Beers, Builds, and Business
How brews became a common thread to awesome
“We’ll meet them at church and then head to lunch.”
My friend and the founder of the design/development boutique I work with was filling me in on the day’s plans as we pulled into the parking lot of his church one Sunday morning. I had flown up with my wife and son to Indianapolis from the lowly Mobile to have the rare and helpful team meeting (everyone was distributed) and to meet with a potential client that we had up to that point only spoken to on the phone once. “Sounds like a plan,” I replied.
The church is a young, hip plant in Indy. The inner sanctum is blacked out pre-service and you can almost literally not see a few feet in front of you. We met the guys, two co-founders, right before the worship service kicked off. And by ‘met’ I mean they more or less stumbled into our row and we heard their somewhat familiar voices coming out of otherwise shadowy silhouettes.
Service ends. We walk out. Lights are on (thank God).We meet and greet some more. Our wives are introduced as is my then one year old son. General small talk and some common ice breaker filler goes on for a few minutes before someone suggests we break away from the ladies and go talk shop.
Car doors shut. We zoom over to a burger and beer joint 10 minutes down the road. More generalities emerge during the first few minutes of conversation. “Would you be offended if I ordered a beer?” I ask, trying to ensure sensibilities aren’t crossed before we even land the gig. “I’d be offended if you didn’t order one being that we’re at a brewery,” came the reply.
That’s when I knew that this would be a great working relationship.
So we ordered some beers. I don’t remember much except how underwhelming the entrée was that I had ordered. We talked about the general idea for the product they had in mind, some of the technological hurdles that we’d encounter, and the likes. It seemed as if we had already struck a chord relationally. And then they suggested we go to another brewery down the street which would be quieter and where we could enjoy some more beer.
That’s when I really knew.
That was a year ago next week. Since then we’ve designed a product, created a basic prototype of their dashboard to show to potential clients and investors, built the most basic form of the concept, launched a pre-alpha, gotten feedback from users, rinsed and repeated, released a beta, have tripled our membership, just last week doubled that number as well in one fell swoop, filled out the current investment round, landed great new talent to be a part of the project, and all sorts of other goodies.
The list of victories goes on and on, the above serving as a summary. It’s been the greatest experience career-wise that I’ve yet to have. Breathing life into this idea has been unbelievably rewarding and fun. Challenging, too, no doubt.
Since the very first meeting there has been beer. From hoppy IPAs to rich stouts, we’ve enjoyed beer along with all of our business dealings and builds. I suppose if there is a moral to the story, or a point whatsoever, it’d be that the team that doesn’t drink together will surely stink together. Cheesy, but perhaps poignant in its own little way.
It may not be beer or drinking for you and yours, but it has to be something. Great things are built by teams, teams are built of people, and people are made to build relationships. Not just apps or products or anything else. At the deepest level we build relationships. If we forget that then nothing we build will matter all that much in the grand scheme of things.
Building relationships within a team and then building things as a team is when you know you’ve got a good thing. So here’s three cheers and a toast to being blessed to have found such a promised land.
