Brewbound Podcast S2 E6: No-Li Brewhouse’s John Bryant on Sleepless Nights and the Grind

John Bryant hasn’t forgotten the sleepless nights, pacing the floor in the pre-dawn hours wondering how No-Li Brewhouse would make payroll in the Spokane, Washington-based craft brewery’s early days.

It’s a feeling many startup founders can relate to as they’re building at a rapid pace.

“I know a lot of people can probably relate to this: you have more invoices than you do money in the bank,” Bryant told Brewbound editor Justin Kendall during Episode 6 of the Brewbound Podcast. “I said, wouldn’t it be great to one day spend so much less time moving around what we pay to try to stay current and spend that time trying to be productive. Well at this point, we have $2,000 bucks in the bank, we’re $65,000 way past current and payroll is in three days, what do you want to do?”

Fortunately for Bryant, the days of walking the floor at 3 a.m., drinking coffee and trying to figure out where the company can borrow and pay back to buy itself time.

“I think that’s where the passion really came through,” Bryant said. “There’s a lot of times where we could have just given up, walked away, obviously it would have been very painful with a lot of debts and a lot of obligations that you have to fulfill. Or you grind and you try to figure it out.”

In Episode 6 of the Brewbound Podcast’s second season, Bryant shares how his company survived early struggles and why beer companies need to self-reflect and know when not to grow.

Listen to Episode 6 above, as well as on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, and Soundcloud. The Brewbound Podcast will return for its third season in early 2020.

For questions, comments or suggestions, please email [email protected].

John Bryant hasn’t forgotten the sleepless nights, pacing the floor in the pre-dawn hours wondering how No-Li Brewhouse would make payroll in the Spokane, Washington-based craft brewery’s early days. It’s a feeling many startup founders can relate to as they’re building at a rapid pace.