lot of the impact of what the pandemic caused, whether it be in the city having a different way of working with new projects and new developments, whether it be the impact of shipping costs and delays caused from people and corporations not being able to have the same staff and personnel in order to execute from anything down the supply chain. It's been a lot of, how should I say, just getting our lives back together. And our project definitely felt the brunt of that, but we're still excited to be driving forward. And we're still looking at the beginning of the second quarter of 2023 for our opening, which is exciting.

[00:20:39] Brewbound Live: It's a lot of hurry up and wait, hurry up and wait, hurry up and wait. But I think I mean, if anyone's been following Crowns and Hops for the last seven years, it's very clear. We are a brand that is very intentional about taking your time and doing it right. Even when we first connected with you guys and was able to win Pitch Slam, in our story, it was all about First, we had to start as a lifestyle brand. Then we had to build the trust of the community. Then we, you know, did our focus groups, so to speak, understanding what the community liked, what kind of beers did they like, you know, developing, Tio developing his palate so that he can, create these recipes and be able to drive our contracting facilities to now. Let's build a 14,000 square foot facility, not a 1,500 square foot, a 14,000 square foot facility that will be a restaurant and a brew pub, but You know, it is the most exciting thing that we're doing. It is finally an opportunity for us to have roots in the ground, a place where people can physically come and have a pint with us, share community with us. It just takes construction is that's a real that's some real shit. I just gotta say a lot of things you don't anticipate when doing this.

[00:22:00] Lunar Hard: But also, it's not just construction. You know, it's when you're talking about doing what Benny and I are doing, we're talking about putting a brewpub in a region that has suffered from a lack of development for generations, since the LA riots, essentially, you know. So when there has been zero development outside of the ginormous projects like the SoFi Stadium, like the Forum renovation, and now the new Intuit Dome where the Clippers Arena will be, there hasn't been anything between nothing and grand. So when you think about presenting a city with a project like ours, there's a lot of questions and a lot of things that come up when you're talking about creating a space for people to gather, a place to manufacture, and something that, again, wasn't there for quite a while.

[00:22:58] Pitch Slam: You guys built your brand by reaching out to communities you didn't see reflected in craft beer. People largely were left out of the craft beer narrative. I imagine it took a lot of heavy lifting to get by in there. What was that process like?

[00:23:11] Brewbound Live: It did take a lot of heavy lifting, but I, you know, in heavy lifting in brand building, heavy lifting in showcasing what diversity looks and feels like inside of craft beer in a really authentic way. You know, Even in moments where we maybe needed to pull a stock image to showcase brown and black people and crap, it didn't exist. We had to physically go and create the visuals and the content to tell our story from scratch. So the hardest part was identifying what that was, what it is we had to do, and then literally just going and doing it. And that was a lot of work on social media, events, content, everything that was the hardest lift, I think, for us, for people to kind of really see what we're doing and understand that we're building something that's real, something that you can really like, you know, attach to.

[00:24:09] Lunar Hard: If you can think about it, like even when Benny and I, you know, at the very beginning just wanted to start advertising events that we were doing, showing beer and whatnot, we couldn't find any images of a black hand pouring beer. They just didn't exist. I mean, we were like, what? And granted... It did exist.

[00:24:29] Brewbound Live: It was just really, really, really, really sad.

[00:24:31] Lunar Hard: No, no, no. Well, they existed with regards to having the one token black guy in a group of white people. But, you know, Benny and I both have a background of creative production, marketing, advertising. We have access to some huge databases for something that most people don't have access to of stock imagery, and there was nothing. We couldn't even steal an image if we wanted to of a Black hand or more than one Black or brown individual in a craft beer. So, you know, apart to Benny's point of our first mission was to showcase melanin and craft beer. Like, we had to start with the very basics, which was literally tea on Benny's hands, tea on Benny's faces. Tio and Benny's friends gathering them up, even though they didn't know what the hell they were gathering for. They were gathering for a photo shoot so that we could start projecting what we wanted in the space. Because until then, again, it did not exist.

[00:25:36] Pitch Slam: So what's your photo library like now? I assume you guys never thought you would be this prolific of models, but

[00:25:45] Brewbound Live: We have about seven years worth of content of how the behind the scenes of how we built this brand from our very first event in 2016 all the way up until today. And we feel like that's gonna be part of the Crowns and Hops documentary that we do in a couple of years, the making of Crowns, how the hell did we do it?

[00:26:08] Lunar Hard: That's the tagline.

[00:26:11] Pitch Slam: I can't wait to watch that.

[00:26:12] Lunar Hard: Man, honestly, that's kind of like a docu-series, I think, Benny, and Netflix. I mean, because I think most people, you know, again, since we started our brand on social media, most people have seen, you know, the journey. You know, what they haven't seen is all the back of, you know, the rushing to the airport, you know, the getting things done. Like, shit, there was a time where I literally missed a flight to Scotland by 60 seconds.

[00:26:42] Brewbound Live: and had to buy a whole nother flight, like a whole new ticket on the spot at the airport in order to make it.

[00:26:49] Lunar Hard: That shit was painful. Oh my God, it was painful.

[00:26:53] Brewbound Live: One minute.

[00:26:54] Lunar Hard: Anyway.

[00:26:55] Brewbound Live: But that's, you know, that's the hustle. That's the behind the scenes. That's the behind the scenes hustle to really, you know, be present in the industry in a way that people believe we're here to stay.

[00:27:09] Lunar Hard: But, but, you know, I think it's important. It'll be, it'll be important for us to really showcase that journey because I think for people to hundred, you know, I think a lot of times when we have interviews, many people just assume that like, it was just. you know, absolute horror and hell and, you know, we got no cooperations. And a lot of times people want to hear this nightmare story. You know, we got a couple little stories, but for the most part, it's been just clarifying and clarity and communication and being in consistency. You know, that's, I think, the work. that I think people need to see to understand that this wasn't something that happened overnight. But because of much of the work that Benny and I have been able to do, you know, there was a collective voice that ultimately manifested in the form of a fresh fest, of a barrel and flow, of a funky town, of all these different efforts, you know, just as simple as seeing what Benny has on right now, our first t-shirt that said black people love beer. I mean like that, you know, that hashtag, even if you look at it now, is pretty awesome to just see everyone in the history and the timeline of it that was willing to be aligned with his message of racial equity and craft beer.

[00:28:30] Jessica Infante: It's exciting. You know, you mentioned that it's seven years in the making and then, you know, your first brick and mortar space is just on the horizon. And that's just the first stop. It's not a culmination. It's it's, you know, just the beginning of what you all have started or a new new beginning, I guess.

[00:28:51] Brewbound Live: Yeah, no, we say that all the time, like to say we've been doing this for seven years and now we're going to open up a brick and mortar. That's a whole new set of skills and industry that me and T.O. now have to learn in every stage of the building of this business. It's been like that. You know we started as influencers on Instagram. Then we went into you know having our own product on shelves straight into sales and distribution. Now we're going into physical space brick and mortar. So It is only the beginning, but this is where it gets fun. This is the part where we get to really have a good time. You guys can come do the podcast in our space and we can offer up these kinds of opportunities to other brands to help them. share their stories.

[00:29:38] Lunar Hard: And I think that the key word to that is offering opportunity or the key statement is offering opportunity, creating opportunity, even more to the point, you know, but Benny and I are going to overnight learn how to run a restaurant because it will be a restaurant. It'll be a brew pub. You know, overnight, we're not going to learn how to manage an entire brew team. But we, I think, have been excellent at is identifying and finding those that are excellent at it and putting them in the best place to succeed. Because ultimately, as fair or unfair as it may sound, we don't have the the flexibility, or we don't have the option of crashing and burning. The eyeballs that are on us literally put us on a playing field of some of the greatest breweries on the planet. And to that point, We have the obligation of making sure that we hire against that, that we bring on people that are excellent at what they do, so that this mission continues to be solidified. And through that, then I think people will get bit on a bug. I mean, I can honestly say that we might reflect a few different models, but what Benny and I are doing is pretty unique in terms of the craft beer model. if you look at what we're doing.

[00:31:06] Jessica Infante: How are you approaching that food program? Have you gone down the path? Do you have a chef in mind?

[00:31:13] Lunar Hard: What's the approach? We have a couple of chefs that we've been working with, and that's another part of it. And again, I think I might have mentioned earlier, because of who we are and what we've done and us being so vocal about it, we have an embarrassment of amazing friends reach out to us and ask, what do you need help with? Like, I love this. I love what's happening. This has got to succeed. What do you need help with? And to that point, you know, it's kind of like a Voltron, you know, it's like, you know, all of these pieces just coming together all at once. So it is, a bit of a building by committee as it relates to the overall vision that Benny and I have.

[00:31:55] Shark Tank-like: So throughout this whole process of, you know, all those years and since even just 2019, when you won that Pitch Slam, what have you gained as knowledge that can turn into advice for, you know, those entrepreneurs who may be entering the Pitch Slam this year or might be looking at it a couple of years down the line? What should they really know entering this space? It's a loaded question.

[00:32:22] Brewbound Live: There's so many. There's so many lessons. Right. And and I say that because, again, as you mentioned, COVID forced us to pivot in a much different and in a different direction than our business plan was intended. Right. Like we always even in our pitch line presentation, our goal was to open up our brick and mortar. create that physical location and then slowly build into the sales and distribution model. We had to put a complete hold on the brick and mortar and only focus our business on the sales and distribution side, which now has actually put us in a really phenomenal position to have these two business models inside of the brand that just makes us even bigger. And it makes us more of a competitor in the market because we do have shelf space. were distributed in four different cities. And now we're gonna also have our brick and mortar and that'll allow us to open up multiple spaces. So I think the advice I would give is just be very clear about your plan, right? I think we were able to win Pitch Slam because our storytelling was great, but we also had a very clear plan of what it is that we wanted Crowns and Hops to do and where we wanted to grow and be. And I feel like we've checked every one of those boxes that we presented at Pitch Slam. And we are proof in staying focused and being intentional to be successful.

[00:33:44] Pitch Slam: Well, guys, I think that's a perfect place to leave this. I'm thrilled you took the time to chat with us today. But we're excited to see you soon. And we can't wait to get to that taproom. Q2 of next year, right?

[00:33:56] Lunar Hard: Q2 of next year. That's it. And shout out and best of luck to this year's Pitch Slam candidates. What do you call them? Pitch Slam? We should.

[00:34:08] Seltzer and Crowns: Yeah, we definitely should.

[00:34:11] Lunar Hard: Pitch Slam. That was an incredible experience, and I'm excited we'll be able to reconnect with our friends from Funkytown and really connect with all the new Pitch Slam.

[00:34:25] Brewbound Live: The last thing I'll say is when we won, I think it really felt like we won an Oscar or an Emmy. It literally just felt like the music started to play and we ran up, you know, go up on stage and give your big speech. And it's funny because you're looking around the room and everyone there has been doing this for so many years. And they've been to so many Pitch Slam and this was our first time. So the excitement that we have felt so brand new and fresh you know, perspective because we had never been invited. No one like us, I think, has really been invited. And we appreciate you guys giving us the opportunity because it gave us the confidence to keep going forward, you know. So thank you guys very much for continuing to support us and being a part of our journey.

[00:35:11] Lunar Hard: I want to thank my aunt Ruth. I want to thank my mother, Jerry. We did it.

[00:35:18] Pitch Slam: We did it, mom. We did it. You guys crushed it. It was awesome to see that day.

[00:35:23] Jessica Infante: Yeah, we'll have to put up the video with this so everybody can go back to brevond.com and watch that because it's definitely something that they they'd need to see.

[00:35:36] Pitch Slam: So for sure. OK, and with that we will say that's our show for this week. Thank you so much to Sean, Tio and Benny for hanging out. Justin and Joey as always for being my ride or dies. We will catch you next week with another podcast episode.