BrewPublic

Charlie Mulligan spotted a massive opportunity in the craft beer industry. The market had grown from $7 billion to $25 billion in just 10 years, yet the retail channels remained stuck in the past—people still had to visit convenience stores for beer while nearly everything else could be delivered. Charlie drew a parallel to how Amazon disrupted books: "You can get food, anything else delivered... Unfortunately, I can't stream beer, but you know what I mean." At 25 years old, he saw a $25 billion market waiting to be reimagined.

Charlie and his co-founders launched BrewPublic in 2014 with a clever dual approach. They built a sophisticated algorithm that curates from 3,000+ craft beers worldwide and matches selections to individual taste profiles. The business model was elegantly simple: customers (or offices) provide their preferences, the algorithm recommends new beers, and BrewPublic delivers them either to offices or homes. For offices, a case of 24 premium bottles cost $75 all-in, delivering roughly $3 per bottle when accounting for shipping and delivery costs.

Charlie's go-to-market strategy was deliberately tactical. Rather than chase end consumers first, he focused on B2B office clients—especially companies wanting to stock beer fridges or refresh kegs on a subscription basis. This approach was strategic: office clients were "sticky," required streamlined fulfillment, and let BrewPublic establish operating cash flow within three months in new markets. Once B2B was profitable in a city, they'd layer in direct-to-consumer delivery with a Netflix-style membership model.

The expansion strategy was equally disciplined. Charlie identified markets using proprietary metrics: population density, age demographics, income levels, craft beer drinker concentration, and brewery count. Counterintuitively, he avoided "obvious" markets like Portland (oversaturated with breweries and existing beer culture) and prioritized LA (fewer craft breweries per capita, untapped demand). By securing B2B commitments before entering new markets, they moved lean and avoided inventory risk.

In their first full year (2015), BrewPublic did $275,000 in revenue—approximately 80,000 bottles shipped—with gross margins around 50% and net margins of 35%. This meant on their ~$275k revenue, they kept roughly $100,000 to reinvest. They used every dollar to expand geographically, moving from Charlotte and Raleigh into Nashville and San Francisco. The B2B-first strategy worked: it de-risked expansion and created cash flow before pursuing consumer delivery.

They raised $500,000 total from friends and family and planned to open a seed round on a convertible note, with Series A in 12 months. At the time of this interview, they had 9 full-time employees (3 in San Francisco, the rest in North Carolina and Tennessee).

Projecting $1-2 million in 2016 revenue (5-7x growth), Charlie planned to be in 10+ markets by year-end. He was 26 years old, running on six hours of sleep, and uncompromising in his vision. When asked his exit number, he said $100 million—though Nathan skeptically offered $5 million on the spot, betting Charlie would fold. Charlie declined, confident the business could become worth far more by disrupting an entire industry. He was building BrewPublic not as a lifestyle business but as a massive, venture-scale play on the future of alcohol retail.