Black Hops Brewing

Dan Norris sold WP Curve, his WordPress support service, to GoDaddy and opened Black Hops Brewing the same day in 2016. Unlike the typical path of founders who take time off after an exit, Dan immediately plunged into a completely different industry. He wasn't looking to build another software business—instead, he was drawn to the craft beer world and saw an opportunity to apply the content-driven, community-first approach that had worked in the online entrepreneur space to the traditionally siloed physical beverage industry.

When Dan and his team started Black Hops, they recognized that the brewing industry operated very differently from the online world he'd come from. "When we had the problem of needing to build a brewery, not having any idea how to do it. And we got on Google to have a look at what was around and just couldn't find anything," he explained. This gap in accessible information became an insight: apply the transparency and storytelling playbook from startups to craft beer. They launched a podcast, blog, released recipes publicly, created home brew competitions, conducted equity crowdfunding with full financial transparency, and published investor calls. None of this was standard practice in brewing.

Dan didn't rely on the typical beer industry marketing playbook of paid advertising and influencer relationships. Instead, he built a passionate community of 600+ equity crowdfunding investors and 3,000+ Facebook group members who became core advocates. The transparency strategy resonated deeply: investors, home brewers, and craft beer enthusiasts who understood the business model became organic promoters. Even beer photographers became part of the marketing ecosystem when Dan ran a photo competition in photographer communities, generating dozens of user-created assets for social media while strengthening connections within niche communities.

The compound marketing approach—brand, storytelling, content, and community—proved extraordinarily effective. Black Hops now ranks first in Google for terms like "stout," "brewery," "local Gold Coast brewery" without any deliberate SEO work, purely through organic content creation. Most remarkably, while the average brewery spends 11% of revenue on marketing (over $1M annually for a business at their scale), Black Hops spends "almost zero" on paid advertising. This capital efficiency is a massive competitive advantage in an industry with thin margins. The brand equity they've built means casual consumers discover their beer through grassroots community love, not paid channels. Dan also experimented with new audiences—like the photographer competition—to expand reach while creating authentic content.

Black Hops Brewing now does north of $10 million in annual revenue and has become a model for how startup marketing principles can disrupt traditional industries. Dan has formalized his approach into a book called "Compound Marketing," which distills the four-pillar strategy he's now applied across two successful exits and one thriving physical business. He remains deeply involved in operations and community, resistant to selling despite unsolicited interest, because he's found genuine fulfillment in building something that matters. The brewery demonstrates that you don't need to abandon the principles that work in tech to succeed in beer—you just need to be willing to think differently about an industry that rarely does.