Forktales

Simply Salad includes five locations in Los Angeles and was founded on the idea that everyone should have access to healthy, fresh, flavorful, affordable food in a way that is fast and convenient.

Daniel was formerly the head of finance and development at Popeyes, where he was part of the team that led Popeyes’ entry into the famous chicken sandwich wars.

Simply Salad has grown by making salads convenient and accessible and by adding locations to communities not typically associated with salad restaurants and other better-for-you restaurants.

“Everybody thinks their quality is great, but you (at Popeyes) had a rockstar supply chain team that can actually source that product and you had an operations team that just aced training. […] For a challenger brand to not just challenge, but overcome the leader (Chick-fil-A) is pretty intense.” (Joseph) 

“It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy in that when you have a big launch and you’re moving volume and the product is hot and the product is fresh, it’s easier to be able to deliver consistency (in quality).” (Daniel)

“After the Popeyes launch when everyone saw how successful the (chicken sandwich) launch was, everyone said ‘I need a new (sandwich) on the menu in three months.” And if that’s your approach to product development, you’re not going to deliver what you need.” (Daniel) 

“Simply salad has found something intriguing and unique and it’s where it went and where these locations happen to be. It’s not the rich suburbs of America where people have a lot of money. Instead, you’ve found traction in places like Compton. Places that people would mark as underserved or a health food desert.” (Joseph) 

“Our secret is, we don’t focus on health. Everybody knows that salads are healthy. We focus on taste. When that salad can deliver against the same craving as a Big Mac and fries, that’s when we’re winning.” (Daniel)

00:00.00vigorbrandingHey everyone this morning I’m joined by my friend Daniel Gonzalez who is co-owner of simply salad a brand that’s up and coming in the l a market and growing ah before we hoper on that Daniel say hello give a little bit of backstory.

00:00.00Daniel GonzalezI.

00:11.80Daniel GonzalezEverybody how are you? my name is Daniel I’m one of the owners of simply salad I’ve been involved in this business for about a year prior to that. It’s been about a decade in leadership positions with restaurant brands international. So. Ah popeyes and the chicken sandwich burger king over in Europe burger king here in the states. Um, and yeah, originally from California and I’m super pumped to be able to be bring in healthy food to California.

00:40.25vigorbrandingThat’s awesome. So yeah, some name drops. Ah which are are big ones some are leading the charge actually both I would say are leading the charge in their own right? Um, and and suffice to say you’ve had a lustroious career like you didn’t just dive into the top like you you have worked your way up. You’ve worn many hats. Um. And and going from a macro brand the size of burger king the size of Popeyes to a smaller brand um in simply salad which I believe we’re about to be at None units right? or twi ten. Yeah.

01:07.97Daniel GonzalezYeah, we’ll finish it about 8 this year mean hopefully nine Vegas says None ah so I don’t know if you want to take the over on that. But you know about 8

01:15.14vigorbrandingAwesome! So how how have you applied your learnings while maintaining that like agility necessary in startup because th

El Arroyo is a Tex-Mex restaurant in Austin, Texas. Established in 1975, the restaurant is known for its assortment of Mexican cuisine including tacos, fajitas, guacamole and tortilla chips in generous portions. Ellis and his wife, Paige, have been the owners of El Arroyo since 2012. 

El Arroyo’s most famous marketing tactic is its marquees, which house witty messages updated on a daily basis. The marquees have driven social media success for El Arroyo, with a few thousand followers when the marquees began to more than 250,000 followers on Facebook and 600,000 followers on Instagram today. 

Axial Shift is a software platform created so that frontline managers and staff can learn to be more effective at running restaurants. The Axial Shift platform provides teams with a purpose-driven work experience by delivering transparency into their performance and potential sales opportunities, as well as tools to control their outcomes and improve their own and their store’s performance.

The Axial Shift system connects to the POS system and then delivers data to managers and employees via an app on the user’s smartphone or tablet. The services include a microgaming feature that helps managers give bonuses to employees who increase performance or meet goals set by the manager. 

“What makes the (marquees) work is the voice. It was always funny, but when we got involved we decided that we wanted to create a voice that was connective and really authentic and would resonate with what people were dealing with in their day-to-day lives.” (Ellis)

“The (marquees) gave us an opportunity to connect with people on a daily basis.” (Ellis)

“The things (Axial Shift) does tactically is, yes, it gets the manager out of the office (and onto the floor). For the employees, it’s feeding them back sales performance data. It shows where they rank relative to their peers in total sales, sales per hour, credit card tip percentage – key metrics. It positions the data so they can see their own personal growth relative to their team. It drives people to want to perform at a higher level.” (Ellis)

“You really gotta go where no one else is bold enough to go. You hear stories of this too. The latest one I heard is a designer or creative who put his resume in a box of doughnuts and delivered it to the office of the agency he wanted to work at. It’s that kind of thinking that brands need. They need people who aren’t going to just toe the line with what they have been told to do, but instead actually think and come up with ideas for how to get there.” (Joseph)

“Sales contests really work but only when they’re executed in a tight way and when the information is presented where everybody sees an opportunity to grow. That’s what we do with Axial.” (Ellis)

00:00.00vigorbrandingEveryone today I’m joined by my friend Ellis Win stanley he has a number of companies from axialhift to el arroyo to texas ranch experience we’re going to cover all of those or at least try to in a and normal amount of time. Ah, but before that ellis say hello and give a little bit of backstory.

00:19.24Ellis WinstanleyEveryone happy to be here. Thanks so appreciate it? Um, yeah, so we’re we’re based in Austin Texas and and we’re colocated to Santa Theresa Costa Rica we’ve got starting the restaurant business years years ago and then ended up in multiple industries along the way including real estate development and. And restaurant software.

00:40.37vigorbrandingThat’s awesome. Yeah I mean there’s just so much to unpack in this episode I forgot

VROMO is the only delivery management software solution tailored to the restaurant and food industry. VROMO’s foundation is its customizable and intuitive dispatch technology which allows customers to manage their deliveries and drivers seamlessly from a cloud-based system.

When it comes to new clients, VROMO is honest about the cost of the product and whether the restaurant is big enough to realize a profit while using the service. If the ROI isn’t there, the VROMO team will let the restaurant know that.

Alan predicts that assisted-driving delivery vehicles are on the horizon but drone delivery is likely 10 years away. On a five year horizon, Alan predicts a rise in local delivery co-ops comprised of large groups of very small restaurants banding together to share delivery services.

“Ultimately what we do is try to make delivery profitable. If an order is going out of the kitchen, there’s a huge case for VROMO.” (Alan)

“What the pandemic introduced is a speed in decision making that this industry hasn’t seen in a long, long time. To the point of very little thinking and due diligence about what happens next. But that was okay. We were all in survival mode.” (Alan)

“If you think about how much time a marketing department or an operational department puts into kitchen layouts, store layouts, the queue, the tills, the music that you hear when you walk in and now imagine trying to replicate that decision-making process with delivery. It just hasn’t happened. At all. That’s really what VROMO is trying to accelerate from a restaurant perspective.” (Alan)

“(Restaurants) need to operate as slick digitally as Uber and Doordash and GrubHub. Not that they’re competitors. The third-party marketplaces have a place. They have a part to play, but I have never heard someone say, ‘I really enjoyed my Doordash pizza that I ordered last night.’ You say, ‘I really enjoyed my Blaze pizza that I ordered on Doordash.’” (Alan)

“Restaurant brands are investing so much. I feel like it’s an overcorrection. All digital, all off-prem, optimized for pick-up and delivery – and optimization should happen – but it feels like we’re going too far the other way.” (Joseph)

00:00.00vigorbrandingEveryone today I am joined by my friend Alan Hickey he is the founder and chief commercial officer at a place called Romo which we are going to unpack in full detail on this episode Alan is a proud scotsman. Um.

00:13.91Al HickeyOh you did it Joseph straight off the back you did it.

00:18.32vigorbrandingAh, if Kevin Bentley is listening. He will be laughing ah as well. Our friend Miles Garrett or a miles gift. Um, anyway, we’ll we we’ll stop talking about vegas because we’re not supposed to um Alan say hello and give a little bit of backstory.

00:32.91Al HickeyAh, hello everybody at the least proud scotsman of all time but very proud irishman and so yeah and ah founder co co-founder actually of the original company. And with a guy called Sean Murray and then co-founder of Ramo I suppose with with Brian Hickey began life as a delivery fleet. So probably the least software founder you’ve ever had on your show and and so our life began delivering pias across Europe. Ah, Australia New Zealand built a product for our own use case and I suppose because we just not that there wasn’t great product out. They’re not good product for us and then the dirty word of business that is pivot. Ah.

01:24.29vigorbrandingAnd.

01:27.20Al HickeyWe did it in in late 2019 early sorry late 2018 early twenty nineteen harder more difficult m

Kickfin was founded in 2017 and allows restaurants to send tips directly to employee bank accounts without the use of cash or pay cards. Kickfin’s instant tip payments eliminate bank runs, cuts labor costs, and reduces the risk of theft.

The idea for Kickfin came to Brian and his co-founder partner Justin when they observed an armored car dropping off cash at a restaurant in San Francisco. The cash was being used to pay employee tips at the end of every shift with money that traditionally wasn’t paid on the payroll. 

Some restaurants are using daily digital payment with Kickfin as a tool to recruit new employees. 

Many non-traditional QSR outlets like coffee shops are using tipping as a means to increase employee compensation and a way for customers to show appreciation for service. 

Since its founding in 2017, Kickfin has been adopted by a variety of hospitality categories, including full service restaurants, quick service restaurants, golf, and country clubs, hotels, hair salons, and airport concessions. 

“Tipping or gratuity is one of the biggest forms of employee compensation under scrutiny. There are some beliefs that tipped employees don’t report (that income) on taxes. Is that one of the challenges when you’re selling this into a potential client?” (Joseph)

“(Employees not reporting tipped income) isn’t a challenge for a few reasons. Traditionally, 90 to 95 percent of restaurant transactions are done by credit card. That tip is being recorded in POS today.” (Brian) 

“We do a lot of work with larger nightlife groups. These employees are earning significant tips. What we’ve heard from employees is that they’re actually driving the adoption of Kickfin because, for them, they feel safer and more secure knowing that they’re not walking out with that George Costanza wallet of cash.” (Brian) 

“When they look at tips and gratuities, that’s 80 to 90 percent of their total income. A lion’s share of their earnings. If you’re able to pay that out daily, man that’s really a massive win.” (Brian)

“Automation can only go so far. I’m going to a restaurant for an experience. That personal touch is exactly why people seek out the hospitality space. Will I pay more to have the privilege of dining and feeling the energy of other patrons and talking to the bartender? Absolutely. And I want to have the ability to reward that person for that personal touch.” (Brian)

“We’re seeing average tip outs going up. During the COVID pandemic, Americans realized that hospitality is a really hard job. These are essential employees, so let’s show our thanks with a few bucks for showing up and being there.” (Brian)

00:00.00vigorbrandingHey everyone and we’re back after a little bit of a summer hiatus and we’re kicking things off with my friend Brian Hassan he’s the co-ceo of Kickfin which we are going to really dig into today. It’s really an amazing system that I’m pumped about but before we get in there Brian say hello give a little bit of backstory.

00:15.33Brian HassanSo hey, thanks for having me really appreciate it and following you for quite some time and it was no great to connect with you in person at tra two shows ago a little bit of background on myself based here in Austin Texas by way of San Francisco kickffin is startup number 3 for me. So first two we had built and sold to private equity one in hr tech and 1 in insured tech and so this is number 3 with the same co-founder best friend Justin Roberts on this next adventure and really delighted to share. A little bit about our viewpoints from withi

David has been in the hospitality industry for 32 years. He started in the industry as a dishwasher and is now the owner of DASH Hospitality Group, a management and consulting company for start-up and existing restaurants, hotels, and other food and beverage services.

Before starting DASH Hospitality Group, David held the role of COO for the Buckhead Life Restaurant Group overseeing 9 restaurants in Georgia and 4 in South Florida. 

Technology plays an important role in restaurants, but human connectivity is still an important part of the dining process.  

Regular and immediate employee recognition is the key to retaining top-performing employees. Recognizing employees with social media posts can be incredibly effective.  

General managers need to get out of the office and be in the restaurant. They need to run the shift instead of having the shift run them.

“Our philosophy is ‘The answer is yes, what’s the question?’ You have to give the customer what they want.” – David 

“You have to use technology to stay one step ahead with everything. The people connection is still very important. You still have to have that personal touch.” – David 

“We’re fully capable of ordering for ourselves. We check ourselves out at grocery stores, we order ahead now. Even my mom is ordering ahead. But we still need that touch and that true customer service.” – Joseph

“Every day I’m learning something new. It’s about surrounding yourself with people who have knowledge. You have to listen. Everybody brings something to the table.” – David

“We have clients that say ‘This is how we’ve always done it” and I tell them they have to think about two, five or 10 years from now, not two, five or 10 years ago.” – David    

“The most important thing (for employees) is recognition. Just thanking them, even in the middle of a shift saying ‘Great job with that table’ in real time. Don’t wait until the end of the shift.” – David

“On social media, highly styled and perfect photos get zero traction. People want to see realness. They want to see the ooey, gooey awesomeness of what you’re eating.” – Joseph

00:00.00vigorbrandingEveryone today I’m joined by my friend David Abus who is the owner of dash hospitality group David has quite a name here in Atlanta and not to stroke your ego too much. Actually I don’t think you have an ego but you come with a lot of clouts for a reason so why don’t you say hello and give a little bit of backstory.

00:08.61David AbesFor fair guy. No so.

00:18.22David AbesYep, how are you? Ah yep, David Avis Dash hospitality group been in the hospitality business now 32years plus started when I was 15 at gd ritzy’s a hamburger hotd dog place based out of Columbus Ohio that came to Atlanta. Kind it all basically from dishwashing all the way up to general manager started with Morrison’s corporation and their casual dining with ln seafood. It was like getting your masters. It was amazing. Great training program wanted to get a little more fine dining so went and worked with ah panda at the atlanta fish market during the olympics. What a time what a time to be there. Um, from there I worked my way up to be in the director operations for here to some restaurants Tom Katherine and I had a great run 14 years and then worked with a company in New York and then back to pano for at bucket life as a c o. And I really enjoyed a panos and icon and it was amazing but it was time for me to do my own thing so started dash hospitality group four years ago manageme

Founded in 2019, Koala is an industry-leading platform that creates premium, customizable apps for restaurants to offer digital ordering. Koala provides a premium experience for more than 4,000 restaurant locations nationwide. Digital orders with Koala lead to higher conversion rates than a white-label solution and an increase of up to 20% in average order value.

Creating a seamless, streamlined online ordering experience that’s free of confusion and obstacles is critical for the customer journey.

Many restaurants are competing against organizations that are continuously improving, optimizing and streamlining the user experience.

When it comes to online ordering systems, the ability to customize the experience and the look and feel of the experience is important.

Machine learning and the role of AI is going to play a key role in the future of online ordering.

“One of the gripes that I’ve had with the online ordering process for the smaller (restaurants) is that there’s really no way to make the customer experience tailored to the brand.” – Joseph

“Custom (ordering) software leaves so many brands behind because of the cost to do so. There’s a massive barrier to entry for most brands, which is the cost.” – Brett  

“Our mission was to make premium accessible. Building a tool in such a way that it could be affordable for everybody.”  – Brett

“It’s amazing what’s happening right now. I think what needs to happen is convergence. We’re at the point in this industry where convergence is waving its hands furiously and people are begging for it.” – Joseph

“(Koala is) that holistic, digital interface into the ordering ecosystem. In many cases for many brands it is the expression of their brand to their customers digitally. Another way to say it is, “we are the experience layer that sits on top of everything else.” – Brett

“We think of interfaces as screens but interfaces are really just connections.” – Brett

00:00.00vigorbrandingEveryone today I’m joined by my friend Brett Spiegel he’s the co-founder and Ceo of Koala which we’ll dig into in a little bit I met Brett through 1 of his partners or maybe he’s not a partner but he’s definitely on your team and it was great because. And a couple seconds I realized one of the case studies he was talking about was a mutual client in that’s scratch kitchen so it was a bit of Kimet. It was pretty awesome and then since our since then our relationship has grown quite well. But Brett why don’t you say hello give a little bit of backstory.

00:29.84Brett SpiegelGreat and and and thanks so much for for having me on you when you reached out I was honored and I’ve been excited to have this conversation. So thanks again. So as Joseph mentioned my name is Brett Spiegel I am the co-founder and Ceo O at Koala Koala is a customer experience platform. And I think we’ll have ah a chance to kind of dive into to what that means but a little bit on my background so I actually grew up in South Florida outside of Fort Lauderdale and went to college at the University Of Central Florida in Orlando as most people know Orlando is the epicenter for casual dining concepts in this universe and so. Um, being one of those people that had to work through college I did my tour of duty through many casual dining concepts and got my start in the back of house I was a dishwasher I was a prep cook a line cook I did some front of house as well. I was a food runner server and ah. Eventually a bartender at the famous Tgi Fridays

As senior director of marketing, Richard led a very successful evolution of the Austin-based Tacodeli brand. He followed that success story with a stint as VP of marketing for Freebirds World Burrito and now works as a fractional CMO and consultant. 

Richard has spent time in agencies and client-side. He said people at agencies tend to have a more specialized expertise (in his case, brand strategy) and are spread across multiple clients in multiple industries. On the client side, he’s focused on one client, but his expertise is broader. 

The biggest challenge in Richard’s evolution of the Tacodeli brand was making the evolution seem natural. He saw his role in that process as an enabler and listener to carefully evolve the brand.  

The marketing industry – not just restaurant marketing but all marketing – is so fluid and ever-changing. Technology is the biggest word right now, especially in the restaurant industry. Technology used in restaurants needs to be intuitive and easy to use for customers and staff. 

“On the agency side, you’re often challenged to really push the limits and see how far you can stretch something and I think good clients really want that.” – Richard

“Strategy is useless if it can’t be executed effectively. The best brand strategies for me are those that don’t stick in the lane of marketing. They are things that influence and affect the entire business.” – Richard 

“Brand strategy is business strategy. Period.” – Joseph

“There are two types of brands. There are brands that are struggling to find the truth and then there are brands that have so many truths the struggle is which truth are you going to lean into and how are you going to cascade everything from that singular focus?” – Richard

“(As a CMO), your first 90 days has very little to do with getting things done. It has very much to do with building rapport and relationships, understanding systems and finding champions.” – Joseph

“I don’t think you should have to have a master’s degree to operate some of the marketing tech that exists. I think it should be intuitive and straightforward. Yes, make it easy for the guests, but also make it easy for the marketers.” – Richard

“Food is so much about experience. Yes, it’s about wonderful food, it’s about people, the context, the environment. Yes, for the best meals the food has to be great, but it’s often about so much more than that.” – Richard 

00:00.00vigorbrandingEveryone today I’m joined by my friend Richard penic he is a brand strategist and fractional cmo fractionable is what I said that’s a very important new word that you guys need to learn and we’ll talk about that and more but before we get in say hello give a little bit backstory.

00:15.40Richard PennockHi Joe good see you yup so my name is Richard Pennet I’m born raised in the uk undergrad I was a historian at the University Of Leeds which is in the north of england um I spent 3 years at b jk and e which the W P P Media agency and then in 2006 I moved over to the us I did my Mba at Georgetown and between first and second year I married my then-girlfriend now wife Amber who is from the United States thinking I would spend a few years in the us think it’s seventeen years later I’m still here.

00:50.53vigorbrandingYes.

00:52.89Richard PennockI via Minneapolis I spent a few years at Target I worked in corporate strategy and marketing and then moved over to an agency up there Olson spent a few years there they then acquired a company down in Aust

Flatbread Grill is a fresh casual Turkish Mediterranean concept conceived and developed by the Esendemir sisters in 2007. The menu features a diverse mix of soups, gourmet salads, sandwiches, platters, and kids items all paired with specialty flatbreads baked daily on-premises.

The Esendemir sisters also developed a spinoff brand, Thumb Bread – a versatile, Turkish bread available in stores.  

Gonca and her sisters knew that introducing Turkish food into the community would not be easy. Turkish culture tends to be very traditional, while the Sendemir sisters made small changes to Turkish culinary traditions and thought outside the box when it comes to using ingredients and preparing traditional Turkish dishes. 

Gonca and her sisters approach social media with an open mind and a willingness to post photos and content on the fly and in the spur of the moment. 

In the restaurant industry, you can do things rather quickly. With CPG products (like Thumb Bread), the processes take longer. 

“We were very apprehensive at first (about using social media). It took a little bit of dipping our feet in until we got warmed up. […] It’s been really helpful in reaching a worldwide audience.” – Gonca

“I learned (about social media) as I went along. It comes naturally because I love story-telling.” – Gonca 

“A lot of people almost get paralyzed by the thought of putting content out there or they get analysis paralysis where they have to fine tune everything. I think the key to successful marketing in general – especially in the social universe – is ‘let’s commit to the fact that we’re going to learn and we’re going to iterate and adjust and that it’s okay if it’s a miss.” – Joseph

“The essence of bread-making and the art of baking is lost in the factory process.” – Gonca

“One of the things about being a female in business, especially if you’re perky and you smile a lot, people have a misconception that everything comes easily and your ideas just fall out of the sky and land at your feet and it’s not like that.” – Gonca

00:00.00vigorbrandingHey everyone this week I am joined by my friend and social media Maverick gunja Ascendimir she is the founder of flatbread grill and thumbbred and we’re gonna talk all about that journey and all about what she’s all about. But for now say hello give a little backstory.

00:15.36GoncaHi I’m gunja I started a fast casual Mediterranean Rushur concept in 2007 with my 2 sisters our Zoom and feesoon while I was still in college. I’m the chief marketing officer I take care of marketing social media communications for for that brand and also for our new brand which is a consumer package goods product thumbbred. It’s a spinoff from our restaurant brand and I also take care of the marketing and communications social media for that as well. With my sisters arzu is the Ceo and my big sister is the chief financial officer of both companies.

00:57.55vigorbrandingAwesome! So we’re working with 2 sisters I imagine has its benefits but also I’m sure there’s some people out there like who I could not imagine working with my family. How has that dynamic been over the years

01:12.21GoncaIt’s gotten it’s gotten better obviously when when I was in in college I had a I was in ah, a different different space I was you know interning in the music industry I had a little bit of a wild and crazy social life. I was kind of bouncing around from job to job and my sisters were definitely had had a more linear path arzou knew

Tom is a restauranteur at heart who co-founded Opsanalitica, an operations data platform that helps restaurants manage and measure human activity and avoid missing the “little things” that can impact profitability. Armed with that data, restaurant owners and managers can identify and remediate issues, in real-time, before they affect the business negatively.

The data and KPI’s that are important to track differs for each restaurant.

Data available to restaurant owners has included sales data, labor data, food costs, inventory, and customer satisfaction data. Operations data has only become accessible recently with the use of the tablet.

Operations data is a critical part of the restaurant decision-making process and makes it easier to make decisions that truly impact sales and profits.

Restaurant leaders need to do more testing on new products or recipe changes and then gather data to determine if that change is one that should be applied to all locations or applied long term.

Emulating menu items from competitor restaurants is dangerous without proper testing and research to ensure that the menu item is a good fit for your restaurant.

“You can get data drunk pretty quickly and you can start drawing parallels that can lead you down a path that – I don’t want to say dangerous – but you start to solve a problem that maybe doesn’t exist.” – Joseph

“Operations data is the missing key that we didn’t have before. […] It’s the contextual data that a lot (restaurant) leaders need to make better decisions.” – Tommy

“Sales, food costs and labor costs are lagging indicators of how well you’re operating. Sales don’t predict operations, operations predict sales.” – Tommy

“We need to make sure that hospitality excellence is not hindered by the knowledge afforded by good data.” – Joseph

“Opsanalitica has a feature called Data Accuracy Scoring, and we can tell you whether the data is good or bad and you can filter out all the bad data.” – Tommy

00:00.00vigorbrandingHey everyone and today I’m joined by my friend tommy andulis he is co-founder of Ops Analytica a system we’re going to get into in a little bit. Ah but Tommy why don’t you say hello and give a little bit of backstory.

00:10.50TommySure hi thank you so much for having me Joseph so I’m Tommy you knowless I am one of the co-founders of bobs and lico like ah just said but really I’m a restaurant tour by heart like my grandparents. Both. Immigrants to this country I’m Greek and Puerto rican so I used to have a joke that I was born in a dish pit you know, but the reality is what’s ironic is that um. You know I started in restaurants at 14 in Columbia Maryland my mom would drop me off at the jerry subs and pizza I had a work permit and I learned how to cook steak and cheeses and I kind of never really looked back from that. But um, what’s interesting is that both my grandparents had restaurants but my parents were tech people. So I was kind of bred to get into restaurant technology because I had the restaurant background and the love of restaurants. But then my parents. My dad was a rocket scientist and my mom worked at Lockheed and so I had the tech background yeah in the middle there and so I ended up doing restaurants at the beginning.

01:07.90vigorbrandingFlex with me.

01:13.13TommyAnd then I morphed into tech so that’s kind of my story since 14 I’ve been doing either restaurants or tech I suppose.

01:18.48vigorbra

Christopher is the founder and executive director of Bottleshare, a fundraising and fund distribution nonprofit organization for the craft beverage industry that provides emergency funds to members of the craft beverage industry when they experience extreme hardships that prevent them from working or producing an income.

Christopher was inspired to create Bottleshare when he received support from friends and family members after he was badly injured in a car accident. From that moment, he’s devoted himself to helping others in the craft brewing industry who need help. 

The “brewstillery” movement – the creation of liquor and beer under the same roof – will inspire more barrel-aged beers, wine-inspired beers and liquors inspired by beer. 

Many upstart breweries are focused on local partnerships and relationships in order to build a strong local community base.

“I remember the day I went from being a victim to being a survivor, and it’s all about mentality. You can be (a victim), you can be (a survivor), you can be both at the same time. It’s up to you.” – Christopher 

“Bottleshare gave me something to live for. Something to strive towards. Something to be a survivor for. I needed it. Not only am I helping other people, but Bottleshare is helping me on a daily basis as well.” – Christopher

“You didn’t just say, I want to survive and thrive for my own well-being, you found the motivation in helping others.” – Joseph 

“I get to live a life where my daily goal is ‘who can I help today?’” – Christopher 

“A gap will be bridged between liquor and beer. As we continue to see more ‘brewstilleries’ opening up, we’re going to see a lot more creative collaborations between the two liquids.” – Christopher 

“One of the issues I see with local breweries is that they are underfunded and they don’t value marketing and advertising. For the most part, you don’t really see them advertising and you don’t really see them trying to build that following because they don’t have the funding or, if they do, they want to spend it elsewhere.” – Joseph