Sep 19, 2019
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What is a hazy IPA? How
does a hops volcano happen? And what makes it so hard to start a
small business outside of tech in the Bay Area? In this episode, I
put my almost total lack of beer knowledge on full display in a
conversation with my good friend, Regan Long. Regan is the
co-founder, CEO and brewmaster of Local
Brewing Co., a brewery
and beer bar in the heart of San Francisco’s SOMA neighborhood not
far from the ballpark. They’ve brewed award winning beers, built a
thriving business and have made videos of remote controlled monster
trucks driving through beer can obstacles courses.
The Bay Area is known
as a hotbed of innovation and entrepreneurship. And it is. But a
little known fact is that San Francisco can also be one of the most
challenging places in America to start up a small business. During
this interview, I reference a 2012 New York Times story about the
two years of red tape, hurdles, NIMBYism and obstacles the founders
of the Cole Valley Ice Cream Bar faced to open their business. When
you’re ready to have bureaucracy totally melt your brain, go
read it here.
Since that story
dropped in 2012, with tech booming and with rising rents making it
more and more difficult to staff service industry jobs, it has only
gotten harder to start and operate a small business in San
Francisco.
In 2015, Regan and her
partner Sarah Fenson opened
Local Brewing
Co., a brewery and beer
bar in the heart of San Francisco’s SOMA neighborhood not far from
the ballpark. If you guessed it wasn’t easy, you would be correct.
It takes more than passion and a good idea to build a business that
lasts. In this episode, we explore Regan’s experience of walking
away from an awesome job working for Mercedes Benz R&D as an
intrapreneuer to start-up Local Brewing Co. and much
more.
Regan holds degrees in
physics and oceanography and a brewing certificate through Seibel
Institute of Technology World Brewing Academy. Learn more about
Local at localbrewingco.com, follow them on instagram @localbrewingco and if you get a chance, stop by to grab a beer
at 69 Bluxome Street in the heart of SOMA.
If you enjoy this
episode, please share it with a pal and take a second to subscribe
and rate the show on iTunes or wherever you listen. Thanks to
everyone out there who has dropped me a line and you can get in
touch with me @hardwaypod on insta and twitter or via email at choosethehardway@gmail.com.
You are what you overcome. Choose the Hard Way.